Tuesday, June 11, 2013

The Trouble With Doctor Who

Dang dang dang.

I did it.

I got hooked on yet another British TV show.

"Doctor Who" regenerated in 2005, after a very long time off the air. It was completely off my radar. I had heard of the show, but had never seen any episodes, and didn't know anything about it.

Until now. 

My son has been watching lots of "Who" lately, particularly the episodes with Matt Smith as The Doctor, but when I started in, I wanted to go back further and start near the beginning. I wasn't especially impressed with the first few episodes (or the first Doctor) of the resurgence, so I jumped ahead to the point that David Tennant took over the role. Having skipped pretty much a whole season, though, I think there are some plotlines I missed, but it doesn't seem to matter much. I'm still hooked.


Tennant is funny, charming, and lights up every scene he is in. Billie Piper as his first companion, Rose, is good, though I didn't like her much at first. She did grow on me, though. Perhaps in large part because of how Tennant interacts with her. 

The special effects are decent, considering this is BBC sci-fi, and the old-timey styled Daleks and Cybermen are surprisingly well done. 

I assume they kept the basic structure of these classic nemeses to please "Who" purists, and I'm glad they did. I was annoyed by all the blatantly different things in the more recent "Star Wars" trio of films, in large part because of my affection for the classic three. When they brought back "Doctor Who", they could have re-invented the Daleks and Cybermen, but they chose to keep them very close to what they were originally, and though the Daleks don't seem like much of a threat, they still manage to be rather frightening.

Speaking of which, some episodes are decidedly scary. Some are less so, but just be aware if you're watching with young kids that there are potentially nightmare-causing aliens and monsters and demons involved. And if you're not watching, you really should.  Almost all of "Doctor Who" is now available on Netflix, including classic episodes, which I haven't ventured into yet. 

The only trouble is trying to find TIME to feed the Doctor Who addiction. I didn't expect it to be so good. I didn't expect to wake up thinking about how I can fit in an episode or two today... but it is that good.

Or, maybe I'm just a geek. Click here for my "What You Need to Know About Who" basic pathetic American stuff about Doctor Who entry. 

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