30 Days of Television: Day 14
Favorite male character: OH GOD WHY ARE YOU MAKING ME CHOOSE. Okay, fine, I'll be current and say the Doctor (surprise surprise)
You know, after all these posts of me rambling about Doctor Who-related stuff, I don't think I've ever really talked much about the actual show and characters. Except maybe for this post. And back when I was still posting my Twitter commentaries here before I created classicwhoblog.
So. The Doctor.
For anyone on my flist out of the know-how, the Doctor is an independent and free-spirited runaway from the orderly and stagnant race known as the Time Lords. He delights in traveling here and there and everywhere and everywhen through time and space in his TARDIS (stuck in the form of a 1960s police telephone box due to a broken chameleon circuit), just for the sake of seeing all the universe has to offer. He's not out to single-handedly rid the cosmos of evil, oppression, and wrong-doing, but he does make sure to make quick work of it where he finds it (which just happens to be pretty much everywhere he goes). He largely abhors violence, avoids guns and prefers to fight with his wits, and only kills as an absolute last resort. Oh, and sometimes he gets lonely and makes new friends and traveling companions who join him on his journeys, and maybe even save his ass a few times.
The Doctor is also the most well-equipped adventurer EVER. He's got a machine that can go anywhere in time and space and is way bigger on the inside so it can carry tons of stuff, he has a greatly extended life-span AND, the icing on the cake (and one of the keys to the series longevity, since it's the plot device they use to change to a new actor) if he's ever near death, his Time Lord biology allows him to regenerate into a new body with differently expressed personality traits but all the same memories. Now that I've seen samplings of all eleven, I can talk about them each properly.
The First Doctor (William Hartnell): The original flavor. A gruff authority figure who does not suffer fools gladly, but softens up after a while. I'm currently working my way through his serials in order (after watching tons of other serials out of order) and I'm almost done with the first season. He certainly has come a ways from almost killing a wounded caveman in the second episode because he's dead weight. Last I saw him, he was representing one of his companions in court against a false murder charge.
The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton): Frequently called "the cosmic hobo." Loves playing his recorder (although for some reason I never saw him with it until he came back in The Three Doctors) and is more caring and comical than his predecessor. His era unfortunately got the worst of the BBC's junking policy of the time so he has the most missing episodes and, in some cases, missing entire serials. Generally awesome and considered to be the most influential for future Doctors. For some reason, I love this Doctor even though I'm not that fond of his actual serials (with the HUGE exception of The Mind Robber, which is one of my favorite things in the show EVER). Oh...and he and his companion Jamie are one of the slashiest OTPs in the whole series. I mean, look at them. This happens a lot :3
The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee): The badass dandy. Yes I just used those words in the same sentence. This guy wore ruffled lace cuffs, drove an antique car, and could kick your ass. Then he went back to being quite the picture of a gentleman. He had the unique set-up amongst the Doctors of spending his first three seasons exiled on Earth and joining UNIT, a military organization that dealt with the paranormal, as a scientific adviser. And did I mention he could kick your ass?
The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker): The alien head-in-the-clouds. If you knew Doctor Who before 2005, this is the guy who probably came to mind. Super-long scarf, poofy hair, huge eyes, the toothiest grin ever, loves Jelly Babies, and is the longest serving Doctor to date (seven seasons). For some reason, it took longer than it should have for him to grow on me. Might've just been because the first two of his serials I saw (The Ark in Space and Pyramids of Mars) didn't impress me much. Then things got better.
The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison): The young cricketer. With celery. Probably the most polite and innocent of the set, except when the situation decreed otherwise (he would actually pick up a gun once in a while, even blasting the crap out of a Cyberman at the end of Earthshock. An epic moment of awesome right before very sad things happened. And don't even get me started on the cliffhanger for episode 3 of The Caves of Androzani...). He was the only Classic Doctor I'd seen in action before I watched his serials proper, thanks to Time Crash, and was also the Classic Doctor to grow on me the fastest (whereas other Doctors took a few episodes, I liked Fivey within minutes).
The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker): The one who confuses me the most. The way the fandom tends to describe him, he's a walking ego in a crazy coat; the Doctor who bets fits the Jerk With a Heart of Gold archetype. Considering I've only seen him in 3 serials and all three of them were drastically different, I'm still figuring out what to make of him. First impressions are important, and when your first serial is The Twin Dilemma...yeah, no. He'd mellowed out a lot more by Vengeance on Varos and officially redeemed himself in Mark of the Rani which had that scene with the chain jingling and the smiling and the pouty-face-Peri and just D'AAAWWWWWWW. Also, I use this video to scare my friends. But it's so damn CATCHY.
