I'm Hiding

Today is the last day of November and the last day for the theme of the month, November Nineties.

My reflections on life and pop culture from the 1990's was supposed to be a bigger thing. 

Alas, a bunch of ideas for posts about the 1990's did not come to fruition as I had intended or hoped.

This blog is not my job.

So today is the last day of November and perhaps I can salvage on last hurrah for the November Nineties theme.

Or I could just go into hiding and let the day pass.

Nothing to see here.

Just move on please.

Thank you.  

Doctor Who In the 1990's Part Two: The Doctor Who Movie

As ye olde blog thing wraps up our November Nineties AND we've also been celebrating the return of brand new Doctor Who, this post is the 2nd of two posts where the Venn diagram intersects those two topics.

The 1990's were not easy for Doctor Who fans, a time referred to by Whovians as the "Wilderness Years" between the cancellation of Doctor Who in 1989 and it's eventual revival in 2005.   

There were two spots of light in the darkness in those wilderness years. Last week we reflected on the 1993 Children In Need special where Doctor Who crossed over with Eastenders.  That light sputtered and faded to a wisp of smoke. 

This week we look at another time where the light of hope flared to life once more in 1996.  

We are referring the Doctor Who TV movie that was developed as a co-production between Universal Studios and BBC Worldwide. It was the first on screen appearance of Paul McGann as the Doctor. 

And for 17 years, it was the last on screen appearance of Paul McGann as the Doctor.

Spoiler: this movie will not end well.   

The 7th Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) is in the TARDIS transporting the remains of the Master to Gallifrey after he was executed on Skaro by the Daleks.  

Now as much as the fanboy in me is geeking out over these references, you can see the problem where we're shoving a lot of backstory at any potential new viewers.

Despite being a puddle of goo in a box, the Master still causes problems by futzing with the TARDIS, forcing the Doctor to make an emergency materialisation in San Francisco's Chinatown on December 30, 1999.

The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS and is gunned down by a roving street gang. 

Does that seem wrong to you? It seems wrong to me. 

Chang Lee, a young man who was being chased by the street gang, calls for an ambulance and escorts the unconscious Doctor to a hospital.

The Master (in the form of Ooze) takes over Bruce, the ambulance driver. 

At the hospital where cardiologist Dr. Grace Holloway fails to save his life during surgery because... what the hell? Did this guy have 2 heartbeats or is Grace just rattled from stress?

Chilling out in the morgue, the Doctor regenerates and it screws up his memory and he doesn't remember who he is. 

So our title character is...

1) played by one actor and then is shot dead in the first 5 minutes of the movie 

2) and then is played by another actor but now the Doctor has no memory of who he is.   

If you're new to Doctor Who and you're not impressed with the Doctor so far, well, who can blame you.  

And if you are a long time fan of Doctor Who, well, you're probably struggling with all of this.  

The Master (now in humanoid form thanks to taking over Bruce) lays a mind whammy on Chang Lee as part of a plot to get back in the TARDIS and open up the Eye of Harmony for... the evulz. (Bare with me, it's been awhile since I last saw this.)   

Meanwhile, the Doctor is hanging out with Grace trying to unscramble his eggs. 

We also get our first Doctor/companion kiss.

Old school Whovians lose their shit. 

OK, there's a lot more stuff to talk about but let's turn on the afterburners to bring this post in for a landing. 

The Doctor finds out the Master is up to shit that will bring about the apocalypse.  

The Doctor and Grace race against time to get stuff 'n' junk to stop the Master.  

But oh no! Grace and Chang get killed!! 

But in an epic throw down, the Doctor shoves the Master into the Eye of Harmony and things get all glowy, time re-verses and Grace and Chang get un-killed.  

No  apocalypse today!!

Grace and Chang opt to do other things and the Doctor toddles off all alone in the TARDIS to explore time and space. 

Some good things: 

The TARDIS interior for the first time ever looks like a real space and not just a set in a TV studio. 

The Doctor as a romantic lead. OK, I'm not saying the Doctor and a companion has to have a physical relationship but it seems a given that there would be some deep emotional connection between the Doctor and a companion. As unprecedented as it was for the Doctor to kiss Grace, it felt right at the moment and more real than the "no hugging" edict placed on the original series.   

