My Long and Complicated Relationship with Doctor Who
So there hasn't been any sign of life from me in about a month; I didn't even update during the Paris leg of my vacation as promised. I'll definitely disclose the (art packed and delicious) details of that adventure at a point in the near future. Since my return I've basically disappeared down a TARDIS shaped hole. Yes, I've shot off on a Doctor Who tangent instead of concentrating on the Buffy/Giles fics that I need to finish as I should.
I very rarely seem to do the things I should. It's simply not in my nature.
Anyway, I recently caught up with all of the episodes featuring the 11th Doctor (including the one that perplexingly *didn't* air in the US last night), mostly thanks to Netflix and BBC America. Been enjoying these a lot- even some of the less successful episodes had redeeming qualities (yes, even the pirate one). I hadn't watched a significant amount of DW in quite awhile, so it got me thinking about the long and complicated relationship I have with this series... which spans over twenty years and even involves the very first fan fiction I ever read- years before I even knew what fan fiction *was*.
Warning: this thinking and contemplating has been going on for several weeks, so this post is bound to get a little bit lengthy.
Like many people who are approximately my age (am I hiding the fact that I'm 29 from anyone around here? No? Good), my knowledge of Doctor Who basically began through scattered encounters with the Doctor's 4th incarnation (Tom Baker) while watching PBS as a kid. I remember being kind of fascinated by the whole thing on lazy Saturday and Sunday afternoons, but I might have initially liked it simply because it was far superior to the Lawrence Welk Show- another hardwearing PBS staple. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing at least a few 5th and 7th Doctor episodes by this method as well. Like many Americans, however, for a long time (and even still to this day, if you happen to be my brother) 4 was what I knew best.
Time went by, years where even my local PBS affiliate didn't show any Doctor Who. I got a little older, got interested in lots of other things. I've always been kind of a geeky obsessive, and at some point I became a full-fledged Star Wars nerd. I watched the films ceaselessly, read the novels, collected stuff... the works. Then, when I was thirteen, we got THE INTERNET. Otherwise known (especially back then) as a geeky obsessive's paradise.
My family in general have always been Mac users, so when my uncle bought a new computer for the house it was a Power PC. It came loaded with eWorld, Apple's ill-fated AOL style ISP. We ended up with AOL at some point, too, probably due to the nearly unavoidable free trials available at the time, but eWorld was my place- partly because of the Star Wars chat room I visited every Thursday (at least, I think it was Thursday) night.
The Star Wars universe was a bit more limited in 1995 than it is at present. These were pre-prequel times, and the 20th Anniversary editions hadn't even been released in theaters yet. There were a lot of novels and things filling the gap at the time, but it was inevitable that other chat topics would occasionally crop up... and that was how I first met other Doctor Who fans. Who would have known we were all hiding in the Star Wars chat room all along! :P
Some of these discussions re-ignited my interest in the franchise, and I started scouring local malls and libraries for Doctor Who VHS (hahaha seriously). Thanks to FYE (or whatever it was called back then) and the wonders of the inter-library loan, I was soon watching all sorts of Doctor Who episodes. It bears mentioning how much more difficult (and, let's face it, *satisfying*) it was to find these things in the days before Amazon and Netflix. It made it all the more exciting when a new series of episodes was found. Obtaining the double VHS pack of The Sontaran Experiment and Genesis of the Daleks was like finding *gold*. Or maybe a pile of gold, covered in chocolate, with hundred dollar bills sticking out of it.
Yeah, I was easy to impress back then. I read some of the novels, too, especially the Missing Adventures published by Virgin Books. When on the hunt, episodes with the 4th or 5th Doctor were usually the easiest to find, but the others popped up sometimes, too- and I watched them all like they were going out of style. Or like they hadn't already gone out of style ten years ago, as it were. But that was okay, because they were about to come back *into* style yet again! Well, sort of...
It became known sometime in 1996 that a new Doctor Who movie was being made, and would be airing on Fox in the US. I had made friends with some English Doctor Who fans in the Star Wars chat room; I can't remember if it was before or after we migrated to AOL after the eWorld shutdown in March of '96. In any case, I had some experience at this time with receiving snail mail from internet friends. I was a budding punk rocker back then, too, so I had some acquaintances with whom I would exchange mix tapes or t-shirts. During the run up to the new Who film one friend in England offered to send over some memorabilia associated with it, including both the script and the novelization of the film. That wasn't the most exciting thing that was in that box, though. Not by far.
