Friday. 7.50 a.m. Yet another sunny and bright morning here in Milton Keynes. Temperatures have been hovering around the 28ºc mark yesterday, according to my digital thermometer. It currently shows the temperature in my flat at 22ºc. I have the window open, with the hope that it might keep the temperature low. Yesterday I had my electric fan on.
Saturday. 7.15 a.m. Up early, as usual. It's bright and sunny again. The digital thermometer is currently reading 20ºc, a far more acceptable temperature.
Doctor Who is back today on BBC1, although it's available on BBC iPlayer and Disney+ from around midnight last night. As Disney are part financing it, to something in the region of £100,000,000, I suppose they would want it on their own streaming platform. I'm not sure if I like the idea of them financing it. I can see why, because the BBC, being funded by the Television licence, hasn't got the funds which would allow a show like Doctor Who to get the funding it needs to produce something that has the look and feel of a far bigger show, give it a cinematic look and attract actors to it who would give it an appeal internationally, as well as using the latest technology, such as C.G.I, and animatronics, to create special effects, monsters etc.
I have been a fan of Doctor Who since its early days in the 1960s. I think I must have seen the very first episode, 'An Unearthly Child', which was broadcast on BBC television at 5.15, on 23rd November 1963. It was somewhat overshadowed by the assassination of American President, John F. Kennedy the day before, in Dallas, Texas. I would have just had my 13th birthday, in October, so I presume I would have fitted into the age group at which it would have been aimed. There was nothing else at the time to compare it with. Most, if not all, adventure series aimed at boys particularly, were importations from America, such as 'Champion The Wonder Horse', and 'The Lone Ranger.' All in black and white as colour television didn't come in until around 1971, although the BBC introduced colour in 1967, when Wimbledon tennis was broadcast in colour on BBC2, as a sort of experiment. I remember being taken by my school to Granada Rentals, based in Bedford (probably to promote employment opportunities, but I can't remember.) and seeing a demonstration of colour television and a broadcast of Wimbledon.
The idea of a character who travels around in a machine, a time machine, called the Tardis, and allows it to move around in time and space and allow its passengers to stop off at historic periods and then move forward to the future, was intriguing. It had (and still has), different serials, and stories that ran for four or more weeks, and then, the Doctor and his companions would never know exactly where they had landed, in what period, who they would meet, whether friendly or not, monsters or whatever, which was one of the things I remember, never knowing exactly where they would land and so on. You had to keep on watching to find out. Most series on television would be set in the same location, with the same set of characters, from one week to the next. Doctor Who, on the other hand, changed, as I say, from one place and time, every couple of weeks. I would say that that element of the show is what has kept it going for more than 60 years. It can be refreshed very regularly, and the device of having The Doctor regenerated when the lead actor who plays him (or her, since Jodie Whittaker took on the role a few series ago.) and the show is given a makeover in some form or other.