Where the movie falls apart is the lack of focus on the lead. Paul McGann as the Doctor is NOT the Doctor for 1/4 of the movie and then spends another quarter of the film with his marbles unsorted. 

It underscores the wisdom of Russell T Davies in 2005 to just kick things off with the Doctor in place and making the focus on Rose Tyler who is befuffled, terrified and eventually enthralled by this mysterious man from beyond the stars.  We get to know the Doctor through her eyes.   

Dr. Grace Holloway goes through those stages as well but the Doctor spends too much time being befuddled as well. 

A big objective of the movie was to use it to revive Doctor Who as an ongoing series as a co-production of the BBC and an American studio.   

The movie did well enough in the UK but not so much in the USA where it aired on a still nascent FOX TV network for an audience that did not know what the hell they were watching.

Buried at the core of the Doctor Who movie was not a bad story with a dynamic new take on the Doctor by Paul McGann.  It suffers mostly from trying to shove too many appeals to long time fans while not making this accessible to new viewers.   

____________________________

Last week, I wrote that a condition of everyone doing "Dimensions In Time" for free was that it would not be made available for sale. As one would expect from the internet, there are ways of seeing this special and when I wrote it was a mess, I was not just reciting what others have said. I've seen it. It is bad.

Also I had forgotten there was one other new Doctor Who special from the 1990's, the comedy special "Curse of the Fatal Death".   I didn't write a separate November Nineties post about it because of it is a comedic parody and is not canon. 

Also I forgot.

Click here for the Wikipedia entry for more info. 

The blog will back with NEW Doctor Who on Monday with the 2nd of the 60th anniversary specials, "Wild Blue Yonder". 

Until next time, never be cruel or cowardly. And never eat pears! 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: TV From the 1990's

Today's Tuesday TV Touchbase  succumbs to the inevitable blog theme for the month, November Nineties.

What the heck was I watching in the 1990's?

A lot of cartoons, for starters.  

Steven Spielberg's animated Warner Bros. shows took up way too much of my attention for a man who entered his 30's in that decade.  

• Tiny Toon Adventures may have started as a modern kids spin on classic Warner Bros.  but it was subversive enough to appeal to adults. Any show that features animated segments set to the music of They Might Be Giants is just the kind of weird to appeal to my arrested development brain.
• Animaniacs leaned hard on the subversive with the Warner Brothers (and the Warner sister Dot) who were...   monkeys? mice? monkey mice? malformed mutant monkey mice men (and women)?  This was the show that gave us a parody of a Martin Scorcese gangster movie in the form of Good Feathers. And Tom Bodett's Good Idea/Bad Idea. And of course Pinky & the Brain.   
• Freakazoid was a super hero series that relied heavily on parody, satire, pop culture references and a total obliteration of the 4th wall.  

Freakazoid creators Bruce Timm and Paul Dini were a bit more serious about their other big super hero series, Batman the Animated Series which used the best of the Batman comics as source material (such as Ra's al Ghul by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams) to create a unique and viable world for hard core fans of the Darkknight Detective.  Besides giving the world the best Batman performance (from the late great Kevin Conroy), the show also gave us Mark Hamill as the Joker.  

 

I was also getting my sci-fi geek on in the 1990's with Star Trek: The Next Generation and later Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  While Next Gen began in the 1980's, it was in the '90's that the show really hit it's stride in terms of quality of writing and production.   As a successful drama in first run syndication (instead of being on a network), it inspired a number of shows that came out during the 1990's to cash in on first run syndication. 

A couple of shows I followed in syndication were Highlander: The Series (the adventures of an immortal Scotsman but not the immortal Scotsman from the movie series) and Forever Knight  (a vampire who is also a police detective. This show had the most depressing series finale EVER!)   

I don't think there are any first run syndication dramas anymore. Any show that does not go to a network goes to cable and more likely these days a streaming service. 

The '90's decade was big for a lot of sitcoms that I watched.  Besides Friends, Frasier and Seinfeld, there was Mad About You with Paul Reiser and Helen Hunter as big city professionals who make a go at being married. My idea for a spin off would have the characters get divorced and rename the show Mad At You. (Ha.<pause>. Ha.)  

