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hafitalWarning: This is a long post! I can't imagine who is going to be that interested in my ditherings... :) eta: and I just reread this and realized it's totally disjointed. bwah. Well, welcome to my brain.
When the new Doctor Who starting airing, I think I had a vague knowledge of Classic Doctor Who, probably gleamed entirely from UK QAF, and maybe one vid. heh. Vids were my first introduction to the new incarnation as well, and I was *thrilled* to see Christopher Eccleston in the role of the Doctor, and in a role where he's not, you know, totally evil. *g*. He has long been a favorite of mine. I find him incandescently (albeit unconventionally) gorgeous. So, I always considered myself primed for Doctor Who, but life has been rather topsy turvy since about 2001, and my TV viewing habits take second place (more like 3rd or 4th place, to be honest) to real life, so I was in no hurry to watch it and then learned that Eccleston had passed the torch on to Tennant, and any remote need to watch Dr. Who just sort of slumbered. It was one of those back burner shows, waiting for when I had time. No real hurry, etc etc. I've totally enjoyed watching my friend's list become hijacked by the Dr. Who squeeing and the happiness, the vids and the icons. I loved all the joyousness that seemed to come from DW. I knew people where having a lot of fun, which is all of the yay, and made me sort of vaguely happy and still in no hurry. :)
During my recent trip to the UK, I loaded up the iPod with Series 1 (it felt fitting! Seeing as it was largely the reason I was going, *eyes Melina*) to watch on trains and planes and down time when I wasn't working on my thesis. I think we managed to go through all of Series 1 and a few episodes into Series 2. And of course we traveled to Cardiff and saw many of the locations there, as well as the Doctor Who exhibit, and I peppered Melina with questions (and she had to deal with my quasi-jaded notreallyintoDrWhoorTorchwood attitude *g*). And then, mostly because I was on a roll and wanting to just see the rest of it already and get it done, when I got back to the US suffering from jetlag, in the wee mornings I watched the rest of Doctor Who thru to Voyage of the Damned and then I also finished it off with Torchwood. Oddly, I felt like I needed to watch them all before I could comment, I don't know why, but there you have it. The inner workings of my brain are strange. :D I gotta say I'm a bit sad now that I've seen it all... Anyway, enough personal history!
The Ninth Doctor:
At first, watching the Ninth Doctor, I wasn't sure how I felt about the show. I enjoyed watching Nine and Rose a lot. I loved Rose instantly, and was thoroughly enchanted by the two of them together, where love and affection and fun just seemed to shine right through them at all times. I loved that. I also loved Mickey (and did not care for how he was treated, no matter that he came into his own later). But the seemingly cavalier, willy-nilly changing of history and events with (what appears to be) little thought to consequences, the depictions of the future which were all so cartoonish sometimes and sort of... one note, one flavor. I didn't see one future where I would want to live. This kept me at distance from the show, I couldn't completely fall in love.
Yet that didn't stop me from continuing! :) And then there were things I really did love about it, too. I loved (love!) the Doctor, actually, and his energy and his pathos, how honestly affected he is when he knows he can't save everyone, you can just see it on his face. I LOVE that he does actually save people most of the time, in his manic, crazy, saving the world in the final moments just in the nick of time sort of way. I loved the compassion, the desire for better, for more, the celebration of humanity, and that the Doctor comes from a place of non-violence, with his (totally phallic hello! not to mention increasingly versatile) sonic screwdriver. Saving the world by... screwing! Yes! I also love that they keep him essentially alien, and the writers and the actors do that very well.
I love the faith one starts to have in the Doctor, that he will save you, he will save everyone. And the joy he has when he does, its rather breathtaking -- that faith. And then sometimes he fails, and how much that hurts.
One thing I noticed right from the beginning that Doctor Who does very well (and perhaps this is the influence of Douglas Adams? Or was it the other way around?) is that 'seemingly random events or objects or people all are actually connected together' thing. It's all very Dirk Gently (and the TARDIS acts suspiciously like an improbability drive...), but with more running and urgency and aliens and the end of the world type stuff. Some of the wider retconning that goes on across the series' might be a bit wonky, but within individual episodes, it's quite clever. Most episodes and arcs are well plotted within their individual storylines. And a side benefit is that the tight episode/arc plotting (and the Doctor's manic energy) help steamroll right over some of the stuff that's not done so well. The insignificant becomes significant. All the random bits come together to save the day, sort of thing.
