In my mind, what makes the new Doctor Who interesting comes down to one thing.
It has balls.
Now, this is a phrase that might not normally be associated with the Doctor Who pantheon. Campy? Sure. Silly to the point of insulting? I’ve been told there have been such occurrences. Dark and disturbing? Oh yeah, no doubt.
I must take a moment and explain that I am a new convert to the ways of the Gallifreyan physician. Sure, I’ve seen bits and pieces of episodes while surfing around the various offerings the idiot box was hocking at the time. I’ve known a few people who consider themselves part of the fandom, and they’ve all in their own ways showN me some part of Doctor Who and why it was special to them. I know enough about the concept of the show and its elements to laugh at Oliver and his antics during Coupling.
Does this make me the authority on who the good Doctor is and what he stands for or means? No, not really. But perhaps I can offer a different view on things many would take for granted.
The new Doctor Who, staring Chris Eccleston and Billie Piper, is featured in the latest of twenty-seven ’series’, or ’seasons’ as they are called here in the States. It takes a tapestry many hands have had a part in weaving and folds it over itself. While remaining true to its long history, the new series holds new revelations and twists on old themes, and offers them up to viewers without regret or reservation. It’s new, you’ll like it, the Head Chef of the Who kitchen, Lead Writer Russell T. Davies, comments as the weekly gathering of viewers around the BBC broadcast table begins.
This Doctor is the first that invites his companion into the TARDIS after all, and it’s just one of many firsts seen in this series. Without remorse and without reservation, this Doctor has balls.
Fans of the recently reimagined Battlestar Galactica, helmed by Ronald Moore, should not expect the same abandonment of heritage seen there. This latest series of Who is very faithful to that which came before it. It uses the hundreds of episodes from previous decades and builds on them, adding to the fable known and loved and mocked and cherished the world over.
It is also because of this, this need to stay true to the original rather bizarre precedents, that Doctor Who has been bashed slightly in mainstream media. Early in production, nearly finished episodes of the new series were shown to a few American outlets, all of which passed on picking up the rebroadcast rights to the series, as of this writing. SciFi Networks as been rumored to have said the series “was somewhat lacking” in fact. While BBC has been enjoying record ratings with the series, the dictators of US media passed. This difference, greater than the seas between the two landmasses, is part of the reason Doctor Who doesn’t work over here. It’s too BRITISH.
Doctor Who doesn’t attempt to fit into the box most have come to expect a genre show, or any show, to fit in. There’s a saying that sums up American TV nicely: ‘The more things change, the more they stay the same’. Each week, the family of Modern Genre Show #213 face calamity after calamity and every week when the masses tune in, there they are, at their kitchen table, eating their cereal and talking about non-existent sport scores. One week the family could face the Apocalypse, but alas, it wouldn’t matter. Things would stay the same, although Famine might have a guest spot for a few weeks following (the numbers were just that good).
In other words, there is no staying power to Doctor Who. There is no neat package the advertisers can use to sell their products week in and week out. The marketing department has trouble pushing a show whose concept, at its core, is change. This is one of the largest differences between the BBC and American television: the view on the final product.
Another difference, in fact the most significant, is that the BBC is in a sense a government agency. The British Broadcasting Company is akin to the PBS in America; it is a government sponsored media outlet. The British Parliament grants the BBC a ten-year long charter, which allows them to operate within the guidelines stipulated. These guidelines, or bylaws, are the main division between media in the States and across the pond. Someone actually gives a damn what is shown on the telly over there. Imagine what FOX would be like if Rupert Murdoch and the rest of the News Corp board had a set of rules they had to follow.
The BBC is a different beast than PBS however. We have Barney, they have Doctor Who. Doctor Who was started as a children’s show originally, meant to educate the masses on history. Imagine what Sesame Street would be like if Big Bird had a TARDIS.
Without remorse and without reservation, Doctor Who changes the status quo expected by its fans with glee. This series has shown us that the Doctor, played by Eccleston, is the sole surviving member of his race, standing alone following a devastating calamity called the Time War — the final clash between the Time Lords and the Daleks. It has introduced us to the supposedly last Dalek as well, caught up in the machinations of a man one can’t help but feel is a commentary on certain figures in our world. It has pushed the boundaries, something not unknown for the Doctor to do, but in ways that would not be expected.
This is the first time in a long while that Doctor Who has had a series-long back-arc. A common device among genre works, be it television or novels, but one that was lacking in most of the Doctor Who series previously produced. The 16th series of Doctor Who, starring Tom Baker, was the first and saw the Doctor and his companion, over four twenty-minute episodes, search for six portions of the Key to Time they had been charged with reassembling. This trend was short-lived however, and future series embraced the episodic nature of their forefathers. It’s baaaaack, Head Chef Davies comments from the corner of his mouth as he prepares the final course.
This season we have seen a thread running through the entire thirteen episodes, a thread revolving around two words: Bad Wolf. What they mean and where they lead our intrepid heroes I won’t say, because that would be spoiling, but it is something until now unseen in the collected works of Who, and a welcome change to the status quo.
Plus, Piper looked hot all glowy like that.
However, Doctor Who is not without its flaws. In my eyes, most of these can be attributed to the differences between the media outlets.
The writing is wholly British to start with, which is not bad on its own, but again one of the reasons it doesn’t work in many other markets. Davies in fact has been quoted saying that “Science fiction can be very bland, homogenized and steeped in American culture, and to make this British has been fantastic.” While my hat’s off to him, it does lead to a very specific following. The same can’t be said for many anime titles, whose subject matters are wholly Japanese and fanbase much more diverse. For example, Inuyasha, an animated half-hour specifically about Eastern Mythology enjoys popularity that Doctor Who can only dream of here in the States.
The production values of this series are leaps and bounds beyond those of its predecessors. However, there is still some cheese to be found. Let’s be honest, did the Slitheen really need to look like overgrown babies and pass gas as often as they could? Also, what were people at BBC smoking when they thought the idea of a huge plastic blob wanting to take over the world was a good one, especially for a pilot episode?
I don’t think I need to point out that Doctor Who’s main villain is a robot with a giant plunger.
The final point of contention I have with the series as a whole, due primarily to my location and that I am a new convert to the franchise, is the fact that the face of the Doctor that I’ve grown attached to can change so easily, all within the constructs of the show. The few Doctors I’m familiar with were, pardon me, stuffed shirt Brits. They were the ultimate evidence of the stereotypical image Britain’s natives have had for years. Eccleston broke this mold, while doing something unexpected in the process. Eccleston made the Doctor look cool, no longer allowing associations to be made between the Doctor and his previous trappings. Eccleston alone changed what I thought Doctor Who was. Yet now we have a new Doctor Who in the form of David Tennant. I have my apprehensions regardless of Tennant’s previous work on the much loved Casanova, though those could easily be blamed on the fact that I’m a white American and, like my president, am afraid of that which is new and/or different.
Even if I don’t like Tennant in the long run, I’ve still got a reason to catch new episodes in the form of Billie Piper, glowing-hottie-extraordinaire. But the Doctor doesn’t care what I think. He doesn’t care what anyone thinks, and that is the best part about him. He does what he wants, without remorse and without reservation.
The Doctor, with a cheery yet unsettling grin, has balls, and he’s invited you all to dinner. I hope you enjoy the cuisine as much as this modest reviewer has.
Alex Cook hails from Califonia, living in the City of Angels, and acting as anything but