Who will be the next Doctor?

I confess, I don’t really care about the answer to my headline question. Or rather, I do care, but I have no opinion. I trust that the fine people who run the show will pick someone excellent and write the character brilliantly and that I’ll enjoy another 3-4 seasons of some excellent TV. 

But I bet most of you who don’t care don’t watch Doctor Who and don’t know it. I’m here to suggest it’s well worth your time. If you’e never watched, or haven’t watched since the 1980s, the Second Series of this 50 year old show has become a real powerhouse of terrific stories and fantastic writing.

To Recap:

The Doctor is a Time Lord, a being from the planet Gallifrey. As a rebellious hundred year old teenager, he stole a TARDIS — a time machine that can travel through time and space. The most remarkable factor of the TARDIS is that it is bigger on the inside, convenient for propmaking and sets and also a fine source of jokes. It is supposed to have a ‘chameleon circuit’ that changes its appearance to match its environment, but this particular one is stuck as a 1960s British police box. 

Amy asks, “You’ve got a wooden time machine. Do you feel stupid?

“Every time the Tardis materializes in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing it analyzes its surroundings, calculates a 12-dimensional datamap of everything within a thousand mile radius and determines which outer shell would blend in best with the environment. And then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963.”

I think I’ve written computer code like that myself.

Here River Song — who is married to the Doctor — doesn’t know him after his current regeneration.

Doctor Who still exists due to pure accident. The first actor to play the role, William Hartnell, suffered poor health before the series was ready to end. To continue, they recast the role of The Doctor and came up with the idea of “regeneration,” that when the body was severely injured that the Doctor could rebuild a new body with a new face and shape. At this time, twelve actors have played the role over the last 50 years, with the current actor, Peter Capaldi, scheduled for one more season. All Time Lords have the ability to regenerate, and it’s already been established that they can change gender and race, opening up the role to any British actor or actress. Regeneration changes not only the shape, but to some extent the Doctor’s personality and style. The eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith, was affectionate and a hugger; the twelfth, played by Peter Capaldi, is prickly and hates hugs.

It’s hard to say how old someone is when they time travel, but at this point after traveling through all of time and space and being stuck in a time trap, he is quite old indeed.

“Are you out of your mind?”

“Yes, completely, but that’s not a recent thing.”

“Of course we’re safe. There’s a little shop.”

Doctor Who has always been a relatively low budget operation for a science fiction show, but in the end it maybe has been the reason to make some of the most creative and scary monsters around. In Blink, the Weeping Angels are statues that can only move when no one is looking. And they look like all the statues that surround you in just about any older major city…

Zygons are shapeshifters and so can appear as any individual human. After an earlier conflict, the Doctor negotiated a peace where a colony of Zygons could live incognito as humans on Earth, but like so many groups, there are dissenters. When this explodes into a new and potentially terrible revolution, the Doctor gives one of the finest anti-war soliloquies you will encounter:

“How are you going to protect your glorious revolution from the next one?”

“I will not change my mind.”

“Then you will die stupid.”

The old days had some wiggly sets and some significant limits on location, but the new Doctor’s universe is spectacular to look at and sharply written.

You can watch the first episode of the new season, with his new companion Bill Potts, for free on BBC America for the next 90 days or so. She’s been kicked around by life a bit, but has a keen mind and has a hunger to learn. Since she’s meeting the Doctor for the first time, it’s a good entry point for viewers, too. I like Bill; like all the best companions, she asks a lot of rude questions, holding the Doctor to account. 

DOCTOR: Well, when most people don't understand something, they frown. You smile. BILL: I'll tell you what I don't understand. You've been lecturing here for a long time. Like, fifty years, some people say. Nabeela in the office says over seventy. DOCTOR: Yeah, and you're thinking, 'Well, he doesn't look old enough'. BILL: No. I'm wondering what you're supposed to be lecturing on. It's like the university let you do whatever you like. One time, you were going to give a lecture on quantum physics. You talked about poetry. DOCTOR: Poetry, physics, same thing. BILL: How is it the same? DOCTOR: Because of the rhymes. What are you doing at this university?

Meanwhile watch out for errant emoji.

“Do you know what it means when something chases you very slowly? It means there’s a reason they don’t have to run!”

So, tell me about your first Doctor, and some of your favorite moments!