Blasphemy! Heresy! Buuuuuurn heeeeeer!
OK, that's probably overstating the reaction a bit, but I may well be ostracized at my own get-together after this one. The Ladies of WhoFest are firm Tennantites, so admitting my Smithian leanings is sure to engender some antagonism, or at the very least disdain. I can't deny it any more, though. I think Eleven has surpassed Ten for me in terms of watchability.
Don't get me wrong - Ten is my Doctor. I fell in love with him (yeah, I mean it that way - how Mary Sue of me; and yes, I wept like a pregnant lady during The End of Time...), and through him learned to love all the Doctors, each in their own way. But there's something a bit off-putting about The Lonely God after a while. While I loved the Saddest Doctor when he was in a manic phase - oh, that smile... - I got tired of him getting screwed (metaphorically, and - depending on how you interpret a few things - literally) all the time. The guy couldn't catch a break. Given how RTD chose to write his story arc, I have to say it was probably time for Ten to regenerate; I mean, how much lower could he go?
Perhaps it will come as no surprise, then, when I say that what I've come to love most about Eleven is the return of his joie de vivre. Sure, the pain is still lurking there in his eyes when someone forcibly reminds him of it, but for the most part, he can put it out of his mind the way anyone who's lost a loved one learns to do (or, as Two put it in Tomb of the Cybermen, "I have to really want to - to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they... they sleep in my mind, and I forget."). But overall, Eleven gives off a kid-in-a-candy-store vibe, like he hardly knows where to begin because it's all so fabulous - sort of like Ten's breathy "that's beautiful!" upon first seeing the werewolf in Tooth and Claw, except all the time. New regeneration, new companion(s), new outlook; in a sense everything that Ten was really did die. And while part of me misses him, another larger part just doesn't have the time, because watching Eleven is too damn much fun.
This certainly wasn't a quick or simple transition. I went through a real grieving process for My Doctor (details are irrelevant, and vaguely embarrassing). How many times before had fans gone through this? "This Doctor was so good; how can the next bloke possibly measure up?" Over and over again, though, it worked (with a possible exception of the Five to Six transition, which really wasn't Colin Baker's fault so much as his writers'). Knowing that, I resolved to remain Cautiously Optimistic.
Hard as I tried, though, I couldn't help doubting. I'd debate myself. I'd start with "he's so young" (not how I saw Tennant, who is all of 2 months my junior), "he's a bit odd-looking" (though so were Troughton, Tom Baker, McCoy...), and "what's with that bow tie?!". I'd counter myself with "Moffat wouldn't have chosen him right off the bat if he weren't brilliant" and "you can't possibly judge him on two minutes, immediately post-regeneration." As the new series approached, I got progressively antsier. I felt like a junkie jonesing for a fix (as perhaps I was).
Once Eleventh Hour aired, I was somewhat mollified. All right. Not bad. Nothing too alarming there. He didn't feel very Doctor-y until he walked through Ten's image to intone, "I'm the Doctor," but that's OK. After all, by his own admission, he wasn't done cooking yet. However, apparently that episode was all some fans needed; Smith's performance had already outstripped Tennant's in their views.
By contrast, it took me a relatively long time to warm to Eleven. It wasn't until his "funny how you can say something in your head, and it sounds fine..." leading into the credits for Vampires of Venice that I wholeheartedly embraced him in the role. Even then, he was just "a worthy successor" in my book. It was several re-viewings of the series later that I started to feel that Smith's performances are surpassing Tennant's. I think it's the way he's so Classic'ly "proper bonkers," as Moffat put it. Really. If you look back at Classic Who - perhaps especially at Tom Baker's over-the-top performance as Four - you'll see there's always something... a bit mental about the Doctor. He comes off a bit of a nutter. Ten didn't quite have that (nor, come to think of it did Five, the one Tennant considered "his" Doctor). Quirky, perhaps, and definitely a bit odd, but not a nutter. Not a mad man in a blue box...
I guess when all is said and done, for me it's a matter of accepting the inevitable, of embracing the present. It was great while it lasted, but Ten's time has gone; now is the Eleventh Age. Matt Smith is the Doctor and I, for one, am enjoying the hell out of it. The Doctor is dead; long live the Doctor.