However, of course, the other side of this is that with all this plot they go through every episode, there is less time for the individual, character exploration and whatnot. The show got way better with this in the latter two series', but overall Doctor Who leans in favor of Alien invasions rather than character.
And I'm not going to get into the time traveling headache this show presents. I'd be here for days. Although I will say that, as a literary device (not even getting into the physics because it's all fiction here), time travel creates plot holes like woah, especially if you have a show like DW with years of canon and world building that's rather... porous? loose? I dunno. It's like one of those buildings where people just keep adding on with little thought or planning and it looks like a hodge podge of 4 decades of style. DW doesn't have a tight set of rules, anyway, and I'm sure that allows for the writers to have more freedom, which is good, except for when its sloppy. *g* But, anyway, I can get into all sorts of tangles about time travel that leaves me walking around in circles. I mean, you have a linear show, with a linear line of doctors from one to ten. But time doesn't run linearly. It loops. And then there's this time war which somehow eliminated all time lords from... every time and everywhere? Without drastically altering the landscape of history? But then the Doctor breezingly changes history all the time... wait, I said I wasn't going to go into it. *facepalm*
Anyway, so, by the end of watching Series 1 I was like "well, that was nice." It was charming! And I can honestly watch Eccleston as Nine ALL DAY LONG without a problem. And I adore Rose and was all Nine/Rose 4EVER!!!1!1!! But I wasn't burning to watch the next two series'. If it weren't for my indulging Melina (heh) in watching The Christmas Invasion special and the first three eps of Series 2 as well, it's very likely I would have waited for God knows how long.
The Tenth Doctor:
So, now we're on to the Tenth Doctor. This is where I have to eat my words a little bit. hee. Now, David Tennant is not my type. He's entirely too skinny for my tastes, and too... sharp featured? I dunno. Partly he was mostly Barty Crouch Jr. to me, that was how I knew him, and well, initial associations are sometimes hard to get over. I didn't have any feelings one way or the other with his being cast as the Doctor other than a faint wish that Eccleston had continued because he's so much fun. But really, I was barely aware of it and didn't care. I mean, I think all of series 2 had aired and come and gone before I even knew the doctor had regenerated from the ninth to the tenth.
And, well, I'm stubborn, you know. If you didn't know this about me already, it's true. I seem sweet and obliging, but really, I can be hella stubborn, like to the bitter, bitter end sort of stubborn. I think Lum calls is "tenaciously determined" or something. ;) So, it literally took me all the way through to Doomsday -- practically the entire series 2 -- before I realized I adored the tenth doctor and omigoodness think he's totally handsome and lovely! I mean, all the way to the final moment when he and Rose are parted forever (well, "forever") standing at that wall and I thought, "damn he has gorgeous eyes" and then was pretty much a goner from that moment. :D :D
Then I just became a ball o' love for the doctor (both Nine and Ten) and for Rose, and was mildly devastated at the end of series 2. :) It was at this point that I started to feel like one of the companions, along for the ride and about to get my heart broken at any moment. Like I'm there by the doctor's good grace or something. I don't think this is a bad thing -- it is the dynamic of the show, a duality that is at best fleeting. Here for a while, and then gone. It's not only the companions you lose, but the doctors who (haha!) change. Perhaps I identify too much with Rose and Martha and Sarah Jane.
And so, to the final(ish) point. One of the things I do love about Doctor Who is that it is a family show, but it does leave the Doctor as a bit of a sexual enigma *g*. I read somewhere that in Classic Who they were always wary of implying any kind of sexual relationship between the Doctor and his companions, and I think with good reason, even aside from the general audience type entertainment (although the current DW seems to be walking a finer line, and I'm not complaining!). Keeping the relationship between the Doctor and any given companion at least outwardly platonic was/is probably wise. First of all, for many years (linear again. *scratches head*) you had a much older doctor traveling in close quarters (no matter the size of the inside of the TARDIS) with mostly young men and women, sharing an, to use Sarah Jane's word, "intense" relationship, intense if only because of the extreme nature of their adventures, etc etc. The potential for a power imbalance is huge, because let's face it, if the Doctor wanted there's nothing holding him back from seducing every single one of them. He could be like the Master if he wanted to, there's nothing holding him back besides his own nature and the choices he's made. He's already seduced them into the TARDIS. *g* (and DW does code things well).
