matt smith

doctor

One of the many reasons Doctor Who has had such a fantastically long run time as a series is that The Doctor regenerates. That wasn’t always supposed to be true but when the First Doctor (William Hartnell) got sick the show was such a huge success the producers came upon this idea to keep it running.

The Doctor is an alien, who says when he dies, he doesn’t really die, but becomes someone else? Well, he’ll always be The Doctor, but he can be played by a different actor and have a different personality. Patrick Troughton took on the role of The Second Doctor and the rest is history.

It was a genius idea. Whenever an actor gets tired of playing the role someone else will take his (or her) place. A new Doctor is born with an updated personality. This also allows the series to change with the times.

It also allows fans to constantly argue over which Doctor is the best.

A Doctor’s regeneration is always a big deal. Matt Smith was one of the most popular Doctors ever and so when he decided to leave the character you just knew his departure would be huge.

It was. So huge in fact they tied it into a Christmas Episode (an annual tradition). The Time of the Doctor wrapped up several storylines and more. And then some more. As you can read in my review it is a lot of fun, but also an overstuffed mess.

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My family and I have been watching the new series of Doctor Who every Friday night for many years now. We are currently at the beginning of Peter Capaldi’s era as The Doctor and this is at least our fourth round through the entire thing.

Watching the series over and over and over again gives me a new perspective on each episode every time I watch them. My love for the best episodes deepen, and my irritation at stories I didn’t like the first time around tend to flatten. And I’m constantly noticing things I didn’t notice before.

So it is interesting to read this review of Series Seven all these years later (I originally wrote it in 2013). I apparently wasn’t so keen on it back then (at least not the second half). I’ve come ’round to Clara Oswald a great deal since then and find most of the episodes to be quite good. Strangely, I didn’t mention Amy and Rory’s final episode in the review (other than noting I was sad to see them go) and it is now one of my least favorite episodes of their tenure as companions.

Anyway, you can read my thoughts here.