After almost two decades without, I have finally welcomed Doctor Who into my life. To celebrate this incredibly significant moment, here are my thoughts on this glorious show — 18 years late.
My dreams have been Dalek-themed ever since.
What took me so long?
I was five when Doctor Who relaunched in March 2005, and whilst I can remember fragments of it in the background, it was never something we really sat down to watch as a family.
As a child, I was not necessarily brave with my TV choices — easily frightened by anything remotely paranormal, I would settle with critiquing Strictly Come Dancing performances over coming face-to-face with aliens, and Craig Revel Horwood was about as frightening as I could manage.
The further time went on, the more I felt I’d missed, so it felt easier just to let it all pass me by. The show also seemed to have such committed fans that jumping in part-way through felt intimidating and fraudulent. No match for the so-called ‘Whovians’, it was easier to carry on living my life outside the Doctor Who bubble.
At the end of 2023, this all changed.
It was a Saturday night as normal as any and I’d gone to stay with my boyfriend for a couple of weeks. This particular Saturday evening (before we began the inevitable: deliberate for ages about what to watch, only to put something on we’ve seen a thousand times) the first 60th anniversary Doctor Who episode came on TV. Though not a diehard fan, my boyfriend had dabbled with The Doctor significantly more than me, so wanted to watch.
Relatively unbothered, I made myself dinner and poured myself a Saturday evening drink — a glass of Rosé (in hindsight, very on-theme). Shortly after, though, I was completely drawn in. Maybe it’s because it was a standalone thing, my gal Yasmin Finney was there, or because the Meep was a manageable level of scary, but we were both hooked.
The rest is history
The following day, as I sat down to do some work, I heard the unmistakable sound of the Doctor Who theme reverberating through the flat. My boyfriend, who was nostalgic after watching the anniversary episode, had just pressed play on season one, episode one. If you’re struggling to think back to ‘05, it’s about plastic mannequins (or Autons) that come alive.
Soon after, we were whizzing through the rest of the first season, and although I hadn’t watched it before, it still made me feel nostalgic. Probably because every British actor ever from my childhood makes a cameo at some point, and it’s just generally wonderful to watch the outfits and aesthetics through the eras. Fashion-wise, I think Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson might just be the chicest pair yet (I decided to watch the fifteenth Doctor in tandem but will probably have caught up by May anyway.)
Disney’s cash injection into the show looks like it’s taken the costume — amongst other things — up a notch, if the 2023 Christmas episode and teaser trailer are anything to go by. I am positively swooning at Ruby Sunday’s pastel yellow empire-line dress and cannot wait for Doctor Who’s regency rendezvous.
When I found out we’ve got to wait five months, I was relieved to have a surplus of episodes to keep me entertained.
How did you cope with waiting a week for each ep?
Initially, my boyfriend and I agreed to resume watching when we next saw each other. In hindsight, having a break (from The Doctor, not my boyfriend) was probably a good idea — because we had been watching so intensely, there had been minimal marinating time for each episode. However, last week, we resumed watching episodes apart but in tandem. At present, the loyalty remains strong — as do the Dalek-filled dreams.
Eccleston v Tenant
Unfortunately, I am still in the relatively early days of Doctor Who, so I cannot comment on all the different Doctors and assistants (stay tuned for future all-time rankings). However, I still have what I feel are valid thoughts on what I’ve seen thus far.
Don’t get me wrong, I have come to love The Tenth Doctor, but I can’t help but wish Christopher Eccleston had stayed on a bit longer. He definitely had a few more episodes left in him. Initially, I had thought Eccleston had left due to not wanting to be typecast, but it turns out there’s serious beef with Russel T. Davies — which makes me sad!
In a recent panel event at the For The Love Of Sci-Fi 2023 Convection alongside Billie Piper, Eccleston stated he would only ever return to the show if showrunner Russell T. Davies, executive producers Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter, and producer Phil Collinson got the sack.
For me, Ecclestone’s Doctor felt things a bit more deeply — more viscerally. Our first Dalek encounter (S1E6) comes to mind — The Doctor’s one-on-one dialogue with “the last Dalek in the universe” sears with grief, guilt, and slight mania.
In ‘The Empty Child’ and ‘The Doctor Dances’ (“Are you my mummy?” Yep, now you remember), Ecclestone’s Doctor is as emotionally invested in Nancy — a wartime young single mum — and the orphans as much as he is solving the alien anomaly creating human gas masks. Maybe the Nine Doctor had slightly more of the old soft touch? I’m not sure. The Doctor is a complex character, it’s hard to tell.
The same but different
But I suppose that is the point. Each Doctor is engineered differently regarding personality and emotion; they are the same but different. Tenant is The Doctor equivalent of the lad you get talking to in the kebab shop at 3am who’s lost all his friends and is intent on giving you a lesson all about the history of cheesy chips. Eccleston would have wangled his way onto the decks in the club and be playing “Inner Smile” at the end of the night. Both sassy as hell with a hint of slapstick, together they would be the class clowns at the back of the classroom in primary school.
