The Top Ten TV Shows 2010

TV hasn’t gotten worse, has it? Or does it just feel that way, seeing as the only show I still watch that debuted in September is Raising Hope, which benefits from being a sitcom that is funny. Laugh out loud funny. It has a ways to go, but it is literally the only new show I watch regularly.

It is a sad state. Most of the shows on my list this year were on last year’s. There are a couple of new ones- they’re British and I discovered them this year. But when it all comes down to it, it’s just sad that I can’t come up with newer stuff more often. And that House can still make my top 20 simply because of Hugh Laurie and Robert Sean Leonard’s performances and nothing else.

Doctor Who Throwback: Episode 1-9 “The Empty Child”

The strongest episodes of series one were all in the back half, with this and it’s conclusion being the two best of the lot. It mixes humor, history, and terror with equal pizzazz. No surprise it was written by current show runner Steven Moffat, the man who introduced the term “Melty Man” into the lexicon. These two episodes end up telling us a lot about how the Doctor works and how the relationship between Rode and the Doctor is much more than either dares to admit to each other.

We also get to meet one Captain Jack Harkness.

The Doctor and Rose are chasing some type of vessel through the time vortex. They lose it as it skips streams, but land in London during the blitz, about a month after the other vessel lands. While the Doctor goes off to talk to the locals ( Rose’s pleas that he scan for alien tech fall on deaf ears), Rose becomes distracted by the calls of a young child asking for his mummy. this leads to her climbing up  the roof of a building and somehow she ends up hanging on the rope attached to a barrage balloon in the middle of the Blitz. Ah, Rose. You daft person, you. Wearing a Union Jack t-shirt in the middle of a bombing. Silly girl.

We meet Captain Jack Harkness, con man and former Time Agent, when he rescues our fair maid from falling to her death.  Handsome, suave, and adaptable, Jack has stolen alien tech and seems to know an awful lot about the item the Doctor and Rose followed to London. He is all charm and harm. You can just feel it.

The Doctor, after embarrassing himself in a local night club, discovers a group of ragamuffins skulking around London during the air raid, stealing food from tables. He quickly pinpoints that Nancy is their leader, and questions them about this mysterious item, and the odd child with the gas mask that seems able to om-com a not working phone box. He is told to go to the hospital, which he does, and meets Doctor Constantine.  The doctor gives the Doctor the symptoms and the reality- the people with gas mask faces and no signs of life are not really dead. But don’t touch the flesh. Then, in a truly creepy moment,  Dr. Constantine begins to choke on his words and says “Are you my Mummy?”. Then he begins to change into the same zombie like creature as his patients. Rose and Jack track down the doctor in the hospital and our trio become cornered by the denizens of the hospital.

A cliff hanger ending of epic proportions.

It is telling that this episode, written by Stephen Moffat, the current show runner in series five. Moffat, a renowned comedy writer, and like Davies a devoted Who fan from childhood, is one of the most beloved set of stories in New Who. The episode is laced with hilarious lines, but Moffat has a dark mind, and the story is truly creepy. There is no reasonable explanation for what is going on, and the Doctor himself, missing most of the story, is perplexed by the goings on.  Nothing is even remotely resolved by the end of the episode, and we are thrown by our antagonists inability to communicate effectively. We don’t know what’s going on. There isn’t even a real inkling. we suspect that the thing that the Doctor and Rose were chasing through time was involved, we assume Jack isn’t all he appears to be, but we don’t know. And the second half gives us some surprising answers.

Quotes:

Rose: Should that be a red alert?

The Doctor: That’s just humans. By everyone else’s standards, red’s camp. Oh, the misunderstandings—all those Red Alerts, all that dancing.

***

Capt. Jack Harkness: Could you switch off your cell phone? No, seriously, it interferes with my instruments.

Rose: [as she turns it off] You know, no one ever believes that.

***

The Doctor: It’s brilliant, I’m not sure if it’s Marxism in action or a West End musical.

***

The Doctor: Mister Spock?
Rose Tyler: What was I supposed to say? You don’t have a name! Don’t you ever get tired of “Doctor”? Doctor Who?
The Doctor: Nine centuries in, I’m coping.

***

Empty Child:  Mummy? Are you my mummy?

• It really is a fantastic episode. It’s hard to explain because so little is resolved in this episode, but strong performances from out regular cast and the newcomers make it memorable, and it is both surprisingly funny and terrifying simultaneously.
• Ahhh, Glenn Miller. Lovely choice of music, Captain Jack.

