Right now, somewhere on the other side of the date line, Doctor Who is filming in Utah. Specifically in Monument Valley, which is a particularly alien looking kind of place. This is obviously quite exciting. Anything to do with my favourite Time Lord is exciting. This picture for example made me want to jump up and down and clap a little bit. Its just that, in this case, I’m also slightly bitter.
You see Australia has an enormous Doctor Who fan base, and we have since the beginning. The internet won’t give me any figures, damn it, so I’m going to have to make some wild generalisations. Australia stands with Canada and New Zealand as home to the majority of “international” Who fans. We were one of the first countries to pick the series up back in the 60’s. The ABC repeated the ENTIRE classic series starting in 2003 (and aren’t I glad they did?). The new series still receives solid ratings whenever its shown, and I mean properly solid ratings, even though its on the ABC.
And what have we got to recognise this? Tegan, that’s what.
Tegan was an airhostess from Brisbane. She travelled with the 4th and 5th Doctors way back when and she was just a teeny bit annoying. Ok, so she wasn’t really THAT bad. But the point is she the largest in only a hand full of passing references to “the colonies.” Most of the other references involved them being destroyed on a computer monitor. Oh no! The Daleks are bombing some insignificant and dispensable continents! Oh no! And then there was that shot of Sydney during The Christmas Invasion.
I think its safe to say that a not insignificant consideration when setting the new episodes in the US was the growing audience in the states. Doctor Who is starting to take off in a big way over there. So by filming an episode US audiences can “relate” to hopefully more of them with watch it. And that’s lovely and everything. But hello! Over here! Local and dedicated fan base! Hello!
Seriously does Australia not have some damn fine gravel quarries? Do we not have environments more like an alien world than pretty much anywhere else? At least anywhere else with a decent economy and a film industry? Is it not really cheap to film here? Wouldn’t it be nice to see us represented like real people on an international television program? Not just as tanned bogans wearing stupid hats with funny accents? Or at the very least, do you think that maybe someone from the show could come over some time and acknowledge the fans? No? Just me then?
Anyway. That’s my rant. Doctor Who should come to Australia. The end.
One time... There was an Australian in a classic Who episode. I think it was with 2. He sat by his self at his computer. At one point he came over to stand near the Doctor and Important English Man and look vaguely outraged that the cybermen were poisoning everyone's tea. But yes, the point. We *crave* acknowledgement. And *they* are acting like politicians.
ReplyDelete