A little background. I grew up with sci-fi. Cut my teeth on sci-fi. Sci-fi is my bread and butter (whatever that really means...) When I was a child I would go grocery shopping with my Mom at the Save-On Foods off #3 road in Richmond, and they had a tiny video rental in there (back in the 80's when video cassettes were a thing - and so was 'renting' come to think of it). If it wasn't Ghostbusters, I'd be looking at all the cassettes of the original 'Trek (cuz' I'm just too hip to use the 'Star' anymore). While other kids would be wanting to see... actually I have no idea what the other kids were watching. What I DO remember is how scared I was when, in the 2nd season episode "By Any Other Name" the sinister Kelvan, Rojan crushed the dehydrated dodecahedron that had been Yeoman Leslie Thompson just moments ago. It's a frightening thought as a child, to think that there are aliens out there who, at any moment, could turn you into a tiny handful of drywall powder and then crush you out of existence. (WHY did I watch this stuff as a kid?)
Anyways, I digress. I watched all the 'Trek I could find, old and new. I played Star Wars in the backyard with the neighbours (my best friend at the time, Jake, even had a water pistol that was a dead ringer for Han Solo's Heavy Blaster. How awesome is that?) I dreamt of spaceships, hoped beyond hope that either Max of the Trimaxian Drone Ship (identify that reference and you get a sugar cube) or Centauri (same for that classic 80's gem) would come along and whisk me away to interstellar adventure. Yet I never watched Doctor Who, which had been around even slightly longer than my beloved Star Trek.
And THAT was even before the debut of 'Trek TNG.
I remember being young and catching tiny bits of Doctor Who on PBS (ah PBS, how else would I know that the British did things...) Which usually involved some wacky haired man in a scarf standing on the deck of some boat with some girl talking about the Silurians or something. I mean really, this is supposed to be sci-fi, who has BOATS? OR SCARVES? Where's the transporters, the storm troopers? The starfighters or the lightsabres? NOWHERE, that's where. Sometimes the Doctor would be talking to a puddle of goo (gotta give props now to the imagination of those production designers though, with the budges they had) or running from what looked like a garbage can on wheels with a whisk and a plunger attached. (Strange, I read somewhere that "hiding behind the couch when the Dalek's appeared" was a shared memory of many British children, while I have only started to find them somewhat unsettling in my adulthood) Seriously, if these things can't climb stairs, how scary can the BE? It was British, it was boring, it didn't have any pitched immense space battles and most of all, no one ever said "Beam me up" or "Engage" or "No time to discuss this as a committee". (I am NOT a committee!)
And then, a few months ago, two entirely separate and unconnected people both said to me "You should watch the new Doctor Who". One was the boyfriend of the misses childhood friend, and the other was my brother. (the same brother I might add, who also told me I should watch 'Buffy', at which I scoffed as well - he says while staring at this 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 1 - 7 sets... and Angel season 1 - 5) "It's just as cheesy and low budget as the original, but it's so awesome" was the selling point from Alex (the misses childhood friends boyfriend).
Now I had read in passing somewhere back in '04 that the BBC was bringing back Doctor Who, so I knew it was out there. The ever amazing (and in dire need of an HD expansion) SPACE network here in Canada was running the new Doctor Who in syndication daily, so I set my PVR for 'New & Repeats' and let 'er rip.
And the rest is history. I'm hooked. I love it. It really is some of the most thought provoking, fun, disturbing and hilarious sci-fi on television currently. Now I may still be Doctor Who neophyte as my only exposure has been the modern incarnation helmed by Russell T Davies, but like my hopes for the latest Star Trek film, this Doctor Who has only made me want to familiarize myself with the original material.
Thanks to the brevity of BBC TV seasons (or series, as they call them there. Bwah?) I've now seen every regular episode of the relaunch series, short a few christmas specials (another uniquely British thing, what show in North America does a SPECIFIC christmas special every year outside of the regular season?) and the David Tennant 2009 'Specials', and I only want more.
[For the totally lost, I will do what I can to bring the uninitiated up to speed: Doctor Who tells the story of ''The Doctor' a 900 (give or take) year old Timelord from the long dead planet Galifrey who travels through time and space in his TARDIS - nerd alert, an acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension In Space" - which looks like a '50's era British Police call box with his rotating cast of 'companions' (invariably an attractive young woman, and sometimes another guy) seeking out adventure and danger.]
The show launched with Christopher Eccleston in 2005 (so is it "Eh-Cles-ton" or "EK-Kel-ston", I'm not sure) who I only remember as the creepy room mate David in Danny Boyle's first feature 'Shallow Grave' and then later as the creepy Major West in Danny Boyles '28 Days Later' (so, is Christopher Eccleston just creepy in general, or is it only in Danny Boyle films?) taking on the enigmatic role as 'The Doctor'. I will never forget his opening line to Rose Tyler: "Nice to meet you Rose, I'm the Doctor. Now run for your life!" Eccleston's Doctor is actually quite a departure from the others (being two) that I've seen. He seems much less patient and understanding of Humanity that his successors, David Tennant and Matt Smith, while still maintaining some strange fascination with us advanced apes. Quicker to anger than the others, he behaves as Humanities sanctimonious nanny. At the same time however, his time on the show exposed a side of Christopher Eccleston I was not familiar with, his smiling, giddy, boyish side. The Doctor is preternaturally exuberant and fun loving, that's how he usually gets himself in the trouble he seems to every week.
Eccleston's 'Companion' was pop star Billie Piper, as Rose Tyler. Rose always seemed a little to smart and self assured to wander off with some strange man in a Police call box. Yes, I understand that her 'sense of adventure' is what led her off around the cosmos with the Doctor, but she was never my favourite. We'll get to her later.
