Doctor Who: Influential, Robotic!

Broadcast Magazine recently compiled their list of the "Fifty Most Influential Television Programmes in British Broadcasting History" and Doctor Who was on the list. Broadcast magazine said the 50 programmes were chosen because they "pushed television boundaries," and the list includes shows across many diverse genres including entertainment, factual, news and sport. The widely divergent list includes -- besides Doctor Who, of course -- such staples as "Coronation Street," "Not the Nine O'Clock News," "Blue Peter," "Brideshead Revisited," "Spitting Image," "Changing Rooms," "Big Brother" and "Comic Relief". Click here for the BBC News story. Meanwhile, Amazon.com and the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) held a recent poll to find the "world's favorite robot." The Daleks -- yes, those diminutive pepperpots who won't be appearing in the new Doctor Who series -- came in at number 12. R2D2 of "Star Wars" fame was voted number one in the poll which also included such varied responses as Bender ("Futurama"), Gort ("The Day the Earth Stood Still"), Crow T. Robot ("MST3K") and Number Five ("Short Circuit"). (Thanks to everyone who sent these stories in!)