[caption id="attachment_9279" align="alignnone" width="497"]
The Time of the Doctor. Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman.[/caption]
On the Christmas Day just passed, over 11 million people in England tuned in to the BBC to watch a time-traveling alien with a fondness for wearing fezzes, known only as "the Doctor" -- along with his fetching female sidekick -- save the known universe for the umpteenth time. In particular people tuned in to see the current actor playing the Doctor, Matt Smith, "regenerate" into Scottish actor Peter Capaldi.
I finally had my chance to watch the Christmas Day special, The Time of the Doctor, on New Year's Day. I found it exciting, heart-warming, satisfying, annoying and disappointing all at the same time, but then I'm a fan of the Doctor, not so much of actor Matt Smith or showrunner and writer Steven Moffat.
If you're asking yourself "the Doctor who?" Don't worry. The question is the answer.
Doctor Who is a very popular British science fiction TV series. Last year marked the show's 50th anniversary and all England seems to have celebrated -- certainly the BBC made it look that way.
In December, the Beeb was chock with Doctor Who TV specials, culminating in the Christmas Day special, which some "Whovians" called the last "Smithmas" owing to the fact that the actor portraying the Doctor for the last four seasons, Matt Smith was calling it quits.
As big a deal as the Christmas Day regeneration of the Doctor was, the earlier November 23 episode The Day of the Doctor was truly a special event.
The Day sought to tie up a few loose ends revolving around the Last Great Time War that destroyed the Doctor's home planet and his people, leaving him the last surviving Time Lord. In typically audacious fashion it brought in two doctors we all knew, and showed us who we missed as the Doctor during the 16 years the series was off the air, and ouch! That Hurt!
[caption id="attachment_9277" align="alignnone" width="497"]
The Day of the Doctor: #11 Matt Smith, #10 David Tennant, and John Hurt the "War Doctor."[/caption]
In 50 years, many actors have portrayed the doctor -- Matt Smith is the 11th doctor -- but everyone knows they've all been the same Doctor, thanks to the clever device called "regeneration."
Every few years -- seemingly always at Christmas -- the Doctor, rather than dying like a mortal, regenerates and changes bodies: actor "A" hands off the part to actor "B."
This Christmas Day, Peter Capaldi becomes the 12th Doctor (or 13th if you count John Hurt's "War Doctor").
There was no suspense in who the actor would be -- Capaldi's owlish glare had been foreshadowed in an earlier special -- but the fact that Capaldi would be playing the Doctor with a Scottish accent certainly made news.
The Doctor is a very British alien. Capaldi will be only the second iteration to have a Scottish accent, after Sylvester McCoy, the seventh Doctor from the late 1980s. It appears the current showrunner, Steven Moffat, who happens to also be Scottish, just thought the time was right.
The 10th Doctor, David Tennant, Scottish himself, was told to use an English accent. He was a bit miffed at the time and was recently quoted as joking that by using his native Glaswegian accent Capaldi was being "lazy."
To reach the remarkable milestone of 50 years and enjoy its current immense popularity around the world, the Doctor Who TV series had to first completely rejuvenate itself after coming back from the dead in 2005 after going off the air in 1989 for lack of ratings.
[caption id="attachment_9274" align="alignnone" width="497"]
21st Century Who: Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper from End of the World[/caption]
The Doctor Who revival starred Christopher Eccleston as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor. Eccleston agreed to do one season, but it was enough to reestablish the series on a solid new footing.
Eccleston's Doctor was the first since Tom Baker's to have any "coolness." He was almost normal, and he didn't dress like a clown. His "companion" Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper, was an independent, resourceful young woman who was at least as attractive as any of the Doctor's previous helpers.
The scripts were quite well written and the special effects... the special effects were actually good!
Eccleston paved the way for actor David Tennant to come in as the tenth Doctor, with his gelled hair and sort of Teddy Boy suits.
Tennant was an awesome Doctor for six great seasons. Fans could finally ask themselves "Tom who?"