There was my long term crush Lea Thompson in Caroline in the City which I've recently rewatched some episodes on Paramount+.   

One of my favorite shows of the decade that sadly gets forgotten is NewsRadio set at a fictional all news radio station in New York City.  The show starred Dave Foley (my favorite cast member from Kids In the Hall) and Maura Tierney.  The show features very funny performances from Phil Hartman which casts an unfortunate pall over the show when you know of the real life tragedy that ended Phil's life.  

My wife was a fan of Home Improvement and Coach which I watched with her as I found them genuinely funny at the time.  She also watched Full House but that was her thing, not mine. 

The '90's were big for Married With Children which I can't say I was a fan of exactly but I was appreciative of the wicked satire underneath the show's broader farce.  (And Kelly Bundy! I'm a perv. I'll own it.) And this was the decade The Simpsons was last any good.  Which I know is sort of a knee jerk thing to say. To be honest, I just stopped seeking out the new episodes on Sunday night.  

 

Andrea was a fan of Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place.  90210 was her thing but I did watch some MP episodes with her.  We also both watched Ally McBeal  together.  

There was a show that debuted on Fox in 1993 that Andrea and I watched but it sadly only lasted one season, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr , a western series (with some sci-fi mixed in)  starring Bruce Campbell. What the hell, we'll stick around for the show that came after, The X-Files which became our new jam long after Bruce Campbell was out of a job.  

The 1990's was perhaps the last hurrah of broadcast television. Even as late as that decade, networks were still programming 

new shows on Saturday like NBC's Golden Girls or over on CBS, shows like the western series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and the modern western/cop show Walker, Texas Ranger.  

There was a funny exchange on Friends where Monica is trying unsuccessfully to convince Rachel her dating life does not suck.  

Monica: I go out on lots of dates!

Rachel: Yeah? What happened last week on Walker Texas Ranger? 

Monica: Oh, it was a good one! Walker and Trivette are out to ... Oh my God! My dating life sucks! 

After the 1990's, networks realized that the audience actually home on Saturday was NOT the demographic they wanted and decided not spend money on new programming.  Now Saturday night is a wasteland of reruns, sports and true crime shows. 

The 1990's were a time of peak TV. 

Tomorrow, November Nineties tackles Doctor Who as we post about the infamous movie.

Next week the Touchbase returns with season 2 of Julia and also the 6th and final series of That Damned Thing AKA The Crown. Also coming up on the Touchbase, I have discovered a new Australia adjacent crime show called Deadloch.

AND I've got season 2 of Invincible to catch up on.   

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.  

Doctor Who Is NEW!: The Star Beast

Doctor Who Is NEW!  

The first of the 60th anniversary specials debuted on Disney+ Saturday afternoon to a LOT of anticipation here at the Fortress of Ineptitude. 

• My wife Andrea was doing a countdown.
• Our son Dean was ready to kill her for it. 
• Rosie was oblivious.(She heard K-9 wasn't going to be in it and lost interest.)   

And I...

And I, your humble blogger Dave-El, was...

Well, I was psyched too! 

After years of earnestly praying (for lack of a better word) for Chibnall not to screw this up and seeking satisfaction if he didn't achieve less than not screwing up, I invested a LOT of super high expectations on the return of Russell T Davies.

• And David Tennant 
• And Catherine Tate.
• Not to mention composer Murray Gold
• And director Rachel Talalay.  

"The Star Beast" delivers! 

OK, for a show that is ostensibly part of a 60th anniversary special, it felt like a regular episode of Doctor Who.

Which is a good thing.  As Tom Brevoort put it on his blog, "that certainly felt like an episode of Doctor Who....The whole thing just felt like a warm, nostalgic hug for old time Who viewers."

But given it's big debut on a brand new delivery platform on Disney+, the episode works as a fairly good jumping on point for people discovering Doctor Who anew. 

Even if we did have to start with an awkward 4th wall breaking info dump from the Doctor and Donna Noble. 

We've got a new kick ass revised theme from Murray Gold (I am so glad he's back) and the opening graphics are cool and distinctive with the TARDIS whirling about the time vortex in new and interesting ways.