 

Does David Mitchell Have A Point? Well, Yes, But He Forgot One Thing.

I am an unabashed fan of New Who. I am also a fangirl for Harry Potter. This is just me laying it all out before I continue on. You know, full disclosure, yada yada yada.

This week, the hilarious and brilliant David Mitchell released his Soapbox vodcast and promptly created a firestorm. The world is going to hell in a hand basket, and he has the nerve to criticise Doctor Who.  His complaint about Who being a children’s show being marketed to adults (and the sly reference to Harry Potter as the same without actually naming it) seemed overly curmudgeonly when I saw the piece the first time. For the first time, I found myself in strong disagreement with him, and even bitched to my thirteen year old daughter about it when I got home.

“Christ, Mum, show me what he said.” She then rolled her eyes at my outrage. And muttered something about how I never get worked up at the Mitchell and Webb sketches she deems borderline. Something about Digby Chicken Caesar as well. Those might be linked.

Doctor Who Throwback: 1-8 “Father’s Day”

We all have things we want to go back in time to fix. I know I have a list about as long as a massive tapeworm. We really don’t think about the consequences of changing these choices, we just assume it will make the moments we hate in our current existence better.  We all have people we want to reconnect with and a parent we wish we can be better to. We all want something in our life to go differently.

“Father’s Day” teaches us all a valuable lesson about time, and the impact of changing what we perceive as one tiny detail.

Rose lost her father in a hit and run when she was a baby, and she asks the Doctor to go back in time to be with him at the end. The Doctor agrees, and when Rose freezes in the moment, she asks for a do over. The Doctor reluctantly agrees to this, making clear the rules of conduct. Rose ignores these rules and saves her father’s life, while the previous Rose and Doctor look on. This creates a wound in time,  and the bat like Reapers come out to clean up the mess that is left in the wake. Trapped in an old church, the Doctor appears powerless without a TARDIS to aid him. He knows what needs to be done, but his affection for Rose keeps him from telling her the truth. In the end, Pete Tyler comes to this realization himself, and gives Rose a true lesson in self-sacrifice for the betterment of the universe.

Rose’s youth and inexperience as a time traveller plays a huge role in this episode, as does the Doctor’s increasing love for her. The Doctor allows his emotions to get the best of him and indulges Rose’s desire to see her father alive. Her actions leave him feeling betrayed, as he has to save the world again due to the actions of “another stupid ape”. He does forgive her, and spends the entire episode trying to avoid telling her that the only way to fix the problem is for Pete to die like he was supposed to. Rose, on the other hand, witnesses the real state of her parents marriage, and is disappointed by what she sees of their lives.

While we get a relatively happy ending, I left this episode with a feeling of sadness. Because there are consequences to our choices, even when we believe it will make everything better. What we learn here plays a role in upcoming seasons. The world could be very different from what we experience now. It’s not always better that way.

Random thoughts:

Yes, yes, Baby Rose has blue eyes, adult Rose has brown eyes, and why do we still care?

This is an excellent episode in how it explains messing with time. The Doctor even gets to tell Rose that she’s clueless about the ramifications, and she still comes off as a spoilt child being told “No” for the first time. By the end of the episode, she actually learns something. Go figure.

The Doctor: The past is another country. 1987′s just the Isle of Wight.

Doctor Who Throwback: 1-7 “The Long Game”

Who really began to pick up momentum after “Dalek”, which remains one of the top three episodes of the first series. The follow-up ” The Long Game” is interesting, because it feels like it’s part Alien and part Babylon 5.

Adam ( Bruno Langley) was the kid genius picked up in “Dalek”, and he travels with rose and the Doctor to the year 200,000. On the news space station Satellite Five, something odd is going on. For one thing, it’s ridiculously hot. For another, the news staff seems to be missing the bigger picture. The Doctor, a devilish whirl of curiosity, not asking questions is the height of stupidity. He sees that the society is wrong, that the technology is old, but he can’t quite pinpoint why. The episode shows some of the worst part of being human, mostly the ability we have to shut off our curiosity and simply accept whatever we are told when we are too lazy to do the leg work ourselves.

