Anyone who knows me knows that I loveDoctor Who (and I have a Doctor Who camera strap to prove it). It is a show I got into in the early days of high school that I have continued to obsess over ever since.
In honor of the Twelfth Doctor coming back for Christmas, here are 12 reasons to absolutely love Doctor Who.*
*This list will be focusing on the NuWho, or the Doctor Who series that has been running since 2005, since it is the most accessible series to watch.
1. The Doctor
Obviously, one of the best parts of Doctor Who is The Doctor himself. In the NuWho series, we are on the 4th Doctor, and in the overall series we are on the Twelfth (13th if you count the War Doctor). Each Doctor brings a new flavor to the show, and the changing Doctors keep the show feeling fresh and exciting. All of The Doctors are different both in looks and in personality, all sharing the fact that they want badly to be ginger and that each of them have a special catchphrase (for example, 10's was "allons-y", and 12's is, quite hilariously, "SHUT UP"). It is a lot of fun to see how each Doctor responds to the situations he is put in and how each one goes about solving his problems. The only bad thing about The Doctor's changing bodies is that, once you start to get attached to one Doctor, he regenerates into another form of himself.
2. The companions
Everyone knows that heroes are always better with their sidekick, and The Doctor has had some great ones over the years. Each new companion, just like each new Doctor, brings new energy to the show. For example, Rose Tyler (my personal favorite) is kind and always knows the right questions to ask, Donna Noble is snarky and, despite her fiery temperature, voice of compassion and reason to the Doctor, and Clara Oswald is clever and adventurous to the point of being occasionally reckless. The companions help to bring extra fun to the show, and it is a well-established fact that The Doctor would be lost, lonely, and very likely dead without them by his side.
3. The TARDIS
A character and companion in and of itself, the TARDIS is beloved by all fans for its ordinary outward appearance and it's wicked awesome interior design. The TARDIS is a space-time capsule that the Doctor both lives in and uses as his main system of transport. TARDISES are unique and complicated, and are able to take control of themselves in extreme situations. The TARDIS has been said to be person-like by The Doctor, and it has been established that the TARDIS has a conscious mind of its own (rather, her own, since it has also been said that the TARDIS is a female many times throughout the series -- it's all very strange).
4. The villains & monsters
Doctor Who has the coolest list of villains and monsters. Some of the villains have been around since the Old-Who times and have updated in appearance (such as the Cybermen, who are robot-men from cyber space who want to turn everyone else into Cybermen because, in their world, everyone should be exactly the same and devoid of personality, and the Daleks, freaky one-eyed squid-looking creatures encased in a metal machine who go around shouting "EXTERMINATE" at any-and-everyone and who want nothing more than to kill The Doctor and take over every planet because they are obviously the superior race here), while others are specific to the NuWho series (such as the Weeping Angels, who, when looked at, appear to be only statues of weeping angels, but move quickly once the onlooker stops staring at them and, with one touch, can send the onlooker back in time so that the angels can feed on the energy of the days their victim never got to live out-- creepy stuff, if you ask me). Then there is the ever-present Master (Missy, in their most recent incarnation), who, like the Doctor, is a Time-Lord who changes their appearance and becomes more maniacal with every regeneration.
5. The guest stars
Doctor Who has an amazing cast list, and the list of guest stars is just as incredible as the list of main cast members. There are many faces from Harry Potter sprinkled throughout the series (Michael Gambon, a.k.a the second Dumbledore, Warwick Davis, who played the charming Professor Flitwick, Mark Williams, who portrayed Ron's dad Arthur Weasley, Helen McCrory, who kicked butt as Narcissa Malfoy, and Shirley Henderson, who was miserable and moping as Moaning Myrtle, just to name a few), as well as other popular British actors and actresses such as James Corden (host of The Late Show with James Corden), Timothy Dalton (James Bond in The Living Daylight), and Hugh Bonneville (Robert Crawley in Downton Abbey). Part of the fun of watching the show is trying to see how many familiar faces you spot and trying to figure out where the heck you know them from.
6. Christmas Specials!
The Doctor Who Christmas specials are something I look forward to watching each year because they are some of the most fun episodes of Doctor Who ever to hit the air. Unlike American television shows, British ones often have Christmas specials in which very important events take place; a few of the Doctor's regenerations have happened during the Christmas specials, and a couple of times a new companion has been introduced during the Christmas specials. The Christmas specials are an added bonus to the show, and make an excellent end to a Christmas celebration.
7. The combination of historical characters with the sci-fi world
Something that is super cool about Doctor Who is that it meshes parts of history in with Science Fiction. Doctor Who explains, in a very sci-fi way, how Agatha Christie disappeared, who Shakespeare's famous Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?") was written about, and how Queen Victoria's famous line "I am not amused" got started. Any history buff would enjoy the twist on history that Doctor Who provides, and the fact that many of these things actually could have worked in the characters' real-life stories makes the show even more amusing to watch.
8. The lessons learned
Doctor Who often weaves real-life lessons in with it's outlandish storylines. The Doctor, while he has a very light and fun-loving side, also has a darker side to his personality that sometimes rears its ugly head. The Doctor can sometimes be selfish, ruthless, and cold, yet has a deep sense of right and wrong and is often compassionate despite his better judgement. He has to make a lot of difficult choices throughout the course of the show, and he always tries to choose humanity and kindness over cruelty and murder. There is a strong morality running through the show, and every character has to make difficult choices at some point or another. Besides teaching about morality and compassion and doing the right thing in tough situations, Doctor Who also teaches about standing up for yourself, that the lines between good and evil are extremely blurred, that sometimes things are going to fall apart and there won't be a thing you can do about it, that forgiveness is an important part of living, and that every single life is valuable and important. Oh, and that bow ties are cool, of course.
9. It's cheesy without being too cheesy
Sci-Fi is one of those genres where things can get super cheesy super fast. Doctor Who is able to be light and campy yet dark and serious all within the same episode, making it accessible to both younger audiences and older ones alike. While certain aspects of the show can seem very child-like and ridiculous (such as the moon actually being a giant egg that got caught in Earth's orbit and that hatches out a new creatures that lays ANOTHER moon -- yeah, kinda nuts), other parts of it, such as when the Tenth Doctor has to regenerate and can hardly face it or when The Doctor has to say goodbye to a beloved companion or sacrifice a race or nation for the good of all mankind, are very deep and show a much more mature side of the show.
10. It's easy to get into
Doctor Who is a show that is super easy to get into because it isn't overly sexy, violent, or full of foul language like many shows on television are, so you can actually sit through an episode without feeling super uncomfortable or scoffing at the amount of f-bombs that are being dropped in a two-minute time span. It's also one of those shows that, once you start watching it, you want to keep on watching it to see what happens next. The plots are pretty easy to follow, yet there are twists and turns and surprises along the way that keep it entertaining and interesting to watch.
11. The fans are awesome
Doctor Who fans (Whovians) are amazing, you guys. Some of the fans of the show have been watching since the 1960s when the OG Doctor Who series started up, and some fans just got into the series like, yesterday. There is a lot of diversity amongst the fans, and it is interesting to talk to other fans about the show because everyone has different opinions on who their favorite Doctor, companion, and villain is and on what they think should happen next in the show. Whovians are a very loyal and devoted group, and most fans would very likely join the Doctor on his journey throughout time and space if he came knocking on their door one day.
12. The people who work on the show who are also awesome fans
David Tennant and Peter Capaldi, the Tenth and Twelfth Doctors, respectively, are both long-time fans of the series and became interested in acting, in part, because of the influence Doctor Who had on them as kids. Michelle Gomez, who plays Missy, a.k.a. the female form of The Master, is also a hug fan of the show and says that, as a child, she thought the Zygons were the most terrifying of all the villains on the show. Russel T. Davies and Steven Moffat, the two most popular Doctor Who forerunners, were always huge fans and would write subtle references to Doctor Who in their work pre-Who. The fact that the writers and actors are fans of the show makes it that much more exciting because you know they have put their all into making a show that everyone will love.
13. It's just plain fun to watch
Doctor Who, with all of its "wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey... stuff" is a show that is fun to watch from start to finish. There is hardly ever a dull moment in this series; it is full of unique characters, heartfelt moments, whacky costumes, and lots and lots of running. It is a show that gets you hooked on it the moment you sit down and start watching, and it is easy to see why it has been such a loved series for over half a century.
And there you have it -- twelve whole reasons to love Doctor Who.
Au revoir and ALLONS-Y!
