TV
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SCI-Fl DRAMA DOCTOR WHO BBC1, Sat 15 Mar, 7.15pm
How appropriate that, on Easter weekend, the Time Lord should rise again. David Tennant steps properly (aside from that Comic Relief gig and the Christmas special which he spent half of in a coma) inside the shoes vacated so dramatically by Christopher ‘Don’t Typecast Me Please' Eccleston. And in this opening voyage sweeps poor Rose Tyler away towards the New Earth, some five billion years into the future. It’s a place that looks not unlike Matt Groening’s Futurama, with tall walking nurse- cats dressed as nuns and grass made from apples and where ravaging disease continues to outpace medical research.
Hidden on this New Earth is arch enemy Cassandra, still nothing but a slice of stretched skin strapped into a frame. With her fey assistant (who looks like he stepped straight off the set of Bablyon 5) she is able to look at footage of her old, fully human self: someone who was a dead ringer for 206 Wannamaker. The only way she can experience real life again is to force her soul to fly into another body. But will classy Cassandra really be
happy living on in a chav’s body?
All of which might be a bit lame were it not for the electrifyineg revamped theme tune and the lad Tennant. With his inherent geekiness and a deft wit, it seems odd that anyone would have been opposed to him becoming the tenth Doctor. With a smirk here and a grin there, he slinks his way through most of the ridiculously entertaining story with his dignity just about attached. And that’s not something you see very often on Saturday
night’s BBC1. (Brian Donaldson)
Hoqqinq the remote
Brian Donaldson knows what‘s worth staying in for
Once more. just when you thought it might be safe to hate Ricky Gervais. here he is again making you laugh your ass off. Or. in this case. we should probably refer to that area as the butt. He's a man we have loved because of The Office. got annoyed about for his live ‘shows‘. loved again for the redemptive Extras and became
92 THE LIST 13-27 Apr 2006
Clockwise from right: The Simpsons, The Queen at 80, Derren Brown: Trick of the Mind and Peter Kay
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mad at once more for his promotion of the vastly irritating Karl Pilkington. But now he has struck cornedx pattiirt Once more With One of the hardest Jobs in telly. Well done him for convrnCrng Matt Gr'oening that ":0 Should appear in an episode of The Simpsons (Sky One. Sun 20‘ Artr. 6pm) but what photographic evidence does he hold against this oner-age nerd that he has managed to get li‘: and actually write an episode.
And what a corking episode. He plays Charles. an inept Brit WIN“. a