So what does a new fan do? Hop into the show anywhere? Start at the beginning of a Doctor's tenure? Go back to the start in ? Well, any of those three ideas wouldn't hurt. The show maybe 57 years old, but it's still fairly assessable, with plenty of reboots, new concepts and recaps. It's a radical introduction for the Doctor, who in the final days of the Classic era was more known for his tawdry quirks than having a personality.
But "Rose" reimagines the Doctor as a sort of cynical Superman. Granted, "Rose" is not a perfect episode. It ricochets so quickly between campy, serious and soapy tones that you get whiplash, and it seems to be torn between paying homage to the classic show while establishing Eccleston's Doctor as a damaged action hero.
And let's face it: walking mannequins is a little silly for sci-fi fans used to more serious foes. But it doesn't try to hide what kind of show the new Doctor Who will be, which I like to categorize as "camp and crying.
All right, so walking mannequins aren't for you, and you don't get what the fuss is about this weirdly childish sci-fi show it is technically still viewed as a children's show in the UK, so that may explain it. Well, like many now-beloved shows, Doctor Who had a rough first season. So I recommend starting with the episode that really kicks it into gear and remains a Doctor Who best today.
A remnant of the show's low-budget early years, the Dalek looks like a giant metal can with a plunger stuck onto it that feasibly could be defeated by stairs — and yet it captured the imaginations of thousands of children. But "Dalek" achieves the near-impossible: it makes the Daleks seem genuinely terrifying. The episode opens on the Doctor and Rose chasing a distress signal to a massive underground bunker in Utah filled with alien artifacts.
Captured by the bunker's billionaire owner, the Doctor and Rose must find out the source of that distress signal and the bunker's secret, and most dangerous, part of its collection. For maybe the only time in the show's history, "Dalek" treats a Dalek as a complex villain and as more than just a killing machine and thinly veiled Nazi metaphor. And it also clues us in on the Doctor's fresh trauma surrounding his new backstory of the Time War that killed his people.
On top of giving the season a much-needed jolt, "Dalek" is kind of the turning point for the season that heralds the darker Doctor Who of the revival. Like I said before, each new Doctor and showrunner signals a new era for the series that almost acts like a soft reboot. But with the first episode of season 5, "The Eleventh Hour," Doctor Who almost completely wipes the slate clean. With a new Doctor at the helm, played by a fresh-faced Matt Smith, and then-new showrunner Steven Moffat, "The Eleventh Hour" feels like it comes from a completely different series than the one led by David Tennant.
And to this day, "The Eleventh Hour" remains the best introductory story to a new Doctor yet, setting the stage for the fifth season's fairy tale stylings while closing the door on much of the mythology that the Russel T. Davies era had built up until now.
It was a smart move — Tennant's heroic, swashbuckling Doctor remains a fan-favorite, and Smith was given the arduous task of following that up as the youngest Doctor the show had seen. The solution: reimagining the Doctor as a Peter Pan figure. But he is forced to leave soon after, and promises he will return — only to miss the mark by a few years.
All of time and space are at your fingertips, with your future in the Whovian fandom almost assured. Which is all the better, considering this most recent incarnation of The Doctor, played by Jodie Whitaker , has been an interesting run to follow for fans old and new.
It looks like you'll have plenty of time too, as the next season of Doctor Who looks like it'll be delayed, due to current events. But when the good Doctor returns to do battle with whatever or whomever stands in the way of themselves and their Companions, you'll be able to catch it on BBC, BBC America, or whomever provides Doctor Who in your territorial TV market.
CinemaBlend's James Bond expert. He fights for The User. Mike Reyes. Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands. Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors.
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