Doctor Who | Teen Ink

Doctor Who

August 7, 2008
By medusacascade SILVER, Sugarland, Texas
medusacascade SILVER, Sugarland, Texas
5 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
Nolite te bastardes carborandum


Imagine, just for a moment, worlds beyond this one. Imagine hundreds of planets, hundreds of galaxies. Imagine planets with names like Skarro, and Traken, and Gallifrey -- planets with beings more evil than you can imagine and more amazing than you can imagine. Imagine a society held together, by, in one man’s words, “people basically being very very nice to each other.” Imagine a type of species with no heart, no morals, no conscience.

Now, imagine parallel universes, all stacked up next to one another. A universe in which there are men with frozen hearts and a body of steel, worlds with “ultimate upgrades” and people who died long past still alive.

And now, imagine a man with two hearts, a man who isn’t quite a man. A man with no name, just a title. A man who can change his face with as much ease as people change clothes, a man who travels through all of time and space in a blue police box… a man who will take you along for the ride.

That’s Doctor Who. The premise is simple. A man -- or, rather, an alien, called the Doctor, from the planet Gallifrey. A Time Lord, equipped with a time machine -- the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space), who travels all of time and space, picking up people along the way, saving alien planets and Earth alike. A man who can regenerate when he’s dying, changing his face, and, conveniently replacing the actor. A man who fights, and wins, not using guns or swords or violence, but just his mind. And he always wins. It’s one of the rules.

But by the end of the legendary British sci-fi’s show run, it had turned into less of a legend and more of the regular, stock-trade sci-fi with bad special effects if good plot lines. And in the 1980’s, it was discontinued.

Until Russell T. Davies came along, with clever new twists and a brand-new, war-scarred Doctor, faced by Christopher Eccleson as the Ninth Doctor. But this wasn’t just some sci-fi show. Because behind the quick words and quicker wit, there was something deeper. Darker. A touch of reality. In the first season’s finale, the Doctor is forced into the 2002nd century, into a game. A reality TV show, Big Brother. But this time, if you’re evicted, you’re evicted from life. And the whole world’s watching, because they can’t go outside, it’s too dangerous to breathe, because of the ozone. Between escaping from the game and fighting the Daleks (his worst enemy), he says, “Half the world’s too fat and the other half’s too thin.” You ignore it then. But then you think. And you know this might happen. If we’re not careful. We’re getting closer and closer every day.

Then David Tennant comes, as the Tenth Doctor. A wild, laughing, slightly manic Doctor, who can’t help but laugh and joke in the face of evil, and often does. A Doctor who wants to be ginger and doesn’t give people second chances. A kind, passionate Doctor -- but not necessarily a nice one. A Doctor who, when asked what monsters under the bed have nightmares about, smirks and says, “Me!” A Doctor who never uses a gun, who orders everyone to put their guns down -- who’s only armed with a sonic screwdriver, who never fights, and still manages to save the world every time, with a sonic screwdriver, his wits, and the people he picks up along his journeys. A Doctor who quotes Back to the Future and, when asked how come he doesn’t know about Utopia, replies he’s a bit of a hermit, and when asked about his friends, shrugs and says, “Hermits united. We meet up every ten years, swap stories about caves. It's good fun. For a hermit.” Who always wins, no matter how bad it looks. And who never, never kills, whether he’s facing psychopathic Time Lords that destroy the world listening to the Scissor Sisters, or Daleks, creatures with no heart and no morals and no purpose but to “Exterminate!”

And we’ve had him for three years, and each one has been, in the Ninth Doctor’s words, “Fantastic!” It’s quickly become one of the most well known sci-fi shows in England, and in the US. It’s won over twenty awards in five years, and keeps on winning more and more.

It’s run for 45 years, and through the years, it’s gotten smarter, quicker, and, occasionally, darker. But always fantastic, whether the Doctor is the first -- an old, slightly strange man, or the Fourth, with his inanely long scarf, or the Sixth, with a “coat of many colors,” or the Tenth, with his red converse and sarcasm. Because he’s the Doctor, no matter how he looks or dresses or what he says, at the heart of it, he’s still the Doctor.

