Current

The Current Roster

• Doctor Who (new series) (U.K./Canada, 2005-present)
  
  Exactly like the original series, except with CGI and crappier writers.
• jPod (Canada, 2008-present)
  
  The story of five video game developers, working on an “extreme sports” game for Neotronic Arts (not even remotely like Electronic Arts, then) who must fend off corporate meddling while getting involved in unsavory situtations. This is the show that Chuck should be.
  [On 3/7/08 the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation announced the cancellation of jPod.]
• ReGenesis (Canada, 2004-present)
  
  The best log line for this is “Jack Bauer hires Gregory House to head up the CSI team in investigating the X-Files,” which doesn’t really sound all that promising as a sentence, but in execution it works brilliantly.
• Total Recall 2070 (Canada, 1999)
  Science-fiction crime drama set in a generic cyberpunk world influenced by Blade Runner and Total Recall. The storylines and characters are interesting, but a bit more work probably should have been put into differentiating other shows of its ilk.
• UFO (U.K., 1970-1971)
  
  It’s 1980, and Earth’s first line of defense between the human race and alien invaders is SHADO, a secret organization with a bizarre dress code, headquartered under a British film studio.
• Young Dracula (U.K., 2006-present)
  
  God, how to describe this one? It’s sort of the bastard love child of Charles Addams and J.K. Rowling. Dracula is a thirteen-year-old boy recently relocated from Transylvania to Wales. He befriends a local goth and his family, and earns the suspicion of bumbling wannabe vampire slayer Eric Van Helsing. Hilarity ensues.

On Hold

• The Sarah Jane Adventures (U.K./Canada, 2007)
  [A second season has been comissioned.]
  
  A heavily-retconned version of Doctor Who’s flagship companion has informally adopted a gang of tweenage thrill-seekers and together they have adventures and such.
• Torchwood (U.K., 2006-present)
  
  The “mature” Doctor Who spinoff. Which means there’s actually not too much more thematical maturity than your average episode of the new Who, but we get to say phrases like “fuckbuddy” now. The first season left me underwhelmed, but in the U.S. it’s been getting a lot of attention (more than Who, actually) from those who have Whedon-shaped holes in their hearts.

And occasionally…

• Doctor Who (classic series) (U.K., 1963-1989)
  
  Exactly like the new series, except with cheaper special effects and female leads who weren’t the British equivalents of Kathy Griffin.
• Trick or Treat (U.K., 2007-present)
  
  Current vehicle of British magician and mentalist Derren Brown.