Doctor Who

It is almost sacrilege to call the Lazarus like BBC sci-fi show into question, but I'm going to. And this will have overtones of 'in the good old days', so don't complain afterwards - you've been warned.

My daughter loves Doctor Who, especially with that sexy young Mr Tennant in the role. Personally I preferred the previous incarnation but one woman's meat is another girl's 'quite old enough to be my father'. I'm getting old and wrinkly and I have a photograph to prove it, but you'll have to wait for that post.

Where was I? Oh yes. The good doctor. Travelling through time and space always to save the human race. Saturday night staple, family camped in front of the television watching relatively wholesome* family entertainment. The series from the sixties and seventies were made on a shoestring, it showed at the time and today they look notoriously creaky. Nevertheless they were and still are loved. Because they were it. The amount of merchandising around the series was minimal. That left us having to savour the actual television program.

My daughter has the books, the magazines, the toys, the posters, the pencil case, the stickers, the DVDs and if we succumbed she could have the wall paper, the games, the curtains, the jigsaw puzzles, the school bag, the bedding, the cushions, the drinking mug, the clothes, the lunch box, the .... it goes on and on and on. This threatens to engulf her in the way the teletubbies once did and after them Thomas, and after him Barbie and after her the ?. I can't remember what came between Barbie and The Doctor. Maybe nothing.

And that's partly my point. For her this is a succession of tidal waves that build and build until she almost drowns, to be saved at the last second only by the momentum building up behind the absolutely latest 'thing'.

I think that the children who are sitting down to Doctor Who in its current incarnation are being deprived of something precious by those who've given them three series now of higher quality acting and production values than were on offer 'in my day' as well as more profound and witty scrips than ever were on offer. The scarcity value in what we had was a significant element in the way we treasured it.

What will she treasure and look back on the way I look back on Doctor Who?

What made me wonder this was news that the second series of Primeval is in the bag. The acting and the scripts are not quite out of the top drawer but this is not dross either, and relatively huge amounts of money and creative talent went in the special effects that were part of making the thing work. She loved it too, and she's been waiting all year for the second series (and she'll have to wait a bit longer too). When it does come round she'll have had all that pleasurable anticipation and know that she'll have to make the most of it while its around.

If she enjoys this second series as much as the first, in the very long run Primeval might come out the winner.

* Its late, I'm tired and this is nothing better than a bit of sarcasm. After all The Doctor got to snog Captain Jack and that Saturday night the entire nation heaved and sighed and muttered "I suppose you expect me to get a bit excited by a bit of mano e mano and frankly its Saturday and I've got better things to do so lets move along shall we".