Underneath the shiny new things in the surprisingly bulky package was a stack of papers, perhaps two or three hundred sheets filled with neatly typed text. They were stories! Cool! Actually, they were FAN FICTION, but fourteen year old me didn't know what fan fiction *was*. Wow, I remember thinking, they wrote their own stories about the Doctor. They took place during an entirely different regeneration, with different companions and their own original plot... I thought it was so amazing. That must have been the first time the little door in my mind opened up and said, your imagination really is the limit, isn't it?
After the disappointing non-starter that was the 1996 film, there was a whole bunch of high school, boyfriends, punk shows, trips abroad, planning for college, moving to Montreal, moving back, and nearly ten years without any indication that there would ever be any more Doctor Who on television. Not that I was really paying attention, with so much going on. I 'discovered' fan fiction during my Montreal era, attempting to write it for the first time somewhere in 2001 when my geeky obsessiveness had taken a turn for the Harry Potter. Those efforts are long since lost, which I honestly can't say is a bad thing.
At some point around 2005 or 2006, I found my old pile of Doctor Who VHS under the couch or in a box somewhere and started watching them again. But wait a minute... didn't they make some new episodes?! Since we were now in the modern era, I promptly went to Amazon and ordered the entire first series of 'new' Who, starring the 9th incarnation and Rose Tyler.
I *loved* the 9th Doctor and Rose! And it seemed as though they had been much more successful here than with the 1996 movie as far as keeping true to the overall sprit of the series; this was Doctor Who in a way the film simply hadn't been. I was thoroughly enjoying it, and then I got to the end of Series One. And...
...WHAT?! They regenerated him *already*?!
Man, I was ticked. It seemed like it was way too soon for the Doctor to swap faces, and I had really grown to like Eccleston. There was potential there, I felt, and I loved him with the companions. So disappointing. But then again, maybe the new guy would be even better! I think BBC America was showing 10th Doctor episodes by this time, so I would have a chance to check him out.
And this is where I'm probably going to get rotten tomatoes thrown at me. Keep in mind before you all swing your cricket bats: I can't help it. Believe me, I've tried. I just... didn't particularly *like* Tennant as the Doctor. And, though I'm about halfway through catching up with all his episodes (thanks, again, to Netflix), I still don't.
So I didn't really get into 10. I didn't watch much DW at all for the next few years, and got into other things (Buffy, for example). Just recently, I noticed that Netflix had added the first series of 11's episodes, so I decided to give them a try. And I loved series 5. I watched the whole thing in about two days. I thought Smith was great, I liked the companions, the stories linked together in a way that kept my interest... pretty soon I was all the way through what there was of series 6 and didn't have any new ones to watch.
Therefore, it was time to go back to the Tennant era and try again! I picked up near the end of series 2 and watched most of series 3 with ease. I've started to enjoy the episodes more, though 10 still kind of leaves me cold. I really can't explain it- I've never cared for 5 or 7 all that much either, whereas the (almost) universally despised 6th Doctor is one of my favorites. I've still got series 4 to do, and it's my current viewing priority. I need to do the Tennant specials as well- I've seen Planet of the Dead and The Waters of Mars, but I'm sure they'll be a more satisfying viewing experience in context with the rest of what I've missed.
Believe me, I don't want to join in any 10 vs 11 debate or be accused of drinking the Moffat kool-aid. I'm quite unhappy that I can't warm up to Tennant, but I've managed to throw off my mantle of guilt and chalk it up to personal preference. I guess after watching the series for over twenty years I have the right to that, at least. But for the record, still trying. I refuse to make any final judgements on 10's run until I've finished it all the way through.
(ducks as rotten tomato flies by)
In brief, my experiences/opinions of each incarnation of the Doctor:
1st - 3rd Doctors: Honestly, I haven't seen enough of their episodes to make much of a comment. The Five Doctors was an enjoyable insight, but not enough for me to form an opinion. I would love to go back and watch some of these earlier episodes. There's definitely at least some 3 in my Netflix queue for when I get done catching up on 10.
4th Doctor: The first one I knew, and therefore a sentimental favorite. Really enjoyed his earlier adventures with Sarah Jane, especially when Harry Sullivan was also along. Some of his later story lines weren't quite as successful, I thought, but there's a lot of good to choose from.
