i've been spending most of my downtime watching the second-to-the-latest incarnation of Doctor Who. i was never much of a fan before, really. i'd seen a few of the Tom Baker episodes, and though i loved the bit of the series that i did see, with the TARDIS and the Daleks and, with my cheezy little kid sensibilities, K-9, and all the other things that made that version of the series what it was, my access was limited by the awful signal and schedule of broadcasts provided by the now defunct Far East Network, and i never really got into it.
i heard they were making a new series with a new incarnation of the Doctor a while back, but it never made much of an imprint. i must have thought or said something like, well, that's interesting, and quickly forgot.
when Neil Gaiman started blogging about watching it with Miss Maddy Gaiman, i thought, well, that's nice, and quickly forgot.
then i found an old edition of Doctor Who and the Android Invasion by Terrance Dicks, with an introduction by Harlan Ellison, and i thought, well, i'm not really into anything right now (i wasn't, at the time. i must have been re-reading something from my "already read but loved it enough for another read" pile at the time). it's got recommendations from Neil Gaiman and Harlan Ellison, and i do feel like something of a romp, so this ought to be interesting. so i picked it up for fifteen bucks, read Mr. Ellison's introduction and a few chapters, dropped it into my "for reading" pile, and, well, quickly forgot.
only not really. my interest was rising. Mabel was in LA at the time, and i thought to ask her if she saw the DVD set out there, and if she did, could she get me a copy.
she didn't. so she couldn't. and, with the copy of Veniss Underground she got me, not to mention the Sin City double disc, i, you guessed it, quickly forgot.
then, just last week, i chanced upon the entire first season of the new series on DVD. suddenly, i was excited.
when i got home, i popped the first disc onto my spinner, then the second, and the third, and soon found i'd gobbled up the first five episodes in one sitting. i'd have watched more if a sense of prudence hadn't set in and i remembered i had to get up for work early the next day.
it's that good.
i totally agree with Mr. Ellison on this one. all you Trekkies and Jedi/Sith/droid/whatever-you-call-yourselves Star Wars junkies must have your heads on the wrong way. it's not that i don't enjoy dipping into those particular franchises, but next to the Doctor, well... they're rubbish.
admittedly, Doctor Who isn't hard SF, but neither, and i may get flamed for this, is Star Trek (no need to even mention Star Wars here, but fans might feel left out). the thing is, unlike Star Trek, it doesn't try to be. the "science" in Doctor Who is all in good fun, and serves the higher purpose of the series: ideas that make a good story.
Doctor Who is all about ideas, and having fun at it as well. and forget Spock, or Data, or Han Solo... the Doctor is the coolest, most interesting character you'll ever find in pop SF.
it was always a bit iffy whether i would like Doctor Number Nine (the Doctor with a closely cropped do and a leather jacket?!?). but then, i grew up, after all, with Tom Baker and all the hair and the wool in my head as the only Doctor. but Christopher Eccleston pulled it off brilliantly. i admit to being a bit ticked off by the gravitas of the Doctor's ninth incarnation; the Doctor was always grey in my head, but never dark. but it makes sense; you don't get off the butt end of a war that exterminates your entire race leaving you the last Time Lord in the universe without it getting you a tad under the weather. and, anyway, he's still funny.
the series picks up right off and starts running at an amazing pace, with just enough touches of compassion and gravitas to keep it groundedly human, despite being thoroughly mental. i actually cried when Rose Tyler, the Doctor's latest assistant, met her father. and i couldn't resist joining the Doctor's hurrah at the end of "The Doctor Dances."
and the season finale was, to steal a word from Vince Vaughn, phenomenal. i admit, it felt a little too much like a Wagnerian opera to fit into my own mental frame for Doctor Who, but i had to cheer when the blue police box started hurtling through space to meet the attack of the 200 warships in orbit around Earth.
about my only gripe about the whole run was the very end. i was hoping for more from the "Bad Wolf" mystery, and i was never much of a deus ex machina sort of guy. then again, it does make some sense, as Russell T. Davies himself says that the TARDIS is a deus ex machina to begin with, and, anyway, it serves a purpose. never before has the Doctor had an "assistant" who was also his equal. incidentally, i prefer the term "companion," myself.
i look forward to the second season, although after Chris Eccleston's performance, David Tennant has some pretty big shoes to fill. and it's hard to imagine how the writers could top their achievements in the first season.
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