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| Toronto Sun TV guy Bill Harris (left) joins me in scrumming a Dalek |
It is the 50th anniversary of the old British kiddie show Doctor Who. BBC America and Space are airing day long tributes on the 23rd. Me, I’ll stick with WKBW’s Rocketship 7, which started around the same time. But, hey, you Who heads, knock yourselves out.
Odd that Doctor Who premiered in Britain the very same day in 1963 that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, especially since the main character’s specialty is time travel. And that the main Dalek’s name was Grassy Noel Coward. No, I keed.
The actor who plays the current time traveler, Matt Smith, was at the TCA summer press tour along with Jenna Coleman, who plays the Doctor’s companion. They were part of the entourage at BBC America’s press tour party high up over Sunset Blvd. at the tony L.A. SoHo House in West Hollywood.
BBC America had costumes and other goodies on display in the night club. A blue British phone booth was out front outside, along with a Dalek robot thingy. There were other creepy looking aliens working the bar area of the SoHo, not that unusual, I’m told, for a Thursday night in West Hollywood.
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| Various Doctor Who duds |
At one point in the evening, the lights went dim and the music went up and this guy with a squid face walked in, he looked like that guy from Futurama.
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| One of the alien thingies at the BBC America deal. |
If, like me, you’re not a big Who guy, I recommend the new TV-movie An Adventure in Space and Time. Set it in 1963, it stars David Bradley as William Hartnell, the first of many actors to play Doctor Who. Space is showing it on the 23rd.
Bradley was at the BBC party and is just as star struck as the rest of us, showing off a photo bomb he had snapped earlier that afternoon. It was of he and Larry David, also at TCA at the HBO sessions to promote his upcoming TV-movie Clear History.
Bradley doesn’t have to suck up to get work. He’s on every second show on BBC America, including Broadchurch,
