The Saxon Files: So / So Television Part 2 - I've just watched The Graham Norton Show

Jesus Christ.

The Saxon Files: So / So Television

Written by Mr Saxon

Imagine my surprise last Saturday to get an email from a TV production company - So Television (Graham Norton's company). The email was a request for information on the members of the Keepers of Croydon and my contact telephone number.

Naturally I asked for further information (as I try not to give my phone number out to strangers even when they dangle sweets) and I've not heard from him since!

However I know some people who have. Much less circumspect than little ol' me and clamouring for fame, some of my chums in Who fandom got back to Norton's bunch and the interim result was the news that several fans had been invited to the South Bank of the Thames to record the show tomorrow night (Wednesday 28th).

The set up (there always has to be one with this kind of crap) is that they would pretend to be 'ordinary' members of the public and then be invited by a roving reporter to ask questions to that chap that pretends to be Dr Who. Mr Tennant would be in a studio ready to answer the questions live!

I have to say the last thing I watched with Graham Norton in was "Rose" a couple of years back and I haven't missed his style of light entertainment lite. But let's face it he has a special place in Dr Who history just because of that accident.

The plans of Mr Norton changed at some point for our intrepid super fans though. The latest news is that the production team now want to make the interviews as realistic as possible so they're getting real 'ordinary' people in instead. I kid you not.

The fans have been told to stand down but as a special treat they get to see Messrs Norton and Tennant live in the studio and see the show being recorded. Well, it's a night out innit.

I was really looking forward to a game of 'Spot the Ordinary People' though. The rumour that the production team changed the plan after the photographs they'd requested of the fans came in is, of course, laughable. In many ways.

Anyway, as they'll all be there tomorrow night in the audience there's still a chance that these fame hungry anoraks could make it on to TV. The programme airs on BBC2 Thursday night at 10pm, I believe. See if you can spot anyone in the audience that might just be a Who fan. Answers via email to So Television.

Monster Poll

A Croydon Massive thanks to the 86 people who voted in the monster poll.

I asked which monsters you thought would be most likely to make a return in series 3. You had up to three votes from the list I gave you. And here are the results with the percentage of people voting for each monster / villain.

1st The Master 83.3% of you chose the master as one of your three choices.
2nd The Ice Warriors 14.3%
3rd = Zygons and Slitheen 13.1%
5th Yeti 6%
6th Zarbi 4.8%
7th Krynoid 3.6%
8th Gastopods 2.4%

Perhaps I should have added the Macra as a choice...

Review - Rose

Casino Royale came out on DVD recently and this presented the great opportunity to do a reboot special of watching both the highly acclaimed Hollywood blockbuster alongside one of the greatest Who reboots ever - Rose.

Both projects were a huge risk for the respective production teams but for very different reasons. For the Bond team it meant changing the scope, tone and nature of the Bond franchise at a time when it was already exceedingly successful, complete with new actor in the main role. For the BBC the Doctor Who revival meant risking precious quids on a programme consigned (and rightly so) to the junk heap over 15 years previously. They'd tried before with the TV Movie in 1996 (see here) but this time they'd secured the brilliant scriptwriter Russell T Davies as Executive Producer and head writer and it's Mr RTD the BBC can thank for crafting the main ideas behind the reboot and for the script of that very first episode.

Of course there are huge differences between a Bond film and a 45 minute Dr Who story. The main storytelling difference in the examples here is that Rose brings the premise of the show to the fore by focusing on the soon to be companion and her interaction with what appears to be a complete nutcase. Contrast that to the TV Movie which tried to tell the audience the premise of the show built up over 26 years in a pre credits talk over by the most exciting man in show business.

Casino Royale took a very different approach by being one of the only Bond films to have character development for Bond himself. In the past it had been best to present the character of 007 as being consistent across movies but by going back to basics and showing the Bond that appears in the novel the audience is given a glimpse into how a blunt thug can gradually learn to be a suave secret agent.

Rose was brilliantly acted. Billie Piper showed more than great promise in this first episode and in Christopher Eccleston the audience were treated to a hard nosed Doctor, just going about his business and saving the World without fuss. It was a great performance and set up the following 12 weeks which would see the actor become one of the greatest Doctors ever. It's a crying shame he left the show so soon.

Russell T Davies added some lovely touches and it's nice to see that one of his greatest little tricks was there in the first episode. I'm referring to the way in which he can write a scene to provoke different reactions in the audience in quick succession. The scene in which The Doctor got strangled by the Auton arm in Rose's flat is a good example. At first you have the humour of the the attack on The Doctor but when it switches to Rose it suddenly becomes scary and these two reactions are paid off in the following scene where the characters talk about the Earth revolving. It's a fantastic pay off which RTD crafts to keep everyone on the edge of their seats.

