The Doctor And Me

When I was a kid, I was a Doctor Who fanatic.

I had almost all of the Target novelizations of episodes.

I got Doctor Who Weekly every week, and Doctor Who Monthly every month when it switched publication schedule.

I dragged my parents to the Doctor Who Exhibitions in Blackpool and Longleat on multiple occasions.

Doctor Who Exhibition Blackpool, originally uploaded by byronv2.

I watched every episode (well, except the last episode of State of Decay because I was five years old and the vampires scared the bejesus out of me).

I took great pride in the fact that on a clear day I could see Jodrell Bank from the road that led to my house – being, of course, the site of Tom Baker’s regeneration into Peter Davison.

You get the idea.

Peter Davison was ‘my’ Doctor. Even though I grew up on Tom Baker, it was Peter Davison who I really clicked with. He was younger, more energetic. He didn’t have hair like my dad. When I wrote a fan letter (remember, I was young and foolish) I got a signed picture back which I’m absolutely 100% sure to this day was really really signed by him.

Don’t shatter my illusions, okay?

I didn’t mind Colin Baker as much as others did, and actually quite enjoyed some aspects of his character even if he was a bit of a pompous ass. I even liked the Trial of a Timelord, and especially the idea of the Valeyard’s identity (which I won’t spoil, but you can read about him here – rather a clever idea) – although I could have done without Bonnie Fricking Langford as a companion.

In the show’s twilight years, I even grew to like Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor as he grew darker and more mysterious, a master gamesman.

And then it was gone. Doctor Who was canceled, not to be seen again (aside from that godawful co-funded US TV movie of which we shall not speak) until Russell Davies resurrected the show complete with a more down to earth (well, Northern) Doctor.

And I didn’t like it at all.

I watched the first two episodes and decided that I was better left with my memories of the old show. Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor was too manic, too over the top. A while later I caught the I, Dalek episode and found it derivative and simply not very good – so I was done.

Funny thing is over the past couple of years, twitter pals (and David Gallaher in particular) have been pecking my head to give the show another chance so I’ve been getting back into it.

Paul Cornell’s ‘Father’s Day’ was the episode that convinced me the show might be worth watching again. After that, the introduction of Captain Jack (and much preferred him here to in Torchwood) added some much-needed levity.

Shortly thereafter David Tennant’s introduction – once past the terrible Christmas episode – reminded me more of the old Who. There was something about his character – a darkness, tempered by silliness (as opposed to Eccleston’s darkness tempered by manicness) which appealed to me.

The only thing which I’m not keen on is romance between the Doctor and his companions. I’ve always considered the doctor rather asexual, not even really knowing if Susan was his real granddaughter or someone that he ‘adopted’. Having the Doctor all tongue-tied and dreamy-eyed doesn’t sit well with me, somehow – but it appears it’s something that I need to get used to.

In any case, the first few years of Tennant’s run (I’m currently a couple of episodes in to the fourth season) almost – almost – made me a believer again.

Then two sealed the deal.

The first was the short David Tennant/Peter Davison segment done especially for Children In Need, which fits neatly between scenes at the end of season three:

The last few minutes play like a love letter to Peter Davison’s Doctor – as I mentioned, my Doctor – and that really, really made me realise that maybe the new Doctor Who could be mine too.

The second thing that clinched it for me was the Eleventh Hour. But that’s a whole other post…

Tags: Doctor Who, TV-Archived

This entry was posted on April 16, 2010 at 10:04 am and is filed under Archive, Comics-Archived, TV-Archived. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.