Doctor Who the new Buffy?

[unfeathered]

Needing something to read upstairs while I was 'hovering', waiting for my little boy to go to sleep this evening, I pulled the third Watcher's Guide off the shelf above his cot (because that used to be my room and there isn't enough room for all my books anywhere else!) and had a little read of some of the essays.

And in the essay by Rob Francis (who ran the BBC Buffy forum I used to frequent) about why Buffy was popular in England, I came across this: "many saw Buffy as a natural successor to Doctor Who, with its eccentric and quintessentially British boffin, Giles, working alongside glamorous but feisty young assistants in the fight against dark horrors".

This was written in 2003 just after Buffy had finished, and well before Doctor Who returned to our screens. But it interested me because to me Doctor Who, and Torchwood, are the new Buffy. They are the only shows which have hooked me enough to make me want to talk about them online, and read and write fanfiction about. They're not as good, imo, as Buffy or Angel. But they show the same spark, the same inventiveness, the same wit and defiance of convention.

So I thought it was interesting, that just a few years ago, Buffy was being called the new Doctor Who.

And I love the idea of Giles being compared to Doctor Who.

Actually, I remember how hard we Buffy fans hoped Anthony Head would be chosen to be the new Doctor. Strange remembering that now, because I really can't imagine him as the Doctor, now I've seen Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant.

Weird how that goes.