Doctor Who Wins Big at BAFTA
 

For those who missed it, here's the story from Outpost Gallifrey:
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I'm really surprised, but it's still very nice.

I don't suppose you know how Who has done in the US ratings-wise, Scooter? I heard that "Dalek" got disappointingly low ratings, but it was aired at Easter and ratings are generally low then for most shows anyhow.

Most US Who fans I've spoken to seem ot be quite confused/bemused/not sure what to make of the new series...

Anyhow, yes it's probably good news, even if it *does* reopen the Eccleston Vs. Tennant Wars...

Season-to-date, Sci Fi reports that Doctor Who is currently averaging a 1.32 household rating and an average audience of 1.5 million viewers for the season. You're right about "Dalek." Ratings were down for "Father's Day" from "Dalek," but that was true in the UK too. The test will be "Empty Child"/"Doctor Dances" and "Bad Wolf"/"Parting of the Ways" -- and my fear is that SCI FI will have already given up on the series and won't promote the hell out of the finale, which is what they'll need to do. (I think U.S. fans are even more annoyed than British fans that CE left after one season, because Brits are more used to short series than Americans are. If we don't get 23 episodes of something we feel gypped. One of my friends stopped watching DW on SCI FI after I told him that the Ninth Doctor only lasts 13 episodes.)

As for Chris/David wars -- Chris who? :) Of course CE isn't helping matters by being so surly about the whole experience. The impression you get is he wishes he had never done it. Even Colin Baker promoted the show after he left -- and he was fired! If CE were out there promoting DW he would be talked about side by side with DT. As it is, he's damaging not only his rep but the Ninth Doctor's, and DT is tacitly getting the buzz for the awards that CE earned. Personally I like both Doctors but CE's attitude makes everyone less enthused about Seasone One, to which I say -- echoing Winnifred Bambera -- "shame"!

Experience in Trek has taught me not to care what the actors think, because half of them are really out to lunch. I'm not just talking about the Beltrans and the Blalocks here; did you know, for example, that Fair Haven was largely Kate Mulgrew's idea? So my high opinion of the Ninth Doctor is unsullied by whatever Eccleston's been doing or not doing since, and I'm still disappointed that his run was so brief.

You definitely have the right attitude. I think I'm slightly more likely to be annoyed with CE for the very reason I wanted to see more of his Doctor. (Trek is an ensemble show, so CE's quitting the show and not promoting it seems to loom large to me.) The consolation has been my enjoyment of the Tenth, but I'd gladly have put that off to have seen another season or two of the Ninth. Oh well. You're right though. The important thing is, CE busted his ass to make the Ninth Doctor fascinating, conflicted and tragic.

Fair Haven was Mulgrew's idea? I'll bet the whole thing with Da Vinci was too. Man, Voyager shouldn't have even had a holodeck for all the things they did wrong with it... (though the episodes with the Hirogen worked). I mean, they're standing around a holodeck pool hall talking about how they've had to ration energy resources?

Oh, there was a reason given, just a hilariously bad one. Apparently the holodecks run on a power source that's incompatible with the ship's other systems. This is less than convincing when Starfleet can freely interconvert matter and energy; heck, even buying their explanation, they could easily use the holodecks to create something like a motor, then connect it to a generator in Engineering with pulleys or something. That would look funny, but it beats running out of gas, which, as we've seen, leads to ill-fated clones. (Eventually even the writers forgot and we had episodes like "Fair Haven" where holodeck power was transferred someplace else.)

From what I've seen, Tennant is great. Of course, what I've seen is one 90-minute special and he was unconscious for two thirds of it, but he was very convincing as an unconscious guy. (Seriously, I loved him in "The Christmas Invasion," especially the bit with the big button. That summed up the Doctor perfectly -- he's the guy who pushes the big tempting button because he knows more about it than you do and because it's fun to push big tempting buttons.)

We are in perfect agreement. I even love the way he says the word "button." :)

An...interesting hypothesis.