Modern Mythic: Tom Baker and Sarah Michelle Gellar
(While this essay is really for those who have seen all of the episodes of Doctor Who starring Tom Baker and the complete Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I have been careful to avoid any significant spoilers. Therefore, if you are curious about the shows but haven't seen them, read on.)
Doctor Who is an English science fiction series that initially ran from 1963 to 1989. Its triumphant return was in 2005 and is currently still in production. At this point, the show's entire history from 1963 to 2007 has gone through so many different editions (including ten different actors in the title role) that trying to discuss the series as a whole has gotten very difficult. These are my shorthand designations:
Doctor Who = the complete older show that ran from 1963 to 1989
new Who = the current series
TB = the years that Tom Baker played the Doctor (fourth incarnation)
While I know a little bit about Doctor Who and new Who, this article will really only be about TB, which is my era of expertise. This knowledge was acquired when I was a kid in elementary school, when the most important event in my day was getting home by 4:30 to watch a half-hour episode of TB on PBS. My passion even resulted an a second-place finish in the Chicago Doctor Who Convention Costume Contest as the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee (I didn't feel worthy enough to imitate Baker himself).
Time moved on. I got serious about music and contemptuous of all television, including Doctor Who. In my early-twenties, prompted by my first trip to England, I rediscovered the show and started collecting the videotapes. I thought this was just harmless nostalgia and remained contemptuous of television, assuming that I was now too old to ever form a significant relationship with another series. Ten years later, my wife showed me an episode of the American fantasy series Buffy the Vampire Slayer starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. To my vast astonishment, I was instantly hooked.
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The shows are very different.
++ TB is a kids' show. BTVS is for teens and up.
++ TB is firmly science fiction/space opera, and BTVS is firmly fantasy/supernatural. There is a TB that is about vampires ("State of Decay"), but it also involves space ships and takes place on a far-away planet. There is a BTVS that involves an alien ("Listening to Fear"), but it is called to earth by a local god.
++TB is not the product of any one imagination, but BTVS was created and overseen by Joss Wheedon.
++ While there are companions who travel with the Doctor in the TARDIS, there is no one as remotely important to the plot as the Doctor. In BTVS, Buffy is surrounded by friends and enemies who get their own important story arcs.
++TB is highly English, and BTVS is extremely American.
++TB is formatted as half-hour episodes that make up two- to six-part serials. BTVS is made up of 45 minute episodes that, while usually complete in themselves, end up being part of the longer soap-opera of the season, and indeed all seven seasons of BTVS also comprise an arc. This is not at all the case with TB with the exception of its 5th year, the Key to Time.
There are also countless other differences, large and small, between the shows. However, there are also a surprising amount of similarities:
++ Both TB and BTVS ran for seven seasons: TB from 1974 to 1982 and BTVS from 1997 to 2003.
++ The first three years of TB were produced by one particular team: Phillip Hinchcliffe (producer) and Robert Holmes (script editor). The excellent companion was Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen) and the look and feel of the show was very consistent. In year four there was a new producer and new companion, and the show opened up a bit, at times uncertainly. Most TB fans would consider the first three years "the classic years." Likewise, the first three years of BTVS took place at a high school. Joss Whedon was the hands-on producer at all times, and the look and feel of the show was very consistent. In year four BTVS changed networks, Whedon began looking after the spin-off Angel as well, the characters were now at college without the same place to go to every day, and the show opened up a bit, at times uncertainly. Most BTVS fans would consider the first three years "the classic years."
++ Season six of TB has a lot of broad humor installed by the new script editor, Douglas Adams (soon to become famous as the creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy). A lot of the humor is send-ups of the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and often of TB itself. Likewise, season six of BTVS has a lot of broad humor from the Trio, spoofing the nerds who live for the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and often being jocular about BTVS itself. Some fans of both shows are incensed by this humor, and really hate Douglas Adams or the Trio for their lack of respect. I have always enjoyed the fun, and certainly find it infinitely preferable to the cheerlessness of the last season:
++ Season seven of both shows is marked by a complete absence of humor. They trudge grimly to the end instead, often with a new level of incoherence in the story line ("Warrior's Gate," Giles and Anya consulting the oracle). There is also a sudden overpopulating of the shows in the final season (Adric, Tegan, and Nyssa in TB, the potentials in BTVS).
