So this will sounds a little petty and pointless to some of you that haven't really seen any of the old run of Doctor Who. I want you to know that I'm mostly happy with what is happening with the show, but like any long-time fan, I have some issues with what is happening, and I want to gripe about it a little bit.
I was super excited to find out that Doctor Who was starting again. I'd seen most of the old Doctors at some point growing up thanks in part to PBS carrying the show on a 7-year delay. I can say all sort of things about the original run, but lots of that can be found under other posts that I've already made here. I'm especially glad that they didn't choose to reboot the show like so many other shows have done. (Battlestar Galactica is an example of where this was a good idea. Doctor Who would have been a bad idea.)
The writers have paid tribute to the original Doctors from time to time, but that usually takes the form of the blurry series of images of the Doctor up to his current form like we see at the end of Eleventh Hour. What about some other homages to the Doctors of the past.
Before I get into examples of missed opportunities, I suppose I should make sure to point out one very valid spot where the writers looked back to the old show. When we get a copy of the Doctor in The Rebel Flesh storyline, we get to see this copy try to adjust to being replicated as a Time Lord rather than a human. We get to see this new copy of the Doctor go through the struggles of figuring out who the Doctor is including some references to older Doctors. ("Reverse the flow" coming from #3 and "Do you want a jelly baby?" coming from #4.)
So this begs the question, why didn't Matt Smith do any of these things when he started as the Doctor? The same question can be used for David Tennant. Christopher Eccleston has an excuse since he didn't actually regenerate on screen. Instead of reminding viewers of the past Doctors, we just get recurring jokes about new teeth.
What about in "The Doctor's Wife?" Sexy sends Amy and Rory to an older copy of the TARDIS control room. Which control room do they end up in? The previous Doctor's control room. Why not do a little searching and go back a little further? I was hoping it might even be the original control room. Sure it's not very exciting, but it might have made viewers take an interest in where that control room originated and go back to see it in action.
What about the very recent episode where the the Doctor is poisoned by Melody Pond and he struggles into the TARDIS and activates the Voice Interface and he gets to see a series of options for people to have for interaction. Sure it is nice to see images of Rose, Martha and Donna, but why not use someone from the older series? It could even be Sarah Jane Smith. That would be worth something, especially with the recent death of poor Miss Sladen. However, wouldn't it have been fun to see some of the other companions ad perhaps spark a little interest in those characters and those Doctors?
Well, that's probably why I don't write for Doctor Who, but it won't stop complaining about it. Leave some comments below.
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