Adam, though, remains a curiosity in his own right. A genius, he is stupid enough to try to use being in the future for personal gain. Wikipedia says Adam is the first companion to ever be kicked out of the TARDIS for misbehavior. I find that surprising. Adam get’s banished by trying to use Rose’s super phone to steal microprocessor designs from the future.  What an ass. In the process, he get’s a giant hole in his head used by the journalists for transmitting news to the masses. Seriously, genius though he may be, Adam is a gigantic idiot.

I have to admit that I let out a gigantic Shaun Of The Dead fangirl ”Squee!” when I saw Simon Pegg as the villainous Editor. Even if he dies via exploding Jagrafess goo.

Random thoughts:

I love when the Doctor sends people off with a cheery smile only to turn all deadly serious in the next beat. No one does it better than Eccleston.

The Editor: “That thing”, as you put it, is in charge of the human race. For almost a hundred years, mankind has been guided and shaped. Its knowledge and ambition strictly controlled, through its broadcast news- edited by my superior, your master, and humanity’s guiding light: The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe. I call him Max.

***

The Doctor: The thing is, Adam, time travel is like visiting Paris. You can’t just read the guidebook, you’ve got to throw yourself in. Eat the food, use the wrong verbs, get charged double and end up kissing complete strangers. Or is that just me?

***

The Doctor: You and your boyfriends.

***

Rose Tyler: Well, you’re not a Jagrafess. You’re human.
The Editor: Yes, but being human doesn’t pay very well.

We All Depend On The Beast Below- Doctor Who Episode 5-2 “The Beast Below”

Doctor Who often tries to explain the human condition. Whether it’s our inability to ask questions in the face of authority (The Long Game), or creating our own downfall with our desire for cheap thrills (Gridlocked), or our desire for immortality against all rhyme and reason (The End Of Time, The Lazarus Experiment), the show uses an alien to tells us what we do right and what we do wrong. It sometimes gets heavy-handed with its message, but mostly, it gets it right.

“The Beast Below”, oddly enough,is both of these.

Amy and the Doctor end up on the Starship UK, the spaceship that carries what is left of the United Kingdom that fled earth.  The Doctor sees that the society is the wrong shape, and both he and Amy set off to discover why that is. What they find is both frightening and tragic. My heart breaks just thinking about it.

It leads to an interesting question about human nature. It’s heavy-handed, to be certain- the Starship staff use a section of the Star Whale’s exposed brain to propel the vessel  through the universe.  They torture the Star Whale under the impression that it is needed to fly the ship instead of realizing it was there to help of its own free will.  Things that are different are always feared. But surprisingly, the solution is not thought up by the benevolent Doctor. Appalled by the violence, the Doctor gets angry with the Human Race, the people he has saved time and again. “Nobody human has anything to say to me today,” he shouts angrily as he prepares to eliminate the whale’s ability to think and feel. Amy, though, sees the truth in the actions of the whale itself. The Star Whale saves the people of the UK on earth because it couldn’t stand to see children cry. Amy uses this observation to set in motion the events that free the Star Whale from a life of pain and the people on the Starship from a life lived in fear.

It’s still too early in the season to see the overall arch and where this episode falls in the story, although we see a matching crack like the one in Amy’s bedroom wall, and the episode ends with a bit of a thrill as we see the shadow of a Dalek against Winston Churchill’s wall during the phone call. The episode was surprisingly dark so early in the season, with some difficult questions asked amidst the thrills and spills, and certainly it’s very early in the season for the Doctor to show the cracks in his psyche like that. He often has been exasperated by humans, but he rarely loses his temper like that. Matt Smith’s Doctor is a very different Doctor indeed.

Random thoughts:

It always comes down to children, don’t it?

Magpie still has a shop. I hope that there is no Wire still involved.

The Doctor: Every five years everyone chooses to forget what they’ve learned… democracy in action.

Doctor Who Throwback: Episode 1-5 “World War Three”

Well, the second half of this is better than the first. Which doesn’t really say much.

We left episode four with a cliff hanger where UNIT and the Doctor were incapacitated by electronic pulse, used by the Slitheen to take out the experts. Of course the Doctor gets away. Of course he tries to convince the military that the acting PM is in fact an alien. Of course the military think that’s crazy. Of course the acting PM calls for the military to kill the Doctor. Of course the Doctor gets away. Of course the Doctor manages to save Rose and Harriet Jones from the alien threat. Of course the cabinet room of 10 Downing Street is reinforced against attack. Of course that’s where everyone hides.

