Doctor Who? (2005)

Posted on September 14, 2006 
Filed Under TV, All

For those uninitiated in the Doctor Who series , it is the English equivalent of Star Trek. The original series ran from 1963 to 1989, followed by a TV movie in 1996 and now started again for the 2005 BBC season. It is famous for its quirky science fiction plotlines and unabashed low budget special affects. Think of it as the Hitchhikers guide meets Star Trek. Being a BBC series, the pace and the humor has always been very different than US productions. In other words, like Benny Hill, it was the kind of thing people either loved or hated, not a lot of middle ground.

Here’s a quick background for those too impatient to Google the plot. Basically Dr. Who is a renegade “Time Lord” who stumbles through space and time in a frequently malfunctioning device called a tardis. He has a long time habit of “collecting” human traveling companions to share his adventures and to contrast his eccentricities against. He tends to show up when and where some alien wedgie is happening and chaos ensues. So what’s this all about different Doctors? It is another excellent plot wedgie enabling the thread of the story to span generations of viewers. These Time Lords are like cats in that they are supposed to have nine lives. Basically when they are at deaths door, they regenerate and take on a whole new appearance and personality.

I recently discovered that 2005 season of Dr. Who was taken up by the SciFi channel. I enjoyed the Tom Baker season (the fourth Doctor) many years ago, but was less interested by the series with Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor. Anyway, I was excited to see where things were going with the series now. This latest Doctor portrayed by Christopher Eccleston has captured all of the humor and detached eccentricity that I enjoyed about Tom Baker’s portrayal of the Doctor. Although this Doctor has some darkness in his past that leaks out every now and then.

This season, now on DVD, has brought high quality production and special affects to the formerly camp and low budget series without also falling into the trap of making the plot too serious. There are pig aliens, living plastic, 2000 year old flat faces, and farting lizard aliens! What more could you ask? I’ll tell you what, there are also the Daleks. These are the big bads in the Dr. Who universe (Whoniverse?). In the past, though well written they lacked menace because they were built from garbage cans and toilet plungers. Well move over Borg, they’re a tough act now. Not to mention they’ve finally conquered stairs!

If you love Sci-Fi, and are able to take it with a dose of humor, then consider it homework to check this out.

Now about that ending

Their Ending

The build up to the discovery of the Dalek invasion fleet was excellent. The twisting of the Daleks due to being infused with human “material” was coldly brilliant. The “Bad Wolf” resolution however, was a bit abrupt. Also, the blatant time tinkering implied by the destruction of the Daleks probably should have brought on the Reapers as happened in the episode “Father’s Day”. I was also disappointed that Eccleston was to be a single season Doctor. But just having all the Daleks go poof before the fury of Bad Wolf? I was a bit disappointed.

My Better Ending

No, you guessed it; I probably would have ended it a bit differently. The Bad Wolf thread was a good one, but needed a more direct link to connect it with the situation and its resolution. Clearly Rose, now the Bad Wolf was just chalk full of Time Lord/ Tardis Mojo. Rather than just making the Dalek’s go poof, they should have made some sense out of it all.

With the Bad Wolf’s power Rose clearly would have been able to alter an important moment leading to the rise of the Daleks. I’d probably choose something around the arrival of the Emperor Dalek on/ above earth. While he was still week from the Time War, Rose could have defeated him in some highly special effect driven manner. As a result of the emperor’s defeat, all of Daleks start going poof, just as they did before. Way too easy you say? Of course, it’s never that easy, and a finale should always have at least one teaser.

Earth’s time stream would be repaired by Rose’s intervention, and as she returns to where/when the Doctor is and there would be Reapers all over the place causing all kinds of damage. As the Doctor stated in the “Father’s Day” episode, in the past it was the Time Lords who dealt with Reapers, and guess what he’s the only one left. This would be a primary driver in the Doctor taking on the power from the heart of the Tardis. He would heal the rift in time expelling the Reapers. This however, would result in his “death”. Giving his final goodbye to Rose, he’d make some touching speech about this being the last battle of the last great Time War and then zap the Doctor regenerates.

This ending would tie the conclusion back into the previous episodes of the series in a more consistent way. It also results in earth’s timeline being restored, something not really even covered by the existing ending.

Comments

One Response to “Doctor Who? (2005)”

  1. York on May 19th, 2009 2:54 am

    Hey. Loved your post. Was looking for this topic on Google and bumped onto your site. Keep up the good writing. Thanks

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