Well… technically, the hit British science fiction drama “Doctor Who” is getting on for its 52nd year on and off screens, but it has been ten years this month that it was reintroduced to World wide audiences.
Christopher Eccleston headlined as the leather bound Ninth Doctor along with his pretty new companion Rose, played by peroxide enthusiast, Billie Piper. The first series alone saw the return of such classic monsters like the Autons, the Daleks and introduced to audiences, the charismatic and somewhat sexually charged Captain Jack Harkness played by John Barrowman, who proved so popular, he got his own spin-off: Torchwood. The first series was dark in tone, with quite emotionally deep, adult plots; London destroyed, Charles Dickens, the end of the World and a futuristic game show empire that saw the main source of entertainment as the pointless execution of innocent members of the public for the viewers pleasure. Yep! The Ninth Doctor’s time was certainly rocky.The modernized take on the classic show was a hit, with a second series commissioned almost straight away… But Chris Eccleston would not be returning… Oops.
After Chris Eccleston’s departure, a younger and more emotionally attuned Doctor, played by David Tennant, was introduced. Tennant would remain in the role he loved so much and to which everyone soon loved him for, from 2005-2010, along with a whole bunch of new companions such as the first black companion, Martha Jones played by Freema Agyeman. Donna Noble played by Catherine Tate; the first actress to play a main companion older than the actor portraying the Doctor, Wilfred Mott played by the always lovable Bernard Cribbins aswell as the return of Classic Who companion: Sarah Jane Smith. This sprightly Doctor would encounter Satan, Weeping Angels, Judoon, Giant Wasps along with returnees: Cybermen, Sontarans and of course, the Master!
These, for me, were the Whovian “Golden Years”, with each series from 2-4 becoming gradually stronger and more likable, across plots, characters and of course, monsters! Not only this, but with the success of it’s spin-off’s Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures it seemed the Whoniverse was expanding and seemed to be unstoppable. What I say next, may cause controversy, but hey! I’d love to hear what people have to say!
Soon, as David Tennant said farewell to his travels in time and space, we were all introduced to an even more youthful and animated Doctor, played by Matt Smith. Now under a new writer, the show took a more childlike approach, with story lines that you couldn’t really relate to, monsters and villains that didn’t feel as threatening and the Doctor’s new companions, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, portrayed by Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, that stole the show. Don’t get me wrong; I have the box sets, I watch the DVD’s because Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor is irrefutably part of the shows ethos and now part of its history. So I ran with it; some stories I liked, some stories I didn’t, just like Tennant and Eccleston before him. I just found myself disliking the one’s I did find less desirable, alot less than those before.
With Smith seeing himself through two TARDIS consoles, a new Sonic Screwdriver, a wife in the form of the ambiguous and campy River Song, played by Alex Kingston and a mini team of alien misfits that contained a Silurian female, a human maid and a Sontaran nurse (WHY?!) Classic Who monsters were of course set to return. Ice Warriors, Zygons, newly designed Daleks (famously titled “Power Ranger Daleks” by their vibrant colours) as well as our first glimpse at the never before seen Time War, referenced throughout the Doctor Who mythology since it’s return in 2005, were all delivered to us in Smith’s turn as the Doctor. As his time came to a close as the Doctor, and with Matt Smith’s latest companion, Clara Oswald, acted rather well by Jenna Coleman, I was unsure as to whether it was a good thing or a bad thing? But to paraphrase the Tenth Doctor himself, Smith was starting to “look a bit tired”. It wasn’t until after he departed and I had time to re-watch his era on Who, I found myself actually missing his quirky enthusiasm and clown like ways but…
BANG! Just like that, the wonderfully talented Peter Capaldi burst onto our screens as the newly regenerated Twelfth Doctor; a considerably darker, emotionally detached and sleeker Time Lord. Fiercely intelligent and at many times uncharacteristically cold, Capaldi seemed to make Doctor Who what it had always been in the era of Classic Who: an old man with a younger female companion, going around the universe in a time machine, fighting monsters. I found it quite refreshing in comparison to the Smiths “everyone fancies him” Doctor. However, once the spot light had fleetingly been on this new take of the Time Lord, it seemed to sharply turn to Clara and her new boyfriend, Danny Pink played by Samuel Anderson. Naturally, the way we, as an audience, relate to these adventures is through the eyes of the human companion. That is our window into this imaginative world and I like that we can share these adventures almost side by side to these ordinary people… but the focal point is still the Doctor and what he does; every other episode, Clara would find herself in another moral dilemma as to either give up her time travelling adventures or to lie to Danny and continue. Series 8 lacked in the realism spectrum and I found myself saying “oh, look love, just go will you? Make up your damn mind”! (To this day, Clara is still aboard the TARDIS… so what does that say?) Introducing a new breed of Cybermen and a female Master, Capaldi’s first series shall not be one to forget in a good or bad way.
Doctor Who has certainly expanded greatly in it’s own little universe and whether we agree or disagree with some of the more distasteful changes, it seems it is here to stay and may I be the first to write: THANK YOU! Because I may complain about it, but it is a piece of my childhood that I cherish and I can’t wait to see where the creators take the Time Lord in the next ten years!
Read on and Prosper!
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