That scene about the earth revolving also involves a long chat and a long walk presented in just one continuous shot. This is a good moment of clarity during an action packed episode. The Director, Keith Boak took flak from a lot of fans who haven't a clue about TV. Some fans can't distinguish good / bad direction from episodes they like / dislike which means they always like Graham Harper's direction because they like his stories. They dislike Keith Boak's direction because they dislike his episodes. It's a shame because he does a great job in Rose and adds some touches which give the episode a stylish and often cinematic feel.

When it was announced that Doctor Who was coming back it seemed that the greatest difficulty for the production team would be to create a modern version of Who that the fans liked. For Casino Royale the production team ran the risk of alienating casual cinema goers at the expense of making a film the fans were already salivating over.

It seems that both crews got it right. The BBC now have a Who franchise that the fans can't shut up about (does every fan really have to have a blog for Christ's sake!) and the Bond team have created a major hit with an essentially new version of their main character. This represents a line in the sand for both franchises. It marks out quality and standards on a level neither had before.

Doctor Who and James Bond films started in the same era and their popularity and style have often mirrored each other so it's nice to see them both riding high again. Rose was the perfect reboot and led to a number of years of success. I'd be surprised if Casino Royale doesn't mark out the same success for Bond.

"...AND IN AT 26"

Written by Piggy Fizz

If music channel, TMF’s eight hour run down of the ‘100 Sexiest Videos’ last Saturday was a rotten swizz, with something by Pussycat Dolls in poll position but no sign of Junior Jack’s Stupidisco anywhere, some sense of justice was restored when ‘Doctor Who’ was crowned 26th Greatest Drama on C4’s somewhat brisker chart special.

This felt right and proper, far more so than the many occasions when WHO has ranked much higher in list shows celebrating Kids TV, Favourite Telly Characters or even Top Ten Bastards where I recall Davros had a good turn-out, (Can I just make it clear that I tend to video these things and skim-view through them the next morning).

Here, WHO was being measured against legitimate dramas rather than clips of David Jason falling through a pub's open bar, and was voted for by actual programme makers rather than a gestalt of short-term memory viewers who could be bothered to tick an on-line box.

Not that any of this actually matters of course, but as this site has had its share of articles rolling their eyes at the notion of being a WHO fan, it was great, not to mention surprising, to suddenly be reminded of the show’s good points; it’s fun, it’s imaginative, it’s got an infinitely adaptable set-up, well...potentially. It’s made a triumphant return from the dead, it gets kids interested in history, literature and science...well potentially, and is cherished even by people who aren’t obsessed with it. Dare I say it, much of the show’s run has actually been well-written or has at least made a genuine effort to tap into issues and popular culture of the day as the recent ‘About Time’ reference books have demonstrated without having to resort to much tenuous evidence.

The revelation for me was that the very inclusion of WHO at all seemed just fine, entirely lacking in the sore thumb status it might have prompted stuck amongst highly regarded heavyweight productions. The only other dweeb show present was The Prisoner, but then that’s always been lauded as Kafka dressed up as The Avengers.

There was a feeling that had this been a party, WHO would have been warmly welcomed by the other guests rather than sneered at for turning up with a 2-litre bottle of Woodpecker.

If The Naked Civil Servant, Threads, or The Singing Detective are all far more serious and important in the sense that they directly addressed issues, at the same time they all seem to have something in common with WHO in their outlook, attitude or willingness to do something different with the television format, almost as if they’re the sort of programme that might develop out of WHO. Okay, that’s starting to sound pretentious, and I must stress that I don’t regard WHO as anything much beyond a fun, goofy adventure show, but at its best the series has usually attempted to get audiences thinking, even if its original remit to educate kids about school-book subjects soon got lost in a miasma of robots and space monsters.

So, while I’ve still got a very big problem with the idea of the show as an all-consuming hobby, it’s been a genuine pleasure to see it in a fresh context, to remember or perhaps realise for the first time why it’s always been so appealing.

...apparently Torchwood didn't quite make the Top50.

The Saxon Files # 6 (Major Spoiler Time)

MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD - ONLY READ IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT SOMETHING EXCITING ABOUT SERIES 3

Written by Mr Saxon

Today I can exclusively confirm that the episode "Daleks In Manhattan" and it's subsequent part will contain what is described in the script as "Human Daleks".

I do not profess to know exactly what this reference means and there are several obvious possibilities but we do know that the Daleks in the Eccleston series had a human element.

However, I am willing to repeat some speculation along the lines that these are Daleks in humanoid form. And the way the script describes their movement I'd say that idea has merit.

Unfortunately I didn't see much of the script so I cannot be more specific. Those words leaped off the page though.