Dr. Who & Alphas

A quick break for a little TVSciFi commentary. I am way behind on watching Doctor Who. My DVR says I have 15 episodes. Can there really be that many? Anyway, I am finally ready to make a definitive statement: of the three actors who have played the Dr. since the series rebooted, Matt Smith is clearly the best.

This is so despite the fact that David Tennant is probably the finest actor who ever starred in the series at any point. Like the first new Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, Tennant could certainly do comedy. I remember one scene where the Doctor is giving a speech to a room full of belligerent aliens and his rhetoric begins to soar. Suddenly he stops and says "wait a minute, that's the Lion King!" Tennant had perfect timing. I fell out of my chair.

Tennant did comedy out of pure skill. Matt Smith has what Tom Baker from the original series had, a natural, childlike, sense of humor and wonder. Baker's Doctor could watch a snarling demon image rise in front of him and then turn, his face lit up with delight and say "I know what that is!" Matt Smith can, at a critical moment, with complete self-amusment, exclaim: "I have no idea what to do. That's a new feeling!"

I also have to say that the Doctor's current companions, Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) are very fine. Gillan is the best companion since Billie Piper's Rose Tyler, whom I will always love. This might be the most successful revival in the history of TV.

Meanwhile I have been watching SyFy's new series, Alphas. It is an even more obvious knockoff of the X-Men than Heroes. Alphas are people with superhuman abilities. The series focuses on a team of alphas working as federal agents. They hunt down rogue alphas who keep turning up here and there and causing mischief. The team includes a super-strong guy (with, guess what, anger issues), a super-precise athlete (with, guess what, insecurity issues), a woman with a jaded past who can do Jedi mind tricks, and an Indian-American women trying to escape a dominant family whose sense of smell is precise enough to detect and identify trace molecules. Not a bad set of talents for a team of special investigators.

One more member of the team is a mildly autistic young man named Gary. He can see and surf electronic signals, listen in on cell phone conversations, etc. He is constantly waving his hands as he rides the waves, which is a very clever Sci-Fi interpretation of autistic behavior. Best of all, he is constantly talking and saying things out loud that a lot of us think but would never give voice to. That is a delightful device for the writers and it makes Gary the most entertaining member of the cast.

The team leader is Dr. Lee Rosen, "a preeminent neurologist and psychiatrist" with a special interest in alphas. David Strathairn is superb in this role. The soft spoken, always caring makes him an excellent Dr X (or Dr. A, as it were). So far he shows no signs of being an alpha, but I doubt that the writers will be able to resist a surprise for very long. Otherwise, it's very X-manly. 

Unlike Heroes, Alphas is clearly being produced on a shoestring budget. The powers are toned down accordingly. The writing is what has kept me watching. It's much better than you would expect. Check it out.

CORRECTION & UPDATE

I wrote that the Alphas character Rachel, who has a superhuman sense of smell (and in recent episodes, hearing and sight as well) was Indian-American.  She is Iranian.  Her name is Rachel Pirzad.  She is played by the lovely and very talented Azita Ghanizata. 

The episodes continue to be fine.  Don't miss this one. 

Comments

[Miranda]

On Doctor Who: It only gets better! If you only like Arthur Darvill's Rory now, you will love him by the time you catch up.

[Ken Blanchard]

How much better can it get? Giving the Doctor a married couple as companions was a stroke of genius. The romantic/sexual tension is now a triangle. Anyway, the Doctor is in.