Russell adapted this episode from a 1970's Doctor Who comic written by Pat Mills and drawn by Dave Gibbons who get credited right up front with Russell in the opening instead of being buried in the closing credits as a "special thanks to" brush off. 

The Doctor crosses paths with Donna Noble which is not good on account of Donna remembering the Doctor will kill her. But Donna and her family (mother Sylvia, husband Sean and daughter Rose) seem to be in the crosshairs of a new alien mystery. 

A spaceship has crashed outside of London, a cute furry alien critter known as Beep the Meep is seeking escape from killer bug eyed aliens called Wrarth Warriors. 

Except none of that is true. 

The ship didn't crash, it landed. The Meep is a genocidal maniac. And the scary alien dudes are trying to stop that maniac from killing again.  

Being familiar with comic book this was based on, I knew the twist with the Meep was coming. But Donna Noble is the emotional core of this story and her arc is what makes this episode so incredibly engaging.  Although she is fiercely devoted to her family and especially towards her daughter who is (like the actor) is transgender. As Donna tells Rose, "I will burn down the world to protect you."  

But even with her life filled with caring for her family, Donna is still haunted by the feeling that something is missing from her life, her memories.   

Then the Doctor pops up and Donna is confronted head on with the possibility there is more to her life than she knows. 

Russell T Davies manages to square the circle of this dilemma of having our beloved Donna Noble restored without killing her. 

It's not all a nostalgia trip. In addition to Rose Noble, we also meet UNIT's new scientific advisor, Shirley Anne Bingham.  The character (like their actor Ruth Madeley) uses a wheel chair. The chair lacks the ability to levitate but it does come with serious weaponry in the form of guns and missiles. Shirley geeks out a bit over meeting the Doctor but unlike say Malcolm or Osgood, she's very chill about it.

Also new is the TARDIS interior.  

Is it a bit too bright, too open a floor plan? Yeah, maybe.  But after years of the distressingly low lighting inside the 13th Doctor's TARDIS (I never had a handle on the actual layout of the main console room), this new layout at least can be seen and has room perhaps to fill in the empty spaces. And the set itself is a massive place, truly evoking the TARDIS is bigger on the inside than on the outside. 

"The Star Beast" may not be an all time classic Doctor Who episode but damn if it doesn't do the job of setting the stage for a newly re-energized series.

Doctor Who may be 60 years old but this episode makes it feel new again.

Next Monday, I will have another Doctor Who Is NEW!   post about special #2 "Wild Blue Yonder" dropping on Disney+ on Saturday, December 2nd.   

Cinema Sunday: The Truman Show

So we're wrapping up November Nineties this week as today's Cinema Sunday takes us back near the end of the decade as look back at a movie that came out in 1998.

25 years ago, it was a film of satire and science fiction.

Now it is disturbingly prescient of the culture we live in today.

Today's Cinema Sunday brings you The Truman Show.   

Yep, it's another movie post with Jim Carrey.

Hey, it was the 1990's. Jim Carrey was in a lot of movies.

It was the LAW! 

Truman Burbank is just this ordinary man living his ordinary life in his ordinary hometown of Seahaven Island. 

What Truman doesn't know is he's the star of a TV show. 

His friends, neighbors, co-workers, even his wife are all actors cast to be supporting players in the world wide television phenomenon known as "The Truman Show".  

Seahaven Island is part of a film set inside an enormous bio-dome where Truman's every action and interaction is filmed by thousands of hidden cameras under the direction of Christof, the show's creator. Everything within the dome is in Christof's control including the change of day into night into day again and even the weather. 

Truman Burbank has been the star of this show since the day he was born from an unwanted pregnancy and the studio adopted him. 

Truman often dreams of travelling the world, going to Fiji is a particularly fond destination choice.  But Christof has neutralized Truman's wanderlust. 

The "death" of his "father" in a sea storm instills Truman with thalassophobia.

Thalassophobia: a type of phobia characterized by a persistent and intense fear of deep water, such as an ocean or a lake.

This fear is reinforced by constantly broadcast messages about the dangers of traveling and the virtues of staying home right here on Seahaven Island where everything is safe and perfect and really, why go anywhere else? 

