Doctor Who bits and bobs

Over at the excellent AMC Sci-Fi blog, there are two recent posts about the famous Timelord that should get your attention.

First, a Halloween idea that would make designer Ray Cusick proud… until he realizes he’ll get no money from this one either (the designer of the Daleks was cheated out of any residuals by now exterminated but still wealthy writer Terry Nation).Dalek Jack O’ Lantern

Second, a source for all those remixes of the Doctor Who signature tune. The instantly recognizable tune by Ron Grainer (also responsible countless other theme songs including The Prisoner) and Delia Derbyshire has been adapted so many times I’ve lost count… thankfully not everyone has.

For the record, the recent rewrite by Murray Gold leaves me quite cold. I prefer the alien/weird tune from the 60’s-70’s to the full Welsh Orchestra.

Doctor Who remix

Shakespeare? Pfft, done that

As current Doctor #10 David Tennant mounts his last full season of Doctor Who with his eyes toward a major RSC production of Hamlet, I can’t help but notice that his predecessor, Doctor #7 Sylvester McCoy is already achieving rave reviews for his performance alongside Sir Ian McKellan in the Shakespearean tragedy King Lear.

While never quite achieving the notoriety of other actors who have played the Doctor,the 64 year old physical comedian McCoy has been a respected stage actor for some time, something that fans of Doctor Who have heard about since his famous nude appearance in Eqqus.

The former children’s entertainer and bouncer for the Rolling Stones was enlisted into Doctor Who by then producer John Nathan Turner after seeing the actor in Peter Pan. Seeing something not dissimilar to the magic which Patrick Troughton brought to the series, JNT cast the unlikely stage actor in 1987 to turn the ailing series around.

I’ve written about the McCoy era before, but it really was a unique time in Doctor Who’s history. It covered more ground more quickly than any other three year stretch in the program’s life. Beginning as a satirical pantomime of sorts, McCoy’s Doctor deepened into the dark manipulator and matured into a fully rounded character by the time he strolled off Doctor Who on screen in the 1989 story ‘Survival.’

Good on you, Sylv. If I could afford the $2,295 ticket price, I’d be right there cheering you on.