Doctor Who

Most of my shows will be airing their season finales in the next few weeks which leaves me with a three month void of bad reality shows and soapy dramas. (With the exception of the last few episodes of Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad, which starts in July). So as I've mentioned, I'm going to fill the time catching up on shows I've missed. On the docket: Party Down, Dexter, Sons of Anarchy, Justified, Parenthood and possibly The Vampire Diaries. I've started off the festivities with the BBC's Doctor Who. And I have thoughts.

Here's what you need to know: The Doctor is a 900-some-odd-year-old Time Lord who travels through time and space in a blue police box called the TARDIS. (It's bigger on the inside). He usually has at least one companion with him, usually a female who has relationship attachments in the form of family, boyfriend, or fiance that keep them slightly tethered to earth. In the midst of their travels they usually find themselves in dire situations involving any assortment of killer aliens, robots or reality-erasing cracks in the universe. The Doctor, being the genius that he is, is usually tasked with saving them and whatever planet they happen to be on in the process. Oh, and The Doctor can regenerate - meaning that when he's close to death his body can take on a new form. This is how eleven different actors have been able to play the part of the same man. Or mostly the same man. Each regeneration comes with new personality, quirks and tenancies.

The series has been running since the sixties and was rebooted in 2005 with the Ninth Doctor, Chris Eccleston and his companion Rose Tyler. This is where I started.

We don't get to spend a lot of time with this incarnation of The Doctor as he regenerated again at the end of the first season but one of my favorite moments of the series happens during his reign. It's 1940's London during The Blitz and he's managed to put a stop to a deadly plague that's affecting the citizens. He begins running around yelling, "Everybody lives! Just this once! Everybody lives!" It's a beautiful moment because he gets to be the hero but there's an unspoken tragedy there in that he's seen it go wrong so many many times before, he's seen the unhappy ending, and the possibility of every one going home alive at the end of the day is enough to make him giddy.



At the end of the season I thought the show was going to have a hard time winning me over to the Tenth Doctor but almost immediately I fell in love with David Tennant. Honestly, the only thing I knew him from was the 4th Harry Potter movie where he played the creepy Barty Crouch Jr. so I was not prepared to instantly be filled with feelings of "10th Doctor! I LOVE YOUUUUUUUU."

His version of The Doctor was intense and really played up the loneliness of his life. He's the last of his kind, alone in the world and eventually all his companions will leave, grow up and move on. It's the hand he's been dealt and it's really intriguing to watch him struggle with it while at the same time keep at arms length these people that do love him. Rose-Tyler, Martha, Donna, Jack Harkness - his companions at different times during these three seasons - all love him and want to be with him and together they form this rag-tag crew that have to come together ever once in awhile to save the world. (If it's not obvious from the movies and shows I watch, it's kind of my favorite thing when little familial groups are formed by unlikely friends).

Here's a clip of the 10th Doctor's regeneration.



So I'm left crying and blubbering, "DAVID TENNANT COME BACK!!!" BUT. Oh, this show. Matt Smith is AMAZING. His Doctor is bumbling and awkward and he think bow-ties and fezzes are cool and even his features seem alien (I mean that as a compliment, strange as it may sound. Matt Smith has a really intriguing face). The relationship he has with Amy Pond is delightful, as is his affection for Rory. And then of course is the "will they/won't they/have they already" Time Travelers Wife dynamic he's got going on with River that I can't think about too hard because it'll make my head explode.

This show is beautiful and epic and wonderful. The Doctor loves humanity and we get to see ourselves through his eyes - the things we do for each other, the ways we fail each other, the lengths we'll go to survive. These characters travel the depths of time and space and see EVERYTHING under the sun and beyond and the scale of that is unfathomable. Some of my favorite little moments happen when The Doctor and his companion are excited about the worlds they are exploring. They aren't just weary time travelers who have "been there and done that." They get giddy over vampires and fangirl over Van Gough. They act the way that anyone else would if presented with the opportunity.

It's not all fun and games though and there are often huge stakes (planets and universes and entire species at jeopardy). The Doctor tries his hardest but sometimes he has to let go, sometimes there's nothing to be done. The people of Pompeii still die. Van Gough still kills himself. Great Britain still has to endure the bombing raids. And of course as I've mentioned, the Doctor still has to push on, even if by himself in the TARDIS. So many episodes have left me in tears because life, and this show, are messy and real (even in a fantastical way).



It should also be mentioned that the show's meant to be a family show but some of this stuff is legit scary. Weeping Angels? The Silence? This is the stuff of nightmares. I don't mind the aliens and the Cybermen and the Daleks. These are typical sci-fi monsters. It's the stuff in the shadows, the things in the corner of your eye, the cracks in the wall, creepy children - these are the terrors that leave me sleepless. I remember watching Are You Afraid of the Dark when I was little and having THAT scare the bejeesus out of me. And that was tame nonsense compared to this. Maybe children in the UK have stronger constitutions. But YEEEESH.

So. Doctor Who. Two thumbs up. I will continue watching (this weeks episode was SO good) and recommending it to my friends and just know this: If I were ever to hear that magical whirring sound of the TARDIS landing in my neighborhood I would be out the door and running down the street, begging The Doctor to take me on an adventure faster than you can say "wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey stuff."(YES, I know this is television. Let me have my fantasies. Thank you.)