I am, of course, saying “of course” because this is standard storytelling. Clichéd is too kind a word for it. It’s dull. Thank God for Christopher Eccleston’s line readings, which makes this episode better than it should be, and Penelope Wilton, who’s Harriet Jones remains one of the finer characters written by RTD in his tenure.

Needless to say, this episode serves essentially as filler for the good stuff, which begins with the next episode.

Oh, and it does have some very funny lines. That helps.

Random thoughts:

• Say it now. Raxacoricofallapatorious.
• I’m sorry, but the CGI Slitheen and the Rubber suit Slitheen are not as seemless as they would like to believe.
• The Slitheen are living calcium? 
• And the Doctor is right. Why would Rose ever kiss Mickey considering what Jackie finds in his pantry?

***

The Doctor: Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They’ll never get in.

Rose: And how do we get out?

The Doctor:  Ah.

***

The Doctor: I think you’ll find the Prime Minister is an alien in disguise, and-  That’s never gonna work, is it?

Policeman: Nope.

The Doctor: Fair enough. [runs]

***

The Doctor: Fascinating history, Downing Street. 2000 years ago, this was marshland. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken – he was a nice man – 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet was in session, and in danger, these were about the four safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of Lesson. 

***

Harriet Jones: Voice mail dooms us all.

Doctor Who Throwback: 1-4 “Aliens of London”

Yes, this is part one of a humorous two parter that appeals to the ten-year old boy in all of us. Farting aliens. So funny. It’s frankly the only time I wanted to smack Russell T Davies.

Funny doesn’t equal good, sadly, and I think this and it’s follow-up are the weakest of the series. I am including all specials, series finales, and all of season three. I would rather sit through any other episodes than these ones again. But I guess that the fact my seven-year old calls them her favorites speaks volumes about the target audience.

Rose and the Doctor return to the Powell Estate, where the Doctor informs Rose that she’s only been gone for twelve hours and Rose leaves to say hi to her mom. It’s only then that both the Doctor and Rose realize it hasn’t been twelve hours but twelve months (Oops. The TARDIS still seems to miss its mark sometimes). This is all pretty whatever stuff ( although mildly funny).

Then a spaceship crashes into the Thames, taking a hunk out of Big Ben in the process.

The rest of the episode seems like an odd mix of Benny Hill comedy and bad sci-fi. Because it’s the start of a two parter, it’s mostly just exposition, setting up the more exciting ( but still pretty lame) second part.

That all being said, there are some pretty good lines.

Random Thoughts:

• Trinity Wells makes her first appearance. Trinity Wells is the American new anchor used by the Who staff to show the “American” POV of events via moments of a news broadcast ( usually, the President is pissed that the UK has taken the lead on something). She’s played by Lachele Carl, who is the only actor to appear in every series of Doctor Who since it came back to the air.
• Penelope Wilton play ” Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North”. A fan favorite, she plays a significant role in later series.
• The Doctor: Actually, it’s my fault. I sort of, uh, employed Rose as my companion.
  Policeman: When you say “companion”, is this a sexual relationship?
  Rose and the Doctor: No!

Rose: You’re 900 years old?

The Doctor: Yep.

Rose: My mother was right, that is one hell of an age gap.

 

Mickey: I bet you don’t even remember my name!

The Doctor: Ricky.

Mickey: It’s Mickey!

The Doctor: No, it’s Ricky.

Mickey: I think I know my own name!

The Doctor: You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?

•  I know I wrote practically nothing about this episode, but really, there isn’t much to write about. Very little actually happens that moves the story along.

Doctor Who Throwback: Episode 1-3 “The Unquiet Dead”

Simon Callow was my favorite thing about Four Weddings And A Funeral. Well, Callow and Kristin Scott Thomas.  His larger than life performance buoyed the entire film, and lead to one of the most genuinely moving moments in the ’90s when John Hannah recites Auden’s ” Funeral Blues”, which is one of my favorite poems of all time. But that’s another topic for another day. What I am saying is this- Callow is magnificent.

I had always gotten the “Charles Dickens” vibe from the hyperliterate Callow ( I tend to get author vibes from people. It’s a weird thing, but helpful when talking to other hyperliterates in the world). So seeing him in this episode as Dickens was delightful. Leave aside the fact that the script takes several liberties with Dickens’ life and beliefs. I mean, besides the obvious. In 1869 Cardiff, we have a Dickens that is broken down, stuck, miserable, and lacking any real imagination. Not the recovering from a stroke earlier that year, or the one that would die of a massive stroke a mere six months later. Callow’s Dickens is an anachronism. It’s the middle period Dickens at the end of his life.

