In case you were wondering, I am a super Dr. Who nerd, and this has the same effect on me as the Slave Leia costume does:



Just sayin'. You know. FYI.

I am finally getting around to watching the 2008 Dr. Who Christmas Special.

All I can say is that I am filled with a ridiculous and irrational amount of joy while watching the Cybermen butcher a bunch of Victorian gentlemen at a funeral.

Patrick Stewart is going to be playing the Meddling Monk.

The iTunes store is now selling classic Doctor Who episodes at a buck ninety-nine a pop.

Patrick Troughton reminds me of user Zang TumbTumb.

I think that it is effectively impossible to play the "ooo-weee-oooh, weee-oooh-ooooo" part of the Dr. Who theme on a guitar. I can't find anything that remotely approaches its sound. I may not have the right pedals, and as near as I can tell, it's a slide from 3 to 12 and back.

However, the opening bass part (dun-dun-dun, dun-dun-dun, DUN-DUN-DUN, dun-dun-dun) totally is (Eo x 6, E3 x 3, Eo x 6).

Tonight, gnat23 and I watched the very first Dalek episode of Doctor Who, unsurprisingly titled The Daleks (though, it is also known as The Dead Planet and The Mutants). I had never seen a single "First Doctor" episode that I can remember (I have vague visions of people running around in black and white from when I was eight years old, but I don't think that counts).

( (Holy Crap, This is Longer than I Intended) )

So, there are some things that I'm late to the party on. And, well, we should just smile and be happy that we're at the party anyway.

I never watched Doctor Who growing up (subtract 100 nerd points). In fact, I never really watched it until Eccleston. I saw the 1996 telemovie but it made *no sense whatsoever* to me, and since it wasn't picked up, no big deal.

When I was a kid, I remember seeing maybe two or three episodes, spread out over a couple months. I was bewildered, because I think I picked it up in the middle of a serial, dropped it in the middle of a serial, and picked it up again after a regeneration. So nothing made any sense.

Along came Gnat, who understood the show and grew up on it, and she gave me the essential information. Plus, the "reboot" is, frankly, *far* more accessible to new viewers (not starting off with a regeneration was a good plan). I loved it - the 9th doctor episodes.

So for the past year or so I've been diving into all of the old Doctor Who DVDs that are available on Netflix. Tom Baker is the shiznite. I even have a replica of his scarf that Gnat got me now.

Anyways. This past month they released the "trilogy" of the end of the Fourth Doctor era: The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis, and Castrovalva. So we watched them, and even watched all the documentaries on them.

First: Tom Baker is a dick. We know this; he knows this; he freely admits it. He even admits that he was probably *impossible* to work with at the end of his tenure, as he pretty much had nothing but contempt for the new kids who were trying to "reinvent" the series. He showed utter disdain for these people - thought they were idiots for doing stupid things like making him wear question marks on his lapels.

However, that said, he's a dick and he's *right*. Especially given the interviews we got from the other guys involved at the time. Like the script writer, Bidmeade - now this guy is a total pansy. He does nothing but whine about Baker in the interviews and you get the impression that he blames Tom for the fact that he got canned a year later *because his scripts sucked*.

So, the Keeper of Traken was good, because it was a Master episode, and because the Master, well, wins.

And Logopolis is kind of slow, but also good because it was a Master episode, and well, the Master, you know, wins. By killing billions of people. Including the Doctor (though, okay, a) the Doctor goes out kind of like a bitch, and b) WTF with that stupid mannequin guy? Totally pointless, confusing, and unnecessary).

So we get to Castrovalva. Our first episode with Peter Davison. And what does Bidmeade do, with the guy who has GOT to make a great first impression, since he's following the *definative* Doctor?

Well, he gives him Regeneration Sickness and locks him in a fuckin' closet for the entire serial, making him act all loony and pathetic. And it's a slow, boring serial. It's an M. C. Escher painting (seriously); a one-trick pony plot. But it has the Master in it (three in a row) and that makes it okay, because he's a fun, moustache-twirling bad-guy.

Now, I will finally get to what I originally sat down to write about.

Tonight, I watched the serial Earthshock. It's a Cybermen episode (though that is somewhat incidental), and takes place not long after Castrovalva. It is *not* written by Bidmeade. I was totally stunned at the end of it. It wasn't expected at all.

( Cut for Spoiler )

That being said, I'm also wending my way through Torchwood. Despite everyone saying that it was horrible, I rather enjoy it.