GENERAL KINDLE

In anticipation of the upcoming 'Torchwood' mini-series event, Star-Ledger TV critic and columnist Alan Sepinwall conducted a phone interview with Russell T. Davies, the writer/producer who brought 'Doctor Who' back from the dead and created the spin-offs of 'Torchwood' and 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'.

At one point, RTD was asked about the stories he never got to write for 'Doctor Who', now that he's stepped down to let Steven Moffat take charge of the production. And at one point in his answer, "Rusty" says:

I think there's a very good "Doctor Who" story to be told about Twitter, about the idea of communicating in 140 characters. There's a story somewhere, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone on the (new writing) team is thinking of that.

I've been thinking that there's a story to be found in this new phenom of Kindle, the electronic book-reading device; something similar to the electronic thumb-shaped edition of 'The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy'.

What if the ultimate aim for Kindle (a tele-version of course, not the real thing) was to enslave the minds of its users for some unknown but definitely heinous purpose? It would the technology of "The General" from forty years ago in 'The Prisoner' finally put to use on the populace.

If this was to be a 'Doctor Who' story, what I like best about it is that you wouldn't need to throw in some alien race once again trying to invade the Earth, blah blah blah. This could be a home-grown adventure with the Doctor up against it - the info downloaded into his own cerebral cortex already taking control over him and his secrets before he's had a chance to defeat the mastermind behind it (some Tobias Vaughn/John Lumic type).

I think the only non-alien story in RTD's run of 'Doctor Who' was the two part "Rise Of The Cybermen"/"Age Of Steel" two-parter. And even then, those Lumic Cybermen were dimensional analogues to the Mondasian Cybermen of the classic series. Before that, the last story to feature a purely human threat was "Black Orchid" (I think) with Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor.

So I'd welcome a 'Doctor Who' story in which the humans were the villains for once! And of course, it should be the utopian crossover with at least a mention of 'The Prisoner'.....

"Who Is Number One?" indeed!

BCnU!

By the way, Alan Sepinwall has a great TV blog called "What's Alan Watching?", the link for which you'll find to the left......