Doctor Who

CHICAGO – Having been a theater major who openly knelt at the altar of William Shakespeare for many of my formative stage years and then later became a film critic, I believe the number of versions of “Hamlet” I have seen to number around eight - three times on stage and five on celluloid. And yet I still was blown away by BBC’s production of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre version of the timeless play.

CHICAGO – The eleventh doctor makes his debut tonight on the highly anticipated BBC America season premiere of the great “Doctor Who,” one of the most purely entertaining shows on television.

CHICAGO – The last five hours of David Tennant’s spectacular run as the tenth doctor of “Doctor Who” have been collected in a great Blu-ray box set from BBC Home Video titled “Doctor Who: The Complete Specials”. Tennant was recently voted the most popular doctor in the long history of the beloved show. Watching these five hour-long specials makes it clear why.

CHICAGO – You won’t find the kind of diversity that exists in HollywoodChicago.com’s Blu-Ray Round-Up too many places online. Where else can modern sci-fi mingle with quarter-century-old genre product and hang out with Oscar winners and slapstick comedies? Nowhere.

Television Rating: 5.0/5.0

CHICAGO – “Ashes to Ashes” may be one of the most unusual choices for a TV sequel but sometimes the best series come from the most unexpected places. This may be the most pleasant surprise TV fans will get all year. The BBC’s brilliant “Life on Mars” has been dragged from the glitz and glamour of the ’70s to the turbulent ’80s in the as-good-and-arguably-better “Ashes to Ashes,” another notch in the belt of great BBC programming.