Doctor Who?

I haven't watched every episode of Doctor Who. I've only seen a handful of adventures featuring the Classic Doctors. I've never watched the Doctor Who movie with Paul McGann in full. In fact, I didn't really know anything about the show until Matt Smith was cast the 11th Doctor. When his casting was announced I didn't understand what all of the fuss was about. Some friends of mine from the U.K. explained the premise of the show to me: an alien with two hearts travels through time and space in a blue box saving the universe from monsters and every so often (when ratings drop or the main actor feels the need to leave) the Doctor changes his appearance. Basically, this Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey "dies" and has to regenerate his body to such a degree that it completely changes.

My friends also recommended that I watch a few episodes before Matt Smith's debut to get more familiar with the concept and the series as a whole. So I started with "Rose", the episode that relaunched the show after it had been cancelled in the 1980s. I watched maybe eight episodes of the Christopher Eccleston era. It ranged from overly silly (farting, giggling aliens) to creepy and intelligent writing ("The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" being the best examples). Eccleston, to me, was fairly normal. Not as alien as I would have liked.

Next I tried some episodes from the David Tennant era. Naturally I started with "The Christmas Invasion", his first episode. Again, it was a bit too silly for my liking. Santa Clause robots for example. But Tennant was very good. Very odd, a bit more believeable as an alien. He was naturally fun where Eccleston seemed to have to work at it. Again, I never watched all of Tennant's episodes, but a few were recommend for me. "Blink", "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead" were among the best and introduced the Weeping Angels and River Song. Those characters were important because they were creations of Steven Moffat, who would bring them back during his time as showrunner for the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi eras.

But back to David Tennant's 10th Doctor. He was almost a superhero with his good looks and long coat. Very cool, slightly kooky and always popular with the ladies. It was during his time as the Doctor that the show started to gain something of an audience in North America. It wasn't super popular but was gaining recognition as being a smart, fun show with a likeable lead. So when Tennant announced he was leaving, fans were understandbly curious about who could possibly follow him as the Doctor.

Enter Matt Smith. Smith's Doctor was probably the most alien of all the "New" Doctors (2005 onwards). Smith's performance was almost magical and it fits since the Doctor's relationship with Amy Pond is like something out of a fairy tale. A young girl's imaginary friend comes back years later when she's fully grown and invites her to travel through time and space with him. I think that's why the 11th Doctor was such a hit with kids (and probably adults). He was the best friend everyone wanted. He thought bow ties were cool and didn't care if anyone thought otherwise. He was my Doctor. Sadly, Smith was never given a lot of great episodes but he always gave a great performance and his chemistry with Karen Gillan was undeniable. It was during his first season that the ratings in North America started to really take off and the show, which has always been a source of British pride, began to become internationally recognized. "The Eleventh Hour" (his introduction) and "The Doctor's Wife" are the best from his era.

Matt Smith left after the show's 50th Anniversary, and soon a new Doctor was introduced. Peter Capaldi was the 12th Doctor. He started out grumpy and rather cold towards everyone but eventually warmed up and started having fun. The Doctor had gone back to being an old man (well, he was always old. During Capaldi's time he was over 2,000 years old) and originally a lot of the joy and fun and running about that had made the show so popular during the Tennant and Smith years was gone. I suppose the fans had complained or maybe the ratings dropped and after the Capaldi's first year more humor was brought back into the show.

As almost everyone who reads this post will know, the Doctor had always been male. In fact, Time Lords (and Time Ladies) were never known to switch genders during Doctor Who's original run from the 1960s-1980s. However, during the show's "cancellation crisis" in the 1980s there were rumors that the Doctor would regenerate into a woman in order to boost the ratings. Of course, it never happened, but the possibility was always there. Steven Moffat changed all that by re-introducing the Master, one of the Doctor's arch-enemies, as Missy (short for Mistress) during the Capaldi era. This set the stage for the first female Doctor.

When Peter Capaldi and showrunner Steven Moffat decided to leave Doctor Who a new lead writer and showrunner was announced. Chris Chibnall, the creator and showrunner of Broadchurch and writer of a handful of Doctor Who episodes during Moffat's time as showrunner, was put in charge and decided to make some changes. The biggest change of course was casting Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor.

We still don't know anything about how Whittaker will play the character. Will she be more fun and playful like Tennant and Smith's Doctors? Will she be more serious and grumpy like Capaldi or even Colin Baker's 6th Doctor? We're still quite a few months away from her first full episode, but the change from Time Lord to Time Lady has already made headlines around the world. Some fans are excited about the Doctor's change in gender while others are bitter. Only time will tell how Jodie Whittaker is received and what happens to the ratings (will they rise? fall?). For right now though, I'm excited for the future of Doctor Who. I can't wait to see where the 13th Doctor takes us.