Taking place after the incredible storyline ‘Ragnarok’ by Michael Avon Oeming, the new Thor series is delivered by Olivier Coipel (House of M), and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, Supreme Power, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four).
A bit late for my taste, the new series will follow directly after the hammer of Thor fell to Earth in the sold-out Fantastic Four ‘Road to Civil War’ issue seen some time last year. In that issue, readers saw a line of locals in Oklahoma set to test their strength by attempting to lift the hammer.
A simple gag, the pay-off featured lame Dr. Donald Blake (the original human host for the thunder god not seen since before the most recent volume of Thor began last decade) limping over and lifting it easily.
I’m a big fan of JMS’s work for Marvel and feel that given the right material, Coipel can shine. It’s about time Thor got a good series… so my hopes are high. Release date is 7/5/07.
With over 26 (if you count the new series, 29) years of programming and over 10 actors in the main part, every viewer of Doctor Who has their favorite and least favorite actor to play the role.
At a time of the program’s decline (due to scheduling problems amongst other issues), inexperienced actor and gifted entertainer Sylvester McCoy was the unlikely choice to drag the program out of the unpopular navel-gazing continuity fest that it had become.
His era ran from 1987-1989 and saw a brief climb in ratings due to the return of the Daleks in the program’s 25th Anniversary season of 1988.
While in many ways, I only humor the post Tom Baker era as Doctor Who at all, McCoy’s last two seasons gave it their best shot at re-establishing the program. Still am-dram in many ways, it’s never boring.
The key to the success of the McCoy era is the talent, enthusiasm and presence of McCoy himself and the inventiveness of the scripts, which gave a new feel to the Doctor Who universe while embracing the legacy that came before it. With tales set on futuristic cities gone haywire, a galactic circus that sacrifices the audience members to a dark God and an Earth colony in the far future where sadness is illegal… the last gasp of the Classic Doctor Who series was the most inspired the show had been in ages.
Here’s a short video featuring series producer Andrew Cartmel on the McCoy era
(from the BBC’s Doctor Who 40th Anniversary Special)
In putting together what makes a strong ‘Doctor’ in the program, I find myself at a loss… However, I was watching ‘Dalek Masterplan’ recently and there’s this bit where the first Doctor, played by Bill Hartnell, is bartering with the Daleks in ancient Egypt for his companions’ lives.
In those scenes of the Doctor silently scheming, I totally buy the character. He’s definitely a wise and powerful character that his enemies have reason to fear.
In the modern program the script constantly reminds us that the Doctor is a powerful near-deity with lines like ‘he is the flame of eternity in the center if time’ and other nonsense. But in the classic series, you didn’t need that.
William Hartnell just IS the Doctor.
McCoy touched upon this immediate power and recognizability in his time, achieving a level of gravity and importance not seen since Tom Baker.
Personally, I never thought that 30 year old Peter Davison (Doctor #5) knew what was going on, never mind his ability to overcome the odds and save the day. And Colin Baker (Doctor #6) succeeded in playing a charismatic character, but not exactly the Doctor as I knew him.
With the arrival of McCoy we had on the screen the old definition of a ‘good’ Doctor… a guy who could hold his own despite the quality of the scripts (of which a few… nearly his entire first season are dire). He also had the squeeky and annoying (admitted so in her own dialog, yikes!) Mel as a companion in four stories and still came out on top.
Once Sophie Aldred arrived to play the companion Ace, the team was complete. While admittedly, neither Aldred nor McCoy are exactly RADA-experienced actors in the sense of the best of the previous Doctor/companion teams, they play to each others strengths. They also have an undeniable chemistry on and off the screen (my wife is convinced they had an affair).
So big up McCoy. The best Doc of the 80’s.
Strong outings from his time include:
Paradise Towers (great story influenced by JG Ballard’s High-Rise, ruined by hammy acting and bad lighting)
Remembrance of the Daleks (possibly the best 80’s Dalek story, full of action and mystery, the first real opportunity for McCoy’s Doctor to shine)
The Happiness Patrol (a controversial love/hate story that uses the post-modern comedic/critical strengths of McCoy’s era in fictionalizing the Thatcher era)
The Greatest Show In The Galaxy (the aforementioned evil circus full of blood-thirsty robot clowns, this is a fan-favorite of even those who dislike McCoy’s era)
Ghost Light (a case of what if Ken Russel worked on Doctor Who, the story deals with issues of empiricism and evolution theory. Building on the ability of the BBC to produce outstanding costume dramas, this story is a bit too full of itself, but still a grand effort)
The Curse of Fenric (a WWII-era story with vampiric monsters from the past and future attacking a British Intelligence base)
Survival (the oddest of the Classic series and a return to form of intelligent storytelling not seen since 1983’s Kinda)
Taking place after the incredible storyline ‘Ragnarok’ by Michael Avon Oeming, the new Thor series is delivered by Olivier Coipel (House of M), and J. Michael Straczynski (Babylon 5, Supreme Power, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four).
With over 26 (if you count the new series, 29) years of programming and over 10 actors in the main part, every viewer of Doctor Who has their favorite and least favorite actor to play the role.
In putting together what makes a strong ‘Doctor’ in the program, I find myself at a loss… However, I was watching ‘Dalek Masterplan’ recently and there’s this bit where the first Doctor, played by Bill Hartnell, is bartering with the Daleks in ancient Egypt for his companions’ lives.