There is also the matter of the love that got away.

While Christof was busy scripting having Truman meet, fall in love with and eventually marry Meryl, Truman falls for Sylvia, one of the extras, instead. Sylvia is spirited off the island before she can can tell Truman the truth about his existence.  

Out in the real world, there is an activist group who seeks to cancel the show and have Truman released.

Approaching his 30th birthday, Truman is starting to pick up that some things about his life do not make sense. Then he comes to the realization that somehow, someway life on Seahaven Island revolves around him.

In the real world, such a realization would be the epitome of narcissism and madness. 

In this case, Truman is right. 

Pushing past his thalassophobia....

Thalassophobia: a type of phobia characterized by a persistent and intense fear of deep water, such as an ocean or a lake.

We've already covered that. 

Truman grabs a sailboat to get the hell away from Seahaven Island. 

Christof summons storms to halt Truman's escape but Truman perseveres until he hits the "sky". 

The light blue wall of the dome's interior. 

Christof opens a mike and Truman gets to talk to "god". 

In here, Truman Burbank is the star of a TV show that entertains the world. In here, he is special. And he is safe.

Out there, he will not be special and he will not be safe. 

Truman has a choice to make. 

The "It's That Person Who Was In That Thing" Department

• Does that garage attendant look like Norm Scully on Brooklyn Nine-Nine? Yep, it's Joel McKinnon Miller.  
• Harry Shearer as TV host Mike Michaelson is the voice of about half of the supporting characters on The Simpsons.  

Truman Burbank was a marked departure for Jim Carrey from the more broadly comedic roles he had come to be known for.  He even took a pay cut at the chance to prove his dramatic skills.  

There is still some room for whimsy and improvisation.  The scene in which Truman declares "this planet Trumania of the Burbank galaxy" to the bathroom mirror was Carrey's idea.

The Truman Show is prescient of our current 24 hour culture where we have a near continuous access to celebrities and their lives and work. Our view of celebrity culture in the 1990's was on the cusp of a world that would be dominated by You Tube, Tik Tok and social media in general. We're living in a world that answers the question asked by The Truman Show: what happens when the cameras are never turned off? 

OK, that is that for Cinema Sunday's contribution to November Nineties. Next week, we're back with a movie that came out this year.   

Songs For Saturday 1990s: Stone Temple Pilots, Blur and Collective Soul

This week's Songs For Saturday wraps up our month long trip through the 1990's.

This week we start off with the Stone Temple Pilots and "Big Bang Baby".

Appropriately enough, the 2nd song today is "Song 2" by Blur.

Next week will be December so let's finish the Songs For Saturday 1990's playlist with "December" by Collective Soul.  

Well, that is that for today's Songs For Saturday. 

Next week, we're kicking off the final series of Songs For Saturday posts that will wrap up December 30th.  

More on what will be replacing Songs For Saturday in 2024 in a later post.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.

Your Friday Video Link: Up All Night

It's the last Your Friday Video Link for this month's November Nineties as we take a look at a TV program that convinced you to stay up late watching really bad movies.

Appearing weekend overnights on the USA cable channel was Up All Night which featured films that were cheap, cheesy and some other 3rd word I can't think of that begins with "ch".  

Half of the episodes were hosted by comic Gilbert Gottfried, a much beloved comic who sadly passed away earlier this year. This post is not about him.

No, this post is about the other person who hosted Up All Night during the 1990's, Rhonda Shear. 

Rhonda Shear was a... well, let's cut to the chase here: she was a goddess! 

She was to be worshipped! WORSHIPPED, I say! 

So you had to sit through poorly made horror films and sex comedies from the 1970's and '80's, that was a small sacrifice upon the altar of her beauty and charm. 

Your Friday Video Link is a sample of this vivacious wonder of womanhood who would invite you to join her and stay "UP... all night!"

Rhonda Shear is still with us. She sells underwear (excuse me, "intimate apparel") on QVC.

This weekend, November Nineties winds down with Songs For Saturday and Cinema Sunday. 

Thursday Throwback: A Special Thanksgiving Message

Tomorrow, we're back with more November Nineties stuff with a new Your Friday Video Link. 

