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Tony Gallichan is Mildly Perturbed by... Karshtakavaar

You see, I'm slightly in shock.

Culture shock.

This simply is NOT right.

Hang on...I'll stop a sec and go back and fill you in, ok? After all, we don't want your attention wondering, now do we, hmm? No. No we don't.

I'm a Doctor Who fan. Yes, I know, your all in shock from reading that. The Judder Man? A Doctor Who fan? What the...? Who would have thought it?

Heh.

Just kidding.

So, anyway, I'm old enough to remember the thrill I got when I was little and seeing trailers for a new series of the show. The thrill I got from knowing that IT was back on. However.... It seemed to appear in a somewhat muted maner. Aside from the odd Swap Shop appearance or visit to the Blue Peter studio, that was, roughly, it when it came to publicity. Oh..And they would pop a new assistant in papers as well. A new series belonged to us, the little ones who loved it for what it was. Silly, exciting, terrifying, laugh out loud wonderfullness. It was just Doctor Who. But it was also, to us, a little fire in the night of our lives.

So, lets flash forward back to the present.

2005.

Billboards scream of Doctor Who, Saturdays, BBC1. Eccles and Blunebuttons stare over your shoulder, off into the distance in heroic fashion. The press have gone slightly bonkers. Ok..no change there then, lol. However, this is the same press who slated the show just when it needed support - oh, and just when it was starting to kick serious bottom again. You can't move on BBC1 without this leather jacketed, shaven headed blokey chap, looking smug and asking us if we want to go with him. Hmm. I wonder if there are puppies involved? No, sorry, LOL. This isn't about the Jackson trial (and it doesn't matter what you think about that, there's no way in hell that man will get a fair trial.).

Local TV and radio station websites are running features. Local papers too. (Though not ours, alas, despite the lobbying I have done to the News Editor - new at the job and not easily swayed by offers of Spangles).

Even my neighbour, lets call her Bert, who hates the show with a passion has stated she's gonna watch the first one to give it a try. This is somehwat surprising and I nearly dropped my Mr Kipling Fondant Surprise.

Put quite simply, all this hype and press coverage IS NOT RIGHT!

Stop it now!

Doctor Who is a little programme that deserves to be watched with guilty glee by a select few and with bafflement and indiference by the majority. It is NOT a super brand. It's not meant to be open to the vulgar gaze of the Not-We.

What happened to the cosyness?

It's still there.

Yup, despite all the wonderfull publicity - and my word, isn't it so very strange to suddenly be a fan of the TV Event Of The Year as one listings mag put it? Could it be that at long last, we, the We, will suddenly be appreciated a little better?

Nah, 'cos not, lol. It doesn't matter how Cool Britannia the new series is, we will still be nerds. Looked down upon.

Shame thet. Ah well.

So....

I'm having the time of my life. The old tingle is back. I'm scouring listings mags. I'm looking for the breaks between Beeb progs. I'm taping the Culture Show on BBC2 as I'm typing this. Dammit. Must tape Newsnight Review tomorrow too. I'm coming so very close to bouncing off the walls.

Business as usual.

But it still feels so very, very strange to see it being talked about, looked at, plastered all over London etc.

Eccles will never meet Posh Paws though.

Shame that.

Tony Gallichan recommends you track down just what the title of this musing means. So there! Oh yeah...you'll get my view on the new version of the theme a little later...!