Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Dr. Who at 40
One anniversary that was largely overlooked on this side of the Atlantic was the 40th anniversary since the start of Dr Who. This was a series I loved as a kid, growing up and watching Jon Pertwee and later Tom Baker as the Doctor on TVO, and being genuinely spooked by an unlikely cast of otherworldly villains, usually creatures in low-rent rubber suits. I largely lost interest in the series after Tom Baker left, and subsequent stories I occasionally tuned into rarely seemed to hold the same fascination as those earlier episodes. Mind you, when I was a kid I used to get completely freaked out by watching certain episodes of Space: 1999 and Star Trek. There was a phase when I was young when I just couldn't watch Star Trek at all, for fear the episode would end up scaring me silly. Now the whole thing seems laughable, and the old episodes don't hold quite the same fascination they once did.

My other connection to Dr Who was the "Un-Doctor", SF author Judith Merrill who used to precede and conclude each episode of Dr Who when it appeared on TVO in the late 70s and early 80s. I think the idea was that science fiction on an educational network needed some justification ? the fact that it was just pure fun wasn't enough ? and Judith gleefully poking holes in the latest storyline, and looking at some of the underlying science and societal topics the show's hinted at. Years later in high school, we had a creative writing class and Judith was the guiding hand. I don't think she thought much of my admittedly juvenile attempts at fiction, but I think something must have stuck since I am still writing for a living today ? even if it is not fiction.

So it was with some delight that I discovered that some kind soul had digitally recorded all of the shows, documentaries and specials that were aired recently on the British television station UK Gold and were made available through Suprnova's bittorrents. I've managed to download most of them and have enjoyed watching the shows and the interviews with some of the show's principle actors. Great to see that Tom Baker doesn't seem to have changed much over the years, and I couldn't help but think he'd still make good candidate for the new series that's currently in the writing stage. I'm looking forward to seeing that new series when it comes out, and am hoping that they focus more on the stories and characters rather than investing in "gear". Maybe in some stories the best aliens really are the rubbery kind.