It is almost impossible not to experience a delicious thrill of delight rolling down your spine when the Doctor introduces his new, awestruck companion to the interior of the TARDIS, and proceeds to offer her the journey of a lifetime. One that can encompass "Everywhere and anywhere. All of time and space. Everything that ever has happened or ever will. Every star that ever was ... where do you want to start?"
Pure storytelling magic. But that's Doctor Who for you. After the first ten minutes of the new series, we're all wide-eyed children again.
Sure, so many of us were skeptical after David Tennant finished up his triumphant reign as the Tenth Doctor. Arguably, he was more popular in the role than anyone but perhaps Tom Baker and his scarf back in the seventies. No one had any idea who this Matt Smith guy was. His hair was weird, he was too young for the part, and most troubling of all, he wanted to wear a bow-tie!
Well, I am relieved to announce that somehow, someway, Matt has pulled it off, bow-tie and all. Actually, I want a bow-tie now. The tweed jacket is really working for him too. Impossibly, he has made the transition as painless as possible, so much so that after the opening scene, he seems a perfectly natural successor.
After seeing the first few episodes, I am already very attached to the Eleventh Doctor, not to mention his companion, Amy Pond. With Stephen Moffat at the helm, the writing has been superb, perfectly capturing the fairy tale feel they wanted to weave through this series.
We've already had giant eyeball spaceships, ominous cracks in the walls of the universe, futuristic Britains floating in orbit, gun-totting amnesiac queens, benevolent star whales, Daleks fetching tea for Winston Churchill, World War II dogfights in outer space, and now the return of the much loved (and much feared) Weeping Angels! And did I mention we're just four episodes in?
The stories have been fascinating and multi-layered, with enough imagination to fill at least two or three television shows. As always, it has generous doses of science fiction, fantasy, adventure, drama, tragedy, humor, and maybe even a hint of romance.
And yeah, that new steampunk TARDIS is about the coolest thing I have ever seen!
Quite frankly, Doctor Who is about the best thing to be geeking out about right now. If you are not a part of this, well, you're seriously missing out. Next to it, American television continues to be a joke. If I honestly had to sit down and watch American networks every night, I would take a baseball bat to my own skull without a moment's hesitation or regret. FOX, from hell's heart, I continue to stab at thee.
All I can say is, now that the transition is over, I cannot wait to see how it all turns out on the other side of the pond. Tune in on BBC America and help make those record-breaking numbers a little more spectacular (though they do truncate episodes to an alarming degree!).
Not that Doctor Who fans wouldn't watch it on TV and have bootlegs or anything ... nope ... never ... why are you looking at me like that?
Series Five Trailer
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