Top Gear and Doctor Who

I ended up watching Top Gear last night. Not because I wanted to, just because there wasn't anything better on. But as always when I end up watching it, it was highly entertaining. Considering it is a programme about cars and not much else, and I have no major interest in cars, it's always very watchable. And it's also very funny. For example, last night they took a people carrier and inexpertly converted it into a convertible. Then they took it to a safari park, argued about whether monkeys or lions are most dangerous, before finally driving it through a very powerful carwash. It was more dangerous than both lions and monkeys because there are big sheets of exposed glass flapping around (the design of the convertible seemed to involve just removing the metal that normally surrounds the windows).

But the main thing that struck me was something else.

Richard "Top Gear" Hammond looks very like David "Dr Who" Tennant. It's uncanny.

Which brings me on to Dr Who. I'm quite enjoying the new series. The first episode wasn't the best but it's been strong since then. David Tennant is a fantastic Doctor. For the first time, the BBC have been putting commentaries for each episode online after the episode has been broadcast. Like the ones you get on DVDs, some are more interesting than others depending on who's doing them. Sometimes you get long silences as the people talking try to decide what to say, or you just hear them going "Hmmm.... ahhh..... yes.... ahhhh...." etc. But sometimes they work really well.

The most recent one (for ep 4) features writer Steven Moffat (who wrote Coupling amongst other things) and the actor who plays the not-quite-as-irritating-as-he-was-in-the-first-series Mickey, Noel Clarke. They were happy to drift off on tangents such as discussing how the monks in episode two looked like they'd been taken straight off one of the BBC One idents where they have lots of red dancers. Which is a valid point. Most of it revolved around a discussion over whether the Doctor was getting any or not.

I've got into a routine now where I listen to the commentary whilst out running on the Sunday. It's tragic really. But it entertains me and keeps my mind off the constant leg-moving.