Today is Thanksgiving and I am thankful for re-runs.

Let's jump back to Thursday, November 26, 2015 for a special Thanksgiving Day message...

...from squirrels.

Squirrels, what are you thankful for?

And this has been a special Thanksgiving Day message from squirrels. 

I'm Dave-El and I'm so glad my suffering amuses you.

Another post coming up tomorrow. Until then, be good to one another. 

And don't forget....

Doctor Who In the 1990's Part One: Dimensions In Time

This Saturday is the long awaited debut of Doctor Who on Disney+ to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary. I am way beyond excited for this. My belly button has been puckering and unpuckering for months.   

Since Doctor Who is on our minds AND this month's blog theme is November Nineties, let's take a look where Doctor Who and the 1990's intersect for a previous anniversary...  can we call it a "celebration"?

Well, it's the thought that counts, as the saying goes.

Although I'm not sure that's exactly encouraging. 

Fellow Whovians, let us ponder the thing that is.... Dimensions In Time.  

After the BBC cancelled Doctor Who in 1989, producer John Nathan Turner held out hope for some kind of return of the space/time faring show and it seemed that the 30th anniversary in 1993 was as good a time as any to finally make something happen. 

All sorts of big epic ideas were considered but there was little money and it seemed in less interest from the BBC in reviving Doctor Who for anything big. 

Finally Nathan-Turner had to settle for a Children In Need charity special done as a crossover with the long running drama Eastenders.  

What we got was a massively inane and confusing plot by the Rani to trap various incarnations of the Doctor, his companions and various alien adversaries. As Tom Baker's 4th Doctor put it, "locked away in a dreary backwater of London's East End, trapped in a time-loop in perpetuity."  

Take a deep breath and here goes nothing! 

The Rani has opened a hole in time, allowing her access to the Doctor's timeline, capturing the First and Second Doctors. This causes the Fourth Doctor to send a message to his remaining selves, warning them of the Rani's plan.   

The TARDIS deposits the Seventh Doctor and Ace in Greenwich in 1973.  The Rani causes time to jump. Ace finds herself in Albert Square in 1993 with the Sixth Doctor where local East End resident Sanjay tries to sell Ace some new clothes from his stall.   

The Third Doctor and Mel Bush appear in 2013 with older versions of  Pauline Fowler and Kathy Beale from Eastenders. 

The Sixth Doctor and Susan Foreman appear in 1973, but she wonders what has happened to the First Doctor and her other companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright.

After another time jump to 2013 and this time it's Sarah Jane Smith with the Third Doctor.  

Things are not confusing enough so the Rani releases her menagerie of specimens including a Cyberman, Fifi, a Sea Devil, an Ogron and a Time Lord from Gallifrey who attack the Fifth Doctor, Nyssa and Peri in 1993. And folks in the East End are in danger! 

In 1993, after the Fifth Doctor changes to the Third Doctor in the next time jump, along with Nyssa and Peri changing into Liz Shaw. Captain Mike Yates of UNIT arrives in Bessie to save the Third Doctor and get him to the Brigadier who is waiting for them.

After another time jump, the Doctor changes to the Sixth Doctor and after he says goodbye to the Brigadier time jumps again. 

In 1993, at the Arches, East End residents Phil and Grant Mitchell find Romana looking for the Doctor. Whoops! Romana is captured by the Rani.  

Back in 1973, the Third Doctor is with Victoria while in 1993, the Seventh Doctor is joined by Leela who has escaped from the Rani. 

Stuff happens which helps the Seventh Doctor, Ace, and K9 to short out the Rani's machinery and stop futzing about with time.

All this occurs over the course of approximately 14 minutes.  

Wow! 

If this sounds like an incoherent mess then well, mission accomplished: it was an incoherent mess.  

And this incoherent mess was seen in 3-D! 

The Daleks were supposed to appear but Dalek creator Terry Nation said hell no.  Seems he expected to get paid. 

Which would've made Terry Nation the exception. All the actors and crew gave their services especially for Children in Need, and waived their fees on the condition that Dimensions in Time would never be repeated or sold on home video for profit.  

