It's a Beacon of Love

Today the Olympic Torch Relay passed through the town closest to where I live. I remember saying in my analysis of Fear Her that the crowd scene when the torch-bearer passes smacked of a lack of budget for extras. I wrote at the time that the crowd on the road was probably shy of a thousand spectators and today proved that I probably underestimated that figure by half. It seemed like the whole town turned up to watch, so proving just how impoverished Fear Her actually was. They couldn’t even afford to CG replica spectators into the scene like they did with the street party at the end of The Idiot’s Lantern. Also, never seen so many police vans in my life – maybe that was why they weren’t investigating the spate of child disappearances in the story. They were too busy waving at spectators along the route.

I stood and watched, and all the time in my head I could hear the stupid voiceover they forced on poor old Huw Edwards. I wanted to think of something profound and all I got was ‘It’s more than a torch now. It’s a beacon of hope and fortitude and courage. It’s a beacon of love’. Unfortunately it was a joke that nobody around me would get, so I stood quietly and giggled madly to myself. There are times when loving Doctor Who is a lonely business, and this was one of those occasions.

Sadly there was no Isolus spaceship flying into the flame either.

I wonder, though, just how many other Doctor Who fans in the last few weeks have watched as the torch relay passed them by, willing the runner with the torch to stumble so that they can pick it up and make some sort of David Tennant ‘Whooo-hoooo!’ noise. I’ll bet I’m not alone in that thought.