Right now, Hollywood is going through an era of emotional shows with grimy and dramatic moods that, while are phenomenal at touching the reader, do nothing but stab away at heartstrings and leave the viewer in devastating tears episode after episode. Cries like that are great, sure, and the shows like The Last of Us and 13 Reasons Why are prime examples of phenomenal narratives that are popular primarily because of the deep emotional themes that resonate with many viewers. And while I and many others love shows like these, as more come out, our television screens get more and more saturated with depressing content. What happened to the wholesome, goofy content that used to come out? Where did my Friends go? Or my Full House? Well, if we’re going to discuss light-hearted content that everyone can watch, I think the best show to talk about is BBC’s Doctor Who.
Technically, the show’s been going on since 1962, when its original season premiered. However, it went on a long hiatus in 1989, when the first series ended. But, in 2005, the show came back, and has been running year after year ever since.
As a quick and basic rundown, the show follows a relatively simple plot and formula. There’s this person named The Doctor, who’s an alien time traveler who’s the last of his kind. He’s a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, and recently, the rest of his species was wiped out in a battle known as The Great Time War. Anyway, he’s dedicated the rest of his (super long) life to flying across time and space on his ship, the Time and Relative Dimension in Space (TARDIS for short). The Doctor and his iconic blue police box travel across the universe with (at least) one human companion at a time, and solve problems that threaten the spacetime continuum.
Sure, sounds pretty boring when you write it down. But, when you realize just how much the writers have to play around with, the show ends up being super fun. For starters, the companion switches a lot. Roughly every season has a new companion, keeping The Doctor’s relationship with his companion fresh every time you go to watch it, as they’re all very different from each other. Furthermore, when The Doctor dies, he is capable of regenerating every cell in his body, at the cost of giving him a completely new body. New face, new brain, new personality.
When I started watching Doctor Who in November, I really had no expectations. I was just off of the rails of watching Neon Genesis: Evangeleon, arguably one of the most depressing shows I’ve ever seen in my life. All I was thinking about was the 3 episodes of the first season I’d already seen, when I tried to get into it, but stopped, as I got too bored. I’m not sure why, but the original just really failed to capture me. Of course, I came back to rewatch those 3 episodes, and quickly realized just how wrong I was.
Season One’s star is Christopher Eccelston, known in universe as the 9th Doctor. He’s witty and snappy, with a sarcastic humor yet a suave kind of charm that keeps everyone around him laughing and comfortable with his presence. He knows how to make his allies trust him, as well as make his enemies fear him. His wits remain his best line of offense, and he always uses it to scare his foes away. He never feels like he’s too obnoxious with this, though, and it’s always intimidating to see him talk down on other creatures as he warns them to stay off Earth. His companion, Rose, is also great at keeping his character anchored, and we see the two of them slowly grow closer, especially towards the end of the first season.
Season Two comes with the arrival of the 10th Doctor, David Tennant. Tennant is nothing short of an international legend, as anyone who’s been on the internet has surely seen clips of him as the Doctor. Even before I watched the show, I’d known how iconic he was, with his famous nonsensical quote “Bingle bongle dingle dangle, yickity do, yickity da, ping pong, lippy tappy too tah” spreading to every corner of the internet. Tennant brings such life to the character, making him even more charming and even more scary than Eccelston, at the expense of losing his sarcastic humor.
The list of the Doctors and their phenomenal personalities goes on, so I won’t bore you with paragraph upon paragraph of how complex they are. To keep it brief, we have Matt Smith’s phenomenal 11th Doctor, a hilarious and socially awkward character, who acts as though he’s a child afraid of maturity as he shrugs off the horrors he lived through. Next is Peter Capaldi’s 12th, an old man who’s been worn down and darkened by the worst parts of the universe, weighing down on his shoulders as he sarcastically bickers with his companions and tells everyone across the universe to “shut up– shuttity up up up up.” Jodie Whittaker’s 13th Doctor was the first woman doctor, bringing a unique balance between the 11th’s humor and lightheartedness, as well as the 12th’s understanding of how deep situations really can be. Then we have (what is essentially) 10 again, as the 14th Doctor, and now we have the 15th Doctor, portrayed by the lovely Ncuti Gatwa, a suave and mysterious individual.
Despite seeming super complex, this idea of cycling through Doctors and their companions is an extremely refreshing trope. You never get tired of it, nor agitated at the idea of a character departing for their counterpart to replace them. You follow them as they develop, go through stories that are shockingly dark or pleasingly light-hearted, and sit there in shock to see the extent the show will go to in order to get what they want done. You cackle at their stupid jokes, and sob at their heartbreaking losses. Then, the character departs, and the cycle starts anew.
Notice how I mentioned how dark the show can get? Yeah, it gets really dark at points. Like, “gave a 17 year old who’s seen a lot of dark television nightmares” kind of dark. I can’t talk about it without spoiling the entire plot, but for those who’ve seen the show: “Silence In The Library.” Nothing more needs to be said.
But the episodes also get really heartfelt, too. “Doomsday” is an episode that makes any Doctor Who fan tremble when you mention it. I’m not kidding, either. I mentioned this episode to my brother, who’s been a fan since before I was born, and watched him literally buckle over in discomfort. There are moments in a family show that make grown adults quiver thinking about the tears it made them shed. That’s freaky.
Doctor Who has somehow managed to make me realize that a show doesn’t need to be gut wrenchingly sad to be considered good or engaging. It made me realize that a formulaic series can go on for years without ever feeling boring or stale. It highlighted that even a goofy, family-friendly show can drain the tears from your eyes, or make you roll over in bed at night thinking about David Tennant’s chilling line delivery as he begs the viewer not to blink. It’s fresh, fun, disheartening, empowering, horrifying, and absolutely nothing short of engaging. If you ever need to sit down and get a few laughs in before an existential crisis (niche, but needed, I promise), Doctor Who is calling your name. Give it a watch on Max if you have the time (although, time’s relative). You won’t regret it.