Dimensions in Time has been near universally regarded as bad. Very, very bad. A slapdash concoction shoved into a 14 minute time frame that had to be shared with the cast of Eastenders.   

The 1990's would present one more chance for Doctor Who to be reborn and I'll post about that next week.

Spoiler: It does not end well.   

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Abbott Elementary & Ghosts (and Ghosts Again!)

 Before we kick off this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase, a brief note on the cancellation of Young Sheldon. The forthcoming 7th season will be the last and will have cover 14 episodes. 

While the news of the show ending is sad (Raegan Revord who plays Missy is particularly devastated), it does seem the show has played out long enough what with "young" Sheldon himself, Iain Armitage pushing 37 years old (I'm kidding).  

Andrea and I finished up season 2 of Abbott Elementary last week. Just in time for the end of actor's strike so we will be ready for season 3 when it comes around in February.

The season ends with Janine Teagues and Gregory Eddie finally being on the same page with each other that they like-like each other but in the tradition of the "will they or won't they" sit-com plot gods, they decide to not act on that right now. 

OK, it's just the 2nd season, I can deal with this. Just don't "Ross and Rachel" this thing, all right? 

Speaking of Gregory, Tyler James Williams still gives the best side eye glances to the documentary crew since John Karinksi on The Office.  I am a little disappointed in Gregory's quasi-Vulcan lack of social skills. It's been established he wants to be the principal. Did he really think he could accomplish that goal without social human interaction? 

Speaking of principals, Ava Coleman continues to frustrate. Her unrelenting narcissism is a source of chaos and humor but her apathy towards actually being any good at her job tends to vary according to the needs of the plot. Behind her blinding ego, there are moments. Like when we find out she has spare free school uniforms whenever a poor kid has a growth spurt. Or the field trip to the science museum where Ava displays some actual knowledge of outer space. Granted she mixes that knowledge with some alien conspiracy theory nonsense to scare the children.  I don't mind Ava's ego driven stupidity but she risks becoming this show's Frank Burns when compared to the competence of her teachers. 

The teachers are good at their jobs, displaying skills to teach and engage with their students. Sometimes they mess up when they let their own personal hang ups get in the way. But there is no doubt they care about there kids. 

Speaking of the kids, kudos to the producers to not making any of the kids any kind of recurring regulars. We don't need some kid character hanging around long after he should have left elementary school because they have a cool catch phrase or something.  Occasionally one of the kids will draw focus for an episode but this show is not about them. Abbott Elementary is about good teachers trying to hold it together in an under served, overlooked school.  

So far Andrea and I have enjoyed Abbott Elementary and we look forward to what's next for season 3 in February.

Andrea and I are just getting started on season 2 of Ghosts and we may have it time out to be done before CBS returns the show for season 3 in February.  

We would see the teasers for Ghosts while watching Young Sheldon and it seemed like something we might be interested in but we gave it a miss for... reasons?  

With the various writer and actor strikes delaying new episodes of stuff, I convinced Andrea it might be time to give Ghosts a try.  

Andrea and I both enjoy this show a lot. Here's the helpful Wikipedia entry on the show's premise: 

Married New Yorkers Samantha and Jay Arondekar believe that their dreams have come true when they inherit a beautiful country house from Sophie Woodstone, Sam's great aunt, only to find that it is falling apart and inhabited by ghosts who died on the mansion's grounds and are now bound to the area, appearing as they did at the times of their deaths, until they can reach the afterlife. Jay cannot see or hear the ghosts, but Sam can after a near-death experience.

Despite not being able to see or hear ghosts, Jay somehow becomes good friends with Pete, the travel agent and scoutmaster who was killed when he shot through the neck with an arrow (which is still embedded in his ghost form). Jay and Pete both love D&D and basketball.   

I think my favorite ghost is Sasappis/"Sass", a Lenape indigenous man, enjoys storytelling, stirring up drama, watching TV, and smelling all sorts of food, especially pizza. While the other ghosts are sort of stuck speaking in the manner of the eras when they died, Sass sounds positively modern with his snarky observations. 

