The New Doctor’s Who?

Author Karen Miller jumps on the bandwagon and has her say about the new Doctor Who. . .

I have a terrible confession to make. Possibly it might even be seen as heretical – but here goes.

The very first Doctor Who episode I ever watched was ‘The Runaway Bride’.

And now I pause this commentary so readers can pick themselves up off the floor, reach for a stiff drink and possibly the phone to call for an ambulance.

You good now? Good. Alons-y!

As a child, I remember my uncle loved Doctor Who. I remember him watching it whenever he was visiting. I remember that I loved the theme music, but that otherwise I just wasn’t interested. Fast forward a few decades and oh look! I still wasn’t interested. Friends told me I should watch the rebooted version of the show but no, no, no, I knew better. I caught one glimpse of stupid silver men lurching through a kitchen or something and I said, Ha! That silly nonsense is not for me!

But they kept saying I should watch it, so at last I gave in. I saw that my local tv station was screening an episode called ‘The Runaway Bride’ and I thought: I will watch it, I will hate it, and I will shut them up.

Me and my big mouth.

I watched it, and fell spectacularly in love with this skinny boy in a suit, who broke my heart grieving for some bird called Rose about whom I knew bugger all. And five minutes after ‘The Runaway Bride‘ ended, I was online ordering Seasons 1 and 2, and panting for Season 3 to air.

When I think of ‘Doctor Who’, it’s David Tennant’s face that rises before me. And when I got my dvds in the mail and watched Season 1 I enjoyed it enormously, but with the knowledge that Christopher Eccleston wasn’t staying. That he was going to morph into David Tennant. And I was okay with that. It was Tennant’s Doctor who got me hooked on the show. And I have loved watching him for three seasons now. Laughed with him. Cried with him. Been astonished with him. Terrified with him. Humbled with him. In my heart, David Tennant is the Doctor.

And now he’s leaving. Which makes me very, very sad. Because I have loved his Doctor so much. In fact, I dedicated a book to Tennant, and to Russell T. Davies, to thank them for the wonderful roller coaster ride they’ve taken me on these past few years.

But as sad as I am to lose Tennant – and I really am, did I mention that? – I find myself kind of intrigued and excited too. Because as of next year there’ll be a new Doctor in town. Matt Smith, his name is. They’ve just announced his casting, you might’ve heard something about it. I’ve never seen him act, all I’ve seen is a photo of him, and you can’t tell a damn thing from a photo. Actors are chameleons. They whip in and out of characters faster than you can say ‘Sybil’.

So while I am intrigued and excited, I’m also feeling a bit discombobulated … because now I’m a Who fan and I don’t want to stop loving the show. I don’t want this to go wrong. I don’t want to be crushed and mangled and have to sleep with the Tennant Who DVDs under my pillow, weeping for what can never be again.

The central brilliance of Doctor Who, I think, always was this genius solution to keeping the show going while allowing actors to move on with their careers or even possibly, inconveniently, die. But I am a Who virgin. This is my first time to lose the Doctor who was, well, the Doctor. For me. And judging from the fan reaction to the news of Matt Smith’s casting, I ain’t the only one.

So to my fellow virgins – and to the fans who liked Eccleston’s Doctor but who also, like me, fell in love with Tennant’s — can I just say this? Let’s all of us take a slow, deep breath and chill, shall we? Let’s not rush to judgement. Let’s not kneecap young Mister Smith (lucky his first name isn’t John, eh?) before he’s even set foot out of the Tardis. Let’s give the poor bloke a chance to show us what he’s made of. By all means, we’re free to not fall in love with him once we see him in the part. But let’s not go building the gallows quite yet, what do you say?

Because this is Matt Smith’s introduction to Who fandom. And I, for one, don’t want him to feel hated just because he isn’t David Tennant. I, for one, want to feel proud I’m a fan. To quote another brilliant SF show – This has happened before, and will happen again. It’s the nature of Who. Companions change, and so does the Doctor.

On with the adventure, I say!

Karen Miller is a writer of speculative fiction. In addition to her mainstream epic fantasy novels, she writes ‘The Rogue Agent’ fantasy series under the pen-name K.E. Mills, and sometimes plays in other people’s universes. So far she’s romped with Star Wars and Stargate. Her website is: www.karenmiller.net