The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy): The goofball turned calculating man of mystery. Since I've only seen his last season so far, I haven't seen any of the former yet. But I have seen clips, so I know it happens. Has my favorite Doctor/companion relationship with his last companion Ace, as they have an excellent mentor/student dynamic going. Also made of delicious ham and cheese. Seriously, watch Battlefield sometime and count the number of times he snarls at someone or about something. "Go! Before I unleash a terrible...SOMETHING on you!"
The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann): The nice but amnesiac romantic. The first Doctor to be overtly sexy, and also kiss a companion on-screen. Unfortunately, his only canon appearance was in the infamous TV movie in which he was pretty much the only really good thing (everything else was pretty hit-or-miss, but it has a good slew of fans) so I can't say that much about him. McGann was brought back to the role for the Big Finish audio dramas, which I did have most of, thanks to my lovely watchers over at the Who Blog, but then I had a major attack of conscience last night and deleted all of them. I hear they're really good, though.
The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston): The shaken war veteran, and my first Doctor. Maybe it was just because I had the image of Tennant as the Doctor in my head when I started watching, but something about Nine just seemed a little...off to me. The happy-moments just didn't seem to go right with the leather jacket and the buzz cut. Still, he was a great introduction to who the Doctor was and what he was about. I finished his episodes in a matter of a few short weeks, but I'd still gotten attached enough to him to be sorry to see him go. Even though he'd already been gone for 4 years.
The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant): The gallant adventurous and sexy spaz, and My Doctor. Because New Who was in full swing by this point, Ten got a LOT of deep examination of the character. He had probably the greatest range of emotions, including: exuberant, loving, concerned, torn, grieving, enraged, confident, and even helplessness when the situation called for it LIKE IN MIDNIGHT OH MY FREAKING GOD THAT EPISODE. He's also the guy you'd really want to go traveling through time and space with (not that you wouldn't want to go with any of the others, but you can't deny that Ten's got some awesome charm) and you DO. NOT. EVER. hurt/endanger his companions or get on his bad side. He will seriously fuck your shit up. He also seems to grow gradually more angsty as his tenure went on, though I can't really say from experience since I STILL haven't seen The Waters of Mars of the rest of The End of Time.
The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith): The scatterbrained professor in a young man's body, and the current Doctor. His first season ends on Saturday and I confess myself VERY duly impressed. Even more prone to rambling than his predecessor, he answered my question of "HOW can you be more of a 'bonkers Doctor' than David Tennant?" Loves bow-ties and manages to compress all the angst about the Time War from the past several seasons into "It was a bad day, bad things happened" and then changes the subject. He loves doing that too, changing the subject. Also has a great time-traveling-BFFs relationship with his companion Amy.
Don't even ask me to name runner-ups. I could, but I'm too tired.
30 Days of Telly Meme
Day 01 - A Show That Should Never Have Been Canceled: Higher Ground
Day 02 - A Show That You Wish More People Were Watching: Oban Star-Racers
Day 03 - Your Favorite New Show (aired this TV season): Doctor Who: Season 5/31/1/Fnarg
Day 04 - Your Favorite Show Ever: Samurai Jack
Day 05 - A Show You Hate: Father of the Pride
Day 06 - Favorite Episode of Your Favorite TV Show: Jack and the Scotsman (1 and 2)
Day 07 - Least Favorite Episode of Your Favorite TV Show: Jack and the Three Blind Archers/Robo-Samurai vs. Mondo-Bot
Day 08 - A Show Everyone Should Watch: Cowboy Bebob (with runner-up: Now and Then, Here and There)
Day 09 - Best Scene Ever: George in Drag/Going Over the Top from Blackadder Goes Forth
Day 10 - A Show You Thought You Wouldn't Like But Ended Up Loving: Jeeves and Wooster (with runner-up: Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Day 11 - A Show That Disappointed You: Digimon Data Squad
Day 12 - An Episode You've Watched More Than 5 Times: Any given episode from the first 2 seasons of Samurai Jack
Day 13 - Favorite Childhood Show: Rugrats
Day 14 - Favorite Male Character:
Day 15 - Favorite Female Character:
Day 16 - Your Guilty Pleasure Show:
Day 17 - Favorite Mini Series:
Day 18 - Favorite Title Sequence:
Day 19 - Best TV Show Cast:
Day 20 - Favorite Kiss:
Day 21 - Favorite Ship:
Day 22 - Favorite Series Finale:
Day 23 - Most Annoying Character:
Day 24 - Best Quote:
Day 25 - A Show You Plan On Watching (Old or New):
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season Finale:
Day 27 - Best Pilot Episode:
Day 28 - First TV Show Obsession:
Day 29 - Current TV Show Obsession:
Day 30 - Saddest Character Death:
Click to viewYou know, after all these posts of me rambling about Doctor Who-related stuff, I don't think I've ever really talked much about the actual show and characters. Except maybe for this post. And back when I was still posting my Twitter commentaries here before I created classicwhoblog.
