People I know have been telling me for many years that I would love Doctor Who, and that if only I watched a couple of episodes, I’d be hooked for life. I guessed they were probably right, based on other things I liked, but I just never gave it a chance until very recently. Now I am hopelessly hooked. Not the best timing, since there is now soooo much catching up to do. We’ve been checking out boxed sets from the library (aren’t libraries great?), but the downside is that their availability is not in sequential order so it’s been kind of upside-down and backwards.
Super-basic premise: The Doctor is human-looking alien (a Time Lord) who travels through time and space in the TARDIS, which looks like a blue police box. He travels with one or more companions, usually just one, usually female. He can regenerate a new body when he needs to, although a Time Lord can die in certain ways. He prefers wits to weapons.
Here’s a montage from the very first Doctor Who episodes from 1963! We’ve got this set right now, and have been having a good laugh at the cheesy stuff (imagine the budget for a 30 minute children’s science fiction serial TV show on the BBC 1963). This is great if you love old low-budget sci-fi. The cave men! The Daleks and their toilet plungers! (the Daleks look the same in the more recent episodes, just more scary but still with plungers. I’m glad they went for consistency.) This pre-dates Star Trek by 3 years.
The First Doctor:
Even The Beatles made an appearance on the show in 1965!
Everything featuring the Second to the Eighth Doctor is still missing for me, haven’t seen a one of them. The Tenth Doctor (played by David Tennant) is my Doctor. Companion Rose is pretty wonderful too. This David Tennant montage gives you a good feel for the current version of the series.
The way I ended up getting hooked on Doctor Who was because of Torchwood, a spin-off based on a recurring element in the show. It’s a bit more X-Files / Fringe – compared to Dr. Who it’s darker and more adult... and it has Captain Jack (gorgeous John Barrowman) as a centerpiece.
Clip from Torchwood's Season 2 opener:
...could be just your average bar fight scene mixed up good with James Bond and the spaghetti western, except these old "frenemies" are both time agents from the 51st century, one of whom can't be killed. And if it's a scene with Jack, it's likely to be hot... alright, more than just likely.
more Captain Jack Harkness
Got to run... there's an episode waiting.
1 comment:
I prefer the last two Doctors. The early ones are just too cheesy for me. But I just can't get into Torchwood. Which is too bad because Captain Jack was such a great character.
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