First off, a confession from a lifelong Sci-Fi junkie. Yes, the same guy who used to watch Star Trek, Space 1999, UFO, Dr. Who, and Kolchak on a 13” black and white television in his own room.
I came in late to the new Dr. Who incarnation.
My first encounter with the newer Doctor with no name was on a late Saturday night on PBS. In fact, I had no idea I was watching an episode of Dr. Who. Here was this guy with an English accent, long trenchcoat, suit, and converses on his feet battling a werewolf.
Converses and a suit. 
Huh? Then , as he continued to talk it dawned on me, this is Dr. Who! But he wasn’t the stodgy old Dr. Who that I remembered watching. This wasn’t Tom Baker, no, this Doctor was young (well, young to me) in fact, he was close to my age.
While I continued watching, the effects were displayed. Yep, it had to be Dr. Who. The special effects were cheap as ever, a BBC tradition with the Whos.
As an aside: Now, you have to realize that when I was watching Dr. Who, they were all old to me.
Thus, started a Saturday night tradition with me and eventually, even the Princess. In fact, I knew this show was something special when she started to watch it. At first she did the usual “What the hell are you watching” and then she started to get into it (as with most programs with her highness that don’t include the words ‘s
ex’ or ‘city’ in them).
She began to ask me questions about the Doctor and his previous shows. Of course, I didn’t really have too many answers for her concerning this ‘new’ doctor. In fact, I didn’t even know where to begin without belaboring her with the convoluted history of the previous Doctors.
Fortunately, due to the shows increasing popularity and the evolution of Netflix, we were able to catch up on everything that we had missed and then some.
Needless to say, we were hooked.
Hooked so much that the Princess and I became so attached that we didn’t miss a new episode, hissed at the Master, bemoaned the ambiguity of Rose’s last episode, and even so much as lamented loudly the demise of ‘our’ Doctor and then grew to love the ‘new’ Doctor as portrayed by Matt Smith.
Now, we anticipate another ‘gut wrencher’ as we battle within ourselves to say goodbye to the ‘new’ Doctor and welcome a ‘newer’ Doctor.
Wow.
The Princess and I could go on and on about which was our favorite episodes, our favorite or disliked companions, etc… but let’s just say this: the Doctor is simply a part of our lives now.
And, in my opinion, we owe it all to one man, Russell T. Davies.
If I have one thing to say about Russell T. Davies, it’s this: like Rick Berman of Star Trek fame/infamy, he made a dry, limited audience, Sci-Fi show into a cultural phenomenon. With his inventive writing he re-created the Doctor into something new audiences could embrace and old time viewers wouldn’t feel left by the wayside.
And, it worked. The old Doctor would never dream of obtaining ratings that it does now especially for a show from ‘across the pond’.
Russell was able to make us care about these characters and cross the gender gap. Then, his successor, Stephen Moffat took it even further.
Which brings us full circle to another ‘final’ episode.
And, this new episode is so big that they are showing it in 3D in theaters the Monday following the premiere! Finally, Dr. Who back on the big screen!
To tell you the truth, I’m more excited than I ever have been. In fact, I really have to say, that I haven’t been this stoked to see a picture as I have this episode.
Screw Batman and Superman. Did you see the promo pictures? I have the two ‘New’ Doctors in one episode! And that’s not to mention all of the previous Doctors! (Will they include Peter Cushing?! (and yes, I realize he’s not an ‘official Dr. Who but it would be neat, wouldn’t it?))
I’ll say it again: I. can’t. wait.
You know, we all have so many picayune things that bother us on a daily basis that it is pure joy to lose ourselves within a fictional program for a while (of course, to many who know me, it can be argued that I lose myself too often in fictional stories whether they be comic book, motion picture, etc… to them I say: well, yeah. Your point?)
So, to wrap up a clearly personal rant, I’ll end with this: I hope to see you there at the theater, to see Dr. Who in glorious 3D!
The Doctor is dead. Long live the Doctor!
