I have to admit that I’ve never been a fan of “Doctor Who.” If you talk to our resident contributor William Garcia, you’ll find a Doctor Who fan who surpasses every other Doctor Who fan before him. But me as a casual viewer found Doctor Who thanks to the Sci Fi channel here in America who broadcast the entire series every week. I was never a fan before so I went into it with a general ignorance on everything associated with the universe and found it entertaining. I thought Billy Piper was a cute heroine, I liked her charm and courage, and I thought she was a great pairing with Christopher Eccleston, my original lure to the series.
Then came David Tennant who was an infinitely better Doctor Who. Goofy, weird, and demented, with a hint of Errol Flynn heroics, Tennant really took the series by the throat and was the absolute best of the Who’s. Once Piper left, “Doctor Who” took an admitted plunge in quality, and Garcia’s observations on the series pretty much was what I began to notice. No longer was the show intent on focusing on Doctor Who’s travels into space; now all of his exploits were centered on Earth and storylines just became incredibly repetitive.
Take for example the two episode arc focusing on New York in the thirties, a flat and boring plot about the Daleks attempts to control the Earth through time travel, and then New York in the future, which ended up being a great episode about endless traffic on an outer space highway where millions of people confined to their cars, awaited passage into the high way. “Doctor Who” though pretty much repeated the same concepts over and over and soon the episodes were often boring, flat, and outright tedious. The series then took the black comedy from the first two series, and really just flat out opted for total comedy, with villains who were more than a bit tiresome, in spite of the great creature effects.
Series Three isn’t the best that I’ve seen from this continuity, and while I’ve had a blast, I just don’t see myself delving into the entire mythos after this. “The Complete Third Series,” now with a great boxed set of six discs and tons of extras, features the cute but ultimately empty film “The Runaway Bride” where Doctor Who attempts to save a shrill woman from monsters in Earth no less, and introduces the stunning Freema Agyeman, once featured in a bit part in the past seasons and now plays Martha Jones, the scientist introduced to Doctor Who on the second episode. Agyeman has a lot to live up to with Piper and the scripts sadly never flex the charisma and personality of the actress whose character Martha is passive, inconspicuous, and lacks any real depth. Martha instead just serves as a spectator to Doctor Who’s escapades rather than playing Watson to his Holmes.
“The Complete Third Series” features a tour of the set with Agyeman, video diaries from David Tennant, and outtakes, which are always a good time. Just the same, it’s a good enough show, but just not one I intend on following any longer. Better luck next time.