Keeping in line with yesterday’s post, my geekness knows no bounds, and today I witnessed a sad thing in the world of geekdom – the end of David Tennant’s run as The Doctor on Doctor Who. It is also the end of Russell T. Davies run as Executive Producer on the show. It is truly an end of an era.
I have been a Whosian since I was a small child and watched re-runs of Tom Baker episodes on PBS with my dad. Even as a four year old I knew that the effects were cheesy and the acting left the scenery chewed to bits, but there has always been a magic with the show, as any fan can tell you and there are plenty of them the whole world over. Imagine the best parts of Star Trek and Star Wars all combined and then shot on a shoe string budget – voila! That’s Doctor Who!
The series ended back in 1989 in less than stellar style. Sylvester McCoy, the 7th Doctor, was another favorite of mine, but there were limited episodes and the writing near the end of the series was ungood. The 7th Doctor reappeared in the failed US TV movie backdoor pilot back in 1995, but it wasn’t until 2005 that we got a real “regeneration” of the series (that’s an inside joke). Russell T. Davies brought back the magic of what I and so many others like me loved about the series from childhood, but added today’s modern special F/X capabilities that helped raise the production level of the show. That, combined with his reverence for over 40 years of show history, lead to a re-launch that Who fans both new and old could get attached to, and we did! For four seasons we watched as the Doctor, in two different forms, raced through time and space saving the innocent and doing his best as the last Time Lord in the universe. With Davies at the wheel Who fans could watch with confidence that their hero would be in good hands.
New Years Day that promise ended. Now we have a new Doctor – The 11th Doctor Matt Smith – and a new EP, Steven Moffat, at the helm guiding the series. Part of me is really excited for a new direction for the show, but another part of me is terrified that some of the magic that has kept the show so good may fall away. Thus my concerned look in the picture. I guess we’ll find out in the spring.
BTW: If some of that was “greek” to you, and I’m sure to some of you it was, please check out DOCTOR WHO ON WIKIPEDIA. It’s a great primer on all things Who.
See you tomorrow!
I’m excited about the new DOCTOR WHO series. i think Matt Smith will be fun. And Steven Moffat is the writer behind two of my very favorite brit series, the long running COUPLING and the short lived JEKYLL. Plus he’s been writing Doctor Who eps for a while now.
I think it’s time for a fresh infusion. Frankly, I found the last season of “Who” to be a bit tiresome. I think Tennant was kept on too long, because nobody wanted to let go of him. And I feel like Davies ran out of ideas.
And I know that I am in the minority, but I preferred Christopher Eccleston.
When will we start receiving eps of LAW & ORDER: UK over here? That’s what I wanna know!
I agree with you on the Doctor Who front. I recognized the name Moffat, but was too lazy to look it up. I loved “Coupling”! Never saw “Jekyll.” Some of my favorite episodes ever of classic Who were the Douglas Adams eps – he seemed to really get Tom Baker – and I’m really hoping the Paul Cornell will be back for more eps this next season ‘cuz he’s just good in general no matter who is Who. We’ll have to compare notes as the new series goes.
Law & Order: UK?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!!?!?!!?!?!?!? I didn’t even know this existed! I want to know more!
Oops, forgot something on the Doctor Who front: agree with you that fresh blood is important. I didn’t mention in the blog, cuz I was still in the after glow of the episodes, but I was a bit disappointed with Tennat’s leaving of the show. It felt like the show was constructed around the fact that the public knew he was going to die so they had a red herring every act to make you ask, “Is this it? Is this when he dies?” I kept thinking to myself how much tension would have been built if they could have kept the death a secret. I don’t know that Davies was out of ideas, but I do think he stopped taking chances. My favorite Tennant season was the second one where they did all the wild episodes like “Blink”… or was that the first Tennant season?
I also really liked Eccleston. I think he really needed a second series, he’ll go down as an under appreciated Doctor.
Law & Order: UK stars Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) and Jamie Bamber (Appollo from BSG).