I would love to be named the new Dr Who

Could I be the new Dr. Who? ...i wish it were so

So it’s the 50th anniversary of Dr. Who and we are to have a new Doctor. It’s definitely been an interesting ride with Matt as the Doctor. I feel he was just getting into his stride and then he’ll be gone.

Dr. Who has been part of my life since a child. Like many British citizens I scrambled behind the sofa as the first Doctor William Hartnell took up against the Daleks or the Cybermen as they took over London or corned the Doctor on a far off world.

What couldn’t be cool? To be a time lord, able to travel in TIME and SPACE! As a child growing up in the 1960s …when we had just started our baby steps to explore space for the first time, this all seemed so possible, AND in a blue Police Box, which was MUCH bigger on the inside than the outside.

At the time my father was working on the British (European) rocket project Blue Streak originally conceived as a British medium range ballistic missile (MRBM), and later the first stage of the Europa satellite launch vehicle. Blue Streak I don’t think ever succeeded in its quest for ‘seeking out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before’ opps sorry that is star trek…. and a little of my imagination as a child and a feeling my DAD might be involved in some small part in us finding other planets with life….. or at least with chocolate.:-) 

I loved one of the first exchanges in the present series of Dr.Who when the Doctor tried to get Clara to travel with him in the Police Box by saying:

“I can take you anywhere in time and space” and she laughs and says:

“Does this actually work? Is this actually what you do? Do you snap your fingers and people jump into your snog box!” The Doctor. “Its not a snog box!” Clara. “I’ll be a judge of that!”

The chemistry between the Doctor and his assistant has been critical to the show and there have been some great companions. For me Rose was by far the best though Clara could change that as she develops and is given more space to do so. Rose of course helped re-launch the Doctor with Christopher Eccleston who when he told Rose he was an alien she said ‘but you sound like you are from the north’ and his reply was a killer ‘lots of planets have a north.’

How great to have a programme that allows the lead actor to change when they want to move on. Regeneration links the old Doctor to the new one and although his appearance and character changes we know he is now over 900 years old and that we are seeing only some of his adventures. These years we do not see were well indicated in the transition for Matt Smith assistants Rory and Amy in leaving the show and before the ‘impossible girl’ Clara joins. We are to understand that the Doctor has spent many years as a recluse saddened by the loss of Rory and Amy.

The transition between assistants can sometimes be brutal Sara Jane Smith who originally stared with the third (Jon Pertwee) and fourth (Tom Baker) Doctor (1973 to 1976) was told that humans couldn’t be taken to the time-lord home planet Gallifrey. So when the Doctor had to go there he left her somewhere in Aberdeen Scotland not Croydon England where she lived with no money and probably no umbrella. So much for the Tardis accuracy something that has made the programme even more fun as the Doctor plans to take his companion somewhere and finds that instead the Tardis has taken them somewhere else. I forgot to mention for those of you who are not yet Whovians, as Dr Who fans are called, the Tardis is the blue police box and stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. We know the Doctor stole the Tardis but we don’t yet know why?

(Dr Who and Rose)

I haven’t liked all the Doctors and you do have to be careful when trying to imitate the Doctors. I was a huge fan of Tom Baker and his amazingly long scarves. This was until as an 18 year old the scarf got caught in the back wheel of my Yamaha 90cc and the bike went under a lorry and me to a hospital bed.

Fun Times ... Tom Baker with a Siberian and scarf

I have loved the three Doctors since the re-launch and wonder where Chris would have taken the Doctor if he had had another series. I write this as speculation is ripe on who the next Doctor will be. I did start my campaign for Nathan Fillion star of FireFly without much success. Who ever it will be their lives will change forever and they will become associated with a TV character that has no equal.

 

Dr. Who has more recently been taking on America since its re-launch in 2005 and and it does help Americans to understand us British a little bit better. The Doctor holds a special place in the hearts of many British people like the BBC itself and our national health service they help define us and we look forward to another 50 years with the Doctor. As was said of the 10^th Doctor (David Tenant)

“He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe. and... he's wonderful.”

PS And should Stephan Moffet call…I AM ready to be the next Doctor......