I saw the Day of the Doctor 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who the other day and felt like sharing my tuppence about it.

I think I first watched Dr. Who after I had finished Buffy when I was in search of another big sprawling show I can dive into. Before that it was only something that my father mentioned that “He watched occasionally when he was studying in Manchester and that it starred Tom Baker”.
I was initially pleasantly surprised by how epic and goosebump inducing the episodes where and for a while I thought I found my next favourite show.
The doctor was interesting, smart, had hot companions and a uniquely cool persona that, admittedly, I have not found in any other show.
Plus, I felt cool watching a popular Brit “sci-fi” show that at the time nobody seem to knew about.

But then things started to fall apart. The doctor was cool and badass, but it seemed like that was his mode of operation. All the time. Cool as fuck. Every day. Yawn.

Most episodes would start with a cool premise, granted, and then all hell would break loose and the stakes would be raised and then…

…the Doctor would come up with some brilliant, non-violent, extremely convoluted way and very poorly explained solution (with techno-babble that makes Star Trek sound like it was written by Stephen Hawking) that will save everything and kill nobody and probably making him look even more awesome and cool while doing so.

Don’t get me wrong that is not bad , especially for climaxes, but when it happens every time, the impact is lessened with each episode.
It is the same problem I have with superhero comics. Batman , for example, is unable to surprise and ,as a result, engage me anymore. I know he is brooding, I know he will always be one step ahead of everybody else, I know that he is prepared for everything, I know he has a thing for Robin and Cat-woman, I know he will always win in the end, therefore Batman is boring.

I feel very similarly for the Doctor.
I can’t even remember how many times I’ve seen an episode where the Doctor has saved the world. saved the universe, saved all of time and space, saved a galaxy or a planet. It is a real shame when you make something that is supposed to be special and climactic, mundane and boring. Perhaps we are asking too much from kid’s programs.

Another very reasonable and extremely well put argument about Doctor Who that delves deeper on the subject of the weird deification of our , let’s be honest, simplistic childhood heroes, be it the Doctor or Winnie the Pooh, Batman or the Transformers into something more than what they are, is made by the brilliant David Mitchell and you can watch it by clicking these words.

But it is the Doctor’s 50th anniversary, so let’s forget all that negative stuff, lets wrap ourselves in huge scarves, wear the fezzes and sing-along the opening tune.
As a tribute I will list everything I like about this show.

1) The Doctor really is a pacifist.
Many heroes claim to be fighting the for the “Good Guys”.
Of course this claim is often brought into question when our main hero is
beating up the “Bad Guy’s” until their faces are blue.
And I am not one to criticize an anti-hero, but I keep thinking about Superman,the American version
of a pacifist, who will not kill, sure, but he can beat people to a pulp and destroy buildings
every other day. Then he has his “Superman turns evil” stories every Friday.
Doctor Who on the other hand, is a pacifist through and through.
It doesn’t feel like he is “not allowed” to kill.
He has killed.
Billions.
And that is the reason he doesn’t want to kill anymore.
Not because the writers want to market his stories to kids.
So yea, the Doctor basically kicks Superman’s ass when it comes to pacifism.

(But Jean Luc Picard is better than both. That though, is a story to be told in another post…)

2) The Doctor is very British, but just enough.
The Doctor manages to be the quintessential eccentric British aristocrat. He is an adventurer,
a scholar and a gentleman. He has a refined taste and a very British (as far as I can tell)
outlook on things. At the same time the show has this global, nay, universal feel to it. The
Doctor might prefer Britain, sure, but he seems to enjoy himself on every planet and time he
ends up at. This show could have been a completely British thing.
Instead it is just British enough for Brits to feel proud about it, but also accessible by people
all over the world. That is something.

3)That goosebump moment.
Yes, the explanation might be paper thin, yes the “awesomeness out of nowhere” of the third
act might be as predictable as the bloody tides, but I’ll be damned if I don’t feel a tingling
sensation,despite my rational mind trying to hold me back, when the Doctor finally comes up
with a brilliant idea and announces it to all the bad guys that are stunned by his
awesomeness in a speech usually ending with a masturbatory :
“… cause I am THE DOCTOR”.
This show knows how to thrill, provided you don’t think about it too much.

4) It is mature on the things that matter most.
Last but not least I like the way that the show deals with issues that would make any similar
American show quiver in it’s homophobic cowboy boots. Take for example the character of
Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, an immortal time traveller, who in a way that is
very true to his character, is not very fussy about with whom he dances with.
By that obviously I mean that he will have sex with anything and anyone.

And he is not some silly comic-relief sidekick, his pansexuality is a core element of how cool
this character is.
Captain Jack Harkness is one of the badassiest badasses in the history of badasses, one of
the few characters on the show that often outshine the Doctor himself.

So yes, these are my , mixed I admit, feelings about Doctor Who.
It is cheesy, it is dumb.
It has a continuity that is as solid as Adventure Time’s and it is often too stuck up it’s own ass to actually come up with new, exciting ideas.
But when it does come up with the right ideas… oh boy is it exciting.
Episodes like The Empty Child and Blink are , as far as I am concerned, artistic masterpieces.
Right up there with The Body and Conversations With Dead People from Buffy, The Best of Both Worlds from The Next Generation and every Firefly episode.

So, in conclusion, I am glad Doctor Who is still around.

All the annoying things that might turn me off, often for long periods of time, are still there, but that does not change the fact that Doctor Who is a unique show, with it’s heart in the right place, and like all unique things, the world would be a duller place without it.

Long live the Doctor.

~Garret