TERRIFIC TV: “DOCTOR WHO” NEW SEASON PREVIEW

The DLB had the good fortune to preview the upcoming season premiere of the long-running BBC sci-fi show Dr. Who Wednesday night, and it’s crackerjack stuff. As part of just three audiences worldwide to preview the episode (entitled “The Impossible Astronaut), we were hosted by “InnerSPACE” hosts AJ Fry and Teddy Wilson and dedicated the evening to much-loved Dr. Who actress Elisabeth Sladen, who played companion Sarah Jane Smith and died this past week from cancer. In addition, we learned that Episode 4 will be the much-discussed Neil Gaiman-penned episode.

DVD REVIEW: “DOCTOR WHO: THE SEEDS OF DOOM” (1976)

One of the interesting things about revisiting old Dr. Who series, aside from the pure joy of nostalgia, is sussing out the influences brought to bear on a given story, as well as its context. Take “The Seeds of Doom.” The final serial of the show’s 13th season (1975/76) combines bits of Howard Hawks’ The Thing From Another World, John Wyndham’s Day of the Triffids and Invasion of the Body Snatchers with ideas from the then-emerging environmental movement. But as a 9-year-old seeing the show for the first time on my local PBS affiliate back in 1979, I just thought it was an amazing show with a neat monster.