5th Doctor: Not a particular favorite. I've always found him a little bit... boring? Like the celery, though, and some of the companions weren't bad. I think I may have a little difficulty feeling comfortable with him as the Doctor due to the fact that PBS also bombarded us with Davison in All Creatures Great and Small for many years...
6th Doctor: I knew I was going to like him as soon as he regenerated and tried to kill Peri. :P Seriously, though, the over-the-top dramatics and unflinching arrogance really kind of work for me. I know a lot of people think this was the worst era the series has had, but there were also a lot of problems at the BBC around this time. I don't think Colin Baker is entirely to blame. Honestly, 6 is one of my favorites. I thought I was a total freak until I found out that Littleotter73 is a fan, too. ^_~
7th Doctor: I don't have all that much experience with 7. I've seen probably 3 of his episodes, including the ultra-cheesy (in some respects, in a good way) Time and the Rani. Can't say that I've been all that impressed with this incarnation...
8th Doctor: I actually quite like McGann, but I'm still not sure which side of the debate I'm on in terms of whether he should rightfully be considered 'official'. I understand that his era included an amazing amount of material across a variety of media, but his only televised appearance was rather dubious and included some content of questionable canonicity (he's half human? there's an eye of harmony inside the TARDIS? Eric Roberts is the Master? Wha?).
9th Doctor: I like him. I appreciate that they were trying to do something a bit different, and maybe the choices they took with 9's mannerisms and appearance were necessary to re-establish the series as something 'new'. I thought series 1 was quite successful and blending the old with the new, and I was sorry to see 9 go so soon.
10th Doctor: See above. (hides from angry mob) The jury is still out on this one...
11th Doctor: I liked him right away- the scenes with little girl Amelia in The Eleventh Hour were great fun, and I like 11's blend of innocence and (900 years worth of) experience. And the companions? Love them too! Plus, series 6 is really messing with our minds, which I also appreciate.
So I guess that sums it up, in a million words or less. Sometimes it's hard to believe I've been watching Doctor Who since I was a little kid... and the fact that it's even possible, with new episodes still being made, is just brilliant. I love the horrible production values and outlandish costumes of the old Who, as well as the sleek updated feel and interwoven plot lines of the new. When it really comes down to it, this was my first fandom, and it still leaves me more to keep discovering than anything else I've come across. Not getting bored anytime soon. And that's really saying something, isn't it?
I very rarely seem to do the things I should. It's simply not in my nature.
Anyway, I recently caught up with all of the episodes featuring the 11th Doctor (including the one that perplexingly *didn't* air in the US last night), mostly thanks to Netflix and BBC America. Been enjoying these a lot- even some of the less successful episodes had redeeming qualities (yes, even the pirate one). I hadn't watched a significant amount of DW in quite awhile, so it got me thinking about the long and complicated relationship I have with this series... which spans over twenty years and even involves the very first fan fiction I ever read- years before I even knew what fan fiction *was*.
Warning: this thinking and contemplating has been going on for several weeks, so this post is bound to get a little bit lengthy.
Like many people who are approximately my age (am I hiding the fact that I'm 29 from anyone around here? No? Good), my knowledge of Doctor Who basically began through scattered encounters with the Doctor's 4th incarnation (Tom Baker) while watching PBS as a kid. I remember being kind of fascinated by the whole thing on lazy Saturday and Sunday afternoons, but I might have initially liked it simply because it was far superior to the Lawrence Welk Show- another hardwearing PBS staple. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing at least a few 5th and 7th Doctor episodes by this method as well. Like many Americans, however, for a long time (and even still to this day, if you happen to be my brother) 4 was what I knew best.
Time went by, years where even my local PBS affiliate didn't show any Doctor Who. I got a little older, got interested in lots of other things. I've always been kind of a geeky obsessive, and at some point I became a full-fledged Star Wars nerd. I watched the films ceaselessly, read the novels, collected stuff... the works. Then, when I was thirteen, we got THE INTERNET. Otherwise known (especially back then) as a geeky obsessive's paradise.
My family in general have always been Mac users, so when my uncle bought a new computer for the house it was a Power PC. It came loaded with eWorld, Apple's ill-fated AOL style ISP. We ended up with AOL at some point, too, probably due to the nearly unavoidable free trials available at the time, but eWorld was my place- partly because of the Star Wars chat room I visited every Thursday (at least, I think it was Thursday) night.
