BBC America just ran the new installment of Doctor Who. It has surpassed my expectations, let alone hopes. David Tennent is so well suited to the role of The Doctor (and to think that I did not like him very much at first, since Eccleston was so good) that one actually believes that he believes that he is The Doctor.
For those of you not hip to this series, I can not even begin to begin to explain. It started as a children's television program on BBC in 1963, starring William Hartnell as a very aged Doctor, traveling with his first companion. She was, in the story, his granddaughter, and this has never been resolved in the years of the series.
This particular story is charming for many reasons. One is that they displayed images, at least for an instant, of all of the actors to play The Doctor. Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, John Pertwee, Tom Baker (the most well remembered actor, the one with the scarf), Peter Davidson, Colin Baker (likely the worst actor ever to play the role), Sylvester McCoy (the first Scot to play the role), Paul McGann (who played the role only once in a TeeVee movie), Eccelston, and some images of Doctors not yet known.
The storyline in this episode is that The Doctor travels to 1851 London and encounters a person who calls himself The Doctor who has many of the memories of the real one. The tip off for me was when The Doctor used a stethoscope on the other main character. I could tell from his expression that the person was no Gallifreyian.
This particular episode is also interesting in that there were some Transformer moments in it. Lord love CGI. In the old days, one planet was literally an orange spinning from a thread. I sort of miss the crudeness, but to stay involved things must keep up with the times.
I also understand that Tennent will not be playing The Doctor after this season. He will be hard to replace, but BBC has done pretty well over the years (except for Colin Baker) in making the character interesting. If anyone doubts my dedication to this wonderful fantasy series, please see this picture of a scarf that Mrs. Translator knitted in 1978 to the exact specifications as published in a media magazine at the time. It is correct as to color, number of lines, and, as far as I can tell, the fringe. Here is the picture:
I had to fold it up in two, and then also had to cut some of the loop out of the picture. The scarf, when fully furled, is about 22 feet long, and is pure wool.
Long live The Doctor, and his good works. He is one of the few heroes that uses force as a last resort.
I would love to hear your comments about The Doctor, and who you thought was the best actor playing him. I prefer Tom Baker, but just by a pinch. I would like the next regeneration to be female.
By the way, BBC America will repost the episode at 12:00 AM Eastern time.
UPDATE: as commentator Casual Wednesday points out, we are coming up on our 11th Doctor (not counting Peter Cushing in a movie that was not in the mainstream). This brings a problem: Time Lords can only regenerate 12 times before the life force is depleted. This has been covered several times in the series.
For example, The Master was at the end of his regenerations and had to steal the body of Nyssa's father in order to continue. That begs the question of whether or not he was a true Time Lord. Borusa (Lord President of the High Council of Gallifrey) also ran out of lives, and tried to become immortal (he succeeded, but with untoward effect). So that puts the series is sort of a quandary. There was even an episode in the horrible Colin Baker days when The Doctor himself had achieved his last regeneration and became the Valyard (I hope that I spelt this correctly). There was also a reference in the Peter Davison series about The Doctor giving away his future regenerations to preserve the lives of others, who were found to be fakers, so it was not necessary.
What do we do now? As I have said in the past, the new set of series has sort of changed the story line significantly, so it might be ignored. I have been on record to disagree with the premise that the Daleks wiped out Gallifrey, because it does not help the story line. More available Time Lords would only help. But that is another line of speculation.
Perhaps the 12 regenerations applies only to one sex. If so, there could be 13 more female Doctors. I personally would like to see at least one strong, female Doctor (and not the daughter from the recent series, although she is very striking and will be wonderful Time Lord, but nevertheless not The Doctor). This is a conundrum that the series finds itself in at present. It is a direct result of poor planning on the part of the writers, and here is why.
When the series started, there was no "book" of tradition. It was never expected to last, so there was never any reason to come up with a succession policy. Then Hartnell became too ill to continue in the role, and the writers thought up regeneration. Troughon became the second Doctor without not much problem. I do not remember if there was any casual comment about 12 regenerations in those transitional episodes.
It came to a head during the Tom Baker era, when The Master was brought back and it was made clear that 12 cycles were all that were available. So, if the story book is honored, the next Doctor is near the last possible one.
I see a couple of workarounds for it. One, given the destruction of Gallifrey, is that unused regeneration capacity of the Time Lords who still had some left were transferred to the Eye of Harmony inside of the only TARDIS remaining, the 42-B belonging (well, possessed by The Doctor, since he stole it to begin with) to The Doctor, and that he has the legacy of all of the remaining Time Lords regenerative powers. But as I said previously, I really dislike the entire idea of the destruction of the Time Lord race. The writers need to rectify this, because the rob themselves of a very rich story line.
A second workaround is that The Doctor, like The Master, steal a new body. That is out of keeping with his noble character, and would not keep him as a Time Lord, but as whatever humanoid that he stole. This not not satisfactory.
The best solution would be that the Daleks altered his perception in that Gallifrey was never destroyed, or that the Time Lords caused that perception in order to preserve themselves. It is already established in the dogma that the Time Lords, upon occasion, execute "criminals", and it would not be too much of a stretch to imagine that they somehow preserve the regenerations allowed to the convicts. I think that this is the best alternative to the problem, and it would not be out of step with the accumulated dogma of Doctor Who over the years. What do you think?
And finally, what became of Leela, the fierce Warrior of the Sevateem? Remember, she stayed on Gallifrey with the "savages" who are presumably not Time Lords after the Sontoran invasion was foiled. Her genetic heritage must have been spread amoungst other Galliyfeyans, since she was a strong and presumably very virile woman. By the way, K-9 stayed with her (well, K-9 Mark I). I wonder if the "savages" were not nascent Time Lords who just rejected the technology of time and space travel? That was strongly hinted in the episodes at the time. Leela certainly was not human, since she was not from Terra, but was humanoid. Perhaps her DNA could interact with that of the Gallifreyans (they call them that in the series, but I would have preferred "Gallifrisians" as their name, since the word rolls off of the tongue more easily and has a better sound to it). Just some more ideas for the writers. Perhaps they should call me to write for them. I know the book well, and would be true to it, or at least bend it in good keeping with the tradition, which the current writers did not.
Warmest regards,
Doc