At this point, I think I’ll wait till tomorrow’s new episode of Doctor Who and then wrap up that one and last week’s at the same time. Meanwhile, though, check out Salon’s TV critic, Heather Havrilesky, and her take on the good Doctor.
She tries to shoehorn the show into a loosely defined theme she sees floating around the zeitgeist about “rugged individualists [who] subvert the dominant paradigm -- and are rewarded with angst, guilt and hard time in the big house.” Ho-kay.
It’s a distinctly American thing, as she sees it (“America rewards and celebrates individualism, and TV land reflects this spirit”), and I’m not saying that is not the case in American society or that it isn’t reflected in American pop culture. But Doctor Who is about as far from American in spirit as you can get and still be speaking (sort of) the same language. Trying to shove the Doctor into a class with Jack Bauer and that guy from The Shield is...bizarre, to say the least. She starts out attempting just that:
By defying the laws of time and space, the good doctor of "Doctor Who" (9 p.m. EST Fridays on SciFi) finds himself free from the consequences of both The Man as he exists on earth, and the more universal "man" who rules the remotest reaches of space. Sounds like a carefree life, doesn't it? Well, it's actually not much fun, thanks to the constant encroachment of malevolent forces, from huge plastic blobs to evil robotic insects to ancient human skin, pressed into glass, hell-bent on destruction.
But that is the fun!
The Doctor persuades Rose to come along with him on his travels, even though she'll have to leave her mom and boyfriend behind forever, even though she has no real proof that The Doctor isn't just a intergalactic sex offender twice her age.
I think it’s safe to say that for many female (and some male) fans of the show, it was the unknown danger that the Doctor presented -- even on the desexualized classic series -- that was part of what was so intriguing about him. I think it’s also safe to say that Rose was already seeing her boyfriend as kind of a dud -- the Doctor’s a helluva lot more exciting, and who wouldn’t want to escape the drudgery of wage slavery for a chance to travel space and time, danger be damned?
But even though that idea would seem to tie itself neatly into her thesis here, it’s really just that Havrilesky simply doesn’t get the attitude, the mindset, the wacky mojo of the show:
I have to say, this new series feels to me about as sophisticated and smart as an episode of "Love Boat." The tone is vaguely tongue-in-cheek so that the serious drama, when it does arrive, feels overblown and melodramatic. The main characters aren't all that compelling or likable. The world is always about to end at the hands of some poorly costumed aliens. I don't see the appeal.
And that’s fine, really -- not everything is going to be everybody’s cup of British tea. But she fails to appreciate that Doctor Who is a cup of tea, not a cup of American joe.
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