So. The Doctor.
For anyone on my flist out of the know-how, the Doctor is an independent and free-spirited runaway from the orderly and stagnant race known as the Time Lords. He delights in traveling here and there and everywhere and everywhen through time and space in his TARDIS (stuck in the form of a 1960s police telephone box due to a broken chameleon circuit), just for the sake of seeing all the universe has to offer. He's not out to single-handedly rid the cosmos of evil, oppression, and wrong-doing, but he does make sure to make quick work of it where he finds it (which just happens to be pretty much everywhere he goes). He largely abhors violence, avoids guns and prefers to fight with his wits, and only kills as an absolute last resort. Oh, and sometimes he gets lonely and makes new friends and traveling companions who join him on his journeys, and maybe even save his ass a few times.
The Doctor is also the most well-equipped adventurer EVER. He's got a machine that can go anywhere in time and space and is way bigger on the inside so it can carry tons of stuff, he has a greatly extended life-span AND, the icing on the cake (and one of the keys to the series longevity, since it's the plot device they use to change to a new actor) if he's ever near death, his Time Lord biology allows him to regenerate into a new body with differently expressed personality traits but all the same memories. Now that I've seen samplings of all eleven, I can talk about them each properly.
The First Doctor (William Hartnell): The original flavor. A gruff authority figure who does not suffer fools gladly, but softens up after a while. I'm currently working my way through his serials in order (after watching tons of other serials out of order) and I'm almost done with the first season. He certainly has come a ways from almost killing a wounded caveman in the second episode because he's dead weight. Last I saw him, he was representing one of his companions in court against a false murder charge.
The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton): Frequently called "the cosmic hobo." Loves playing his recorder (although for some reason I never saw him with it until he came back in The Three Doctors) and is more caring and comical than his predecessor. His era unfortunately got the worst of the BBC's junking policy of the time so he has the most missing episodes and, in some cases, missing entire serials. Generally awesome and considered to be the most influential for future Doctors. For some reason, I love this Doctor even though I'm not that fond of his actual serials (with the HUGE exception of The Mind Robber, which is one of my favorite things in the show EVER). Oh...and he and his companion Jamie are one of the slashiest OTPs in the whole series. I mean, look at them. This happens a lot :3
The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee): The badass dandy. Yes I just used those words in the same sentence. This guy wore ruffled lace cuffs, drove an antique car, and could kick your ass. Then he went back to being quite the picture of a gentleman. He had the unique set-up amongst the Doctors of spending his first three seasons exiled on Earth and joining UNIT, a military organization that dealt with the paranormal, as a scientific adviser. And did I mention he could kick your ass?
The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker): The alien head-in-the-clouds. If you knew Doctor Who before 2005, this is the guy who probably came to mind. Super-long scarf, poofy hair, huge eyes, the toothiest grin ever, loves Jelly Babies, and is the longest serving Doctor to date (seven seasons). For some reason, it took longer than it should have for him to grow on me. Might've just been because the first two of his serials I saw (The Ark in Space and Pyramids of Mars) didn't impress me much. Then things got better.
The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison): The young cricketer. With celery. Probably the most polite and innocent of the set, except when the situation decreed otherwise (he would actually pick up a gun once in a while, even blasting the crap out of a Cyberman at the end of Earthshock. An epic moment of awesome right before very sad things happened. And don't even get me started on the cliffhanger for episode 3 of The Caves of Androzani...). He was the only Classic Doctor I'd seen in action before I watched his serials proper, thanks to Time Crash, and was also the Classic Doctor to grow on me the fastest (whereas other Doctors took a few episodes, I liked Fivey within minutes).
The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker): The one who confuses me the most. The way the fandom tends to describe him, he's a walking ego in a crazy coat; the Doctor who bets fits the Jerk With a Heart of Gold archetype. Considering I've only seen him in 3 serials and all three of them were drastically different, I'm still figuring out what to make of him. First impressions are important, and when your first serial is The Twin Dilemma...yeah, no. He'd mellowed out a lot more by Vengeance on Varos and officially redeemed himself in Mark of the Rani which had that scene with the chain jingling and the smiling and the pouty-face-Peri and just D'AAAWWWWWWW. Also, I use this video to scare my friends. But it's so damn CATCHY.
