Not 'That' Kind of Doctor

Tomorrow, as I'm writing this, is the day Season 6 of the revived Doctor Who series begins! It'll be the first season I watch as it airs (as it were), and I'm so excited! (And yes - I insist on using American Television terminology, even though in Britain they refer to the series as a 'programme' and a season as a 'series'.)

Logo from 2005 to 2008

I've known about Doctor Who for a long time - I'm pretty sure it's such a large cultural icon that everyone's at least heard of it. I had a vague understanding of the show concept, and I remember it being in the news when Matt Smith was cast to play the 'new Doctor', though I didn't really know what that meant. Since I had a lot of free time this last summer, I finally decided that I would watch the show... somehow (I'll admit to considering less-than-legal means).

I ended up not watching Doctor Who all summer. There was probably plenty of time, but I couldn't find anyone who could lend me the DVDs and I prefer not to download illegally. About mid-August, however, I managed to talk my parents into signing up for Netflix (Previous to this summer, I had been against the idea of Netflix, but our Blockbuster closed down, so...). With all the newer seasons available easily, and legally, through Netflix, I was able to get through the past five seasons in about a month.

Doctor Who originally started in 1963, and ran until 1989. In that time, they went through seven actors to play the lead role, The Doctor, a time-traveling alien who regenerates with a new body (and a slightly new personality) when he dies. I'm not sure if the producers had originally intended for the Doctor character to be able to change actors so easily, but it was a genius move - essentially, the show can run indefinitely, since they can switch out as each actor gets older, moves on, or dies unexpectedly.

The first Doctor, 1963, played by William Hartnell.

I decided to start with the revived seasons, which started up in 2005, instead of the original seasons, because I wanted to be able to catch up by the time this new season began. The plot's changed slightly from the original run, since so much time has passed, but it's clear enough to be followed by anyone who watched the original show as a kid or, like me, didn't know too much about it. And it's extremely fun, hilarious, and silly, while occasionally being deep, heartwarming, and ingenious.

The show kind of drastically changed at the start of season 5. Along with a new lead actor, they changed Director, who changed the logo, the 'time vortex' (seen during the intro sequence) and the theme music. As a newbie fan of the show, my opinion doesn't count for much, but I really like the new theme and time vortex - the music's a lot like the music from the original seasons, and the time vortex seems more of a throwback as well. The logo's a bit odd, but I see where they're going with it, and I don't mind.

New Doctor Who logo

So I'm really excited for the show to start tomorrow. One of my favorite side characters from the last season got pulled in as a main character this season, and the writers, who have been great so far, promise to be amazing this season. And once this season's over, I wont been so 'behind the times' anymore.