This means little to the story, though, which has the Doctor and Rose, with the help of Dickens and a Welsh girl named Gwyneth, discover the Gelth, who survive in a gaseous state in the walls of a local funeral home. They inhabit the dead bodies for short periods. (And I’m bitching about the accuracy of Dickens’ life?) Gwyneth can hear the Gelth and see things she’s not supposed to due to a riff of time and space running through Cardiff that she has become a part of. At first they seem lost and in need of help, and the Doctor feels pity for the homeless Gelth. Needless to say, it doesn’t turn out the way the Doctor wants. Never trust beings that inhabit corpses. They can’t possibly be up to any good. At least there is a big bang.

This is an episode that sets up a lot of the rest of the season. We get a mention of the big bad wolf, and Cardiff plays a role in the eleventh episode ( we also get a reason the Cardiff based production goes to the UK as often as it does- and the joke that all planets look like quarries in Wales). Overall, while at moments wildly funny, and containing vital plot points, this is a pretty inconsequential episode, buoyed by its performances and good humor.

Random Thoughts:

• Rose looks slightly tarty in that “period wardrobe”, no?
• And never hate on Nine’s jumper. I like that look. So sue me.
• While the Doctor mentions a war in ” The End of The World”, this episode is the first actual mention of the phrase “Time War”.
• The Doctor: I saw the Fall of Troy! World War Five! I was pushing boxes at the Boston Tea Party! Now I’m gonna die in a dungeon… in Cardiff!
• The Doctor: Now don’t antagonize her. I love a happy medium!
  Rose: I can’t believe you just said that.

Doctor Who Throwback: Episode 1-2 “The End Of The World”

The End of the World terrified me as a child. I knew that logic was that I would already be dead. Nut the end of the world. Well that is dead dead dead. And since I, like most irrational human beings, am terrified of death, nothing is scarier than the ultimate death. I still don’t do well with death now. And I’m closer to death than I am to birth. Okay, after writing that, I’m going to curl up in the fetal position and be crazy.

What I know is- I don’t want to see the end of the world. I don’t care how crazy hot Christopher Eccleston is as the Doctor. I’d make him take me to see the original production of West Side Story. I’m not staying.

Rose, though, really doesn’t kick up much of a fuss. “Don’t argue with the designated driver.” Well, fine, but I’m at least gonna sulk. And she does sulk. In an environment so foreign to her, she pouts like the petulant child she is. But she still stays. And she certainly doesn’t throw an all out tantrum about being there. No, she instead turns her fear into a rant about how she knows nothing about the Doctor as a man-human-person. She doesn’t even know at this point what species he is.

We are introduced to our first space station in this episode, a vast platform that serves as a viewing pit stop for rich folks and dignitaries to watch what is the ultimate piece of performance art- the end of a planet. We have a hodgepodge of aliens- The Face Of Boe maks his first appearance here, and we also have Trees, the Moxx of Balhoon, and Cassandra, the last human, or as Rose calls her, “a bitchy trampoline”.

Cassandra remains a personal favorite character of mine, not because of what she is, but because of what she represents. Essentially a piece of stretched out skin and a brain in a pot, she is called the last human despite not really being humanesque. She brings to the forefront the idea of what exactly constitutes being a human being. Rose is offended that Cassandra calls herself the last human, for Cassandra doesn’t resemble a human at all, but as long as her brain is working and she was born on the planet earth, doesn’t that make her a human?

The whodunit with the spiders is actually standard stuff. The villain wasn’t even a surprise. But what was good was the Doctor. We begin to hear a little bit roll out about exactly who and what he is, and we also begin to see a little bit of the angst below the surface. Eccleston plays this to perfection. He’s quiet when Jabe talks about the improbability of his existence, and we see the tears being held back. The doctor is tortured by something dark and secretive.  He goes on to save the day, but remains unmoved by Rose’s pleas for mercy and allows the villain to die. He takes Rose back to her time and tells his story. “There was a war…”

The last of the Time Lords, the Time War ( RTD’s massive reset button to propel the story while allowing to honor aspects of established canon), it all starts to leak out here. And we get what is the greatest gift. “You’ve got me,” Rose tells him, and then they wander off to eat chips.

