closure
I think my family members (and my Facebook friends, and my Twitter followers) are probably sick and tired of hearing about Doctor Who. I did offer my family the consolation that it was all ending soon. David Tennant was leaving the series and there wouldn’t be a new episode for months, at which point the show would return with the same Doctor but a new face. And I really wanted to see how it all would end.
A primer, for those not familiar with how the show works: The Doctor (yes, that’s his name, and “‘Doctor’ Who?” is what people say when they hear it) is from a race of aliens that achieve immortality, or something close to it, through ‘regeneration’, changing every cell in their body to keep themselves alive. It totally changes their appearance and is a very nifty way for a television show to keep itself going for over 45 years with the same main character. The Doctor was first portrayed on television in 1963 by William Hartnell. The most famous Doctor Who persona is probably Tom Baker – aka, the tall guy with the crazy hair and very long scarf – who played The Doctor from 1974 until 1981. Tom Baker was the Fourth Doctor and there have been several, shorter-lived incarnations since then. In 2005, after an almost sixteen year hiatus, Russel T. Davies revived the series and brought Doctor Who back to television with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor.
The Ninth Doctor was only around for one season. Long enough to garner a new fan base, bring back some old enemies and establish a more serious, less silly tone for the series. And then he saved the girl and was forced to regenerate, rather abruptly, into Barty Crouch Jr. Well…that was my first thought. They say you tend to become attached to whoever was playing The Doctor when you first started watching, and for me, Christopher Eccleston was The Doctor. I was sad to lose him so quickly.
But then David Tennant came on as the Tenth Doctor and he was good. He was very good. In fact, in his very first season as The Doctor, Tennant ousted Tom Baker from his perennial position of popularity when he was voted the “Best Doctor” by fans of the show. While the writers and directors of the new series deserve much credit, Tennant has really carried the show and has become The Doctor for a whole host of new fans, myself included.
So yes, I really needed to see how it all would end.
Regeneration cheats death, The Doctor says, but still it’s like dying. One man dies and another takes his place. When the Ninth Doctor regenerated, it happened in an instant, but for the Tenth Doctor, for David Tennant, the writers decided to take their time. They wrapped up storylines, revisited old characters, and generally gave the audience one last chance to appreciate what the Tenth Doctor has brought to the series. They gave us just the right amount of closure. The series isn’t ending but it’s like an ending. The Tenth Doctor’s last words were “I don’t want to go.” I think we all agreed with him. And Matt ‘Baby Face’ Smith has some very big shoes to fill.
