Doctor Who

Whooo-whooo-whooo.

If I knew how to embed sounds into blog posts then, right now, you would be hearing the sound of a TARDIS dematerialising. Unfortunately, I don't know how to do that so instead, you will have to put up with "whooo-whooo-whooo".

The reality is that if you are in anyway familiar with British culture, then you will know what sound I'm referring to. You will also know who the Doctor is and how important Doctor Who is to British Sci-Fi culture (and if you aren't, there is always wikipedia). Being the nerd that I am, would it surprise you to learn that I loved watching this show as a kid?

Quick aside - Peter Davison is, and will always be, my fav Doctor by virtue of the fact that he was the encumbent Doctor when I first started watching.

Anyway, when I heard that the show was being relaunched in 2005, I have to admit that I was ecstatic. I couldn't wait to start watching again. Despite that though, I never actually got round to watching the show until recently.

Overall, I have to say that I like the new Doctor Who (although I have to admit that I don't think its as good as old Doctor Who). Granted, this may just be nostalgia talking but the sight of the Doctor tooling around with his sonic screwdriver just sends a tingle down my spine. If you get the chance, and were a fan of the old Doctor Who shows, then I would recommend you take the effort to watch.

Having said that, there are some areas of the show which I'm not particularly enamored with. Most are probably a little nit-picky but the first two I talk about below are issues which I feel really negatively impacted my enjoyment of the show.

For those who haven't watched yet - spoilers!

Romance
My first major dislike of the new show is the introduction of romance into the Doctors life. In the old Doctor Who, the Doctor was an ancient alien with no interest in romance whatsoever. However, the new Doctor seems to run around picking up companions based on how likely he is to get a bit of the 'ol nudge-nudge-wink-wink. What is particularly galling though is that they reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith and retconned her so that she also loved the Doctor. WTF!?!?

Deux ex machina
My other major gripe is the number of plot resolutions which rely on deus ex machina. Not sure if this is something which can be classified as a bad decision or just down to having bad writers but so many episodes seem to rely on a deus ex machina to resolve the crisis instead of relying on the cleverness of the Doctor.

Again, this may be nostalgia, but the overwhelming memory I have of the Doctor is his ability to use his brains to solve a problem.

Target market
The show seems to be primarily targeted at a family audience and this really shows in the dialogue sometimes. To be fair, Doctor Who was always targeted at a family audience so the criticism is probably more on me than the Doctor. Still, after watching fantastically mature shows like Battlestar Galactica, I can't help but wonder what a mature Doctor Who would be like.

Still, its probably for the best that its a family show. Can you imagine the outrage if they tried to make it mature and fluffed it?

Daleks
I should clarify here that I don't dislike the Daleks. I just dislike how often they show up for a race which is supposed to have been genocided during the Great Time War.

The thing is, the first Eccleston Dalek episode, where you found out that the Daleks were extinct, is excellent. When you find out that the Doctor had to wipe out both his own race and the Daleks in order to end the Time War, this brings a real gravity to his situation as the last of the Time Lords (which Ecclestone acted out brilliantly). However, the constant reappearance of the Daleks (from between 2-4 episodes each season) completely diminishes the dramatic aspect of their death in the first place. Which is a bit of a shame really.

He can do what now?
Another issue I had was the constant introduction of new abilities. Again, this may be nostalgia, but the skillset of the Doctor was pretty well known in the past. Now, whenever he's bored, he just whips a new ability out of his pocket.

Epic storylines!
Granted, we are getting into major nitpicky territory here but it was annoying how often the danger that he was facing was of "epic" proportions and of threat to the entire World or Universe! The problem with making so many "epic" storylines is that, after a while, it loses the dramatic impact and is no longer epic. Sometimes, smaller storylines can be fascinating as they allows you to focus on the relationships and character building of the main characters in your show.