Baker v. Kragle.

But does he have the right? Playing off the recent Capaldi/S8 trailer, a snazzy preview of 1974’s upcoming newer, darker Doctor…Tom Baker.

And also in the Doctor v. goofy Youtubes department, the recent 50th anniversary special has been Legofied for your entertainment.

Eighth’s Had Enough. | Who at 50.

In anticipation of the upcoming 50th anniversary special, ten days away, Stephen Moffat offers up a lost tale of Paul McGann’s Eighth Doctor — who only appeared once, in the 1996 Fox movie — and the origins of John Hurt’s new ninth incarnation. Which makes Nine (Christopher Eccleston) Ten, Ten (David Tennant) Eleven, Eleven (Matt Smith) Twelve, and Capaldi a (potentially retconned) Thirteen. In any event, giving McGann some more run is a classy and well-done bit of fan service — here’s hoping they’ve found a way to get the other living doctors involved as well.

Update: To paraphrase Montgomery Scott, I like this show — It’s exciting! Moffat clearly brought his A-game to a very satisfying 50th anniversary special, which included some quality Ten/Eleven repartee, a welcome glimpse of Thirteen and (tho’ I’ll always be fond of Pertwee also) a curtain call for the definitive doctor, Tom Baker.

And if you disagree with that latter assessment, BBC also offered up An Adventure in Space and Time for the Hartnell-minded and Peter Davison’s very wry The Five-ish Doctors for 5, 6, and 7 fans. All in all, very well-played, and now I’m very much looking forward to Dr. Capaldi. Here’s to the next fifty, Doctor.

But do I have the right?

And now for something completely different: a Friday night trip on the wayback machine. A few weeks ago, I showed up at a winter gathering wearing the snazzy official Tom Baker scarf my mother made me for Christmas. And, while a few folks correctly identified it (and were suitably impressed –Thanks, mom!), absolutely no one had any clue what I was talking about when I aped this classic moment with the wires from The Genesis of the Daleks (“But do I have the right?“), when the Doctor contemplates his own version of the baby-Hitler conundrum: Is it moral to destroy the genocidal Daleks before they’ve ever been created? Well, admittedly old-school Who is a pretty niche interest here in the States…it’s not exactly “I drink your milkshake!” Still, since everything is on Youtube these days, sure enough, I found this fun fan-made trailer for Genesis online, and thought I’d share it. If you ever watched Tom Baker Who, I’m guessing you’ll probably dig it. If not, it’ll just seem realllly cheesy (although perhaps not as cheesy at first glance as another Brit sci-fi classic (and the Farscape of its day), Blakes’ 7. Blakes‘ credit sequence may not hold up at all in 2008, but the dour finale certainly does.)

By the way, there are plenty more classic Who trailers where that came from, including this one, featuring scenes from every episode. Collectively, they bring back fond memories of staying up into the wee hours as a kid on Saturday nights to catch Who on SCETV (and, roughly half the time, waking up in the middle of Jack Horkheimer, Star Hustler wondering where the hell I was.)

Wormholes and Timelords.

As I mentioned earlier, the first of the last eleven episodes of Farscape begin tonight at 8pm on the Sci-Fi channel. This might be your last chance to pick up on one of the great sci-fi TV shows (Here’s a primer for new viewers.) And, from one great sci-fi TV show to another, Tomb of Horrors links to this BBC fellow prank-calling Tom Baker in the guise of the fourth Doctor…Baker comes off as remarkably good-humored about the whole thing.