@jackson said:
Ross,
I never understood the fuss about Dr. Who either. I guess when it began in the 60's, in B&W it must really have captured the imagination of British children (like Mr S above!) , but by the time I was old enough to watch it (the 80s) it was just low budget, cheesy sci-fi. Now it's a high budget (by UK standards!) cheesy sci-fi with "stars" queuing up to cameo in it- it really feels like a case of the emperor's clothing to me.... sorry Dr Who fans!
...that said, daleks definitely ARE cool.
I actually regularly watched the Doctor on (American) PBS, as a child in north Florida in the seventies and eighties. Cheesy side effects aside, it was often (not always) the best-written piece of science fiction available at the time. And where else would you find a hero whose response to the possible destruction of all life would typically be something like, "Would you like a jelly baby?"
I haven't quite enjoyed the new ones as much...somehow, the one where a stereotypically-arrogant-and-crass American superbillionaire nearly destroys the world (or maybe just Salt Lake City) by resurrecting a crash-landed Dalek for his "collection" of alien artifacts ended the charm for me...and I'm usually not terribly sensitive to cultural bashing (and that really wasn't that rough a bashing either).