Remember the good old days…?
They are no more…and I think we should be thankful.
As my friend James has already mentioned on his own blog, it would seem that the CBC has FINALLY let go of Doctor Who. Space - The Imagination Station (our homegrown bastion of geeky wonder) is scheduled to broadcast The Next Doctor on Saturday March 14th @ 9pm, having already gone through two airings of the second season of Torchwood.
When the CBC first obtained Doctor Who, it was treated wonderfully. The hockey strike left a hole in the schedules that allowed the program to be shown to audiences that occasionally pushed the one million mark, and came with wonderful introductions by 9th Doctor Christopher Eccleston, and Billie Piper for The Christmas Invasion.
Then it all went to hell.
Series Two was shown months after the initial broadcast, with an over-long Christmas break. The Runaway Bride ended up being shown at midnight, AFTER the third series premiere, and series four was dumped into the death slot of Friday nights.
Well…no more being kicked around like a deflated soccer ball. Doctor Who seems to be moving to a channel that will offer it much appreciation…and a channel looking to the fill the void left behind by the soon-to-be-departed Battlestar Galactica. For a brief year, our public broadcaster was the hero of geekdom…and then it dropped the ball, as new & unimaginative management decided that making unbearable excrement such as Sophie and MVP was more viable. Don’t even get me started on the topic of whether or not there will even BE a CBC within a decade…
Space has already confirmed that it will be showing the third season of Torchwood immediately after its UK broadcast. I’m guessing the upcoming Doctor Who specials will be equally well served. It’s a pity it has reached this point…but the CBC as it is now has burned all the bridges the CBC of 2004/2005 built so carefully. As broadcast partners, they’ll be missed…but they shouldn’t be mourned.
