For many years I have held a secret. Something that many of my friends would gasp about and possibly revoke my Geek card. It’s been no secret that I am a huge Sci-Fi fan. I own more props, costumes, wall art, toys, etc. than most people (except other geeks like me), but there is something that I had never done that causes most geeks to shiver down to their internal power core.
I had never watched Doctor Who.
Sure, I knew what a TARDIS was, and I was familiar with most of the mythos due to most of my friends being huge fans, but I had never actually seen a single episode. So while browsing through Netflix streaming the other day I noticed that all of the new series (2005-current) was available. I had heard from various friends that if I were to start somewhere, that the 2005 stuff was the way to go. I realize that some purists would say that I should encounter all incarnations of the Doctor, but we are talking baby steps here people!
This is not to say that I won’t go back and watch some early stuff. Since undertaking this task of cramming 6 years of TV into my head, I have already watched 1 story line of the 4th Doctor, and 1 from the 5th, but this is about the newer series that I am going full steam ahead with. That’s not even a joke. A week and a half ago we started with the Christopher Eccleston episodes and have been watching every night, and most of the weekends to catch up to the current Matt Smith seasons. Both Sarah and I have become incredibly addicted to the series.
You may think that this is a good thing, right? Lots of people enjoy The Doctor! Problem is that when I dive into a series like this, I dive into the deep end and keep swimming down. Because of this, I have been stuffing, not only the TV information, but (currently) 4+ years of Who Fandom into my noggin. Catching up on props, T-shirts, costumes, videos, etc.. It’s almost maddening, but I love it so much! I am even now drafting plans for the building of a full scale TARDIS. I have the tools and the space, and I love woodworking, so why not?
So what about the shows? Well, I agree with all of those who told me to start with the 2005 series. The pacing on them are much more up to date with current shows. I went back and watched a few of the older shows and it just seems so much slower and wooden. I will work my way through them slowly but I really love the new format. As far as Doctors go, I really feel bad for Christopher Eccleston. He was a great Doctor and should have been given more time. it was pretty clear that they used him to springboard off of and show that the regeneration of the Doctor is still ongoing. CE was also a great tie in to the older shows as he took that campy brit humor and ran with it (and holy cow, the hair!). We have just finished up with Season 4 and the end of the David Tennent run. I liked DT as a Doctor and he certainly added a lot of the genius ramble to the character, but I think that CE will remain as “My Doctor”.
Which brings us to where we are now. We watched the first episode of season 5, the Matt Smith Doctor. It is way too early to decide my feelings on him. He certainly has that campy but modern feeling down. Time will tell. In the meantime, look for progress posts on the various builds I am doing and well as follow along as I dive deeper into a fandom that spans almost 50 years!
DT is my favorite Doctor, but I will say this about Matt Smith – “Bow ties are cool!” “Stetsons are cool!”
If you are watching the older Dr Who’s get the DVD’s, don’t watch them streaming on Netflix. The DVD’s have excellent extras (the more recently released, the better) and infotext (in the special features menu; you’ll need to turn those on before the feature, though it’s difficult to pay attention to the plot and read the info). Nowadays half the fun of watching the older episodes is learning about how they were made and listening to the shows creators rip on their hard work. If you can handle the monochrome, I recommend “The Chase” (c1965) which was is a favorite of mine and includes a great deal of Dalek history including a look at early Dalek toys.
Keep watching! If there are enough of us they won’t be able to take it off the air again. By the way, I am a 34 year old American girl who grew up watching Dr. Who on WXXI Rochester, NY at 11pm every Saturday. I am neither unpopular nor ugly and am thrilled to find that science fiction is becoming mainstream. I cried when they took Dr. Who off the air. I’m stoked it’s back.