fringe: the science of fiction - doctor who

Now that I stop and think about it... I'm not completely sure what I was expecting from the Science of Fiction: Doctor Who show at The Royal Institution of Australia (RiAus) Science Exchange.

Stupidly, I don't know that I expected there to be quite so much science...

Which, again, stupid... especially given the fact that the description for the show included this: "We’ll be joined by physicists, astronomers, and comedian Rob Lloyd."

And I'm not completely sure even they knew who the show was aimed at... there was a lot of talking about theoretical scientific theory for a show featuring clips with really bad special effects... and sometimes a little simplistic for a room full of, presumably, science fiction geeks.

I also don't think it was particularly a show suitable for children. Yes, there were kids there, but I think most of them were essentially bored (and couple of the ones in front of me certainly seemed to be) although the very nerdy/hardcore Doctor Who fanboy kid sitting next to me with his seemingly equally hardcore Doctor Who fangirl grandma (and yet they both looked so normal) wasn't so bad.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the host of the show, comedian Rob Lloyd. I mean he has his whole "if I dress right and put these glasses on I mostly look like David Tennant" thing going for him, but it just all felt a little... I wanna say "forced", I wanna say "desperate", I wanna say "overboard"... I'm not sure any of those descriptions are quite right though.

It was a little bit like he had all of Tennant's frenetic energy without a quarter of the charm. Which I know sounds harsh... and maybe it is a tiny bit... but it did feel a little like he was forcing a joke into the proceedings every chance he got.

Sadly though, I think a couple of the scientists actually got the bigger laughs...

There was also some "audience participation" through the use of a little gadget that everyone could vote on questions... now I'm not about to suggest that the answers were completely rigged and predetermined, but the graphs did seem to come up in the middle of the presentation very smoothly and looking the same as the rest of the presentation.

But it's the Science Exchange... if anyone could actually make that work, it would probably be them. I just had the element of doubt creep into my head about halfway through.

All in all, it was okay for what it was... but essentially it was a science lecture, tarted up with some Doctor Who around the edges. So if you're a science nerd and a Doctor Who nerd, it's right up your alley... just a Doctor Who nerd, then I don't know so much.

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