Then there's the question, can the Doctor fall in love? Have sex? IMO that's a big resounding YES. But, he is a time lord, with whatever that means. He's (mostly) static while everyone else is more fluid. They grow and change and leave him as much as he leaves them. He is in a position where he can take advantage easily if he wished, but he won't do that even if it hurts to be alone. I think he purposely does not let himself open entirely, holds himself back just enough. He very nearly did open up entirely (probably did, imo) with Rose and that hurt. And incidentally, I did love Martha and the Doctor together, too, and thought that was so well done, meaning the Doctor/Martha relationship vis a vis Doctor/Rose. At first I was worried it wouldn't be handled well, that I would feel cheated (or feel that Rose was cheated) but I wasn't, and thank goodness!
I wouldn't say I'm a Doctor/Rose shipper (I sort of hate labels like that with a blinding, burning passion) but it's clear to me that he loved her, and lost her, and suffered for it, and thus was a bit more closed off than usual with Martha and Donna, (although interestingly less so with the Kylie Monogue character.)
Not that this means there shouldn't be reams of fan fiction with lots of hot monkey sex with any one of those women (or with Capt. Jack, I suppose. Or better yet, with Alonso, who I adored. :D :D heh) The only reason I'm not avidly searching for fic right this minute is I have a book to finish writing, and actually still kind of want to bask in the glow of watching the series' unmitigated by fanon and fan commentary and all that stuff that will inevitably change how I see things.
BTW, I wasn't spoiled for Martha leaving, and so while watching series 3 the whole time I sort of was thinking she was going to be around at least for the start of Series 4 (there's that heartbreak again...) but then she decided to leave (and good for her...sob.). However, I am totally thrilled Donna is coming back. YAY.
I have been reading some of the Classic Who episode summaries and the wiki articles, and peeking into the earlier classic episodes. I enjoyed the exhibit in Cardiff that had a display on the earlier Doctors. Part of me doesn’t really want to watch the other doctors too much, but then I’m rather fascinated by the whole phenomenon, and the completist in me likes to do that sort of thing. There’s no rush, anyway. Did I mention I have a book to finish? O.o
So, that's what I did on my winter vacation... :D
eegads, did this turn into a long post! I was going to talk about Torchwood, but I think that'll have to wait.
When the new Doctor Who starting airing, I think I had a vague knowledge of Classic Doctor Who, probably gleamed entirely from UK QAF, and maybe one vid. heh. Vids were my first introduction to the new incarnation as well, and I was *thrilled* to see Christopher Eccleston in the role of the Doctor, and in a role where he's not, you know, totally evil. *g*. He has long been a favorite of mine. I find him incandescently (albeit unconventionally) gorgeous. So, I always considered myself primed for Doctor Who, but life has been rather topsy turvy since about 2001, and my TV viewing habits take second place (more like 3rd or 4th place, to be honest) to real life, so I was in no hurry to watch it and then learned that Eccleston had passed the torch on to Tennant, and any remote need to watch Dr. Who just sort of slumbered. It was one of those back burner shows, waiting for when I had time. No real hurry, etc etc. I've totally enjoyed watching my friend's list become hijacked by the Dr. Who squeeing and the happiness, the vids and the icons. I loved all the joyousness that seemed to come from DW. I knew people where having a lot of fun, which is all of the yay, and made me sort of vaguely happy and still in no hurry. :)
During my recent trip to the UK, I loaded up the iPod with Series 1 (it felt fitting! Seeing as it was largely the reason I was going, *eyes Melina*) to watch on trains and planes and down time when I wasn't working on my thesis. I think we managed to go through all of Series 1 and a few episodes into Series 2. And of course we traveled to Cardiff and saw many of the locations there, as well as the Doctor Who exhibit, and I peppered Melina with questions (and she had to deal with my quasi-jaded notreallyintoDrWhoorTorchwood attitude *g*). And then, mostly because I was on a roll and wanting to just see the rest of it already and get it done, when I got back to the US suffering from jetlag, in the wee mornings I watched the rest of Doctor Who thru to Voyage of the Damned and then I also finished it off with Torchwood. Oddly, I felt like I needed to watch them all before I could comment, I don't know why, but there you have it. The inner workings of my brain are strange. :D I gotta say I'm a bit sad now that I've seen it all... Anyway, enough personal history!
