Friday, September 24, 2010

Favourite Things Friday: Dr. Who

He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm and the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And he's wonderful.Doctor Who, season 3, episode 9, The Family of Blood, Paul Cornell

I love Dr. Who. Time travel fascinates me. Time travel in a little blue police call box that is bigger on the inside with the most brilliant alien ever captivates me.

I'll admit to having a little crush on The Doctor {his hair needs its own zip code :faint:}. I used to have Dr. Who wallpaper up on my computer. Mr. Bug didn't like it too much when he saw it and he wanted to know how I'd feel about him wallpapering his computer with a bikni babe. I pointed out that The Doctor was fully clothed – wearing a suit and tie no less :lol:. I took down the wallpaper and when Dr. Who moved from the Sci-Fi channel to BBC America, Mr. Bug upgraded our Dish subscription so I could continue to drool over watch Dr. Who.

Dr. Who has been around for a hundred million years. OK. Maybe not that long. But at least since 1963. I see a few of you scratching your heads wondering how this could be relevant in present day. The beauty of this show is that the main character doesn't die. If he is ever mortally wounded, he simply regenerates himself. This was a clever way for the producers to substitute a new actor for the current one playing the main character and give us a plausible explanation {unlike James Bond's mysterious change in apperance}. We're currently on Doctor № 11.

I only became a fan of Dr. Who with its latest incarnation, in 2005. The first time the Doctor regenerated really shook me up. I had no idea it was coming and although season one was really low-budget, somewhat campy and started out slow, Christopher Eccleston was really quite amazing, and even a little endearing as The Doctor. I couldn't believe it when this scrawny little git who unconvincingly played Barty Crouch Jr. was going to be The Doctor. But it didn't take very long for David Tennant to become my Doctor. Unfortunately, David Tennant wanted to go off and play Shakespeare or some other such nonsense, so The Doctor has regenerated and Matt Smith is now playing the role. I'm not sure how I feel about him yet.

Because The Doctor lives in a world where anything is possible, he does some pretty amazing stuff. I have a huge list of favorite episodes, but in the interest of keeping this short {too late :lol:}, I'll just give a little teaser of the best of Dr. Who. Airing June 9, 2007, the episode called Blink absolutely amazed me. It involved the Weeping Angels. And it was scary. But in a thrill-your-socks-off kind of way and not in a running-around-with-a-chain-saw-and-hacking-everybody-up kind of way. On May 31 and June 7, 2008 the episodes, Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead introduced us to the most amazing character in the history of The Doctor; River Song {played by Alex Kingston}. Along with River, came a complicated but completely do-able {and not so complicated that the writers choked themselves to death with it} time-travel-within-a-time-traveler's-time-line story line. It completely thrilled me with the possibilities and potential that this character, River, had.

And just when you thought it couldn't get better than the Weeping Angels or River Song, the writers came up with the most amazing two-parter called The Time of Angels and Flesh and Stone, airing on April 24 and May 1, 2010, with Weeping Angels and River Song and Amy Pond {the new Doctor's brilliant new traveling companion, played by Karen Gillan}.

I'm sure that you are all now very excited about Dr. Who. You can find The Doctor on Netflix as an instant play selection. If you don't have one of those discs that goes into your Wii so you can watch on your TV, may I highly recommend it.

I'll leave you with a little clip from Blink.



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8 comments:

Larri said...

I used to watch Dr. Who with my dad when it was on PBS! I didn't even know it was still on. I'm sure it's upgraded a bit since then. I think it was filmed 'live' on a stage. I can see why it's a Favourite. :o) Thanks for sharing. Happy FTF! :o) Larri at Seams Inspired

seabreezequilts said...

I use to watch the original Dr Who' when I was a teenager, it just doesn't seem right without the cardboard sets and all these special effects, I watch it a bit and I am not sure about the new guy. My son has been hooked since David Tenent became the Dr. For his 7th birthday party I had to make him a Tardis Birthday cake. We subscribed to the magazines and has hundreds of trading cards, and the figures and has a remote control Dalek. Our DVD Hard Disk is filled up with Dr Who episodes.

Shay said...

I watched Dr. Who a few times in my teens I think (my Mum was a stickler for what we did and did not watch on TV - which may explain my TV aversion now)

I always thought those Daleks were small scary dudes. It was the voices...creepy.

I feel the same way about melrose Place that you do about Dr. Who (ok so maybe it's not the same)

Thanks for sharing your FTF El.(did you decide to go with El?)

Shevvy said...

I was too scared to watch it when I was little. I remember doing the hiding behind the sofa with a cushion over my ears to drown out the music.
I loved it when it came back, especially as Christoppher Eccleston is a big favourite. I was gutted when he left but really got into David Tennant. Not sure about Matt Smith yet though.
Most of them haven't scared me that much - but Blink and the Library! Oh no, I can't watch them again.
The best scenes I think are in the Christmas episodes. When he regenerated into David Tennant and then they got attacked by the Christmas Tree! Loved it. It makes me laugh just remembering it!

Michelle said...

I haven't watched the newer Dr. Whos--I don't have access--but I used to watch when I was teenager. Can't think of the actor's name who played him then, but trust me, it was many incarnations ago! :-)

Very fun FTF!

Jennifer Lovell said...

Looks fascinating! I have never watched Dr. Who before, but now I'm intrigued. Thanks for helping me add something new to our "going to watch" list : )! We are on season 8 of Smallville right now (it only took us about 3 months to watch all of the prior seasons), and loving it. I LOVE having TV series-es (?) available to watch on DVD!

Sarcastic Quilter said...

I can't say I've ever watched Dr. Who but hey, everyone needs a good crush now and then. :D

Anonymous said...

Condivido pienamente il suo punto di vista. Ritengo che questa sia un'ottima idea. Sono d'accordo con te.
Assolutamente d'accordo con lei. Credo che sia una buona idea. Sono d'accordo con te.