Doctor Who - The madman with a big blue box: Can't wait!
Being a colossal fan-girl of Neil Gaiman and "Doctor Who" my toes curled up in sheer excitement upon hearing the...
“I hate endings,” proclaimed the Doctor as he sat reading a book out loud to his companions Rory and Amy Pond, in a picturesque view of Central Park, New York; the city of a million stories.
Sadly, that was what we got in the final adventure for the Ponds in The Angels Take Manhattan.
But before we tumble down further into the wormhole world of "Doctor Who", let me give you a little gist of the show itself. BBC’s "Doctor Who" is the longest running science fiction television show in the world, which originally ran from 1963 until 1989, churned out a movie in 1996, and then returned, with a bang in 2005 with a new Doctor, a new format, and a brand new audience.
Who is the Doctor you ask?
Well, he's a Time Lord – ‘last’ of the Time Lords that is, and he travels through space and time in his own space ship, shaped like a 1950's police box called the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space).
It's been a small, yet action-packed, handful of episodes that brought us to the seventh season of the show. In just five episodes, we’ve had dinosaurs on a spaceship, aliens in the Wild West, the good old exterminating Daleks and of course the return of terrifying Weeping Angels.
We ‘Whovians’ braced ourselves since the commencement of the seventh season that the episodes to come would lead to a bitter sweet symphony for the Ponds.
But it was those final moments with Amy and Rory that brought the episode home, as a remarkable addition to the "Doctor Who" canon, with emotions running high in the face of an inevitable farewell, I found myself quivering in tears, a feeling much too familiar when the Doctor’s companions bid farewell.
So here we are, left with yet another sad farewell, sure, but a necessary one in the timeline of "Doctor Who". Moffatt did what he does best and brought everything to a full circle; as Amy Pond left the lonely Doctor she leaves behind one last message, “don't be alone” - and for once, at least, we know the Doctor's going to do what Amy Pond tells him.
So where do we go from here?
*Insert theme song: Ooo-ee-oooo-ooo-ooo*
Well every ‘Whovian’ out there knows just ‘who’ the next companion is going to be. She wasn't supposed to turn up until the Christmas special but thanks to a surprise appearance, we have already had our first glimpse of the Doctor’s new companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman. There she was, right after the opening title of season seven’s first episode, Oswin wrecking a soufflé a year after her star liner had crashed into the side of the Dalek asylum planet.
Or so it seemed.
Long story short, Oswin was a Dalek all along.
But the actual question is how Oswin’s Daleky role will fit into the upcoming Christmas special. Does Moffatt have a certain something up his sleeve to connect these two characters? As the seventh Doctor once prudently said,
“Only time will tell.”
Once Christmas is out of the way and the new companion is in place, the show then moves into its 50th anniversary year with a run of eight episodes currently slated to air in the spring of 2013.
Apart from Moffatts penning of "Doctor Who", several other writers will take on the titan role which include Stephen Thompson, Mark Gatiss, Neil Cross and rumour has it that the seventh season will also be the return of fantasy legend, Neil Gaiman. Gaiman, revealed this overwhelming news during his Hugo Award acceptance speech for an episode he wrote for "Doctor Who" last season, ‘The Doctor's Wife’ where he had this to say,
“Only a fool or a mad man would try to do it again, so I'm on the third draft.”
Being a colossal fan-girl of Neil Gaiman and "Doctor Who" my toes curled up in sheer excitement upon hearing the news.
Though the future beyond November 2013 is rather unclear, recent interviews with the key cast and crew suggest that Moffatt is on board for a potential season eight, while Matt Smith’s involvement as the 11th Doctor seems somewhat less secure.
Could it be that when the show returns in 2014, a new Doctor – the 12th Doctor will be occupying the TARDIS?
At this stage nothing appears to have been set in stone, but it seems clear that Smith’s time in the TARDIS is closer to its end than its beginning.
Above and beyond everything else, what is certain is that "Doctor Who" as a show still has plenty of regeneration power (read: life) left in it and that it heads into 2013 refreshed by its recent break, renewed by the imminent arrival of a new companion and ready for life beyond its 50th anniversary.
As the 10th Doctor would say,
“Allons-y!”
PHOTOS: REUTERS/PUBLICITY
Follow Urooj on Twitter @UroojMoghal
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