The Ninth Doctor:
At first, watching the Ninth Doctor, I wasn't sure how I felt about the show. I enjoyed watching Nine and Rose a lot. I loved Rose instantly, and was thoroughly enchanted by the two of them together, where love and affection and fun just seemed to shine right through them at all times. I loved that. I also loved Mickey (and did not care for how he was treated, no matter that he came into his own later). But the seemingly cavalier, willy-nilly changing of history and events with (what appears to be) little thought to consequences, the depictions of the future which were all so cartoonish sometimes and sort of... one note, one flavor. I didn't see one future where I would want to live. This kept me at distance from the show, I couldn't completely fall in love.
Yet that didn't stop me from continuing! :) And then there were things I really did love about it, too. I loved (love!) the Doctor, actually, and his energy and his pathos, how honestly affected he is when he knows he can't save everyone, you can just see it on his face. I LOVE that he does actually save people most of the time, in his manic, crazy, saving the world in the final moments just in the nick of time sort of way. I loved the compassion, the desire for better, for more, the celebration of humanity, and that the Doctor comes from a place of non-violence, with his (totally phallic hello! not to mention increasingly versatile) sonic screwdriver. Saving the world by... screwing! Yes! I also love that they keep him essentially alien, and the writers and the actors do that very well.
I love the faith one starts to have in the Doctor, that he will save you, he will save everyone. And the joy he has when he does, its rather breathtaking -- that faith. And then sometimes he fails, and how much that hurts.
One thing I noticed right from the beginning that Doctor Who does very well (and perhaps this is the influence of Douglas Adams? Or was it the other way around?) is that 'seemingly random events or objects or people all are actually connected together' thing. It's all very Dirk Gently (and the TARDIS acts suspiciously like an improbability drive...), but with more running and urgency and aliens and the end of the world type stuff. Some of the wider retconning that goes on across the series' might be a bit wonky, but within individual episodes, it's quite clever. Most episodes and arcs are well plotted within their individual storylines. And a side benefit is that the tight episode/arc plotting (and the Doctor's manic energy) help steamroll right over some of the stuff that's not done so well. The insignificant becomes significant. All the random bits come together to save the day, sort of thing.
However, of course, the other side of this is that with all this plot they go through every episode, there is less time for the individual, character exploration and whatnot. The show got way better with this in the latter two series', but overall Doctor Who leans in favor of Alien invasions rather than character.
And I'm not going to get into the time traveling headache this show presents. I'd be here for days. Although I will say that, as a literary device (not even getting into the physics because it's all fiction here), time travel creates plot holes like woah, especially if you have a show like DW with years of canon and world building that's rather... porous? loose? I dunno. It's like one of those buildings where people just keep adding on with little thought or planning and it looks like a hodge podge of 4 decades of style. DW doesn't have a tight set of rules, anyway, and I'm sure that allows for the writers to have more freedom, which is good, except for when its sloppy. *g* But, anyway, I can get into all sorts of tangles about time travel that leaves me walking around in circles. I mean, you have a linear show, with a linear line of doctors from one to ten. But time doesn't run linearly. It loops. And then there's this time war which somehow eliminated all time lords from... every time and everywhere? Without drastically altering the landscape of history? But then the Doctor breezingly changes history all the time... wait, I said I wasn't going to go into it. *facepalm*
Anyway, so, by the end of watching Series 1 I was like "well, that was nice." It was charming! And I can honestly watch Eccleston as Nine ALL DAY LONG without a problem. And I adore Rose and was all Nine/Rose 4EVER!!!1!1!! But I wasn't burning to watch the next two series'. If it weren't for my indulging Melina (heh) in watching The Christmas Invasion special and the first three eps of Series 2 as well, it's very likely I would have waited for God knows how long.
The Tenth Doctor:
So, now we're on to the Tenth Doctor. This is where I have to eat my words a little bit. hee. Now, David Tennant is not my type. He's entirely too skinny for my tastes, and too... sharp featured? I dunno. Partly he was mostly Barty Crouch Jr. to me, that was how I knew him, and well, initial associations are sometimes hard to get over. I didn't have any feelings one way or the other with his being cast as the Doctor other than a faint wish that Eccleston had continued because he's so much fun. But really, I was barely aware of it and didn't care. I mean, I think all of series 2 had aired and come and gone before I even knew the doctor had regenerated from the ninth to the tenth.