Both are taunting and ruthless in the face of their enemies — but in different ways. Eccleston, it feels, is nursing a fresher wound, whereas Tenant, so far, is more tired, more weary. He is giving can’t be arsed vibes when, whilst still in his pyjamas, he yeets the Sycorax off the ship after it’s tried to con him into a second chance — “No second chances. I’m that sort of a man.”
I feel like Tenant’s Doctor would not have let Rose loose on the day of her father’s death, which, as we know, got them both into a bit of pickle. But who knows?
Either way, the whole regeneration situation is tough. How did you deal with it? I ate a family pack of chocolate buttons. I mean, what a rollercoaster. It’s a bit heartbreaking because it feels like they’ve died — and you want to remain loyal. But then, in approximately half an episode, David Tenant won me over. Does this make me fickle?! I mean, they are the same person, so maybe not — but you know what I mean!
Rose and Martha
Whilst I am still very much grieving Rose’s move to a parallel universe, I do like Martha. She’s cool, calm and collected, with the perfect level of sarcasm, and up for anything — not to mention a Woman in Stem Queen, which has already helped save The Doctor’s bacon on several occasions.
However, I can’t help but feel the swooning and general romantic feelings, which at present appear unrequited, don’t add anything to the story. Obviously, you are going to revere someone who whizzes you around time and space as casually as nipping to Tesco, so maybe she’s conflated her feelings with that. But so far, any reference to Martha’s feelings for The Doctor are too casual and swept under the carpet for them to be a narrative drive. Perhaps I feel like this because the romance — or whatever it was — between Rose and The Doctor felt like a bigger narrative drive.
In the previously mentioned interview, when asked whether there would be any other Doctor Who figures or companions he would like to work with, Eccleston says: “There’s only one companion I’d work with, and I’ve said this a lot. I’d only work with Rose. There’s only Rose for the Ninth Doctor.
“I have to say, I don’t like romance stuff. I think we did something better than kind of a contemporary heterosexual romance. They are equal. What we were doing was equal. Even the kiss was not romantic. It’s kind of… It’s more than that.”
Although Eccleston doesn’t buy into the romance stuff, I can’t help but feel there was something there with Rose and The Doctor. But perhaps that’s why it did work, whether there was or wasn’t something or whether you wanted or didn’t want there to be — because it didn’t follow the traditional trajectory of an on-screen romance.
Favourite episodes so far
Of my favourite episodes so far, there’s got to be another mention for ‘The Empty Child’ and ‘The Doctor Dances’. It was such an interesting storyline, and the fact it was pretty much all set at night heightened the Blitz backdrop, enveloping you into its darkness.
It’s also the first time we meet Captain Jack, and there’s the classic music, an appearance from Richard Wilson OBE. Also, a moment, please, for Rose’s iconic Union Jack top.
I also loved ‘Bad Wolf’ — a carefully considered dystopian story with an underlying mystery to solve, a Davina McCall cameo, and the return of the bloomin’ Daleks. Also, I genuinely thought Rose was a goner when the Anne Robinson robot went into beast mode in The Weakest Link studio.
‘The Unquiet Dead’ with our guy Charles Dickens is also up there (I think I’ve decided I prefer going back in time rather than forward) — drama, horror, great period outfits, and The Gelth were an interesting creature concept.
In series two, I loved ‘Tooth and Claw’ with the Werewolf and Queen Victoria (the traitor) — there were some classic comedic duo moments with The Doctor and Rose here. Another highlight was Sarah Jane’s return in ‘School Reunion’ (another great cameo by Anthony Head, and I loved Rose’s performance as a begrudgingly disguised dinner lady). Going to 18th century France to visit the court at Versailles through Madame de Pompadour, also turned out to be an emotional adventure.
I really didn’t like ‘The Impossible Planet’ and ‘The Satan Pit’, both set in the confines of a spaceship — but mainly because I found them scary and nothing was ever really resolved. Who the hell (pun intended) was the scary devil man buried in the middle of the earth?!
Whilst ‘Love and Monsters’ was a bit slow (I now know episodes like this crop up to facilitate filming schedules) Peter Kay’s Abzorbaloff was iconic. I also love that it was designed by the winner of a Blue Peter competition.
Going to The Globe with Shakespeare was also fun (the weird witch sisters, not so much) — as was going back to New Earth in the funny hover mobiles not allowed to travel faster than 30mph.
Final thoughts
Though I can’t believe I am only just properly watching Doctor Who, it’s also been great to watch it for the first time as an adult — the humour, the poignant moments, the gradual change in picture and sound quality — all of it I can appreciate with totally fresh eyes. I’m also considerably less frightened than I would’ve been at five.
I like that you can watch an episode with just The Doctor and companion as protagonists and love it as much as an ensemble episode — e.g. the likes of Jackie Tyler (what a woman), Mickey/Ricky, and Pete.
I’m excited to get stuck back in and travel time and space with The Doctor and Martha, and inevitably go through several more breakups with The Doctor and his companions — and fall in love with them again each time.
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