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In terms of quality, there is no doubt that BTVS is the superior show. While I suspect that most adults would find BTVS interesting if they gave it a proper chance, it is a mistake for someone who has never seen TB as a kid to try to watch as an adult, for they are sure to find it somewhat boring. For example, the standard scene that happens in every serial is the first episode's "Doctor and companions wandering around the corridors of a cheaply-made spaceship set while a monster or alien lurks somewhere." Stone quarries and unpopulated heaths are also important "wandering around while nothing happens" locations, and if it is a six-part series, there is bound to be plenty of it throughout all the episodes. (BTVS never sits still like this: there is always something happening.) I admit that as a kid, I loved the slow "wandering about" intro episodes, probably since they let me slowly absorb the current serial's world.
When the monster is finally revealed at the end of wandering around for 25 minutes, we can only hope that the monster is in dim enough lighting to inspire fear instead of humor. The BBC prop department often did wonders with their paltry budget, but there were still some gaffes that I noticed even as a child, like the Mandrel from "Nightmare in Eden."
When looking at TB now, I find most of the special effects in Doctor Who pretty ludicrous. In "Ark In Space," the Wirrn in larve form is simply bubble-wrap that was painted green. On the other hand, the Wirrn is actually one of the most effective Who monsters. It certainly scared the bejeezus out of me when I was seven.
BTVS' monsters are mostly just humans in make-up, and usually done better than in TB. However, once in awhile BTVS uses some pretty crude CGI for a monster, which is a bigger special-effects snafu than anything in TB.
(Digression on CGI: A rubber suit will always, no matter how well done, look like a rubber suit. Therefore, the imagination of the viewer is required to complete the circuit, just like in cartoons, comics, or even a child playing with dolls or toy cars. CGI, with all of its soulless pixels, doesn't require the same kind of imagination to be understood, and as a result is flat in comparison. Season three of BTVS is often considered the show's best; it's a shame that the huge climatic monster is such a yawn. The army that Buffy and team fight in the very last episode is even worse, looking like The Matrix on a small fraction of the budget, which, of course, is exactly what it is. It is telling that I cannot find one picture of either of these effects on the internet. Instead, here is a typical BTVS make-up job: James Leary as the friendly Clem.)
CGI aside, any seams in BTVS are smoothed over better than in TB, mostly due to the bigger budget of the American show. Just one example: you can almost feel the glee the BTVS production team exhibits when they get to roll out a helicopter for the military group The Initiative. To make a helicopter appear in Doctor Who, they always needed to borrow footage from other places. In 1971's "The Daemons" the helicopter crash is from a James Bond film. (See many more episodes of Doctor Who for "rocket," "missile," "jet plane," and "planet" inserts.)
In the final analysis, though, it is not the pacing, effects, make-up, or budget that make BTVS a finer show than TB. It is simply that it is one of the best-written shows in history, and this basic strength is why I found the first six seasons of BTVS as gripping anything I have ever seen. Nonetheless, in the heart and mind of this author, TB does manage some kind of ineffable magic (a magic admittedly based in nostalgia) that puts it on the same playing field as BTVS.
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TB and BTVS together: I have yet to meet anybody else who made this equation. But there might be a few others somewhere, since both shows have rabid cult followings.
For those that aren't aware of it already, it may be a bit disquieting to look at how much literature surrounds the shows: As of today there are 1,574 Doctor Who titles at Amazon.co.uk and 1,756 Buffy the Vampire Slayer titles at Amazon.com. The books range from simple episode guides to philosophical investigations, and also more fan fiction than you can imagine.
(Digression: I am mostly uninterested in the non-televised fictional stories of either show. The exceptions are the Wheedon-penned season 8 comic of BTVS and a book by Terrance Dicks called The Eight Doctors. Dicks was script editor for the Jon Pertwee years in the 1970's and then novelized some 70+ episodes of Doctor Who. He and the late Robert Holmes probably understood the "ineffable magic" of Doctor Who better than anybody. In his (non-televised) story The Eight Doctors, Dicks fixes several continuity errors, rights wrongs, and generally buffs and shines the whole canon.)
We all have guilty pleasures. One of mine is reading the analytical books about TB and BTVS. This is from chapter four, "Send up: Authorship and Organization," from Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text by John Tulloch and Manuel Alvarado (this is the chapter about TB):
The disagreement over audiences and dramatic values between [Graham] Williams and [John] Nathan-Turner itself raised quite dramatically the ways in which and institution like Doctor Who can vary according to different production and professional practices. This chapter will look at ways in which variations within professional ideology materially affect production practices; and further, at ways in which professional values that are ostensibly identical can themselves be inflected differently according to pressure from within and outside the television industry.