And, well, I'm stubborn, you know. If you didn't know this about me already, it's true. I seem sweet and obliging, but really, I can be hella stubborn, like to the bitter, bitter end sort of stubborn. I think Lum calls is "tenaciously determined" or something. ;) So, it literally took me all the way through to Doomsday -- practically the entire series 2 -- before I realized I adored the tenth doctor and omigoodness think he's totally handsome and lovely! I mean, all the way to the final moment when he and Rose are parted forever (well, "forever") standing at that wall and I thought, "damn he has gorgeous eyes" and then was pretty much a goner from that moment. :D :D
Then I just became a ball o' love for the doctor (both Nine and Ten) and for Rose, and was mildly devastated at the end of series 2. :) It was at this point that I started to feel like one of the companions, along for the ride and about to get my heart broken at any moment. Like I'm there by the doctor's good grace or something. I don't think this is a bad thing -- it is the dynamic of the show, a duality that is at best fleeting. Here for a while, and then gone. It's not only the companions you lose, but the doctors who (haha!) change. Perhaps I identify too much with Rose and Martha and Sarah Jane.
And so, to the final(ish) point. One of the things I do love about Doctor Who is that it is a family show, but it does leave the Doctor as a bit of a sexual enigma *g*. I read somewhere that in Classic Who they were always wary of implying any kind of sexual relationship between the Doctor and his companions, and I think with good reason, even aside from the general audience type entertainment (although the current DW seems to be walking a finer line, and I'm not complaining!). Keeping the relationship between the Doctor and any given companion at least outwardly platonic was/is probably wise. First of all, for many years (linear again. *scratches head*) you had a much older doctor traveling in close quarters (no matter the size of the inside of the TARDIS) with mostly young men and women, sharing an, to use Sarah Jane's word, "intense" relationship, intense if only because of the extreme nature of their adventures, etc etc. The potential for a power imbalance is huge, because let's face it, if the Doctor wanted there's nothing holding him back from seducing every single one of them. He could be like the Master if he wanted to, there's nothing holding him back besides his own nature and the choices he's made. He's already seduced them into the TARDIS. *g* (and DW does code things well).
Then there's the question, can the Doctor fall in love? Have sex? IMO that's a big resounding YES. But, he is a time lord, with whatever that means. He's (mostly) static while everyone else is more fluid. They grow and change and leave him as much as he leaves them. He is in a position where he can take advantage easily if he wished, but he won't do that even if it hurts to be alone. I think he purposely does not let himself open entirely, holds himself back just enough. He very nearly did open up entirely (probably did, imo) with Rose and that hurt. And incidentally, I did love Martha and the Doctor together, too, and thought that was so well done, meaning the Doctor/Martha relationship vis a vis Doctor/Rose. At first I was worried it wouldn't be handled well, that I would feel cheated (or feel that Rose was cheated) but I wasn't, and thank goodness!
I wouldn't say I'm a Doctor/Rose shipper (I sort of hate labels like that with a blinding, burning passion) but it's clear to me that he loved her, and lost her, and suffered for it, and thus was a bit more closed off than usual with Martha and Donna, (although interestingly less so with the Kylie Monogue character.)
Not that this means there shouldn't be reams of fan fiction with lots of hot monkey sex with any one of those women (or with Capt. Jack, I suppose. Or better yet, with Alonso, who I adored. :D :D heh) The only reason I'm not avidly searching for fic right this minute is I have a book to finish writing, and actually still kind of want to bask in the glow of watching the series' unmitigated by fanon and fan commentary and all that stuff that will inevitably change how I see things.
BTW, I wasn't spoiled for Martha leaving, and so while watching series 3 the whole time I sort of was thinking she was going to be around at least for the start of Series 4 (there's that heartbreak again...) but then she decided to leave (and good for her...sob.). However, I am totally thrilled Donna is coming back. YAY.
I have been reading some of the Classic Who episode summaries and the wiki articles, and peeking into the earlier classic episodes. I enjoyed the exhibit in Cardiff that had a display on the earlier Doctors. Part of me doesn’t really want to watch the other doctors too much, but then I’m rather fascinated by the whole phenomenon, and the completist in me likes to do that sort of thing. There’s no rush, anyway. Did I mention I have a book to finish? O.o
So, that's what I did on my winter vacation... :D
eegads, did this turn into a long post! I was going to talk about Torchwood, but I think that'll have to wait.
