Doctor Who?

If you were like me when you were a kid, the first thing you did on Friday evenings after you got home from Scouts--even before changing out of your uniform--was turn on the TV to channel 57 (because you didn't have cable and the huge aerial on your roof did a marvelous job of catching the VPT signal from across the border on channel 57) just in time to catch the really cool title sequence for Doctor Who.

It was the mid 80s and I was privileged enough to have cut my geek teeth with Tom Baker as the 4th incarnation of the Doctor. The cheesy special effects did nothing to dissuade me from becoming an instant fan. The Doctor was an intellectual hero who rarely employed violence. Rather, he'd walk into the face of danger with nothing more than an oversized scarf, his brain, and very sharp rhetoric.

You're a classic example of the inverse relationship between the size of the mouth and the size of the brain.

The Doctor

Not too long ago I fell ill with a hefty bout of nostalgia for my beloved Doctor when ExpressVu gave me a month of trial programming including the BBC Kids network which ran, you guessed it, Doctor Who reruns! (Albeit at 2AM). I was not too happy when the trial ended. For a while there, I'd record the two (yes two!) episodes every night and watch them the following day. Then, just like that, the music died.

Recently however, I upgraded my satellite package and got BBC Kids. As you can guess I was really happy, especially since the reruns were of the 4th Doctor. But then life happened and there were interruptions in programming which caused me to wane a little in my nostalgic reverie. Not before asking my wife to buy me The Key to Time, the complete DVD box set of Tom Baker's stint as the Doctor. Who knows, maybe she will.

Then, a couple of months ago, while on the BBC Doctor Who Cult website, I saw the announcement. That's right, he's back! A new season of Doctor Who begins tomorrow (April 5, 2005) evening at 8PM on the CBC. Christopher Eccleston will be playing the 9th Doctor, and get this: though the BBC's ordered another season for 2006, he won't be playing the part! The DWIN reports: The reasons cited for leaving the role included the grueling schedule and fears of typecasting. Sigh. Off to a good start I see. I guess it's ok, since that's the whole reason for the Doctor's ability to reincarnate in the first place. Easy actor interchangeability.

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