The next season saw Christopher Eccleston replaced (or 'regenerated', as they say in Doctor parlance) by David Tennant, the man who has become synonymous with the success and relaunch of the show. While Eccleston eschewed the Doctors trademark upscale clothing for slacks, a black T and leather jacket, David Tennant brought back the wild hair, sharp pinstripe suits and clever ties that perpetuated the air of sophistication the Doctor is meant to portray. The unique fixture of Tennants converse sneakers belied the anti-authoritarianism of his character. Where as Eccleston's Doctor often seemed down right tired of Humanities foibles through his adventures, David Tennant's Doctor loved and embraced the ludicrosity of Humanity, nary losing his cool or his temper. He always had a sharp barb and rapier wit to bring a laugh to any dire situation, and this may be the reason he ultimately did not sit as well with my as my favorite Doctor (coming up!) There was never a REAL sense of danger with David Tennant around, as it always seemed like he was just a sly witticism away from solving any problem. What he DID bring that I appreciated the most was a real sense of comedic and physical timing. He was fun, he was jovial, he seemed like he was your best friend. Until the Daleks showed up, when he would promptly turn into self righteous orator with many blustery things to say before finding a way to solve the universes problems once again.
Tennant spent two seasons with Rose, a season with Martha Jones, a medical student with great morals but not much in the way of conflict potential, and a final season with Donna Noble. I didn't like Donna at the start. She seemed very boorish, rude and unsophisticated, exactly as she was meant to be presented. A perfect foil for the Doctors gregariousness. She couldn't care less about whether or not the Ood could be saved, but what was great about Donna was she LEARNED as the season went on. Instead of having great moral and ethical sensibilities to start she gained them through experience with the Doctor, developed into the kind of person you would hope exposure to new things would make out of cloistered and socially minded person. Some of the episodes with Donna Noble are the best of the David Tennant set.
And then came Matt Smith. Easily my favorite of the three Doctors I've seen. He brings back the nerdy British book worm with his slacks, suspenders and bow ties (which ARE Cool, he insists). Where David Tennant was confident to a fault, Matt Smith's Doctor seems almost harried, confused, like he's always about to forget something. Often as surprised by the situation he's in as his companion, Matt Smith's Doctor does NOT portray a man who has all the answers. In fact, he plays a Doctor who has even less answers than the others - but it is the means through which he comes to those answers in each episode which is utterly enrapturing and fascinating. When Matt Smith's Doctor is in trouble, the audience can feel it, see it in his frightened expressions. I enjoy watching Matt Smith and being able to share in the emotions of the experience with him, instead of feeling like it's being filtered through nine centuries of know-it-all-ness. He is also the quirkiest of the new Doctors. Eccleston was too cool for Humans and Tennant was like was Human's old college friend come to town. Smith is a nerd, through and through. From his awkward social norms to his gangly physical comedy, Smith is a sci-fi hero for sci-fi fans, unsure, distracted yet totally capable of saving the day when needed.
And his companion is second to none. Amy (Amelia) Pond, The Girl Who Waited. Played by the drop dead cute-as-hell red haired nerd-bomb Karen Gillan, Amy Pond is the perfect yin to Matt Smith's yang. While the other companions with the other Doctors were more 'along for the ride' Amy has just as much adventure in her as the Doctor (some would argue even more so.) Unbalanced, brave to a fault and feisty as you like, Amy Pond compliments Matt Smiths distraction with a sense of adventure and wonder comparable to any other Doctor, and miles ahead of any previous companion. She's the kind of girl I think I should fall in love with (yet not the kind of girl I have fallen in love with) When Matt Smith's Doctor is left scratching his head by some mysterious finding, she's the first to press on ahead, danger be damned. When the Doctor gives her an impossible set of instructions to follow, not only does she execute them, she even finds a way to cheat for her own sake. These two characters make one whole adventure, and I look forward to enjoying them both in the latest series 6, due out in 2011.
Unlike Star Trek, which by the end of its last television incarnation, which had built upon itself a universe with rules and continuity that must be followed, the Doctors ability to travel anywhere in time and space at any time leaves stories wide open and almost limitless. Star Trek does get the edge on Doctor Who for character development and may also edge them out in relevance, it's hard to beat the sheer imagination of an episode of Doctor who, where literally anything can happen. Things like the fat in your body turning into tiny, uber-cute little monsters who get beamed up into an immense flying saucer. Or shadows that will consume your flesh. Or what about weeping stone angels that try to kill you when you don't look at them, even for so much as a blink!
The episodes of Doctor Who can range in quality from Hugo Award winning brilliance (2007's 'Blink') to trite sci-fi fluff (2008's 'Midnight') But they always bring an element of Humanity to them that is hard to find in most television. One week, The Doctor and Amy may help Vincent Van Gogh fight off a lost and alone invisible alien while helping the troubled artist understand that no one need be truly alone, and the next the Doctor may help Rose and the others do battle with the Devil on a planet moments from being torn apart by a black hole. Whether its helping save the Human race from the evils of reality TV to outsmarting a Dalek invasion army in 1930's New York, the writing team of Steven Moffat, Mark Gatiss & Robert Shearman have created a means of exploring the universe that is both enlightening and exciting. Wonderous and hilarious, all at the same time. Indeed, it is this irascible sense of humor the permeates the show at every turn, the Doctor always able to turn a joke or capitalize on a comedic moment just when needed most.
It is this element of the show not taking itself so seriously that makes it such a success. So if you make it this far in my Doctor Who treatise, please, check it out wherever you can, and see if you get 'Who'd' too.