The Star Wars universe was a bit more limited in 1995 than it is at present. These were pre-prequel times, and the 20th Anniversary editions hadn't even been released in theaters yet. There were a lot of novels and things filling the gap at the time, but it was inevitable that other chat topics would occasionally crop up... and that was how I first met other Doctor Who fans. Who would have known we were all hiding in the Star Wars chat room all along! :P
Some of these discussions re-ignited my interest in the franchise, and I started scouring local malls and libraries for Doctor Who VHS (hahaha seriously). Thanks to FYE (or whatever it was called back then) and the wonders of the inter-library loan, I was soon watching all sorts of Doctor Who episodes. It bears mentioning how much more difficult (and, let's face it, *satisfying*) it was to find these things in the days before Amazon and Netflix. It made it all the more exciting when a new series of episodes was found. Obtaining the double VHS pack of The Sontaran Experiment and Genesis of the Daleks was like finding *gold*. Or maybe a pile of gold, covered in chocolate, with hundred dollar bills sticking out of it.
Yeah, I was easy to impress back then. I read some of the novels, too, especially the Missing Adventures published by Virgin Books. When on the hunt, episodes with the 4th or 5th Doctor were usually the easiest to find, but the others popped up sometimes, too- and I watched them all like they were going out of style. Or like they hadn't already gone out of style ten years ago, as it were. But that was okay, because they were about to come back *into* style yet again! Well, sort of...
It became known sometime in 1996 that a new Doctor Who movie was being made, and would be airing on Fox in the US. I had made friends with some English Doctor Who fans in the Star Wars chat room; I can't remember if it was before or after we migrated to AOL after the eWorld shutdown in March of '96. In any case, I had some experience at this time with receiving snail mail from internet friends. I was a budding punk rocker back then, too, so I had some acquaintances with whom I would exchange mix tapes or t-shirts. During the run up to the new Who film one friend in England offered to send over some memorabilia associated with it, including both the script and the novelization of the film. That wasn't the most exciting thing that was in that box, though. Not by far.
Underneath the shiny new things in the surprisingly bulky package was a stack of papers, perhaps two or three hundred sheets filled with neatly typed text. They were stories! Cool! Actually, they were FAN FICTION, but fourteen year old me didn't know what fan fiction *was*. Wow, I remember thinking, they wrote their own stories about the Doctor. They took place during an entirely different regeneration, with different companions and their own original plot... I thought it was so amazing. That must have been the first time the little door in my mind opened up and said, your imagination really is the limit, isn't it?
After the disappointing non-starter that was the 1996 film, there was a whole bunch of high school, boyfriends, punk shows, trips abroad, planning for college, moving to Montreal, moving back, and nearly ten years without any indication that there would ever be any more Doctor Who on television. Not that I was really paying attention, with so much going on. I 'discovered' fan fiction during my Montreal era, attempting to write it for the first time somewhere in 2001 when my geeky obsessiveness had taken a turn for the Harry Potter. Those efforts are long since lost, which I honestly can't say is a bad thing.
At some point around 2005 or 2006, I found my old pile of Doctor Who VHS under the couch or in a box somewhere and started watching them again. But wait a minute... didn't they make some new episodes?! Since we were now in the modern era, I promptly went to Amazon and ordered the entire first series of 'new' Who, starring the 9th incarnation and Rose Tyler.
I *loved* the 9th Doctor and Rose! And it seemed as though they had been much more successful here than with the 1996 movie as far as keeping true to the overall sprit of the series; this was Doctor Who in a way the film simply hadn't been. I was thoroughly enjoying it, and then I got to the end of Series One. And...
...WHAT?! They regenerated him *already*?!
Man, I was ticked. It seemed like it was way too soon for the Doctor to swap faces, and I had really grown to like Eccleston. There was potential there, I felt, and I loved him with the companions. So disappointing. But then again, maybe the new guy would be even better! I think BBC America was showing 10th Doctor episodes by this time, so I would have a chance to check him out.
And this is where I'm probably going to get rotten tomatoes thrown at me. Keep in mind before you all swing your cricket bats: I can't help it. Believe me, I've tried. I just... didn't particularly *like* Tennant as the Doctor. And, though I'm about halfway through catching up with all his episodes (thanks, again, to Netflix), I still don't.
