Doctor Who

My decision to watch this show was on a whim, because it was the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep. I dropped in on episode 11 of series 2. Despite being completely confused, I was drawn in, and now want to watch the other episodes I've missed. At least from this season. From the beginning there's mystery, intrigue, spooked old ladies' sixth senses, creepy singing children, Are You Afraid of the Dark? vibe. As well as just the right amount of comedy. It gave me that fuzzy sentimental feeling of getting to stay up late on weekends. I'm vaguely familiar with this show; strange alien in a space/time traveling police box. Also, that it's been on television as long as there's been television. Luckily, that's about all I needed to know. I know of it like I know of most other ancient shows, from my parents. I'm sure one of them has mentioned it at some point. Or maybe it's just so prolific that it's entered the great static cloud of collective human consciousness.







This incarnation's got that actress from the boring call girl show in it, Billie Piper, as The Doctor's companion Rose. I'm starting to think she's the only British television actress. But she's cute and believable as the random alien companion. A bit of a Trillian vibe there; I think she does a good job. David Tennant I found to be absolutely perfect for the part of The Doctor himself. His facial expressions and delivery were expertly timed and completely awesome. Even the side characters were acted pretty well, with a good spattering of campiness. At first the effects were jarringly low-tech, but I think that was the main source of the flashbacks to 90's children's shows. In a world of CGI being used even when unnecessary I found I appreciated it more. So I'm not misunderstood, I love CGI more than may be completely natural, but I also have an appreciation for older types of effects. The goofy mis-matched technology was used for maximum comedic effect.

The plot for the episode was centered around the Olympics, appropriately enough. It was cheesy and adorable and fun. Complete with a withdrawn angry girl, a scribble monster, and a lonely jellyfish alien who just wanted to be loved. And also collect humans like pokemon to replace its own lost family. Luckily the Doctor's brains and approachable mad scientist flair, and Rose's fat-girl pants and side ponytail, saved the day with the love and hope of the Olympic flame. In type, that sounds terrible and I threw up a little in my mouth. It may have been sleep deprivation, but I found it all just charming.

Since I still couldn't sleep, I watched the next episode, which was less filler and more actual storyline. Apparently there's an army of robot ghosts taking over and lots of fighting is going to happen. The Torchwood people are trying to use alien technology for the good of the Future British Empire, and it seems to backfire. They take the police box/spaceship into custody with Rose inside, having confused her mother for her. The Doctor is shown around the facilities, and taken to the black orb of doom that freaks everyone out. He tells them it's no good, obviously, and that the ghosts are a bad idea, because they are. So then the ghost robots go into formation right about when Rose finds her way to the black orb of doom. That's about when the orb opens and some other robots come out, but bulky vacuum cleaner looking ones with bulbs and toilet plunger arms. I guess they're Daleks, and they're up to no good. After a bit of robot on robot violence and smack talk, some freaky time travel/alternate dimension stuff happens. The Doctor manages to figure out a way to get everything under control except for one smallish detail.

There were a lot of things in the second half of the finale that I didn't quite get, because I didn't see the whole rest of the show. I just considered them inside jokes. The clunky robots were pretty hilarious, though their mechanized voices were a tad obnoxious after a while. I can see why this has been the longest running science fiction show on television. It's pretty casual, there are parts that not everyone's going to understand and the specifics and sciency stuff are mostly glossed over. I'm fairly certain here's a continuity to it if you watch every episode, but if not it's still enjoyable in a Mystery Science Theater 3000 kind of way. All it asks is that you suspend belief and go along with it. In that way, it reminded me a lot of The Twilight Zone, another of my Sci Fi channel rainy day re-run favorites. Yeah, I know it's SyFy now, but I just don't like it.