Doctor Who is one of my favourite things to exist. A fantastic science-fantasy about a centuries year old, shape-shifting alien, who travels through time and space in a 1960s Police Telephone Box. C. S. Lewis meets Alfred Bestell meets H.G. Wells. Its the best of British quirky adventure literature. It has, of course, had its ups-and-downs over the years.
My favourite Doctor is the Second Doctor, portrayed by Patrick Troughton. He is everything that I want the Doctor to be, heroic, funny, mysterious and . Troughton played it so differently to William Hartnell's First Doctor, and this was so vital to the show's longevity.
My favourite era, however, are the stories from the Third Doctor's tenure. I love the U.N.I.T family of The Doctor (now played by the marvelous Jon Pertwee), Jo Grant (Katy Manning), The Brigadier (a fantastic comedic performance by Nicholas Courtney), Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin) and Sgt. Benton (John Levine). There's a lovely feeling of comfort to these stories. Yes, they produced some of the scariest visuals of the show (my fear of shop mannequins no doubt stems from watching the Spearhead From Space omnibus on UKGold), but the central cast adds a familiarity that I just adore. They bicker and disagree with one another constantly, but each and every one of them would die for one another (unless Mike Yates has been hypnotised again).
My least favourite era is the majority of the 1980s. I'm not going to rant about John Nathan-Turner. Although he made some frankly awful decisions in this period, he did a lot of good in terms of publicity. But, it was during this time that the show started losing its mystery, and sense of dignity. It started to become a tad pantomime and too geared towards children. What made Doctor Who special to me was that is was a dark family show. It went a bit too far with the horror, sometimes verging on the disgusting, but it was always fun because of that. Children love to be scared, there's a pride factor to having sat through a challenging scary feature. The show built its reputation on being "watched behind the sofa" (although my settee was always pushed up against the wall, because I had cruel parents). For me the Sixth Doctor and half of the Seventh's are the low points of the show's history. This is by no means criticising the actors Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, who throughout their runs always arrived on form, and thank-you Big Finish for redeeming them. It's just the writing and direction that let them down. But, again, it seems unfair to blame the production team, as Auntie Beeb decided to totally screw with the show. Partly because Michael Grade did not like it. But the last part of the Seventh Doctor's run, basically as soon as Ace (Sophie Aldred) joined the TARDIS, things began to pick up... then it was cancelled. Terrific.
I remember the buzz around the TV Movie and I was so excited. When I was born there was no Doctor. It had been cancelled. The TV Movie meant that I was finally going to have a Doctor for my generation and I would follow his adventures for years to come.
Yeah, that didn't happen.
The TV Movie (the Enemy Within) came out and... I didn't like it. There was something off about it. It did not feel like Doctor Who to me. Where was the multi-part story? Where was the Brigadier? Where was the CSO? It looked polished and like a film. Weird. But, the opening credits were cool. I love this version of the theme tune. The TARDIS interior is beautiful, possibly my favourite, a Victorian science-gothic machine. Paul McGann is great and would go on better stories courtesy of Big Finish Productions.
That's the classic period in a nutshell. To me.
The modern era have had some great episodes: Dalek, The Empty Child/ The Doctor Dances, Human Nature/ The Family of Blood, Blink, The Doctor's Wife. But overall the modern era just hasn't grabbed me as much as the classic series. And it's not because I've grown up, for goodness sake I bought a Rupert Bear collection the other week! I think the episodes seem rush, as if they are meant for multiple episodes. I am also not a fan of the mythologising of The Doctor. I know the Doctor is awesome, I don't need aliens to tell me he is great.
Plus the companions I don't find all that imaginative. The classic series had multiple Time-Lord companions, a Victorian girl, an alien princess, a journalist, a scientist, an explosives expert, a futuristic tribal woman. The modern series has had such diversity as present day Earth woman, a present day Earth woman, a present day Earth woman, a present day Earth woman, a present day Earth woman, and a present day Earth woman. For a show whose boundaries are that of imagination, that's not very imaginative.
Anyway, even though I am not a fan of the modern era, I still always watch it, because, Doctor Who, if anything is a show about ideas and even when it doesn't work, it's still one of the most interesting things on television. And that's why I love it.
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