Both Eccleston and Tennant deserve huge credit for the current popularity of the series, but the lion's share must go to executive producer Russell T. Davies, who conceived the reboot and is credited as the writer for those seven seasons.
In 2010 Matt Smith became the 11th Doctor and Steven Moffat became the executive producer, or showrunner as the British like to say.
Neither impressed me as much as their immediate predecessors; Moffat's best work, for me, at least, was his one episode he wrote for the 2007 season called Blink, and honestly it's really good. I think his creation of the statuesque quantum lifeform the Weeping Angels is right up there with the best Doctor villains.
To help humanize the alien Doctor, series writers devised "companions" -- mostly humans, and one robot dog -- who help him on his adventures. They naturally stand in for the audience.
By himself, I found Matt Smith and his portrayal of the Doctor as a big, moody, kid kind of annoying. But together with the wonderful actor Jenna Louise Coleman as his companion assistant Clara Oswald, I thought they were an entertaining pair.
The Doctor has battled evil for at least 1,200 years, traveling space and time in his ship called the TARDIS which looks exactly like a 1950s London police callbox, but which is much, much, larger on the inside.
Who can say that the TV series of his adventure couldn't go on forever?
Since the 2005 reboot, the BBC has put in 13 solid years shoring up the foundations of its Doctor Who franchise -- building on the strengths and fixing the weaknesses.
Thanks to the Internet and BBC America, people all around the world increasing know who you mean when you refer to "the Doctor."
Like the paradoxical callbox-shaped time ship the Doctor travels in, Doctor Who may look like a little sci-fi kids show on the outside, but on the inside it has all the conceptual space it needs to tell any kind of story imaginable.
There's no reason the series couldn't go on regenerating itself forever.
Looking towards the more immediate future, reportedly we'll all have to wait until August of 2014 before we get to see Peter Capaldi's first real outing as the Doctor. He's a great actor, I can hardly wait.
[caption id="attachment_9270" align="alignnone" width="497"]
"Who?" asks the owl. New Doctor Peter Capaldi that's who.[/caption]
The Time of the Doctor. Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman.[/caption]On the Christmas Day just passed, over 11 million people in England tuned in to the BBC to watch a time-traveling alien with a fondness for wearing fezzes, known only as "the Doctor" -- along with his fetching female sidekick -- save the known universe for the umpteenth time. In particular people tuned in to see the current actor playing the Doctor, Matt Smith, "regenerate" into Scottish actor Peter Capaldi.
I finally had my chance to watch the Christmas Day special, The Time of the Doctor, on New Year's Day. I found it exciting, heart-warming, satisfying, annoying and disappointing all at the same time, but then I'm a fan of the Doctor, not so much of actor Matt Smith or showrunner and writer Steven Moffat.
If you're asking yourself "the Doctor who?" Don't worry. The question is the answer.
Doctor Who is a very popular British science fiction TV series. Last year marked the show's 50th anniversary and all England seems to have celebrated -- certainly the BBC made it look that way.
In December, the Beeb was chock with Doctor Who TV specials, culminating in the Christmas Day special, which some "Whovians" called the last "Smithmas" owing to the fact that the actor portraying the Doctor for the last four seasons, Matt Smith was calling it quits.
As big a deal as the Christmas Day regeneration of the Doctor was, the earlier November 23 episode The Day of the Doctor was truly a special event.
The Day sought to tie up a few loose ends revolving around the Last Great Time War that destroyed the Doctor's home planet and his people, leaving him the last surviving Time Lord. In typically audacious fashion it brought in two doctors we all knew, and showed us who we missed as the Doctor during the 16 years the series was off the air, and ouch! That Hurt!
The Doctor is dead. Long live the Doctor!
[caption id="attachment_9277" align="alignnone" width="497"]
The Day of the Doctor: #11 Matt Smith, #10 David Tennant, and John Hurt the "War Doctor."[/caption]In 50 years, many actors have portrayed the doctor -- Matt Smith is the 11th doctor -- but everyone knows they've all been the same Doctor, thanks to the clever device called "regeneration."
Every few years -- seemingly always at Christmas -- the Doctor, rather than dying like a mortal, regenerates and changes bodies: actor "A" hands off the part to actor "B."
