You have to give credit to the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ writing team… Years before ‘Doctor Who’ came back to television under the supervision of Russel T. Davies, the good Doctor was being referenced in ‘Buffy’!

  That’s some serious geek cred for Whedon and company here. ‘Buffy’ was a U.S mainstream t.v show, referencing another show from the U.K that most viewers had no knowledge about at the time.

  So when did these awesome references happen? Let’s see…

1. This first one could be a coincidence, but I somehow doubt it. The big villain in the first season of Buffy was called… The Master!

  That’s right, the same name as the Doctor’s arch-nemesis!

2. In the episode ‘Smashed’ during the sixth season of Buffy, Spike visits the Trio and one of them mentions that he has all the DVDs of Doctor Who just because Spike happens to be British.

  The fact that Spike acts annoyed by this is even funnier when you watch it these days since James Marsters, the actor who portrayed Spike, has also played as a Whoniverse character in ‘Torchwood’, Captain John Hart!

3. Yet again in the sixth season of Buffy in the episode ‘As you were’, Spike uses the alias ‘The Doctor’ to sell some demon eggs on the black market.

4. In the sixth issue (seriously, what is it with that number for Doctor Who references in Buffy???) of the Dark Horse Comics’ ‘Buffy the vampire slayer: Season 8’, we see this particular cameo… (Hint: It’s on the first panel on the left of the page)

  It’s the fight between two blood-suckers who hunt other blood-suckers while wearing long black leather coats and taking no crap! Also, both have weird hair.

  There’s one thing I need to get out of the way first. The fact that the Blade movies had more time and money to put on their fight scenes will not be taken to mean that Blade is the better fighter because of it. Story-wise, both have proven they possess superhuman strength and agility as well as incredible fighting skills.

  So what sets them apart as fighters then? Both are confident and even arrogant when they fight, but there are many differences. For starters, Blade has a much more disciplined fighting style while Spike fights more savagely. It is difficult to say which fighting style would be best, so we’ll have to look at other factors. When Spike uses weapons, it is more often than not medieval weaponry, while Blade uses high-tech gadgets and weapons that go beyond the scope of normal technology on top of his sword and stakes. It is safe to say that Blade has the upper hand when it comes to weapons.

  I’m just not that sure that the weapons seal the deal though. The first Slayer that Spike killed was armed with a sword (just like Blade would be for most of the fight) and Spike still won. And that was when he was much less experienced than he is now! When you really look at it, Spike could probably have killed Buffy if his heart had been into it back when he was evil. Drusilla had implied as much in the ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ Season 5 episode ‘Fool for Love’ and Spike himself confirmed it in Season 7 when he told Buffy “You’ve never met the real me.” When it comes to killing vampire hunters, Spike has an almost untarnished record with one exception because deep down he didn’t really want to do it.

  There’s also the fact that Spike has dealt with many more Big Bads than Blade has. Blade confronted a god once (Deacon Frost/La Magra) and managed to win only through the use of his EDTA darts. Spike spent time sparring with one (Illirya)!!! (While Illirya is referred to as an ‘Old One’, she seems to be a creature similar to Glory from what we’ve heard of both, and Glory was considered a god.) Sure, Spike couldn’t have beaten Illirya, but the fact that he spends more time against foes that are more powerful than he is means he has to be that much better in a fight. Blade often just fights against minions and thugs until it’s time for the final confrontation at the end of the movie. And even if you look at those, in the first movie he won only because Frost/Magra underestimated the weapon used against him, in the second the bad guy offed himself when he realized that the close kill had stopped his pain and in the third movie Blade needed an assist and a surprise attack to kill his opponent.

  I imagine Spike would come out of the fight extremely wounded and far from well, but he’d add another vampire hunter to his list of people he’s beaten. And possibly steal Blade’s coat if his own was too damaged during the battle.

WINNER: Spike