The new season of Doctor Who started airing in the UK over the weekend. First off, I think we’ll be ok. He’s just as nuts as the rest.
BUT is that a good thing? Are the doctors all falling into the same template?
So Christopher Eccleston was a little out there but we didn’t have much time with him so I’m tempted to say he was also pretty serious when need be. David Tennant was obviously nuts. He would run around, use fake glasses, go somewhere and do something just because he felt like it. Matt Smith seems to emulate that in the first episode of the current season. It’s possible we just need to be waned off the wacky Doctor and he still needs to develop but using the “wibbly, wobbly, timey wimey” line was a bit shocking.
Then again, they are doing a lot more with regeneration than they used to. Sure the Doctor had some problems with each of his regenerations and maybe it was the lack of special effects but it seems like the new ones are all dramatic.
And that brings us to the major flaw of the new Doctor Who.
Drama. It’s really not necessary. The Doctor being upset about losing his home and having to exile his people to a time jail, that’s acceptable. The Doctor falling for a girl, losing her, finding another and another who want his bones but know deep down they can’t have him? Too much. Even with Smith we see some trouble brewing.
The closest thing to a normal end of companionship was Martha. She left because there were other things for her to do. A more human life for her to live. That’s how it was with the old Doctors. One companion met with an unfortunate end but was very heroic. (If you don’t know and want to, look up the 5th Doctor’s companions). So other than that and the Time Lord companion (that one was on the 4th Doctor), they all left because they had a life to go back to and they had seen enough.
Maybe we need multiple companions again. Or maybe less females. Yay, it makes for an interesting continuous story! But that’s totally at the loss of what made Doctor Who, Doctor Who.
Other suggestion, bring back the multi-part episodes. Let the story develop over 2 hours and stop changing some major character every season.
All in all, good jorb on the first episode. Keep it up.