If you haven't heard of this impossible man and his big blue box, or if you have heard of him but you haven't watched the series, then this summer is prime time for you to catch up. The ninth season of the rebooted "Doctor Who" has just recently finished airing, and the 10th season is on the way soon, so when finals are over and you have nothing to do but relax, give "Doctor Who" a try.
Now we're not talking about watching all of Classic Who and the reboot in one summer unless you get really hooked. For those of you who might not know "Doctor Who," it is a show that has been running for over 50 years now, slightly nonconsecutively between the seventh through ninth Doctors but otherwise very much consistently new content every year, and that means there is a lot to watch.
"Doctor Who" is many things, and one of those things is science fiction, as such the Doctor's spaceship is the T.A.R.D.I.S or Time and Relative Dimension in Space, a beautiful, huge majestic machine. It's disguise matrix broke so it is stuck looking like a 1960's era British police telephone box that is bigger on the inside and never fails to amaze.
The way that "Doctor Who" has survived throughout all these years is that the titular character, a man with a secret name called the Doctor is - in the short version - an alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels through time in space and whenever he dies he regenerates into a new man with a new face so he can go on saving the universe. It's extraordinary and exaggerated at times and the show knows that, but at other times, it could hardly be a more serious story.
After the series had a bit of a break after the seventh Doctor's series and the eighth Doctor's movies, "Doctor Who" was reborn with the ninth Doctor in 2005, played by Christopher Eccleston.
For any new viewer wanting to catch up on "Doctor Who" before the new 10th season premieres with a Christmas special at the end of 2016 and more episodes early 2017, the ninth Doctor may be the place to start. While every regeneration is the Doctor, every Doctor is a new man, and ninth Doctor is a man who has seen everything he loves fall apart, but he hasn't forgotten the universe is full of adventure and wild, wonderful stories, so he goes off exploring again with the first companion of the new series, Rose Tyler. The Doctor has always had someone on his adventures, since the very beginning, but he needs people with him now more than ever since he has lost his own, they remind him not to forget the important things in his old age.
After Eccleston's season, the 10th Doctor arrived.
David Tennant is the Scottish actor who played the 10th Doctor stayed for three seasons and brought with him a whole new flair to the show. Tennant grew up watching "Doctor Who" and much of his character reflects the eccentricities of the earlier doctors he saw as a child, but his run on the show was filled with deep, heart-wrenching moments and the kinds of stories that made "Doctor Who" really great. His tumultuous character has quotes that range from this:
To this:
After Tennant came the 11th Doctor. The trio of Doctors, 9, 10 and 11 have been referred to online before as the Tiger, for 9, the Tigger, for 10 and the uncoordinated bumbling housecat for 11. And that pretty much sums up the seriousness with which the 11th Doctor faces his issues, at least most of the time.
When 11 gets serious, he goes all the way, and that is one truly marvelous aspect of all of "Doctor Who," in impossible scenarios and places, the most human stories arise even if most of the characters aren't. "Doctor Who" deals with confidence and believing in yourself no matter who you are, depression and loss, love and sacrifice, war and hate, forgiveness and so much more.
After a very convoluted goodbye to 11, we got the 12th and current Doctor, Peter Capaldi.
Before the reboot in 2005, the Doctor was never a particularly young man and Capaldi's run on the show signaled a return to older Doctors' style and a more adventure based storyline with plenty of comedy thrown in there. Less Doctor and companion romance entanglements because of the much greater age difference, though not to say the Capaldi's series is any less emotional than previous ones, in fact, it can still be just as heart wrenching. It's still the same marvelous mixture of comedy, action, feels, romance and drama, just a bit shaken up.
People love "Doctor Who" for many reasons. It makes them laugh, it gives them a little hope and a lot of adventure. It can be so very complicated at times and at others relaxingly simple. If you're still hesitant, test the waters a bit with an episode of a Doctor or two, not every Doctor resonates with everyone, nor every companion or story, but this phenomenon has lasted over 50 years and shows no signs of stopping, so if you're brave enough give the Doctor a chance, it really is the trip of a lifetime.
