Time is new… again.
Doctor Who: Series 2 Season 4
WARNING: THIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. OR IT MAY NOT. OK, SO IT DOESN’T
Ok. If you have read my bio you know im a sucker for Scifi stuff, but there are a few bits of Scifi i am sorta devoted to. One of them is the Doctor Who series. I was one of the kids that spent many a preteen night watching the cheezy-fun adventures of a time traveler and whatever random person he decided to take along for the ride. I can’t remember much about the original series anymore but the new one has picked up all of the good stuff i remember from olden days… but that isn’t exactly what i meant to write about. A new season just started up… and i can’t really believe that the show is already on its fourth round. Every time a new one starts up it seems to go too fast and vanish too quickly. I was really nervous about this season though. I guess this needs a bit of setup to understand why. So here goes as quick a summary of the previous seasons as i can muster.
The series started out with a different type of Doctor (the enigmatic name of the main character if you haven’t time traveled before). Previous Doctors from the old series were the type of person that looks danger in the eye and laughs because they have already figured out a cunning way to thwart it. The thwarting used to and still does usually involve some sort of nonsensical bit of pseudo-science but i digress. This doctor is more or less fresh from the mind bending decision to allow his own race to die in order to finally destroy a race of killer machines that had plagued all time and space. This decision has made him a fairly dark and angry person. If you watched the original series this was sorta mind blowing. He was bright-side incarnate in that. The change hooked me. So the new series started with him readopting an old tradition of taking some random human woman from Britain along to keep him company as he searches the cosmos for people trying to change the way time was supposed to happen. Something new happened though. He sorta fell for the girl. With a prospect for love he was able to lighten up about the whole allowing the genocide of my own species thing. But it set him up for a bigger fall.
When he was forced to part ways with her later on, it almost shattered him, but he came across a new girl that can only be described as rebound girl. Well… i should change that. I would describe her as the cutest most charismatic girl that has ever traveled with the main character in any series, but im sorta partial to her. Anyway… fact remained that she was still just rebound girl, and so it ended up ending in the usual, “well this is awkward but i was just looking for someone to replace my old flame, and now i realize that i don’t really have feelings for you” sorta deal. They part ways. You still with me after all that? This is where the new season takes place.
Now, back to why i had misgivings about this season. THE LAST GIRL WAS REALLY REALLY FREAKING CUTE AND SMART AND COOL AND THE DOCTOR WAS AN IDIOT FOR LEAVING HER! …ahem. Sorry had to get that off my chest. I feel like someone writing reviews for a soap opera at this point…but whatever. So this time he runs into someone he met before, but turned him down. She had to wash her hair or something, but… She has since realized that her life is boring as hell and this time takes him up on his previous offer to travel the stars in search of adventure. Problem is… SHE IS QUITE POSSIBLY THE MOST ANNOYING CHARACTER THE SHOW HAS EVER DEVISED! Sorry. I guess part of the problem for me is that in ye old England she is a very popular actress and such. But to anyone unfamiliar with her she is just “complaining woman”. Thing is i forgot something about the old series.
Back in olden Doctor Who days the doctor was always some crusty old guy or someone so unattractive that a young pretty girl would have a very hard time falling for him. (there are exceptions to this, but run with me here) This meant that anyone he traveled with was just some fellow adventurer that was in it for aforementioned adventure. No flirting. No possibility of a bigger relationship. Just fun for the audience. This season is getting back to that. And i have to admit its doing a good job of it so far. The annoying is used well and is never overdone. And oddly enough the annoying is a good counter balance to the main character’s easygoing attitude. I could ruin the series for you by telling you exactly why and how this is true, but honestly im hoping to create enough mystery that you will want to start from the beginning and watch the entire new series so that you can say, “Awww… I get it now” So anyone reading this… GET TO IT. You now have homework assigned to you by The j suN.
Though I am sad Martha is not the companion this time around. I think Doctor Who needs a break from the “Will they, wont they” scenario that has been a staple of the previous seasons. I really enjoyed those seasons, but this should keep the new Doctor Who series from being a one trick pony.
New Episodes Fridays on the Sci-Fi channel.