Random thoughts:

The Doctor: [opening Rose's phone] Tell you what. With a bit of jiggery pokery—

Rose: Is that a technical term, “jiggery pokery”?

The Doctor: Yeah, I got a first in jiggery pokery, what about you?

Rose: [playing along] Nah, I failed hullabaloo

 

The Doctor: I’m a Time Lord. I’m the last of the Time Lords. They’re all gone. I’m the only survivor. I’m left travelling on my own, ’cause there’s no one else.

• Cassandra is voiced by the glorious Zoe Wanamaker. I recognized her right off.
• Trees walk and talk. And there is always money in land, even five billion years from now.
• “Tainted Love” is classical music, and “Toxic” is a ballad. Nice to know dance music remains a staple, right?

Doctor Who Throwback: Episode 1-1 “Rose”

Yes, I’m going back as well. I’ve watched every episode of the reboot numerous times over the past five months. I think it is totally fair to go back to the start.

Not being obsessed with the Doctor as a child but aware of the series, its history, and its fervent fandom made me reluctant to even start watching it when the reboot came along in 2005. It took a couple of online friendships with devoted NuWho fans to even convince me to give it a go.

I love my online friends to death for it.

“Rose” has a lot of ground to cover. The new series was set up to honor the canon already developed in the previous 26 year run of the show, plus the truly terrible 1996 movie ( I feel so sorry for Paul McGann, who gives a great performance in that piece of crap as the eighth Doctor). But Russell T Davies also had to create a reset button of sorts, to explain a) why we have a new face ( although never specified, it is assumed in canon that Eight regenerated after creating the Time Lock that ends the Time War between the Daleks and the Time Lords, becoming Christopher Eccleston at his grumpy, funny, sexy best) and b) a new attitude. Eccleston’s Doctor is lonely and miserable when he stumbles back to earth to save the human race from the Autons, and an accidental meeting with Billie Piper’s Rose Tyler in the shop she works at throws them together in a way neither of them expected.

Rose lives on a council estate with her mother, Jackie, who reminds me of a more family friendly version of Edina from AbFab, with a less caustic tongue and a genuine love and concern for her daughter. Rose’s life is typical for a nineteen year old girl not in college- she works a menial sales job, has a boyfriend, and basically has few cares in the world. After being chased by living plastic and meeting the Doctor who blows up the shop she works at, she begins to take a good long look at her world and realize it’s not all it seems. She does the modern thing and searches for references to the strange man with a blue box online, leading her to meet Clive ( a one-off character that leaves an impression- I’m sure we all know a conspiracy Nutter like that). Clive has traced the Doctor through history, and is convinced he is an alien from another planet. As wacky as the Doctor is to Rose, she’s unable to believe that. It’s not till later, after escaping a plastic version of her boyfriend Mickey with the Doctor into the TARDIS ( “It’s bigger on the inside. It’s Alien. You’re alien”) that she begins to accept all the wierd stuff that’s going on as real.

Truth be told, as far as thrills and spills go, it’s pretty standard stuff. The Autons and their controller, the Nestene Conciousness, aren’t particularly creepy or thrilling. The climax is actually kind of silly. But that’s not why I love this episode. The tension created between Eccleston and Piper is palpable. I’m not talking romantic tension, I’m talking about an intellectual tension. Rose is more clever than her life allows her to be, and her humanity is actually what draws the Doctor to her. She has a strong moral sense and an empathy that makes her superior to most of the people the Doctor meets. He invites her to go long with him in his TARDIS, and she initially turns him down. It’s when he informs her it’s not just a spaceship but a time machine that she joins him. This is an important plot point. She senses his loneliness, and he senses her need to escape a life that is beneath her. She gives him comfort. He gives her purpose. 

Random thoughts:

• I saw the David Tennant series four episodes before the Eccleston episodes. Tennant is my Doctor, but Eccleston is easily a close second. I adore them both.
• Rose: Hold on, if you’re an alien, why do you sound like you’re from the North?
• Doctor: Lots of planets have a north!
• Rose is actually a bit of a spitfire. The relationship between her and Nine starts off purely as friendship. But it does change as the series goes on.

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Whimey:Doctor Who 5-01 “The Eleventh Hour”

I know there is a portion of the Who fan base that hates him and everything he did, but I am a devoted fan of Russell T Davies and David Tennant is my Doctor. You can tell me everything wrong with the RTD era and I can agree on some of it, but since I wasn’t a fan as a child, I really don’t find the new elements of Who to be a distraction.

