{"id":5465,"date":"2010-11-16T23:32:52","date_gmt":"2010-11-17T04:32:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.net\/?p=5465"},"modified":"2015-03-30T11:35:10","modified_gmt":"2015-03-30T11:35:10","slug":"on-craig-ferguson-and-his-pet-dalek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=5465","title":{"rendered":"On Craig Ferguson and His Pet Dalek"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I anxiously await Doctor Who<\/i>‘s Matt Smith’s appearance on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson<\/a><\/i> in an hour and a half, here’s the opening monologue from Ferguson’s Monday, November 15th episode where he goofs off with a Dalek prop:<\/p>\n

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Some thoughts, because I vented<\/a> on Twitter today<\/a> some frustrations<\/a> I’d had when discussing Smith’s appearance on The Late Late Show<\/i>.<\/p>\n

As I said on Saturday<\/a>, this is pretty important for Doctor Who<\/i> on this side of the Atlantic. This is Doctor Who<\/i> on mainstream American television, on a somewhat anarchistic late night talk show that best fits Doctor Who<\/i>‘s ethos. This is a Big. Fucking. Deal. for Doctor Who<\/i>. While Craig Ferguson is not the “king” of late night television by any<\/i> means, he does<\/i> have a young, smart, and very<\/i> devoted audience — and Doctor Who<\/i> is exactly<\/i> the kind of thing that would interest them.<\/p>\n

On one side of the Atlantic, Doctor Who<\/i> is a family show, watched by all-ages, and the subject of everyday conversation. It’s a cultural institution. On this side of the Atlantic, though, Doctor Who<\/i> is far<\/i> from that. Doctor Who<\/i> is a niche science-fiction series on a cable channel that not everyone gets and is watched by a dedicated adult audience. It’s a show planted firmly in the science fiction ghetto.<\/p>\n

British fans may say, “But that’s not what Doctor Who<\/i> is, that’s not who it’s for<\/i>,” but that’s what Doctor Who<\/i> is<\/b> over here. For an American Who<\/i>vian, having Matt Smith on an American late night talk show is huge. Doctor Who<\/i> has escaped, even if it’s just for an hour, from the ghetto.<\/p>\n

I’m not trying to oversell Craig Ferguson, but this one episode is arguably more important for Doctor Who<\/i>‘s visibility over here than even the FOX television movie was fifteen years ago. That movie, much as I enjoy it (and I do), was terrifically<\/i> easy to pigeonhole into the science-fiction ghetto, assuming you even knew it existed<\/i> back then. This is a late night talk show. There’s nothing<\/i> pigeonholing about that. What I do expect is that Matt Smith will go on an American talk show, have a bit of fun, have a smart conversation with Ferguson (much like Ferguson’s interview with Stephen Fry earlier in the year<\/a>, I suppose), talk about Doctor Who<\/i> a little bit, and that will be it. This is a moment<\/i> for Doctor Who<\/i> in the United States; for one hour, the series gets to be mainstream<\/i> in a way that it never<\/b> has been before.<\/p>\n

A seed will be planted thanks to Craig Ferguson. People who have heard the name “Doctor Who” but never gave it a second thought may come away from The Late Late Show<\/i> with the thought that Doctor Who<\/i> is, like a LEGO Fez<\/a>, “cool” and check out the show. New fans have to start somewhere<\/i>, after all. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

T-minus one hour to The Late Late Show<\/i>.<\/p>\n

EDIT:<\/b> Here’s the episode, which was a lot of fun. It was a bit of an anarchistic mess, which is typical of Craig Ferguson. (The Stephen Fry episode, which was a serious, sober My Dinner With Andre<\/i>-type affair, was seriously atypical.) Matt Smith was goofy, he didn’t talk about Doctor who<\/i> a lot (though the interview didn’t really get there except at moments), and it was just really really fun. And, Ferguson’s idea for a Doctor Who<\/i> sitcom, while not exactly original, is the kind of thing I would watch. Yes, yes I would. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see a big song-and-dance number, with puppets, Matt Smith, and a lyricized version of the Doctor Who<\/i> theme. The Late Late Show<\/i> didn’t have the proper legal clearances. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

The first part, with the non-song\/non-dance number and stuff about a Kentucky man eating his beard:<\/p>\n

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Now that I’ve read about the beard-eating incident<\/a>, it’s not as funny. :-\/<\/p>\n

Craig reads the mail with Doctor Who<\/i> fan Chris Hardwick<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Part three, the interview with Matt Smith:<\/p>\n

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Craig dancing with a Dalek while Geoff looks on in horror:<\/p>\n

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Craig closes the show and brings the puppets and dancers back out:<\/p>\n

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And with any sort of luck, the dance number that was to open the show, complete with puppets and a dancing Matt Smith, will leak to the Internet sometime today… \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

ETA:<\/b> It took a couple of weeks, but here it is…<\/p>\n

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“Triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I anxiously await Doctor Who‘s Matt Smith’s appearance on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson in an hour and a half, here’s the opening monologue from Ferguson’s Monday, November 15th episode where he goofs off with a Dalek prop: Some thoughts, because I vented on Twitter today some frustrations I’d had when discussingContinue reading “On Craig Ferguson and His Pet Dalek”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[749,4082,99],"class_list":["post-5465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-who","tag-craig-ferguson","tag-doctor-who","tag-matt-smith","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}