Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Tom Baker: Sam Neill And Jurassic Park

"I recall going to see Jurassic Park at the cinemas in Tunbridge Wells, near where I live. The most remarkable thing about it was that they had cast Sam Neill in the lead, who must be the most boring actor ever to darken our screens. He could bore for England, that man. He could earn a very good living curing whole audiences of insomniacs - they'd be dead to the world within minutes. And I watched this film and for the half-hour all the children were bored out of their brains - it was like being in an aviary. They used to be like that with Doctor Who when I had long dialogue sequences and all they wanted was the action. ... So I thought the film was terribly boring and completely relied on its amazing optical effects. What was Men In Black about? ... it was finally all just jokes. ... it was just a piss-take. There was nothing heroic, nothing lasting. With Doctor Who it was ... heroic and lasting. Of course it couldn't be particularly profound because everything had to be resolved by violence, simply because everything has ultimately to be resolved by violence - the violence of death generally."
 
-Tom Baker (Doctor Who Magazine #258, p. 11)-

No shortage of running for The Doctor in Doctor Who or Sam Neill in Jurassic Park, the man who would bore Tom Baker apparently.

 
 
 
"Do I Have The Right?" (A Doctor Who dinosaur coloring book echoing the scene from Genesis Of The Daleks)
 
 
 
And don't ask me how this strange little post came to fruition, because I'm not actually sure, but I guess we can start with Tom Baker's quote. The man has no filter.

3 comments:

le0pard13 said...

Tom mustn't hold back! Yikes!

El Vox said...

Eh, I disagree with Baker on those assessments. I enjoyed Jurassic Park and Neill was ok in the role. Men in Black was a fun film. Different strokes, I guess.

SFF said...

I enjoy Sam Neill as well. Many great films. But Tom Baker is so amusing I couldn't resist doing something with that quote.

He has such strong opinions. It's kind of refreshing.