Still, the news of Tennant and Davies leaving for other opportunities and the hiring of barely old enough to drink Matt Smith and the promotion of genius writer Steven Moffat made me think that this new incarnation had some life in it. I trust Moffat’s judgment. And Matt Smith does not disappoint in his debut as the Doctor.

On the contrary, I think “The Eleventh Hour” is the strongest series opener since 2005′s “Rose”. It has some of the humor I love about the RTD era ( frankly, I could have spent the entire hour watching Smith’s Doctor eating and rejecting food). Moffat is also much better at building tension that Davies ever was ( I was really thrilled with Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi).

I also see the potential of Karen Gillan’s Amelia “Amy” Pong as a companion. Moffat was careful to build a real back story and a pre-existing relationship with the Doctor, heightening our involvement with her before she even stepped foot into the TARDIS. We care because this little girl appears to be abandoned by everyone and is scared of the crack in her wall, and after meeting the Doctor, she becomes obsessed with him to the point therapy is required, and when we come to her as an adult, she is both scared and awed by the man she was convinced could not possibly exist. Amy has had a troubled childhood, leading to a dubious career ( kiss-o-gram? Is that a family friendly way of saying “stag party stripper”?) and a whole lot of people who seem to think her childhood meeting with the Doctor was just a symptom of deeper issues. No one, including quasi-boyfriend Rory, seems to believe that the Doctor is real, standing in front of them.

Left with only twenty minutes to save the earth with no TARDIS and no sonic screwdriver to aid him, the Doctor uses his wits to outsmart the mysterious shapeshifting Patient Zero, and then brings the Atraxi to task for threatening to incinerate a level five planet that had done nothing at all to deserve such a threat. Smith plays this scene with a quiet authority, all the while trying to build the look of his Doctor, coming out of the projections of his previous incarnations in tweed and a bow tie, looking like the aged professor with an appealing baby-faced quality and floppy hair.  I believed him to be the same Doctor I have grown to love these last several months of Doctor Who fanaticism. I now regret having any doubts.

I will probably always be at odds with certain factions of the Who fandom who dislike so much of the past five years, as I can’t quite seem to understand the hate and disappointment they feel, and the first episode without RTD at the helm felt to me to be a continuation of his themes and style while being fresh at the same time. Having already watched the two following episodes,  can tell you that I am not nearly as happy with one of those two episodes as I am with this, but Moffat seems to be doing exactly what I wanted him to do- he’s writing witty, scary scripts and making me love the Doctor. And ultimately, isn’t that what we all want?

Random thoughts:

• Fish custard?
• The crack in the walls are the obvious Bad Wolf theme, right? Or is it red herring?
• Is there a significance to the fact Jeff uses a MYTH lap top?
• A lot of online conjecture about the date on Rory’s ID badge. THis feeds into a future episode’s conspiracy theory I’ve been reading the last 24 hours.
• I love love LOVE the little girl who played young Amelia. What a find.
• The Doctor: I’m the Doctor; I’m worse than everyone’s aunt. [catches himself] And that is not how I’m introducing myself.
• The Doctor: Who da man?! [Everyone looks at him unimpressed; petulantly] Okay, that’s… I’m never saying that again. Fine.
• My favorite episodes are always one with more humor than thrills, but that’s because I’m naturally drawn to humor. Moffat is a comedy writer by trade, creating the rip-roaring hilarious Coupling.   I worry that his humor may be too adult for a show paraded about as the optimal family show. Not every parent is me, and not every child is mine, as my girls all think Coupling is hilarious. That being said, this hour had masturbation jokes, possible stripper references, and Amy staring at the Doctor wide-eyed as he changes.

Obsession of the Week: “Doctor Who”

I spend a lot of time watching TV. A lot.  It takes something special to get me wound up ( see: Chuck, Fringe, Homicide, The Big Bang Theory, Freaks and Geeks, How I Met Your Mother). It is very rare for me to dismiss something outright and even rarer for me to ignore a phenomenon.

I grew up in Canada, a place very British in many sensibilities. I have a deep love for British comedy. You would be hard pressed to find a bigger fan of Monty Python and Fry and Laurie than me. I’ve already written about my love for British panel shows. I was built to be a life long fan of Doctor Who.

But I wasn’t.