David Tennant still wins hands down on hotness, though.
19 January 2011
Confession #2: I Haven't Seen Them All
Now I may damage my cred with certain parts of The Community by this admission (perhaps especially those Neo-Whovian friends who regard me as a font of knowledge about Classic Who), but the sad truth of the matter is, I haven't seen all the Doctor Who stories out there. Shocking, I know.
This lapse in my own Doctor Who education is the product of one of my general character flaws (or "quirks," depending on who you ask): I'm not only a completist but also very particular about what I choose to collect. When I began my search for Classic stories, I didn't want anything on VHS, dinosaur technology that it is, so I started looking for what was out on DVD. Rather to my surprise, not everything had yet been released. (What had the BBC been doing all these years that I didn't care about Doctor Who? They were supposed to be getting everything ready for me, for when I discovered a new obsession!) Not only that, but each story (often misleadingly labeled as an "episode") was its own DVD, worth anywhere from $10 to $35 ("on up" for boxed sets of related stories) at list price. Yikes!
Much to my chagrin, my local library system failed me. Not only were there no DVDs in the system to check out, there were precious few VHS tapes, either. Fumbling around in the dark on my own, not having found any real link to The Community yet, I didn't even know whether or not to waste my time with what the library had. There had to be a better way...
Then I hit paydirt. Nosing around on eBay, I found a lot of roughly forty-five stories on DVD - every one that had been released in Region 1 (here in the US) up to about 3 months before the auction. Although the asking price was more than I really had to spare, it was a great deal for what was being offered; I couldn't pass it up.
Suddenly, I had an embarrassment of riches. I'd read a few reviews or passing comments by this time, so I had an idea of what was considered "great" (Genesis of the Daleks, for example) and what was considered contemptible (Timelash). Sometimes I agreed, and sometimes I didn't, but I got a feel for all the Doctors and many of the companions, forming my own opinions and preferences among them. (In the meantime, I hemorrhaged cash, trying to catch up on the constantly-growing list of releases.)
Originally, I watched them in broadcast order, starting with the earliest stories and prowling the now-defunct Outpost Gallifrey website for plot synopses of the missing stories - or parts of stories, for One and Two (I tend to refer to the various Doctors by number; another "quirk" of mine). This afforded me an awesome sense of continuity, most especially because that meant I didn't find it weird (as I do on subsequent viewings) to see the Brigadier (going by Bret) working next to One - still military but with a completely different manner (The Daleks' Master Plan), or Romana chatting with herself (The Armageddon Factor). As my collection expanded, I backfilled the viewings, which often led to brief confusion (was Story X before or after Story Y?).
As I did so, I also got a great feel for the uniqueness of a regeneration (don't get me started on the RTD-era "it should always look the same" crap; perhaps that's a rant for another post). The first regeneration is one of the few snippets that remains from One's final story - and what a blessing to fandom that bit of serendipity is. I've seen four (or is it five?) of the other six, including The Movie, and it's always amazing to watch that prone figure morph. (Note to Neo-Whovians unfamiliar with Classic Who: not till the transition from Nine to Ten did the Doctor stand for a regeneration scene.) Having all of these finally in my repertoire made my first "real time" regeneration (Ten to Eleven) simply delicious to anticipate. Now I know how Old Skool fans must have felt.
The upshot of all this is that, while I can proudly say I've watched every Doctor Who story that's been released on DVD in Region 1, plus The Movie (OK, OK... I haven't gotten around to watching The Dominators or Meglos yet; it's been a busy couple of weeks), I've still never seen The Krotons, Planet of the Spiders, Terror of the Zygons, or any of a couple dozen other well-known stories. My education continues.
Maybe I'm due for another chronological viewing bonanza...