45 years.

219 stories.

Ten Doctors.

One legend.


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This article has 29 comments.


on Feb. 5 2011 at 2:50 pm
Riverschild SILVER, Mount Vernon, Washington
9 articles 11 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
"You will never know until you try."

I love the tenth Doctor!! (Just a random fact! :)

VampireX GOLD said...
on Dec. 2 2010 at 7:42 am
VampireX GOLD, Spotsylvania, Virginia
18 articles 0 photos 81 comments
I mean 9th, 10th, and 11th

VampireX GOLD said...
on Dec. 2 2010 at 7:41 am
VampireX GOLD, Spotsylvania, Virginia
18 articles 0 photos 81 comments
I havent watched the WHOLE series, but i know enough that out of the 8th, 9th, and 10th Doctors, David Tennat is my Doctor.

Grace said...
on Nov. 23 2010 at 7:13 am
The Doctor: If someone who knew the future, pointed
out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally
evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives…
could you then kill that child?


Sarah: We’re talking about the Daleks. The most evil
... creatures ever invented. You must destroy them. You must complete your
mission for the Time Lords!


The Doctor: Do I have the right? Simply touch one
wire against the other and that’s it. The Daleks cease to exist.
Hundreds of millions of people, thousands of generations can live
without fear… in peace, and never even know the word “Dalek”.


Sarah: Then why wait? If it was a disease or some sort of bacteria you were destroying, you wouldn’t hesitate.


The Doctor: But if I kill. Wipe out a whole intelligent life form, then I become like them. I’d be no better than the Daleks.

Best ever Doctor Who quote. Genius show. I'm glad they brought it back.


on Sep. 17 2010 at 8:38 pm
Enforcer BRONZE, North Adams, Massachusetts
3 articles 12 photos 15 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If that's how you want to live your life, I say go nuts!"

If there's one thing you should never ask me, it's WHO my favorite Doctor is. He's awesome in every form. Right as I finish writing that sentence the Doctor Who theme song is was listening to ended.

My first Doctor was Peter Cushing from the lesser known Dr. Who Dalek movies from the sixties which are also pretty good but not canonical. Then my first true Doctor was Peter Davison with Resurrection of the Daleks. You really seem the understand Doctor Who like me and my brother (and my dad) who worship the shows and movies. Sigh, I wish we could play the new computer game in the US.


on Aug. 17 2010 at 10:27 pm
Nuclearnerd BRONZE, North Adams, Massachusetts
4 articles 6 photos 26 comments

Favorite Quote:
You won't know until you find out!

P.S

The Doctor is just plain AWESOME!


on Aug. 17 2010 at 10:25 pm
Nuclearnerd BRONZE, North Adams, Massachusetts
4 articles 6 photos 26 comments

Favorite Quote:
You won't know until you find out!

My first Doctor Who episode was Resurrection of the Daleks. I've always loved the Fifth Doctor since then. I've been influenced by Doctor Who in just about every Sci Fi thing I write, even if it's about teenagers fighting monsters! And this year, at Rock Camp, we named our band Rassilon, after the Time Lord character. I love the article. It really captures Doctor Who. And you're very right about whether he wears a "decorative vegetable" (celery) or a bow tie, and whether he calls himself John Smith or Captain Troy Handsome of International Rescue, he will always be the Doctor! 

 


on Jul. 21 2010 at 1:17 pm
fireeyedgirl SILVER, Dulles, Virginia
7 articles 0 photos 23 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: the mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about someone who lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself. "
— Orson Scott Card

I love the Doctor! I'm pretty sure I secretly am the Doctor, in a teenage girl sort of way ( I don't thinkI have a fob watch lying around but...) Can't wait for season 6. Matt Smith is doing briliantly

xxanniekayxx said...
on Sep. 10 2008 at 1:05 am
Wow. Fantastic article. Sums it up really well. I watch it religiously XD My first doctor was Paul McGann in the movie, but I consider my first doctor to be more Sylvester McCoy.Only because Paul was only in the movie. David Tennant is a great doctor. He makes me laugh every episode, even if I've seen it a million times =] Anyways, great article. =D