And this is by Neal King, from his essay "Brownskirts: Fascism, Christianity, and the Eternal Demon" from the anthology Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale:
The quasi-fascist philosophy that justifies Buffy's slaying concerns me in my next discussion. I will outline the show's cosmology and by doing so, set up my imaginary Buffyverse, just to make my point about the show's potential for fascism. I conclude with a better solution to this problem, one that stretches credulity less and eliminates the show's nasty streak of racism. The important characteristics of the existing Buffyverse that prime it for fascism include elements of a Manichean racism (tempered by an Augustinian division of the world's evils), adherence to primal and state authority, and formation of citizenship in ritual combat. I consider these in turn.
These are absurd pursuits, but nonetheless, if you want to keep me quiet and absorbed, just give me a new book of TB or BTVS analysis and you won't hear from me for several hours. In fact, that chapter in the Tulloch/Alvarado is one of the most interesting things I have ever read. The book as a whole is swollen with overly turgid prose, but in that chapter the great Douglas Adams is interviewed extensively in counterpoint with producers Williams and Nathan-Turner, and it gets quite gritty and revealing! As far as Buffy and fascism goes, I have never studied philosophy. Someone who has will undoubtedly protest that I need to actually read Augustine for real, but, I assure you, that is not going to happen. Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale is the closest that I am ever going to get.
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Looking over all this TB and BTVS literature, one gets the sense that some of the fans of both shows are occasionally a little resentful of the lead actors.
"Baker overdid his role, and at times his contempt and arrogance comes through. I mean, who was ever a better Doctor than Patrick Troughton?"
or
"Gellar was lucky to land the part, but really Nicholas Brendon and Alyson Hannigan are the heart of BTVS. I also think that Gellar's wardrobe is absurd most of the time."
These snarky comments are perhaps the hardcore fans' way of showing love for all the elements of the show. They seem to feel that the stars get too much of the attention. I disagree. It is my contention that the success of the shows is due in major part to the performances of the lead actors. One book that I would be delighted to read that has not been written for either show is a serious look at the acting performances of either Tom Baker or Sarah Michelle Gellar. After all, these shows are about heroes -- the titles of the shows are their names -- and Baker and Gellar were born to play these parts.
Similarities between Baker and Gellar:
++ While neither was really famous at the time of landing their roles, they were both were seasoned acting professionals. Baker, 30 at the start of season one, had played countless stage roles like Macbeth and had one important movie credit, the villain in Ray Harryhausen's The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Gellar, while only 19 at the beginning of season one, had been acting since the age of four and won an Emmy for her work on All My Children.
++ They both were divas, especially after the shows proved popular. In many of the interviews with the other members and production teams of both shows, something guarded or even resentful appears when the stars are discussed. (This surely must feed the fans' resentment of the stars, too.)
++ They were the ones to call a halt to production. While there are conflicting stories about Baker, it seems reasonably certain that he said to the producer, "Don't you think it is time for a new Doctor already?" (Whether he expected his bluff to be called is unclear.) Regardless, at the time, the British press were told that Baker wanted to move on. In the American press, it was made clear that the decision to end BTVS was Gellar's.
++ After the series were over, both would refuse to do more with the show, at least at first. "The Five Doctors" had make do with outtakes of Baker from a previous episode -- and a mannequin of him from Madame Tussauds was delivered for the photo shoot. The 100th episode of Angel, "You're Welcome," was initially written to conclude the Buffy/Angel story, but then Gellar pulled out. While we are told that both were simply too busy to participate, it is ridiculous to think that they couldn't have made time to do these small but meaningful projects if they had wanted to.
The main thing about both of them however, is this:
++ They transmit their character in a pure, natural fashion. Whenever they are on screen, the viewer can relax. Both actors take whatever the production crew has thrown at them that week in stride. Their total commitment keeps the viewer from disengaging.
After all, like all television ever made, these two shows have a constant collection of flaws and blemishes. Forget special effects: how about poor plotting or bum dialogue? Even in the best television shows, there is just not enough time and money to get it all right. The star needs to carry the day. TB almost always flags when Baker isn't there to move it along. These days, I just fast-forward most of the scenes without Baker. (My brother, who is developmentally disabled, loves to watch Doctor Who. I get to catch up with Baker and the Jon Pertwee years too when I visit him. More on Spencer here.)