The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy): The goofball turned calculating man of mystery. Since I've only seen his last season so far, I haven't seen any of the former yet. But I have seen clips, so I know it happens. Has my favorite Doctor/companion relationship with his last companion Ace, as they have an excellent mentor/student dynamic going. Also made of delicious ham and cheese. Seriously, watch Battlefield sometime and count the number of times he snarls at someone or about something. "Go! Before I unleash a terrible...SOMETHING on you!"
The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann): The nice but amnesiac romantic. The first Doctor to be overtly sexy, and also kiss a companion on-screen. Unfortunately, his only canon appearance was in the infamous TV movie in which he was pretty much the only really good thing (everything else was pretty hit-or-miss, but it has a good slew of fans) so I can't say that much about him. McGann was brought back to the role for the Big Finish audio dramas, which I did have most of, thanks to my lovely watchers over at the Who Blog, but then I had a major attack of conscience last night and deleted all of them. I hear they're really good, though.
The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston): The shaken war veteran, and my first Doctor. Maybe it was just because I had the image of Tennant as the Doctor in my head when I started watching, but something about Nine just seemed a little...off to me. The happy-moments just didn't seem to go right with the leather jacket and the buzz cut. Still, he was a great introduction to who the Doctor was and what he was about. I finished his episodes in a matter of a few short weeks, but I'd still gotten attached enough to him to be sorry to see him go. Even though he'd already been gone for 4 years.
The Tenth Doctor (David Tennant): The gallant adventurous and sexy spaz, and My Doctor. Because New Who was in full swing by this point, Ten got a LOT of deep examination of the character. He had probably the greatest range of emotions, including: exuberant, loving, concerned, torn, grieving, enraged, confident, and even helplessness when the situation called for it LIKE IN MIDNIGHT OH MY FREAKING GOD THAT EPISODE. He's also the guy you'd really want to go traveling through time and space with (not that you wouldn't want to go with any of the others, but you can't deny that Ten's got some awesome charm) and you DO. NOT. EVER. hurt/endanger his companions or get on his bad side. He will seriously fuck your shit up. He also seems to grow gradually more angsty as his tenure went on, though I can't really say from experience since I STILL haven't seen The Waters of Mars of the rest of The End of Time.
The Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith): The scatterbrained professor in a young man's body, and the current Doctor. His first season ends on Saturday and I confess myself VERY duly impressed. Even more prone to rambling than his predecessor, he answered my question of "HOW can you be more of a 'bonkers Doctor' than David Tennant?" Loves bow-ties and manages to compress all the angst about the Time War from the past several seasons into "It was a bad day, bad things happened" and then changes the subject. He loves doing that too, changing the subject. Also has a great time-traveling-BFFs relationship with his companion Amy.
Don't even ask me to name runner-ups. I could, but I'm too tired.
30 Days of Telly Meme
Day 01 - A Show That Should Never Have Been Canceled: Higher Ground
Day 02 - A Show That You Wish More People Were Watching: Oban Star-Racers
Day 03 - Your Favorite New Show (aired this TV season): Doctor Who: Season 5/31/1/Fnarg
Day 04 - Your Favorite Show Ever: Samurai Jack
Day 05 - A Show You Hate: Father of the Pride
Day 06 - Favorite Episode of Your Favorite TV Show: Jack and the Scotsman (1 and 2)
Day 07 - Least Favorite Episode of Your Favorite TV Show: Jack and the Three Blind Archers/Robo-Samurai vs. Mondo-Bot
Day 08 - A Show Everyone Should Watch: Cowboy Bebob (with runner-up: Now and Then, Here and There)
Day 09 - Best Scene Ever: George in Drag/Going Over the Top from Blackadder Goes Forth
Day 10 - A Show You Thought You Wouldn't Like But Ended Up Loving: Jeeves and Wooster (with runner-up: Avatar: The Last Airbender)
Day 11 - A Show That Disappointed You: Digimon Data Squad
Day 12 - An Episode You've Watched More Than 5 Times: Any given episode from the first 2 seasons of Samurai Jack
Day 13 - Favorite Childhood Show: Rugrats
Day 14 - Favorite Male Character:
Day 15 - Favorite Female Character:
Day 16 - Your Guilty Pleasure Show:
Day 17 - Favorite Mini Series:
Day 18 - Favorite Title Sequence:
Day 19 - Best TV Show Cast:
Day 20 - Favorite Kiss:
Day 21 - Favorite Ship:
Day 22 - Favorite Series Finale:
Day 23 - Most Annoying Character:
Day 24 - Best Quote:
Day 25 - A Show You Plan On Watching (Old or New):
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season Finale:
Day 27 - Best Pilot Episode:
Day 28 - First TV Show Obsession:
Day 29 - Current TV Show Obsession:
Day 30 - Saddest Character Death: