For most of my life, people have associated me with Doctor Who. It was one of my first big fandoms, featured prominently on most of my t-shirts in high school, and was something I was eager to talk about with anyone who would let me. I even wrote a full script for a Doctor Who episode in the 2010s, with great visions in my mind that Steven Moffat would read it and ask me to write for the show.
That was probably a bit unrealistic, admittedly, but being a Doctor Who superfan is actually a pretty good way to get a job. Just ask David Tennant and Peter Capaldi, who wrote fan letters and dreamed that becoming an actor was a path to becoming the Doctor, or Steven Moffat, who once joked that his entire career was just a scheme to write for Doctor Who.
I've grown up a bit since then, but it's still probably the most important TV series I've seen, when it comes to turning me into the person I am today. So when our site expert, James Aggas, asked us to think about our experiences with New Who in honor of the 20th anniversary, I thought it might be best to share my story through the moral it taught me: Always give stories a second chance to win you over.
I was bored by my first viewing of Doctor Who
I was pretty young when Doctor Who came back in 2005, but my cousin loved the show from the Classic Era, and he'd won my dad over with the first series. They thought it was something I might like, especially since I had already proven myself to be a lover of all things magic. While sci-fi and fantasy can be vastly different genres, I don't think many Whovians would argue that the show is far more magical than hard science fiction.
So I was sat down to watch the first episode of modern Doctor Who, "Rose." I sat through it, mildly freaked out by the living mannequins, but not overly excited by anything. They expected I'd love how exciting Rose was, as a strong female character who literally swings in to save the day. But I was mostly just bored. I'm sorry to say it, but I still don't love the first episode and definitely don't think it's the best episode to show new fans.
So that was that. It was 2006, and I had no interest in watching any more episodes of Doctor Who. I was more of a reader than a television fan anyway, so it wasn't a great loss. But my cousin was still convinced that I would love the show if I would give it enough of a chance. So a year later, he told me to check out another episode: "The Shakespeare Code."
Now that episode was made for me. I have always loved witches, was becoming a major theatre kid and Shakespeare lover, and Harry Potter was perhaps the single most influential story in my life up to that point. I don't even know quite how the timeline of this worked, but I had soon watched every episode from the first three series and was eagerly awaiting Series 4.
I learned to appreciate change—even if I didn't love it immediately
Once I'd been hooked, continuing to watch Doctor Who was a no-brainer. But I fell into the trap that many young fans did, where I rejected new characters and storylines for no good reason. I loved the dynamic between Rose and the Doctor, which made it hard for me to appreciate Martha, despite her era being the one I first fell in love with. Now, I acknowledge that Series 3 was one of the show's best seasons; it was just different from the first two.
I didn't have much trouble moving from Christopher Eccleston to David Tennant, but the jump to Matt Smith was a bit harder. This was a new Doctor, a new showrunner, and a new companion, which was a lot of change for me to accept. I recently rediscovered something I'd written back then complaining about how River Song wasn't as good of a love interest or character as Rose Tyler... and yet she's been my favorite Doctor Who character for years now, with my most rewatched episodes coming from Series 5 and 6.
Like many people, I struggled with the jump between Matt Smith, the puppy dog with occasional bouts of cruelty, and the Series 8 edge-lord Peter Capaldi. I didn't even bother rewatching Series 8 and 9 until recently, when I've noticed just how brilliantly those episodes played with moral ambiguity. I actually think that the Twelfth Doctor is the most "Doctor" that the Doctor has ever been, but I couldn't see it then.
And maybe that's the point. I'm not going to lie and say that I love every episode of Doctor Who, because I don't. I'm not going to claim that "Rose" would have hooked me if I'd just been more open-minded. But what I will say is that Doctor Who has consistently challenged me, as a fan, a critic, and a creative writer, by trying new things. Some of those changes work better than others, but there's great value in being willing to change, as long as it's motivated by the story and characters.
Maybe the things I dislike today will be my favorites in years to come
There are many choices that Doctor Who has made in recent years that I'm not a fan of. I didn't hate the Chibnall era in its entirety, but I did think it was weaker than some of the other seasons because having three companions made it difficult to fully develop any of them. I don't personally like the fact that there are now at least three different David Tennant Doctors that could theoretically pop up at any point in the future. But I've learned enough in the last twenty years to know that I need to give these things time and come back to them later with a less judgmental attitude.
I still believe there is value in critiquing the show, especially when it refuses to change. The return of David Tennant and Catherine Tate for the 60th anniversary might have been something I enjoyed, but I don't know that it was for the betterment of the series. Likewise, the return of Russell T. Davies feels like just another example of fans refusing to let Doctor Who grow. I'm open to seeing where he may take things, but I also want to see new writers and perspectives influencing the narrative and helping it evolve past the showrunners of the last three eras.
Overall, I'd like to believe that the last two decades of Doctor Who have helped me to be at least less hostile toward change, even if I can't fully embrace it in the moment. Regeneration may not have been intended as a key part of the show from the beginning, but it is now a powerful reminder that change can be good, that it gives us the opportunity to see through new eyes if we can just shake off the prejudices of the past.
I'll probably continue to question whether new concepts are a good idea or not, but I hope that I do so with the open mind I didn't have when I first watched "Rose" and decided a beloved sci-fi series had nothing to offer me. Hey, I've already come around a lot on the idea of the Timeless Child arc, which honestly makes as much sense as any other lore the show has put out about the Doctor's origins.
I am a person who loves stories, and New Who gave me around 150 of them. There are some I don't really like, and others I can quote word-for-word, but they are all valuable. As we near the second season of the newest era of Doctor Who's history, I hope that I will keep the values that the previous one taught me close to heart.