In BTVS, the situation is much more complicated, since there is so much invested in every character. Indeed, many consider the "multiple character story arcs" one of the most innovative and important aspects of BTVS. (Ironically, New Who emulates many details of BTVS, including giving the Doctor's companions their own story arcs.) One of the most lucky group castings in television history was Alyson Hannigan for Willow, Nicholas Brendon for Xander, and Anthony Head for Giles. Whedon called them, along with Gellar, the "core four," and I love them all. But there are others on the show that are merely ok, like Seth Green as Oz or Amber Benson as Tara. Gellar interacting with one of these lesser elements is still fine, but put another of the "core four" in a long scene with them and you could have a problem.
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Overall, the person with the harder gig is Gellar. Baker, for all his genius, just needs to be a genial madman, eating a jelly baby and then furiously accusing an alien of attempted genocide. Gellar needs to reach much deeper. She has to be (among other things) a perky girl, a lover, the bereaved, a seer, and of course, a fighter.
One of the most telling Gellar performances is in "I Will Remember You" from the spin-off show Angel. I kind of like David Boreanaz. He's fine. He was a great plot line on BTVS and I like the idea of him taking a vampiric place in the long line of "brooding Los Angeles private eyes" on Angel. But compared to Gellar, he is a dim bulb indeed. On "I Will Remember You," Buffy and Angel reprise their usual double-act of heartbreak and demon destroying. Gellar is phenomenal, going from stern ass-kicking to goofy immaturity to mushy love to further ass-kicking and, at last, deep heartbreak. Both my wife and I were weeping at the end.
Seeing this episode made me realize I was not going to keep watching Angel. Television needs the power of a star to keep me interested, and Boreanaz is just not that kind of star. (For the record, you would need to put a gun to my head to get to me to watch K9 and Company, a spin-off of TB without Baker.)
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According to my rough calculations, there is about 70 hours of TB. Classic Baker performances include:
Ark In Space A desperate, almost action-movie type of performance
Genesis of the Daleks Even Baker-haters love him in this one. The sound of his voice when he gives Davros the history of the Daleks is chilling
Pyramid of Mars Casual callousness with the heat really getting turned on in the final episode
The Deadly Assassin Poking fun of stuffy home-planet Gallifrey, plus getting tortured in a vivid dream
The Talons of Weng-Chiang Baker imitates Sherlock Holmes
The Stones of Blood The debate with the interstellar jailers is superb
City of Death 10 out of 10 for style
State of Decay The presence of old-timers Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks means that this story is by far the best in the otherwise weak last season. Baker responds beautifully
Logopolis The last serial has a stupid story and worse companions. However, Baker is absolutely King Lear
According to my rough calculations, there is about 108 hours of BTVS. Classic Gellar performances include (this is when the "no-spoilers assertion" keeps me a bit mum):
Prophecy Girl Vulnerable and invincible
Innocence A bad morning and death everywhere
Homecoming Pure bitch-fest with Cordelia
The Wish The alternative universe episodes allow Gellar to shine
The Zeppo My all-time favorite non-singing episode puts Buffy on the sidelines in favor of Xander; still, the Gellar scenes have the juice, too
The Prom The normal girl and the heroine in dialogue
Hush Powerful acting by all concerned, with far fewer lines to deliver than usual
Fool for Love In James Marsters, Gellar has someone who can actually threaten to steal a scene from her. Of course, the Slayer triumphs
The Body As shocking as TV gets
Once More, With Feeling The greatest episode of TV ever broadcast. Gellar is not the best singer of the cast, but her segments are the most moving. Her identification with her character is just amazing
Normal Girl Again, the alternative universe episodes allow Gellar to shine
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The slightly sombre coda to this celebration is the guarded assertion that for Baker and Gellar, their roles as heroes for kids and teens were their finest hour. Baker is now over seventy, and while he has done plenty of work since TB, none of it is immortal. Gellar is of course much younger, and has already starred in some high-profile movies (she's good in them, too). However, there really hasn't been something with the electric charge of BTVS for her yet, and I sense that she and most of the members of the BTVS crew have gotten a little too slick and Hollywood for their own good. (David Boreanaz married a Playboy Playmate, for chrissake.)
But in any event, it probably doesn't matter if neither ever get a genre-defining role again. They both were called to duty, "chosen" not unlike Buffy Summers herself, and both delivered the real goods. They should be honored as the caretakers of our modern myths.
