h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form) on Saturday, beating two other episodes which were also nominated for the same category - "Father's Day" and "Dalek".

Fantastic!

A brief feature in The Guardian's 'The Guide' on Saturday pointed out that, next to the resurrected Battlestar Galactica, the resurrected Dr Who looks a bit poo. Much as i love Dr Who I have to agree. Why can't we make decent sci-fi in the UK? Dr Who's great but still looks like Hustle with CGI.

I wonder if the success of Dr Who in the US had anything to do with the cancelling of SG-1. Money better spent elsewear and all that

"next to the resurrected Battlestar Galactica, the resurrected Dr Who looks a bit poo."

Really? In what way? I think new Who more than holds its own in terms of the way it looks, and I enjoy watching it much more than I enjoy BG.

Or perhaps it's simply that the UK doesn't look as exotic as outer space, and Who spends a lot of time here. I tend to see that as an advantage - after all, look what happened with Paul McGann.

"The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation... beating two other episodes which were also nominated for the same category - "Father's Day" and "Dalek"."

What's even more impressive is that 'Dalek' came second and 'Father's Day' came third. They all beat the Battlestar Galactica episode 'The Pegasus'.

Take that, Grauniad! Not so poo now. (Especially when you consider the Hugos are generally dominated by US winners, because most of the votership is American.)

Not being a fan of BSG, not even when 'Face' was playing Starbuck, I can't comment. Is it true that Starbuck's being played by a woman these days?

Anyway, from what I hear the American's lurve Dr Who and Sci Fi are getting big ratings. Maybe if the Beeb do a deal with Sci Fi RTD may be able to get a few more bucks to get a bit more 'Outer Space' stuff for the next couple of series, now Sci Fi has money to burn

It might be my conditioning. To me British sci-fi always looks like a soap opera with the CGI grafted on. Having said that, I've thoroughly enjoyed the new Who, but I've been using my British sci-fi filter to ignore the dodgy bits. I watched Rose again the other day. The Auton Mickey was too obvious - Rose would have noticed & the incidental music sounded like a chase sequence from 1985 (which is odd as for the most part the music's been great).

That was early days but even with a story as superb as great as Army of Ghosts/Doomsday there were issues. Did you really think the Daleks floating around outside Canada Tower (misnamed in the programme as Canary Wharf) looked good? Nice idea badly executed.

Dr Who has fantastic scripts, fantastic acting (I watched New Earth again a couple of days ago and was blown away by Billie Piper) but seems to end up looking like kids' TV. Apart from the historical episodes, which are uniformly fantastic (Tooth & Claw is a favourite of mine).

Still, despite the occasional cringe, I love it.

I think the episode that had me cringing with embarrament was The Idiots Lantern, the only thing that was missing was Richard O'Brien and a HUGE pair of lips. by the end I was singing Science Fiction Double Feature and calling the Doctor and Rose Brad and Janet.

Has DT ever played Frank N Furter?

Has anyone else heard the rumour that Meatloaf want's to play a 'Baddie' in the new series of Dr Who

Crivvens.

I'd elaborate on the crivvens but I think crivvens is definitely the word.

*wonders if Jim Lynn's going to sneakily cancel my account*

I read it somewhere on a US TV board, I think I was looking for the 4400 (Got an thing for Agent Gerrity) and it was a tiny little article in one of the sidebars

There's a good chance he'd be pretty good but there's also a good chance he'd go all Bonnie Langford.

I imagine he'd be good as a bad guy, some of his Video's have been pretty good, epic

*ignores the grocers' apostrophe*

He hasn't had to act much in the videos - it's been makeup, sets and lighting all the way. It would be interesting to see what he'd do as a villain though.

Meatloaf as The Master? The Loaf Master?

"*wonders if Jim Lynn's going to sneakily cancel my account*"

No, you're perfectly at liberty to be totally wrong, and I won't take offence.

Pah! Pah! and thrice Pah! I love it, but do cringe a fair bit.

Mind you, it's almost had me in tears for the right reasons, and has made me laugh quite exuberantly for the right reasons, so I suppose that outweighs 'anti-plastic'.

Just out of interest, what was wrong with "anti-plastic"?

I thought it was a bit silly.