This Christmas Day, Peter Capaldi becomes the 12th Doctor (or 13th if you count John Hurt's "War Doctor").
There was no suspense in who the actor would be -- Capaldi's owlish glare had been foreshadowed in an earlier special -- but the fact that Capaldi would be playing the Doctor with a Scottish accent certainly made news.
The Doctor is a very British alien. Capaldi will be only the second iteration to have a Scottish accent, after Sylvester McCoy, the seventh Doctor from the late 1980s. It appears the current showrunner, Steven Moffat, who happens to also be Scottish, just thought the time was right.
The 10th Doctor, David Tennant, Scottish himself, was told to use an English accent. He was a bit miffed at the time and was recently quoted as joking that by using his native Glaswegian accent Capaldi was being "lazy."
To reach the remarkable milestone of 50 years and enjoy its current immense popularity around the world, the Doctor Who TV series had to first completely rejuvenate itself after coming back from the dead in 2005 after going off the air in 1989 for lack of ratings.
New Who same as the old Who, only better
[caption id="attachment_9274" align="alignnone" width="497"]
21st Century Who: Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper from End of the World[/caption]The Doctor Who revival starred Christopher Eccleston as the ninth incarnation of the Doctor. Eccleston agreed to do one season, but it was enough to reestablish the series on a solid new footing.
Eccleston's Doctor was the first since Tom Baker's to have any "coolness." He was almost normal, and he didn't dress like a clown. His "companion" Rose Tyler, played by Billie Piper, was an independent, resourceful young woman who was at least as attractive as any of the Doctor's previous helpers.
The scripts were quite well written and the special effects... the special effects were actually good!
Eccleston paved the way for actor David Tennant to come in as the tenth Doctor, with his gelled hair and sort of Teddy Boy suits.
Tennant was an awesome Doctor for six great seasons. Fans could finally ask themselves "Tom who?"
Both Eccleston and Tennant deserve huge credit for the current popularity of the series, but the lion's share must go to executive producer Russell T. Davies, who conceived the reboot and is credited as the writer for those seven seasons.
In 2010 Matt Smith became the 11th Doctor and Steven Moffat became the executive producer, or showrunner as the British like to say.
Neither impressed me as much as their immediate predecessors; Moffat's best work, for me, at least, was his one episode he wrote for the 2007 season called Blink, and honestly it's really good. I think his creation of the statuesque quantum lifeform the Weeping Angels is right up there with the best Doctor villains.
Adding the mostly human element
To help humanize the alien Doctor, series writers devised "companions" -- mostly humans, and one robot dog -- who help him on his adventures. They naturally stand in for the audience.
By himself, I found Matt Smith and his portrayal of the Doctor as a big, moody, kid kind of annoying. But together with the wonderful actor Jenna Louise Coleman as his companion assistant Clara Oswald, I thought they were an entertaining pair.
No house calls but this Doctor does make calls from a police box
The Doctor has battled evil for at least 1,200 years, traveling space and time in his ship called the TARDIS which looks exactly like a 1950s London police callbox, but which is much, much, larger on the inside.
Who can say that the TV series of his adventure couldn't go on forever?
Since the 2005 reboot, the BBC has put in 13 solid years shoring up the foundations of its Doctor Who franchise -- building on the strengths and fixing the weaknesses.
Thanks to the Internet and BBC America, people all around the world increasing know who you mean when you refer to "the Doctor."
Like the paradoxical callbox-shaped time ship the Doctor travels in, Doctor Who may look like a little sci-fi kids show on the outside, but on the inside it has all the conceptual space it needs to tell any kind of story imaginable.
There's no reason the series couldn't go on regenerating itself forever.
Looking towards the more immediate future, reportedly we'll all have to wait until August of 2014 before we get to see Peter Capaldi's first real outing as the Doctor. He's a great actor, I can hardly wait.
[caption id="attachment_9270" align="alignnone" width="497"]
"Who?" asks the owl. New Doctor Peter Capaldi that's who.[/caption]
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