So I didn't really get into 10. I didn't watch much DW at all for the next few years, and got into other things (Buffy, for example). Just recently, I noticed that Netflix had added the first series of 11's episodes, so I decided to give them a try. And I loved series 5. I watched the whole thing in about two days. I thought Smith was great, I liked the companions, the stories linked together in a way that kept my interest... pretty soon I was all the way through what there was of series 6 and didn't have any new ones to watch.
Therefore, it was time to go back to the Tennant era and try again! I picked up near the end of series 2 and watched most of series 3 with ease. I've started to enjoy the episodes more, though 10 still kind of leaves me cold. I really can't explain it- I've never cared for 5 or 7 all that much either, whereas the (almost) universally despised 6th Doctor is one of my favorites. I've still got series 4 to do, and it's my current viewing priority. I need to do the Tennant specials as well- I've seen Planet of the Dead and The Waters of Mars, but I'm sure they'll be a more satisfying viewing experience in context with the rest of what I've missed.
Believe me, I don't want to join in any 10 vs 11 debate or be accused of drinking the Moffat kool-aid. I'm quite unhappy that I can't warm up to Tennant, but I've managed to throw off my mantle of guilt and chalk it up to personal preference. I guess after watching the series for over twenty years I have the right to that, at least. But for the record, still trying. I refuse to make any final judgements on 10's run until I've finished it all the way through.
(ducks as rotten tomato flies by)
In brief, my experiences/opinions of each incarnation of the Doctor:
1st - 3rd Doctors: Honestly, I haven't seen enough of their episodes to make much of a comment. The Five Doctors was an enjoyable insight, but not enough for me to form an opinion. I would love to go back and watch some of these earlier episodes. There's definitely at least some 3 in my Netflix queue for when I get done catching up on 10.
4th Doctor: The first one I knew, and therefore a sentimental favorite. Really enjoyed his earlier adventures with Sarah Jane, especially when Harry Sullivan was also along. Some of his later story lines weren't quite as successful, I thought, but there's a lot of good to choose from.
5th Doctor: Not a particular favorite. I've always found him a little bit... boring? Like the celery, though, and some of the companions weren't bad. I think I may have a little difficulty feeling comfortable with him as the Doctor due to the fact that PBS also bombarded us with Davison in All Creatures Great and Small for many years...
6th Doctor: I knew I was going to like him as soon as he regenerated and tried to kill Peri. :P Seriously, though, the over-the-top dramatics and unflinching arrogance really kind of work for me. I know a lot of people think this was the worst era the series has had, but there were also a lot of problems at the BBC around this time. I don't think Colin Baker is entirely to blame. Honestly, 6 is one of my favorites. I thought I was a total freak until I found out that Littleotter73 is a fan, too. ^_~
7th Doctor: I don't have all that much experience with 7. I've seen probably 3 of his episodes, including the ultra-cheesy (in some respects, in a good way) Time and the Rani. Can't say that I've been all that impressed with this incarnation...
8th Doctor: I actually quite like McGann, but I'm still not sure which side of the debate I'm on in terms of whether he should rightfully be considered 'official'. I understand that his era included an amazing amount of material across a variety of media, but his only televised appearance was rather dubious and included some content of questionable canonicity (he's half human? there's an eye of harmony inside the TARDIS? Eric Roberts is the Master? Wha?).
9th Doctor: I like him. I appreciate that they were trying to do something a bit different, and maybe the choices they took with 9's mannerisms and appearance were necessary to re-establish the series as something 'new'. I thought series 1 was quite successful and blending the old with the new, and I was sorry to see 9 go so soon.
10th Doctor: See above. (hides from angry mob) The jury is still out on this one...
11th Doctor: I liked him right away- the scenes with little girl Amelia in The Eleventh Hour were great fun, and I like 11's blend of innocence and (900 years worth of) experience. And the companions? Love them too! Plus, series 6 is really messing with our minds, which I also appreciate.
So I guess that sums it up, in a million words or less. Sometimes it's hard to believe I've been watching Doctor Who since I was a little kid... and the fact that it's even possible, with new episodes still being made, is just brilliant. I love the horrible production values and outlandish costumes of the old Who, as well as the sleek updated feel and interwoven plot lines of the new. When it really comes down to it, this was my first fandom, and it still leaves me more to keep discovering than anything else I've come across. Not getting bored anytime soon. And that's really saying something, isn't it?