Doctor Who is back on the TV screen and this time the 12th Doctor is played by Peter Capaldi, he is taking up the helms from Matt Smith. I started watching the series from its revival in 2005. Confused? Oh well, I should probably talk a little about the advent of Doctor Who – one of the top three Brtitish Television program that has gained popularity across the countries. This is a science fiction drama which started in 1963 and continues till date – there was a break from 1989 to 2005. Yes, that’s how long the lore of Doctor Who survived in the British Popular culture.
So who is this Doctor Who? In a gist he is a time travelling humanoid alien – his race is called the Time Lords- who travels in his TARDIS – a sentient ship which can travel through time and space- it looks like a Police Box of the British bygone era of the 60’s. So, the Doctor along with his various human companions moves across the fabric of time and space fighting foes of a variety of origins and saving civilizations, helping people and correcting the wrongs in the world.
Since the 2005 revival series there have been three regenerations of the Doctor. Umm what is a regeneration you ask? Well, a regeneration is something the Time Lords do, it is a biological phenomenon, in which an old or mortally wounded Time Lord can undergoes a transformation into a new physical form and with a somewhat different personality. As per the rules of Time Lord regeneration, a Time Lord can only re generate 11 times. The whole regeneration gambit was set up in order to introduce new actors as the main character – Doctor Who in the franchise.
And now we come to Peter Capaldi, who became the Doctor after the regeneration fo the 11th Doctor played by Matt Smith. Here having exhausted all his regenerations there was a new trick introduced by the shows writers to give Doctor Who another new set of regenerative power. So, came Peter Capaldi and boy do I dislike him.
To me out of the 3 actors who played Doctor Who from 2005 to 2013 [ no there were not ‘that many episodes’, there were many breaks], I find David Tenant to be the best of the lot. He took over from Christopher Eccleston who just didn’t work and survived only one season, then it was David Tenant all the way from 2005 to 2010 and i think he was a favorite of many fans of the series.
Like Peter Capaldi, David is a Scottish actor but he was younger when he became Doctor Who. All said and done he has been even voted the Best Doctor in 2006 by the fans of Doctor Who and some how this Peter Capaldi just doesn’t cut it. I was willing to tolerate Matt Smith’s over the top hamming as Doctor Who but a cold and very aloof Doctor Who is not my cup of tea, and that is what Mr. Capaldi is, very alien, very cold, very professional, lacking all the raw sensuality of David Tenant and his charismatic smile along with his grandeloquence. I am disappointed by the choice of the actor, it remains to be seen if I like the series at all. Mind you the new companion with all the crazy connections throughout Doctor Who’s timeline, Ms. Clara Oswald played by Jenna Coleman is a disappointing companion after the likes of Martha Jones, Donna Noble, even Rose and Amy Pond were more tolerable than Coleman. Her character is so artificial and lacks any depth plus has absolutely no emotional connection with the Doctor except for the forced bit made mandatory by the writers.
I cannot imagine watching this series with a disappointing Doctor as well as a boring companion!
THE END.
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