Damn you, Russell Davies, and the TARDIS you materialized in on!

Welcome to the club. As a young geek in Houston, it was difficult to get anything Who-related, so I also taped everything that came along, attended the few conventions we had (met Colin Baker and Jon Pertwee), went down to the PBS station and answered phones on Who night, and generally made an obnoxious geek of myself throughout high school. Oh, those heady, embarassing days. Now I make an obnoxious geek of myself at work, talking about the new season and giving spoilers with a grin to folks who haven't seen season 1 yet (bought the UK DVDs) and generally spreading the word that the Doctor is back, and it was way past time.

Oh, I've been in the club for years. I religiously taped the old series when it aired here in the 1980s. I went to conventions and met all the living Doctors -- meaning everyone from Patrick Troughton to Colin Baker. I wrote fan fiction and published fanzines. Yes, I am a huge Doctor Who dork, and have been for, lessee, 22 years.

Don't worry -- as good as CE was as Dr. Who, I think David Tennat fits the role even better. Pity they lose the leather jacket -- I like my Doctor in leather.

Yeah, I'll miss the leather too. Like the leather... But I also like how Tennant describes his Doctor's look: geek chic. http://flickfilosopher.com/geekphilosophy/2005/08/doctor_who_fash.html I'm a little scared, though: for the first time ever, the actor playing the Doctor is younger than me. Getting old...

I'm happy to report that DT has that dark 'n' dangerous side too...

Damn you, too, Oro, for reminding me that I cannot yet see the Tennant episodes!

About a year ago (and it's amazing to think that it's already a year ago), I was invited by a friend to the BAFTA screening of The Parting of the Ways, three days before the episode broadcast on british television. It was the only advance viewing of the episode (the press hadn't been sent advance tapes), big screen, to be followed by a Q&A with Russell T Davies. Having loved the first season of Doctor Who (and I am not a big enough Doctor Who fan to count the seasons since 1963, sorry), I was ecstatic. The audience were BAFTA members and journalists. It should have been a hardened detached audience but the atmosphere was completely rock n'roll. Grown men cried, applauded and cheered. When Doctor number 9 uttered his last line (anyone who has seen the episode can quote it backwards), the auditorium errupted. Having watched all the Tennant episodes so far (and debating with myself whether this season is as good or better than last year), I can say that Tennant makes for a more unpredictable, edgy, dark Doctor. I was more emotionally attached to Christopher Eccleston's doctor but I am more fascinated with Tennant's. And having just seeing episode 9 from the second series and its last 25 minutes that rival The Parting of the Ways in emotional reasonance and intensity, I am very happy with what they are doing with these series.