What's Happening with Dr. Who?

For most of my lifetime I've been a Dr. Who fan.  And by lifetime, I mean most of the 40 years that I've been alive.  I remember the 3rd Doctor.  I remember the 1st Master.  And for my money, Tom Baker will always be the "true" doctor.

Being an American, it's been hard to consistantly watch the good Doctor.  Something happend around the Colin Baker era that made Dr Who episodes scarce stateside.  Things got even worse during Sylvestor McCoy, until the show was finally canceled.  We here across the ocean didn't even get to see the few charity/tribute episodes after that (though we did get a bad FOX version).

Then it was announced that Dr. Who was going to be rebooted.  I watched the Christopher Eccleston Doctor and was impressed, though I did think Billie Piper's Rose stole the show.  Then Eccleston decided to go back to being the villian in bad American movies, and we got David Tennant's Doctor.  Though I did like Tennant's version (it's the closest to Tom Baker's, though Tennant has admitted to having a preference for the much-hated Peter Davidson) the show became decidely more campy.  The show runners start talking about how much they liked watching Dr. Who as kids (which I also did).  Then they started talking about how they wanted Dr. Who to be a kid's show.  The show got more and more "kids-like" and with no kids of my own, I just couldn't bare it any longer.  I turned it off.    For the first time in my life I willingly did not watch the show.  And I didn't watch it for a long time.

For a list of the shows I did watch in the meantime, check the various HBO, Showtime, AMC, and FX shows that are listed throughout this blog.

After many years of going without the Doctor, I started watching a show called Sherlock produced by the BBC and shown in the states on PBS.  That show was definately not "just for kids."  It also turns out that at some time the showrunner for Sherlock (Steven Moffat) became the showrunner for Dr. Who.  Season 6 of Dr. Who was available on iTunes, so I decided to watch. 

I found myself impressed by what I saw.  The first episode, "The Impossible Astronaught" was well written with a decidedly dark atmosphere and a few scenes of real tension.  It also starred Supernatural's own "King of Hell", Mark Sheppard.  The new doctor, Matt Smith, seems a nice blend of geek chic (though my wife complains about his bad British skin).  His new companion, played by Karen Gilan is sexy, talented, red haired, and Scottish (she does NOT have bad skin).

I was impressed enough to watch more episodes and I liked them.  "The Doctors Wife" written by Neil Gaiman stands out for its unique take on the question "Did the Doctor steal the Tardis?"

So what IS the doctor trying to do?  Is he becomming more of an adult, or maybe just growing into the college-age cousin that both kids and adults can tolerate?  I don't see the show ever getting in line with The Walking Dead or Breaking Bad, but Sherlock seems to be with in its reach (especially given its pedigree).  I'll keep watching, though it's still not quite the quality that adults in the states are used to seeing on Sunday nights.