The infamous Doctor Who has been around longer than I have been alive,
but it was only recently that I was introduced to his space travel
antics through the enthusiasm of friends and a chance viewing late one
night on the Sci-Fi Channel. In a word, the series got me hooked.
Spiraling through the air and appearing in a flash of light, the Tardis,
a space-travel machine belonging to the last remaining time lord, merely
called the Doctor (David Tennant), lands in a narrow London street, not
far from the home of its second passenger, Rose Tyler (Billie Piper).
The Doctor is unconscious and she has fears of him never waking up, but
nevertheless transports him to her family home, where her mother Jackie
(Camille Coduri) insists on looking after them both. The Doctor's return
is just in time for earth, for it has been targeted by an alien race
seeking to enslave mankind for their own evil purposes. A massive space
craft looms overhead and throughout the world, one third of the humans
are seeking high places from which to leap unless the Prime Minister
surrenders earth to the invaders.
The Doctor awakens in time to save his favorite race from disaster, and
continues to take Rose through the labyrinth of time as they visit the
future and the past, distant empires and the far reaches of space,
encountering all manner of strange, hideous, and furry creatures in
their exploration of time and space. Rose in the meantime must contend
with the Doctor's new persona, since once in awhile he regenerates into
a completely different appearance, and wage battle with her emotional
attachment for him, while he searches for the unknown in order to escape
a lonely and often sad past. The result is a slightly campy but
fantastic sci-fi series the entire family will love. I have not seen any
other interpretations of the Doctor and after being spoiled with
Tennant's enormous eyes and fabulous expressions, I'm not sure I want
to. He has amazing chemistry and energy on screen, bounding between
moods with a kind of deranged passion that the audience finds catching,
while his co-stars consist of some of the best English actors the BBC
has to offer.
The plots bound about a lot, ranging from black holes in space to Victorian
England, but all of them are funny, quirky, and memorable. My two favorites
are "The Girl in the Fireplace," which guest-stars Sophia Myles as Madame de
Pompadour, the mistress of Louis the Fifteenth of France; and "Tooth &
Claw," in which the duo team up to save Queen Victoria from a terrible fate.
The series is almost completely clean but contains aspects that might not
appeal to non-fans of the genre. There are a lot of grotesque aliens and
attempted invasions. Robot men, giant bugs, and all kinds of creepy things
that prowl in the far reaches of space. As a result, there is some violence
as these enemies are fought off (it's implied that some of them consume
humans as food sources; shrunken skeletons are occasionally found) or
destroyed.
There's no sensuality apart from a spirit body-jumping back and forth
between two hosts; once, in Rose's body, she sensuously kisses the Doctor.
Jackie is a bit flirtatious with a man in "Love & Monsters." Spiritual
elements are present on rare occasion, particularly in "The Satan Pit" when
the Tardis becomes stranded on a space station that is unknowingly drilling
deep into a planet where Satan has been imprisoned since before the
beginning of time. The Doctor is uncertain if he believes in one devil, as
in THE devil, but does encounter a creature modeled after Satan in popular
culture. Ghosts walk the earth in the second to last episode. There are some
surprisingly sad moments in the series, and more than a handful of laughs,
since the wit is almost as amusing as the expressions. If you're a fan of
off-kilter sci-fi with a hint of sarcasm in its exploration of time, take
the time to be introduced to Doctor Who. You'll love it.
