Doctor's Orders

The Fall TV season is picking up now, with a slew of new shows about to take to the air, and some of you are maybe wondering about which ones deserve your precious time for a tune-in. If the opinion of this humble blog writer is worth anything, a show you should maybe check out isn't new at all -- it's about to begin its fifty-second year, and is still one of the single most worthwhile things you can populate your TV (laptop) screens with. "What?? What??" you're asking... Nope. It's "Who..."

Shameless pun opportunity, taken, thank you very much.

Thing is, I think it's safe to say that everyone nowadays has at least HEARD of Doctor Who... has that friend who raves ad nauseam about it, maybe, has walked past big displays in mall windows, has seen it pop up in the Netflix cue. The general awareness is there in the periphery, but a lot of people still haven't made the jump to actually watching an episode. It's quirky, yes, and British, and can be heavy on the sci-fi side, but those things usually don't break the deal for most people. In my opinion, the problem is that a lot of people just don't know where to start. I said it myself earlier, the show's been around for fifty-two years -- A) How is that even possible, you're thinking, and B) How am I just gonna hop in now when there's that kind of a back catalogue I might need to catch up on? Add in the fact that, confusingly, there never seems to be the same actor in the main role, and it's no wonder that a lot of people just go no thanks and move on to the next show. But stay calm. I've got you covered.

To boil it down to a simple book report version for you: the eponymous Doctor -- no surname, it's not Mr. Who, M.D., his name is just "The Doctor" -- is a centuries-old alien who's stolen a time machine and uses it to travel across the universe for kicks, accompanied by "companions" who assist him on all his adventures. That time machine, the TARDIS, is the blue police phone box you've seen everywhere, and is famously "bigger on the inside" than the outside. Due to his alien biology, every time the Doctor suffers injuries serious enough to be fatal, he "regenerates" into a new body -- literally, every cell of his person changes and he becomes an entirely new individual. There have so far been twelve Doctors (and another incarnation who refused to call himself "The Doctor," but here I go again confusing you...), and it's for this reason that the show's been around since 1963; basically, regeneration is one of the most ingenious plot devices in TV history, since the show can find itself a new lead anytime the old one wants to move on, meaning it can carry on indefinitely. Its first episode was actually almost bumped off the air by news coverage of President Kennedy's assassination, but it's managed to overcome that rocky beginning to since become one of the most iconic television institutions in global history.

A baker's dozen Doctors. Pointy guy in the middle there with the angry eyes is the current Doctor, played by Scottish actor Peter Capaldi

The irony isn't lost on me that the "simplified version" I just gave took a whole lengthy paragraph to explain, but it's why most "Whovians" have learned to tell their friends with a wry smile "Just watch it. Trust me. Just watch one episode." The most agreed-upon starting point for newcomers is a 2007 standalone episode named "Blink." Strangely, the Doctor (played in this incarnation by David Tennant, who most people will recognize as the tongue-twitching Barty Crouch Jr. from the Harry Potter series) only appears in this episode for a few minutes, shouting worriedly from a TV screen. But it's the first episode I watched myself, and in all the years since, it still stands as one of the most brilliant hours of television I've ever watched. It utterly, utterly hooked me, and I have a suspicion it might just do the same to you.

The episode is also one of the best examples of a headlining feature for Doctor Who: the monsters on this show have been sending kids flying behind their couches or beneath their pillows for the last fifty years. The Doctor's travels bring him into contact with some truly nightmare-inducing species, from the robotic Cybermen to the genocidal Daleks. "Blink" introduces the Weeping Angels, statues who move whenever you're not looking at them and who entered the pantheon of all-time classic horror creations from their very first appearance.

"Don't blink. Blink and you're dead. Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink."

No-one will deny that the show's production values haven't always been exactly...cutting edge, so to speak. The reason the Daleks look like trashcans turned upside down with a plunger sticking out is most likely because those were the resources on-hand in the BBC production shed when they were introduced back in 1963.

Silly or no, they've become one of the most recognizable pop culture symbols in history, with their synthetic EX-TER-MIN-ATE squawk resounding from global playgrounds for the last half century

The reason this exists is because...Well... I actually don't really know what this is, to be honest

But the show's really stepped up its game in the modern era, producing special effects on a weekly schedule to rival any Hollywood space epic

So that's a great hero, some iconic bad guys, and cutting-edge sci-fi writing that geniuses like Stephen Hawking have credited for sparking their imaginations (no, seriously); add on the fact that the "sandbox" to play in here is all space and time, with historical figures from Robin Hood to Van Gogh to Agatha Christie making the occasional guest appearance, and it's sounding like a pretty sweet pot. What I think is most poignant and worthwhile about this show, however, is its grasp of how the universe and everything in it is fleeting, and that's what makes it all more beautiful in the end -- just because you know something won't last forever doesn't mean you can't enjoy it while it lasts. If anything, the opposite should be true! For all its sci-fi geekiness, Doctor Who isn't afraid to explore these sadder, deeper themes, whacking its fans hard in all the feels.

Companions who die, or get trapped in alternate timelines, or simply move on with their lives, and the Doctor's regenerative biology being what it is, means that you'll get very attached to these characters before having to part ways with them in just a few short seasons.
But trust me. You're in for a heck of a ride through it all. All of time and space awaits...Geronimo.