Suck it, James Cameron

See, there's this movie. A quite popular movie, actually. You might even say that a lot of people went ape-shit over it. And years from now, historians and Wikipedia-surfers alike will wonder what the hell was going on when the 2009 Golden Globe for Best Picture was awarded to this film. I think it's safe to say that none of these future wonderers will, although they should, turn to their companion(s) and say: "But why, companion(s), was Avatar showered in so much praise, when 1963-4 Doctor Who serial The Daleks (1.2) was clearly so much better?"

Yes, lots of things are better than Avatar - brushing one's teeth, Attack of the Cybermen (22.1), this - but the reason I compare it to The Daleks is that, in a way, they're similar. (And I just watched The Daleks.) Our protagonist(s) travel to a distant planet, where concerns over resources are forcing the encounter between somewhat peaceful, scantily clad people who live in a jungle teeming with dangerous alien life, and xenophobic, militaristic technocrats who hide in their city. There are other things too. The protagonist(s) meeting the city people first, and being told that the jungle people are terrifying and horrible, and finding them instead to be sexy. The baddies' need to destroy lots of things in order to get what they need. And, of course, a big battle between sticks on one side and "travel machines" on the other.

Narratively, here's why The Daleks is better. As should be obvious, The Daleks is about nuclear war, and (this may come as a shock to you, but)

Dad, dig this new mod fad. It's a gas!

So proclaimed an advertisement for mop-top wigs so you could look like the Beatles at weekends. Obviously I'm not going to expect readers of this blog to have watched everything I'm talking about, but if you've never seen the first ever episode of Doctor Who, "An Unearthly Child," you really should watch it here.

Part of the point of this project is to align my timelines. What do you think of as old? If someone talked to you about an old piece of music, you might imagine it being from the 14th Century, but an old song might be from the 1950s. An old play could be from 400BC, but an old copy of a play is more likely to be from the 1980s. And old person, depending on your age, might be from the '30s, but old meat is probably from last week. An old TV show is unlikely to be from before '60s, and old Doctor Who can't be from before 23 November, 1963. But to a lot of people these days, "old Doctor Who" refers to anything from what's also called the "Classic Series."Doctor Who starring Jon Pertwee or Tom Baker doesn't seem "old" to me - it seems "middle"! But to Sarah (my girlfriend; get used to hearing about her), who at the time