This lapse in my own Doctor Who education is the product of one of my general character flaws (or "quirks," depending on who you ask): I'm not only a completist but also very particular about what I choose to collect. When I began my search for Classic stories, I didn't want anything on VHS, dinosaur technology that it is, so I started looking for what was out on DVD. Rather to my surprise, not everything had yet been released. (What had the BBC been doing all these years that I didn't care about Doctor Who? They were supposed to be getting everything ready for me, for when I discovered a new obsession!) Not only that, but each story (often misleadingly labeled as an "episode") was its own DVD, worth anywhere from $10 to $35 ("on up" for boxed sets of related stories) at list price. Yikes!
Much to my chagrin, my local library system failed me. Not only were there no DVDs in the system to check out, there were precious few VHS tapes, either. Fumbling around in the dark on my own, not having found any real link to The Community yet, I didn't even know whether or not to waste my time with what the library had. There had to be a better way...
Then I hit paydirt. Nosing around on eBay, I found a lot of roughly forty-five stories on DVD - every one that had been released in Region 1 (here in the US) up to about 3 months before the auction. Although the asking price was more than I really had to spare, it was a great deal for what was being offered; I couldn't pass it up.
Suddenly, I had an embarrassment of riches. I'd read a few reviews or passing comments by this time, so I had an idea of what was considered "great" (Genesis of the Daleks, for example) and what was considered contemptible (Timelash). Sometimes I agreed, and sometimes I didn't, but I got a feel for all the Doctors and many of the companions, forming my own opinions and preferences among them. (In the meantime, I hemorrhaged cash, trying to catch up on the constantly-growing list of releases.)
Originally, I watched them in broadcast order, starting with the earliest stories and prowling the now-defunct Outpost Gallifrey website for plot synopses of the missing stories - or parts of stories, for One and Two (I tend to refer to the various Doctors by number; another "quirk" of mine). This afforded me an awesome sense of continuity, most especially because that meant I didn't find it weird (as I do on subsequent viewings) to see the Brigadier (going by Bret) working next to One - still military but with a completely different manner (The Daleks' Master Plan), or Romana chatting with herself (The Armageddon Factor). As my collection expanded, I backfilled the viewings, which often led to brief confusion (was Story X before or after Story Y?).
As I did so, I also got a great feel for the uniqueness of a regeneration (don't get me started on the RTD-era "it should always look the same" crap; perhaps that's a rant for another post). The first regeneration is one of the few snippets that remains from One's final story - and what a blessing to fandom that bit of serendipity is. I've seen four (or is it five?) of the other six, including The Movie, and it's always amazing to watch that prone figure morph. (Note to Neo-Whovians unfamiliar with Classic Who: not till the transition from Nine to Ten did the Doctor stand for a regeneration scene.) Having all of these finally in my repertoire made my first "real time" regeneration (Ten to Eleven) simply delicious to anticipate. Now I know how Old Skool fans must have felt.
The upshot of all this is that, while I can proudly say I've watched every Doctor Who story that's been released on DVD in Region 1, plus The Movie (OK, OK... I haven't gotten around to watching The Dominators or Meglos yet; it's been a busy couple of weeks), I've still never seen The Krotons, Planet of the Spiders, Terror of the Zygons, or any of a couple dozen other well-known stories. My education continues.
Maybe I'm due for another chronological viewing bonanza...
12 January 2011
Confession #1: I Am a Neo-Whovian
My folks didn't watch a whole lot of tv when I was growing up, and when they did, it was mostly PBS (public broadcasting). I suppose that's why on very rare occasions, I'd come across my dad watching some unknowably ridiculous thing and have to ask what it was. A few times, it would be Star Trek, which - as an American - is a show I learned quite a bit about, eventually becoming a bit of a Trekker myself in college (where we watched new episodes of TNG religiously). On at least one occasion, though, I remember being really taken aback at the absurdity of the two minutes of something-random I watched with my dad. That was my first introduction to Doctor Who.
It wasn't a part of the American psyche the way it was - is - in Britain. I mean, sure, I'd heard of Doctor Who and its slightly... OK, very eccentric fans. For example, the Doctor Who Club in college tended to consist of shady figures who wore long woolen cloaks around campus (come to think of it, many of them were part of the campus Druids, too...), which didn't particularly inspire the uninitiated to jump right in and join the fandom. I didn't really know much of anything about the show, though. I'm a bit embarrassed in retrospect to admit that when my husband commented that the first little house we bought was like a TARDIS, he had to explain to me that he meant it was bigger on the inside.
