I've waited all summer for something brilliant to happen, something to look forward to week in week out. I've lived the excitement, followed by the slight disappointment. My football team, Liverpool FC came so close, only to miss winning the Premiership by two points, England fell out of the World Cup and on TV Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ended spectacularly for a summer break leaving the summer of 2014 long and hot. Some things made it worth while, Marvel's X-Men:Days of Future Past and Guardians of the Galaxy, pre-season football matchs and a holiday in the sun helped move the time along. So soon the football season started again and the internet buzzed with tales of a Time Lord we've yet to see, as he toured around the globe. But finally this weekend as the world waited with baited breathe the twelfth Doctor arrived. His timing was great as my Liverpool where to play their biggest rivals City, on Monday, I could give the Doctor my full, undivided attention.
It's been eight months since we last saw any tales from the TARDIS. But tales from the press were there aplenty, with leaks on the internet spoiling the suspense. He's dark, too dark. Scary, far to scary! I stuck my head in the sand rather than an internet ice water bucket. Let's wait and see. He did come and boy did we see. Deep Breath everyone.
Before we all get to clever and analyse every second of the feature length feast to death, lets just stop and think with our seven year old self. I want the Doctor to be dangerous, exciting and a little bit silly. Let me go off subject ever so slightly here, as a kid I used to skate board. I wasn't good at it, but I had my moments. One day I rode down the path across from my house where stretch across it lay a plank of wood on to a skip, with two builders rolling a wheel barrow filled with rubble aiming for the skip. How stick with this I'll get quickly to the point. Instead of stopping or crossing over to the other path like all my friends I decided to lay down flat on the skate board and coast under the plank. It was amazing and dangerous at the same time. My young friends cheered, my Mum give me the telling off of a life time. But that's what kids want, danger, excitement, to be seen as cool, even if it's very silly. So was Peter Capaldi's Doctor dangerous, exciting, cool and silly? Let's see.
Doctor Who started with a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex, my seven year old self jumped for joy, the Patanoster Gang appeared on the scene, my seven year old selfs favourite characters. The T. Rex coughs out the TARDIS where we find inside there's a mad man in a box. All is well in my seven year old selfs world. Let's for the minute stop there, it's Doctor Who, my seven year self is going to love it anyway, cause there's silly jokes, action and clockwork monsters. My forty-four year old self was worried about the darkness of the Doctor. Yes I would have liked to see Calpaldi's Doctor with some kids, like Matt Smith did in with Amelila, to show he's alright, a Doctor you can trust. But do we need to be that coy?
I heard a lot of people saying that no one could replace David Tennant, but Matt Smith did! I heard people say that Matt was un-replaceable. No one likes an old grumpy, angry Doctor. I did have flashes of no one can replace Tom Baker, but Peter Davison did. Flashes of an un-replaceable Davidson being replaced by a grumpy dark Colin Baker. But all the Doctors had a darker side, Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee, Baker, Davison, Baker, McCoy, McGann, Ecclestion, Tennant and Smith all had their dark sides. One of the best Doctors of modern times, Captain Grumpy himself the War Doctor, John Hurt was dark, but he also made me laugh loudly. Did Capaldi's Doctor make me laugh? Yes of course he did, he's the Doctor! Did he steal (or borrow) the old tramps coat? Did the Doctor leave Clara in danger to save himself? Did he push the Clockwork man out of the escape pod? Questions we all asked as if we doubted our hero. He needed the coat which he over payed for with a priceless watch, he could have gotten a new coat for that, which wouldn't have smelled either. He had a plan knowing he could get himself and Clara out while finding out more about the Clockwork people, trusting that the Patanoster Gang wouldn't be far behind. Was the Clockwork man pushed or did he fall, or did the Doctor send him on his way to his heaven, his paradise. Did the Doctor leave Clara in Victorian London? Or sort his TARDIS, wardrobe and frame of mind out.
Is this Doctor a good man? Clara knew even before she left London. Before the eleventh Doctor called her up. She knew while she was held captive by the villain, the Doctor would be right behind her to hold her hand. The question is do we think he is? The title is Doctor Who, it's a question, "Doctor? Doctor who?" Let's find out just how good he is together.
Is Peter Calpaldi a good Doctor? No, he's more than good, he was brilliant and I can't wait for next week!
Doctor? Doctor who?
