The new Doctor Who TV show is about to start, on March 26th in the UK, but we poor Americans with our mere Sci-Fi Channel apparently won't be seeing it. This is annoying, because I'm curious to see if the new series is any good. (It could hardly be worse than the 1996 TV movie. Trust me.) I guess I can understand why the Sci-Fi Channel is reluctant, though. Can you imagine them trying to bring the (largely Who-ignorant) American audience up to speed?
Previously on Doctor Who...um, there was this old guy and his granddaughter (except forget about her), and he traveled through time and stuff, and then he changed into a different guy (several different guys, actually), and some aliens tried to take over the Earth (several different kinds of aliens, actually, and they succeeded pretty often), and he flies around in a police box. Uh, a police box is like a British phone booth, except only for police. It's bigger inside than out, and it's broken, so it can go pretty much anywhere in time and space. Anyway, he's a Time Lord and he's got a sidekick. Enjoy!
(hat tip: Boing Boing)
Well I can guarantee that it won't be coming to South Korea so I'll be sure to download it with bit torrent!... woooooo whoooo
Posted by: Blinger | March 04, 2005 at 03:32 PM
I read that story to mean that you need a DirecTV subscription, since they said it might show up on Universal HD. Alternatively, since the BBC's got the show, it might show up on BBC America (which they didn't mention in the article; also part of the DirecTV package). Although there are many good reasons to loathe DirecTV, they are only different and not more, than the reasons to loathe your cable company. Which you might also be able to get those channels from.
This isn't necessarily a crazy idea even if you don't have an HDTV set. The HD decoder boxes will output all the same RF/composite/S-video signals as your present cable box, and if it's the only way to get the show on TV, it at least won't look any worse than the standard-def channels you've got now. So if you're really committed to seeing it...(I think your wife is about to strangle me, so I'll stop now.)
Posted by: Semantic Compositions | March 05, 2005 at 01:45 PM
No strangulation necessary. The Tensor and I have completely opposite sleeping schedules so he gets to watch all the stuff I don't care about (World Poker Championship, Dr. Who, anything featuring giant flying robots...) after I'm asleep.
The beauty of the TiVo (What the hell does "TiVo" stand for, anyway?) is that the hard drive is big enough for the both of us. (Well, almost.)
Posted by: The Wife (aka Terminal Student) | March 05, 2005 at 06:25 PM
Oh, we can't receive DirecTV because we're on the wrong of a hill--no sightline to the satellite. Plus we used to have it (in our old house) and the reception was always fuzzing out when it rained...not exactly good in Seattle.
Posted by: The Wife (aka Terminal STudent) | March 05, 2005 at 06:27 PM
Actually, I'm pretty sure we have line-of-sight on the satellite from the top of the house. But we used to have DirecTV before we moved, and now we have cable, and neither seems head-and-shoulders above the other. Roughly the same channels, roughly the same features. I keep holding off on the Great HDTV Upgrade, in which we'll replace everything the antenna to the screen, because the technology keeps getting better and cheaper. At this rate, it'll be 2020 before I finally pull the trigger.
Posted by: The Tensor | March 05, 2005 at 07:02 PM
I shall have to wait until I can download it on the net :o(( . Absolutely no station terrestrial or cable will carry it here in Brazil...bah humbug!
Posted by: Alistair | March 06, 2005 at 02:44 PM
I think BitTorrent is the way to go. It's what I use to get the US and UK programs I want to see while living in Japan. With the size of the international Dr.Who fanbase, high quality copies should be available on BT within hours of the UK broadcast.
Posted by: Big Ben | March 07, 2005 at 07:30 PM
Never had DirecTV, but I recently dumped Comcrap Cable for Dish Network, and the visual quality improvement is immediately obvious. Now I'm paying half the amount I was paying Comcrap (plus they wanted to raise my rate again for the fourth time in a year, which is why I told them to take a hike), getting more of the channels I want, and sharp, clear pictures (which Comcrap never had even on the channels they claimed were digital.)
Yeah, they all have their problems, but at least this is closer to "you get what you pay for" than Giant Cable Corp. was.
Posted by: Morely Dotes | March 08, 2005 at 02:47 PM