Dr Who

[poliphilo]

I'm old enough to have seen the second ever episode of Doctor Who. I don't know why I missed the first, but I think it had something to do with rehearsing a play at Church.

My favourite Doctor is Patrick Troughton. He was fey, comedic, otherworldly- a magician and trickster, part Pied Piper, part Wizard of Oz.

He became my role model.

By the time Tom Baker arrived I had stopped being a regular viewer. I guess I was away at boarding school.

The Colin Baker episodes were the worst. His Doctor was a roaring bully and there was too much sadistic violence. I wasn't sorry the show got cancelled.
It had gone off.

I liked Sylvester McCoy. I was watching with my kids by now.

The TV film with Paul McGann was utterly misconceived- a poor stab at a Hollywood action movie. Dr Who isn't about freeway chases, it's about magic and wonder and anything being possible.

The new series with Christopher Eccleston is a miraculous return to form.
It has witty and imaginative scripts, great effects, expensive actors, fascinating aliens. Last night's episode gave us a tree woman (several billion years into the future) who said she was descended from the rain forests.

You'll believe a Dalek can fly!

Comments

[butterscotch711.livejournal.com]

*hyperventilates*

I can't wait to see the new Doctor Who.

Like an immature fanboy, I got a bit peeved at the news that Christopher Eccleston has quit already (you sign up to play the Doctor for at least three years, dammit!), but that's just silly of me. But it is disappointing that his Doctor won't get rally fleshed out, and that we won't look back on 'the Christopher Eccleston years'.

Patrick Troughton is one of my favourites - the funnest Doctor, as well as the most mystical in a way - although I haven't seen everything of his, and if you were a regular viewer at the time you saw a lot of stories I'll never get to see coz the stupid BBC threw them all out in the early seventies.

I think Doctor Who could actually work a lot better now. The language of television has started catching up with the kind of stories Doctor Who likes to tell, and television audiences have become more savvy, so there can be more story-telling and less endless expositions.

Anyway, I will continue to drool every time someone in Britain talks about it on the net - I'm so jealous!

[suzilem.livejournal.com]

My favorite Doctor was alway Jon Pertwee -- probably because he was my "first" doctor. :-)

[seaslug-of-doom.livejournal.com]

I think The Doctor is one reason I didn't just end up a married fellow with 2.5 kids, a dog, and a mortgage. No wait, it's my unstable mental state. Yes, that's it. Now, when is The Doctor going to be on in 'murrrika (George Bush pronunciation) and when will Congress denounce it?

[queen-in-autumn.livejournal.com]

I started watching Dr. Who during my freshman year at college, when an older friend introduced me via "Earthshock," a Peter Davison episode with a tragic ending. I was hooked.

Christopher Eccleston? Wow. The only work of his that I've seen is the Duke of Norfolk in Elizabeth! I'll now be keeping an eye out for his Doctor!