Colin Baker is in about the same shape as Tom Baker, though I don't imagine there's much clamoring for a return of his particular Doctor in any event.

Oh, poor Colin. He had a pretty shitty time of it, iirc, and God knows they gave him the most irredemably stupid outfit. But I rather liked him.

I think I'm allowing my bitterness at any British show that compares itself to Buffy to poison my enjoyment of Who.

Um. Why "any British show"? (And, look, Buffy is my fandom of choice, and Whedon owns my ass - but BtVS fandom has NO seniority card to play over Who. NONE. DW has decades of storytelling in a range of media. It doesn't need to try to be anything else. The brand was established way the fuck long ago, and DW is very much better known and established in the UK than BtVS is. Generations of kids grew up with this. Good, bad, risible, scary, whatever the hell - it was there first. If the guy who brought it back from the dead is a Whedon fanboy as well as a Who fanboy (and is responsible for Queer as Folk) - I'm just not seeing how that's a bad thing. YMMV.)

...is this about Hex?

'course, I haven't seen Hex. I'm still rather tempted, but not enough to want to pay money for the priviledge. I used to quite often catch As If, which was a UK teen show from the same creative team, and with one of the same actresses. I really enjoyed As If. It was like the anti- Dawson's Creek. Which isn't to say it was perfectly realistic, but (and granted it's about my culture in a way that neither Dawson's Creek nor Buffy is) it was very much MORE realistic (albeit perhaps rather more stylised) than DC. Funny and dramatic and what have you, but the kids do swear and shag and do normal kid things.

Um. So I'd be quite interested in seeing Hex, I think. Although it sounds like it's got very little in common with Buffy, certainly, beyond genre.

Yup, all of it will be recapped. Eventually.

Excellent. Kind of like TWoP is doing it's own summer programming.

I don't think that Hex really is in the same genre as Buffy. Because to me - good horror gets that, you know, it's supposed to be creepifying and stuff -- and Hex doesn't do that. For example -- there wasn't much creepifying stuff last week at all nor was there much plot or character stuff. And not NEARLY enough Colin Salmon. (I just watched Match Point last night: v. brief Colin Salmon AND lots of Harriet Jones! - I don't know the Harriet Jones actor's name.)

It's okay -- I'll have my season 1 Who disks back shortly and I'll feel better.

Has everybody seen this article? (I don't think it's been linked here yet.)

Dr. Who essay: [link]

It describes the 10th Doctor, and talks a bit near the end about spoilers for S2, but it's mostly about the history of meaning in the Who franchise (and how that franchise is transmitted) over the decades.

Also, it mentions Buffy in a flattering light, as a paradigm for modern metaphorical storytelling.

Amusing interview with "Sam" and "Dean" of Supernatural with an appearance by "Lex" from Smallville.

Because to me - good horror gets that, you know, it's supposed to be creepifying and stuff

Was Buffy all that scary most of the time, though?

I saw about half of the second episode, and they had a little ghost girl jumping out at people, or something. Not all that impressive, but I can't say that the giant mantis gave me nightmares, either.

No, but Buffy had plot and characters. . . this show has scenery.

Also, I don't think that Buffy was horror but it could do creepifying when it wanted to.

I watched the first 2 episodes of Hex and I'd say a serious Charmed is a good, quick explanation of it. Although Charmed had better character development.

Pretty scenery, not much character development yet, plot is plodding. It has had a couple of spooky moments, but not anything to the level of The Gentlemen (who are, arguably, the creepiest monsters on Buffy).

I think Hex is still trying to build its backstory and its world and is trying to stretch out the revelations and not shoot its wad all at once. That, however, is just dragging the show down. It needs some Stuff to Happen so that we can get to know the characters and start to care about what happens to them. Right now, I don't care about them.

I only watched the pilot of Hex. I wanted to like it, because, I don't know, witches, Nephilim, ghosts, I usually enjoy that stuff. But it was boring. I kept checking the time to see how much longer I had to go. And, since I don't care what happens to the characters, that was the end of that.