We All Need a Doctor
Like many British kids I had a childhood love of Doctor Who (but fortunately not the pictured underpants). My main memories of the TV series are of the later Tom Baker and the Peter Davison eras (Davison was much underrated in my opinion - I have deep evokative memories of stories like Castrovalva, Enlightenment and Earthshock). Beyond the TV I used to while away the two hours after primary school before my mother finished work by sitting in the next-door library and gradually working my way through their entire Doctor Who collection. The impact on me was deep, and to this day I am moulded as much by the role model of The Doctor as by anything else (sometimes even down to the eccentric clothing).
Doctor Who on TV with Colin Baker at the helm gradually got sillier and siller (Bonnie Langford - were they kidding?!), and with Sylvester McCoy it took a dramatic nose-dive. Neither actor added much of interest over the characterisations of their predecessors. Such was my disillusionment that I gave the appearance of a 1996 telemovie no more than a second thought despite being quite a fan of Paul McGann.
Perhaps partly because of the success of the Battlestar Galactica reinvention I was tentatively positive on hearing the news that well-respected TV writer Russell T Davies was to bring Doctor Who back to the small screen after its 16 year absence. Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor seemed an exciting choice - his performances have always impressed - although I'll admit to having been a little nervous about Billie Piper as his companion.
Rose, the first episode of the new series, was leaked to the net a few weeks before being shown, and I leapt at the opportunity to see what a 21st century Who looks like. My initial reactions were a bit mixed, I was disappointed that it is still, to put it bluntly, a bit silly. As the series has progressed I've remembered that being a little kooky was always part of the unique charm of the show - after all what could be more kooky than having the time machine be a police telephone box? Apparently the choice was an improvisation to save costs - the box was lying around from a police drama - but actually turned out to be a timeless stroke of genius.
From the somewhat silly start the series picked up steam with some great effects in The End of the World, a classic Who historic piece in The Unquiet Dead, and reached dizzying heights of quality with the sublime 'Dalek' - feel sympathy for a Dalek, moi? Never! - through the beautifully emotive Father's Day, to the eerily compelling Empty Child. If I'm honest, the final flourish of Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways was the smallest soupçon underwhelming, if only because expectations were running high. Still, the resolution of the Bad Wolf mystery and the appearance of David Tennant as the new Doctor were exciting, and though I'm sorry not to see where Eccleston could have taken his incarnation, I'm quietly enthusiastic about The Tenth Doctor.
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