Doctor Who - The New Series
Peter wrote in and queried me about the new Doctor Who Series. He asked if someone new to the shows should start with Christopher Eccleston’s incarnation, OR just jump in at the beginning of David Tennant’s tenth Doctor. I figured I’d share my opinion here and give another plug for the new series, because it really is outstanding and a great deal of fun.
Definitely start with Christopher Eccleston!
There are a couple of good reasons for this actually, aside from the fact that he’s brilliant in the role and really brings out a very fresh, and somewhat tortured version of the Doctor to the audience. Tortured? Yeah, well you see… there was a war between the Daleks and the Timelords… simply called the Time War. A war so devastating that both sides seem to have been wiped out. So he’s dealing with a ton of survivor guilt, and is now alone in the universe. Which is fertile ground for the character to pick up some serious emotional depth, which Christopher Eccleston portrays very well.
Alot of the history of what happens in that first season also plays out in the 2nd and 3rd season under David Tennant, who is also brilliant, so starting at the new beginning helps make sense of a number of things down the line.
The 4th season starts in April of 2008 I believe, and then there will be at least a 1 year hiatus punctuated by 2 telefilms, and then the 5th season in 2010. On the one hand, that sucks, but it beats having the production crew and writers of the show quit or grow stale.