What a perfect afternoon for a Doctor Who marathon! As tropical depression Bill spirals slowly over the Midwest, spawning thunderstorms and dumping torrential rain, I couldn’t think of a better place to be than indoors, watching this campy BBC series with my grandson Dayan.
As it turned out, today is the 10th anniversary of David Tennant’s appearance as the tenth Doctor…which strung together a triplet of 10’s since I’ve realized David’s last name has a ten contained within it. I’m relatively new to the Doctor Who universe, so I’m playing catch up. Dayan and I are currently on season three, of the New Doctor Who series, which has Tennant as The Doctor, so what a happy convergence for today!
I’ve become a huge fan, a Whovian, and I look forward to these afternoons of watching the adventures of The Doctor and his companions as he saves the universe yet again. I’m particularly fond of David Tennant, a Scottish actor whose charisma and exuberance brings a roguish charm to the character of the Time Lord. He is my favorite Doctor so far, although I have two more regenerations to go! My very favorite part of watching Doctor Who is spending time with my grandson, laughing, swapping Doctor Who trivia, talking about life and the journey. As much as I love the Doctor, I love Dayan infinitely more, and these times are precious to me.
Here are the FIVE episodes that we watched this afternoon, during our Doctor Who marathon:
GRIDLOCK Season 3 Episode 3
The TARDIS takes The Doctor and Martha to New New York, in the year 5 Billion and 53. There they discover passengers trapped for years in their vehicles on the Road Way and The Face of Boe reveals a secret to The Doctor.
DALEKS IN MANHATTAN Season 3 Episode 4
The Doctor and Martha return to 1930’s New York, where instead of Depression era living, the pair discover that the Daleks are attempting a Human/Dalek hybrid.
EVOLUTION OF THE DALEKS Season 3 Episode 5
In this continuation of Daleks in Manhattan, The Doctor and Martha, with their New York friends, fight to save Earth from the Daleks and their hybrid creations.
THE LAZARUS EXPERIMENT Season 3 Episode 6
A 76 year old scientist has created a machine that restores youth. His experiment goes awry and Doctor Who and Martha must stop him as he morphs into a creature that feeds on the energy of others.
42 Season 3 Episode 7
After answering a distress call, Martha and The Doctor find themselves on board a cargo space ship that will crash into a sun in 42 minutes. As the pair works with the crew to reboot the ship, a virus that appears to be connected to the sun attacks crew members, impeding progress.
Dayan leaves for college in two years. His well thought out plan is to get me caught up to the current Doctor Who season before that happens. We are on season 3 and season 9 will begin soon. I am committed to this project and I look forward to afternoons of crossing off more episodes! I hope Doctor Who continues for many, many years, through various future regenerations of Doctors. While Dayan is off continuing his education and journeying far and wide in life, we will have this bond, this Doctor Who connection, that will bridge time and space for us. “Allons-y”, as the 10th Doctor is fond of saying, “Let’s go!”
