I’m very glad I was helpful and doubly so that I gave some level of comfort in your hour of need. I hope you were able to finish the floor in time and that pinky heals quickly. :)

So, you are most welcome and thank you for the well wishes. I will make it a point to engage more often. For future reference, I am a Mr. and the adepsis moniker is from an old SciFi novel (not sure which anymore) wherein there was a “safari” hunting dangerous creatures using avatars in which one’s consciousness was placed. The avatars were tiny and you were hunting bugs dangerously large in comparison. At least in my recollection, this safari was called Adepsis and the ads were “Adepsis, More Real than Real”. It stuck with me but the rest of the novel did not.

Best Regards

Hey there Mr(s?) Adepsis – thank you for that response. Man – I needed that. I was mid-hardwood floor installation (which I’ve never done before, and, admittedly suck at) I, somehow (not somehow??? See previous parenthetical about suckage, but more of a – even with my level of suckage, how did I manage this??) managed to drive a nail through the tip of my pinky. Not a huge deal, I mean, besides the initial screaming, it was easily dislodged and wrapped… more of a *#*]+#%]+[+~^¥>%%%!!!! Sort of a moment.

So here I am, sitting with my finger wrapped, sitting on my unfinished floor (that needs to get completed today because washing machine and because (@¥£€$&!!) and feeling really lame about myself. Gonna take a breather. Have some coffee, read the news, then get back to it.

And low, like an angel parting the heavens?? There is Adepsis – proclaiming truth and wisdom and insights to brighten my day and impart Dr.Who wisdom galore. Thank you! That was really insightful. Especially the bit about how the time travel is just a narrative device.

Regardless. Thanks for your kind words sir or madam. You are an angel. And I wish you well on your way back to whence you came. And please! Don’t be a stranger!!

Tay

Up front I will disclose that I’m not a super fan so things I state are based on more limited experience than those folks. I enjoyed Tom Baker (4th Dr.) as a kid and continued watching through the 7th. I’ve seen a couple of the Eccleston and Tennant episodes (literally 3 or 4 all in). I had friends that also watched and I believe we all enjoyed it for similar reasons – primarily for the Dr’s quirky persona and the relationship with their (in my experience human) companion. They all pick up a companion (like Rose for Eccleston’s Dr) and go adventuring with them. They serve as a device for the Dr to explain what’s going on and react to strange events like an ordinary person naturally would. These relationships can be quite endearing. These much more than any story or story element were our “hook”.

In my experience the time travel element is much more a device to allow the writers to do “whatever” and take them to medieval times one story and a galactic conference the next. They didn’t generally make much of the time travel itself at all.

Last, if you’re anything like me I should mention his nemeses, the Daleks (imagine Cylons but cone-shaped and very shouty). Love them or hate them – if they show up early in the season it’s a Dalek season. I found them profoundly irritating so it would kill the show for me until they were dealt with.

PS – I enjoy your site, the reviews, and the way you share yourself. You’ve helped me discover many films over the years. Thank you.

“I started going back and watching previous 2 Doctors (th: um pardon. 2 doctors? which two? like as in 14 & 15? no idea what you are saying here!) and found most episodes very cheesy (Wait, maybe you mean 1 & 2??). I adore Tenant (Yes, I loved Christopher Nolan’s movie Tenant too… but you aren’t talking about Nolan are you? GAH! No no no, I think you mean Tennant! An actor! Phew, figured that one out!), but prefer the show when the showrunner was Stephen Moffat (Apparently Moffat directed 6 episodes, 3 in season 5 and 3 in season 7?? Google to the rescue!!). In fact even during Tenant’s[sp] run my favorite episodes that stood out turned out to be written by Moffatt. He wrote Blink (not the movie or book, the episode), and The Girl in the Fireplace.

So you are recommending I go find those six episodes of Moffatt’s? Got it.

You all have so many conflicting pieces of advice. PUHLEASE… slow down when explaining this stuff to us non-who-villes. Okay? Because YOU ARE SPEAKING A DIFFERENT LANGUAGE!

Some rules:

1. Don’t try to do timelines. They don’t work. So many show runners and retcons, rewrites, and relaunches up through 13/14 have made “canon” impossible to track

2. The Doctor lies. They (he, she…?) also obfuscate and have large holes in their memory (as of 13) so it’s just better to live in the now.

3. Tubi currently has 1-7 for free. I’d recommend starting at 3 and going from there a bit for some interesting history and context. You might be better off reading through some wiki articles before diving into the LOOOOOOONG space operas of 3, but things get snappier paced staring with midway through 4.

4. Doctors 6 and 7 were awful. Not because of the acting but the writing was trash. Some might equate that to Doctor 13 (good acting horrid writing that seems intended to try to kill the show, as in 6 and 7)

5. You either love it or hate it. I hope love it.

-a

I next watched Silence in the Library (S4, E8), which introduced Alex Kingston as a recurring character I HAD to know more about and, well, too late, I was hooked.

I grew to love the relationship between the main characters on top of my existing love for time travel shenanigans. …and that is the How and the Why of the Who.

As for Who… yeah, I can see that, and especially the Deus ex Machina problem… hell, it’s been around for what 50 years? IT HAS to have that problem. No? There is literally no way to have had any sort of continuity that makes any sort of sense over that kind of timeframe. Which, actually because a massive liability for a time travel show. Meh. The reason DARK worked so perfectly is that it’s ending was well understood when it started. Without an ending, there is literally no way on earth that it can hold it all together. Just can’t be possible.

Alright – thanks for the lack of confidence! hahah. Anyone else out there who likes Who that can point Chuck and me in the right direction??