My FIRST Doctor...

So everyone says you always have a soft spot for your first doctor.  I think I like Doctor Who despite my first doctor. My first episode was the first episode of the new version.  I am too young and too American to have seen the original.  There had been no expectations.  I had watched other modern BBC programming but never a sci-fi.  For some reason there is no vivid recall of a lead up to that first episode. I don’t remember a great advertising campaign, or someone telling me about it. I just remember watching it.  Then suddenly the doctor was a part of my life, as much as if I had grown up watching the original serials on Saturday mornings in Britain. 

Chris Eccleston may be other things but he just will not be remembered as Doctor Who. The only important thing he did was further the plot. He introduced us to Rose and Jack. For that we should be nothing more then grateful but as the doctor he just didn’t impress me. 

Then… REGENERATION

David Tennant will always be my first doctor no matter who I actually laid eyes on in which temporal order, after all this is the doctor. Here was this bright eyed intelligent young old alien, quick witted who had morals and cool adventures every week. Every episode was fast paced and full of these great little puzzles.  The doctor was always there to save the day, but there was a big picture going on too.  American television, with a few exceptions, had been lacking these key ingredients. The good shows had a tendency to either get cancelled or bounced around from night to night.  Every Saturday night, I got to see my doctor, all summer. 

Then Jack got his OWN show, TORCHWOOD.  I made it through the off time between Doctor Who by surviving on this spin-off police procedural.  It was battling aliens every week, X-files but everyone knew what was out there.  Of course, there was that unerringly British inclination to kill someone off every week too, but it keep you guessing.  Who will be the last man standing? (Please, dear god, let it be JACK!)

Five years, I had my wonderful, quirky doctor.  Times were great. Then the clouds started to gather.  Rumors began that David was leaving the show. NOOOO!!!  It couldn’t be true, could it? I not only faced losing my first doctor but would the show even go on without him?  And what about the fate of Torchwood?  Would I lose all my television show at once like a nuclear bomb?

Then REGENERATION…