Not until one of my friends nearly forced the "new series" (aka, Nu-Who) on me by showing me the first four episodes (which I thought were OK, but not exciting; thankfully he persisted) did I really catch the fever. And when I did, I caught it bad. In the course of approximately two weeks, I watched the end of Series 1, the entirety of Series 2 and 3, and caught up to the then-currently-airing Series 4 at about episode 6. I have watched every episode from S04E07 (The Unicorn and the Wasp) onward as they were broadcast.
Perhaps it was the intensity of this experience - 36 episodes in 14 days is nothing to sneeze at - that branded it on my soul and made me want more. Lucky for me, there were another 26 seasons' worth of backlog on which to catch up! Being the obsessive personality that I am, I immediately started looking for a way to get my hands on as much as I could (more on that in my next Confession).
I understand that there are plenty of Neo-Whovians out there (those who, like me, cut their teeth on Nu-Who) who have never warmed to the Classic Doctors. But I don't understand why. It makes the whole Nu-Who experience so much richer when you have that sense of history, of continuity. How can you not love it all the more when you recognize that Ten's drawling "well..." is a holdover from Four, or that Eleven sitting in a chair confronting a baddy with just a jaw-wiggling non-response echoes Three's mannerisms perfectly?
This love of the entire series - Nu-Who and Classic Who alike - has led me to try to share the joy of stories well-told with anyone who will listen. I managed to get several members of my pipe band hooked on Nu-Who, for a start. From there, I've moved on to the Gospel according to Classic Who, and am currently introducing some of those same people to the wonders of Doctors One through Eight.
So in reality, I'm not just a Neo-Whovian, though that's certainly where my roots lie. I'm an evangelical Whovian. C'mon in. Join the choir.
It wasn't a part of the American psyche the way it was - is - in Britain. I mean, sure, I'd heard of Doctor Who and its slightly... OK, very eccentric fans. For example, the Doctor Who Club in college tended to consist of shady figures who wore long woolen cloaks around campus (come to think of it, many of them were part of the campus Druids, too...), which didn't particularly inspire the uninitiated to jump right in and join the fandom. I didn't really know much of anything about the show, though. I'm a bit embarrassed in retrospect to admit that when my husband commented that the first little house we bought was like a TARDIS, he had to explain to me that he meant it was bigger on the inside.
Not until one of my friends nearly forced the "new series" (aka, Nu-Who) on me by showing me the first four episodes (which I thought were OK, but not exciting; thankfully he persisted) did I really catch the fever. And when I did, I caught it bad. In the course of approximately two weeks, I watched the end of Series 1, the entirety of Series 2 and 3, and caught up to the then-currently-airing Series 4 at about episode 6. I have watched every episode from S04E07 (The Unicorn and the Wasp) onward as they were broadcast.
Perhaps it was the intensity of this experience - 36 episodes in 14 days is nothing to sneeze at - that branded it on my soul and made me want more. Lucky for me, there were another 26 seasons' worth of backlog on which to catch up! Being the obsessive personality that I am, I immediately started looking for a way to get my hands on as much as I could (more on that in my next Confession).
I understand that there are plenty of Neo-Whovians out there (those who, like me, cut their teeth on Nu-Who) who have never warmed to the Classic Doctors. But I don't understand why. It makes the whole Nu-Who experience so much richer when you have that sense of history, of continuity. How can you not love it all the more when you recognize that Ten's drawling "well..." is a holdover from Four, or that Eleven sitting in a chair confronting a baddy with just a jaw-wiggling non-response echoes Three's mannerisms perfectly?
This love of the entire series - Nu-Who and Classic Who alike - has led me to try to share the joy of stories well-told with anyone who will listen. I managed to get several members of my pipe band hooked on Nu-Who, for a start. From there, I've moved on to the Gospel according to Classic Who, and am currently introducing some of those same people to the wonders of Doctors One through Eight.
So in reality, I'm not just a Neo-Whovian, though that's certainly where my roots lie. I'm an evangelical Whovian. C'mon in. Join the choir.
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