Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Dr Who, you know, the TV show


I’m disappointed to say that often I wish Dr Who was better that it is.  The show often begins with a good premise or some intriguing puzzle, but the writers often have no idea how to solve it.  Perhaps it is due to the complexities of dealing with the character.  I’m sure it is hard to write for the most intelligent sentient being in the universe if you’re not much smarter than the average person.

I was initially introduced to Dr Who in the eighties.  At that time it was easy to ignore the laughably poor special effects and gaping plot holes and just enjoy the science fiction/science fantasy of it all because I was eight.  Deus Ex Machina isn’t as disappointing as a resolution when you’re eight.  Now it seems like poor writing or an attempt to wrap everything up in an hour.

I saw the Tom Baker and Peter Davidson Whos on PBS.  After rerunning those episodes a few times, the show was off the air in my area.  There was no attempt to show the Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy Doctors at all.  Being the eighties, before the internet age, there just was no place to see these other episodes.  I was even a member of the small Dr Who fan club who met once a month to discuss all things Who and to watch videos.  Unfortunately, the best videos I can recall us watching contained a few episodes of the BBC’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy TV series.

For years after I called myself a Who fan.  With no access to the show and never actually watching them with more mature eyes I had no idea if the show stood up as more adult fare.  It lived fondly in the realm of memory.  I’d probably rather remember it as I remember it, not as it was.

Dr Who was a great super hero for me.  He wasn’t faster than a speeding bullet, stronger than a locomotive, and he couldn’t leap tall buildings in a single bound.  He wasn’t a master of martial arts.  He doesn’t shoot guns or lob grenades.  The Doctor succeeds because he’s smart.

Sure, it’s nice to have a ship that can take you anywhere in space and time.  It’s also nice to have a sonic screwdriver, which many of the writers tend to use more as a magic wand capable of doing anything than as a screwdriver.  But, as a pocket multitool, it’s unsurpassed.  With this tool, the Doctor was MacGyvering before MacGyvering was a trope.  Unlike MacGyver, who could make a flash bomb out of chewing gum, string, duct tape, and a match, the Doctor could use that to sequence DNA and then tell you the likely point of origin for the specie. 

The Doctor, though not a pacifist, is averse to killing, unlike the shoot first catch phrase later action heroes of American television and movies.  He can’t leave a question unanswered or a riddle unsolved, which is what gets him mixed up in so many situations in the first place.  He’s on no great, overarching quest to right some wrong.  He’s not some mercenary for hire available to rescue your kidnapped daughter from some nefarious group.  He’s just out to see as much of the universe as possible and maybe have some good conversation along the way.

Unfortunately, the revival hasn’t delivered on what the Doctor should be.  I should rephrase that.  The revival hasn’t delivered on what I think the Doctor should be.  I don’t want to see the doctor as boyfriend or the doctor as Christ figure.  I’d much rather see the doctor as detective, naturalist, and teacher. 

The revival has also overused classic Dr Who villains.  The Daleks weren’t an every season villain, but they are now.  That infrequency added to the perception of how much of a challenge the Daleks were.  How much of a challenge can the Daleks actually be if the Doctor beats them every week?  The rarity of their appearances made them an exciting foe.  Their current commonality makes them boring.

Guess what the title of the next season’s first episode is called: Asylum if the Daleks.  The episode promises to show every different kind of Dalek the Doctor has ever faced.  How fresh.

I don’t need to see the Cybermen again for several years.  They could possibly bring the Sontarans back once more without wearing out their welcome, but I don’t want them to ruin another of the Doctor’s classic enemies.

They absolutely misused the Master, the Doctor’s classic Time Lord rival.  I have no idea where the Jedi-like powers of the Time Lords came from other than Davies’ desire for an epic battle between the two Gallifreyans.  I don’t recall the Doctor ever shooting lightning bolts from his fingertips before.

The new series even managed to ruin the best villain they’ve introduced: the weeping angels.  It was a pretty good science fictiony idea.  The creatures were described as, “quantum locked,” though it has absolutely nothing to do with actual quantum locking.  When they were observed, they were stone.  When not observed, they were free to move about.  Even if you blinked, in that instant, they were free to move again.  Turning to statues wasn’t a defense mechanism; it was a physical law of the universe.  That’s a great idea for an assassin.  It made for a fantastic episode called “Blink” which I would urge you to see if you haven’t.  It was more of a suspenseful story than a science fiction story.  Unfortunately, the show brought them back in a later episode and Moffat ruined the creature he created.  Now, apparently just pretending to be able to see them was enough to turn them to stone. 

Frankly, the best episode of the last few years was the Neil Gaiman penned “The Doctor’s Wife.”  It gave a voice to the Tardis as the Doctor finally met her face to face.

As I stated before, Dr Who doesn’t deliver on what I want it to be.  Maybe I should just enjoy it for what it actually is instead of what I wish it was.  Maybe I should just quit watching if I don’t like what I’m watching.  Maybe I should just accept that this is not science fiction but science fantasy.

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