When ghosts have made peace with something unresolved, they get pulled into the afterlife in a beam of light, a process the ghosts call "getting sucked off".  Sam has tried to broach the subject of that nomenclature but the ghosts are rather insistent that's what it's called.  

I am a bit puzzled by how ghosts work in this world. It seems as Sam and Jay plan to turn Woodstone Manor into a B&B with paying guests, the ghosts are concerned with where the ghosts will sleep. Why do beings without corporeal forms  require sleep? How do ghosts who can walk through walls rest on beds? Or sit in chairs even? (Jay asks these questions. Sam has no answers.)   

It's only a TV a show, I really should just relax and enjoy Ghosts. 

Meanwhile, to fill time in their primetime schedule, CBS is showing episodes of the original BBC series as Ghosts UK. 

While the British show came first, since Andrea and I watched the American show first, it's Ghosts UK that feels a bit off. 

British Allison seems to have a more adversarial relationship with her Ghosts than American Sam.

British husband Mike seems incredibly dim-witted compared to Jay in America. I like Jay better.  

Other than British arrow through the neck Paul and American arrow through the neck Peter, there's not a lot of one to one comparisons with the ghosts.

Yes, both shows have a dude with a suit jacket and tie and NO pants who died in the 1990's but the British version was an older politician and the American guy was a younger go-getter stockbroker.  

Andrea and I will continue to sample Ghosts UK for the time being but our early assessment is we like the American version better. 

Next week, November Nineties invades the Tuesday TV Touchbase as I post about some of my favorite TV shows from the 1990's.

The week after that, it's the return of the Max series Julia and also the 6th and final series of That Damned Thing AKA The Crown.   

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.  

Doctor Who Is NEW!: Destination Skaro

Hello! I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You presents the return of this blog's longest recurring feature, Doctor Who Is NEW! 

When I was a younger blogger who did not know what I was doing, I started this blog 10 years ago and I posted the first ever Doctor Who Is NEW!  on March 30, 2013.

Today I am an older blogger who still does not know what I am doing and we've got NEW Doctor Who to talk about.

And actually look at! 

(Warning: this link is actually up to the good graces of the BBC, Disney+ and You Tube.) 

It's only 5 minutes long so don't pop out for snacks or anything. 

The Doctor on Skaro at the "Genesis of the Daleks"?! Sweet!

(And maybe all we get of the Daleks for awhile. Russell says the Daleks will be a getting a bit of a rest for a bit.)   

Damn! David Tennant has still got it! (Not there was any doubt, am I right?) 

So THAT is why Daleks have a plunger instead of something more useful like a "multi-claw adaptable thingamajig."

Davros' assistant Castavillian (loving that name) trying to workshop what to call this new forerunner of the Kaled race.

•  Lekad?
•  Adlek?
•  Klade?
•  Edlka?
•  Edlak?

Somehow avoiding the obvious name "Dalek".  

The Doctor accidentally names them. (And he won't see penny of any royalties either!)  

We do get some retcon stuff with a different Davros, ambulatory and dressed in WWII Nazi black.  Russell Davies explains why the difference in the launch of a new behind the scenes series. For those of who miss the behind the scenes fun of Doctor Who Confidential, we now have Doctor Who Unleashed. 

You can watch it below if the BBC, Disney+ and You Tube remain benevolent.  

I get where Davies is coming from seeking to negate the "disabled = evil" trope that has been a thing at least since Shakespeare's Richard III.  

But I've also thought the scarred flesh and gnarled fingers of Davros owed to his evil obsessions, his unrelenting ego that pushed him beyond his breaking point. The decrepit physical state of classic Davros is a reflection of his own inner decay of his mind and his soul. 

I appreciate Davis striking a blow against negative stereotypes of the disabled but I'm not sure if we needed to start with Davros. 

But it does send a clear message that Russell T Davies' new Doctor Who is not like what we've seen before. 

We'll be back next week with another installment of Doctor Who Is NEW!  as we reflect on the 1st of the three 60th anniversary Doctor Who specials, The Star Beast! 

More Doctor Who stuff on the blog: 

In keeping with the blog's November Nineties theme, I've got a post this Wednesday that looks at Doctor Who in the 1990's. 

It was not an easy decade for Whovians but we kept the dream alive. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.