With less than two months to go until Doctor Who Season 9 begins airing, I have begun to think more and more about what I am hoping for in these next few stories. I had mixed feelings about how we left off last season, I didn’t particularly like “Dark Water” or “Death in Heaven.” I did enjoy the Christmas special, though. In any case, I am excited to see where this next season takes us. I am mostly interested in the growth of Capaldi as the Doctor and Clara as his companion, and of course we will be seeing Missy again. I haven’t read a lot of rumor or theories about what is going to happen in the next season, and that is probably on purpose. I want to go in fresh, as fresh as I can, and maybe be surprised a little. That being said, I still have a few expectations of what we might see in the upcoming series. Here are my top three:

Clara Finally Gets a Good Run

I like Clara Oswald. I think she is smart and witty and exactly what the Doctor needs for a companion. I have had a really hard time with her at times, though. I don’t see it as here fault, however. I think the stories and the writers are to blame for most of my issues with Clara. I am fully expecting that to change this season. We shouldn’t have the distraction of finding out what she really is, like we did in the second half of season 7. It was built up all season long that she was the impossible girl who kept dying and kept showing up, and then we found out she wasn’t really anything special, she just fell into the Doctor’s time stream, and as a result got to see and help every version of the Doctor. A fact she seems to have forgotten when 11 regenerates and she just can’t recognize Capaldi as the Doctor. I mean, this point still bugs me. Out of all the companions, she should have understood the whole regeneration process, that he is still the Doctor, just a different face, but she can’t grasp that fact in “Deep Breath.” Sorry, slight tangent there. We also should have no awkward love triangle this season. Danny Pink is dead, and for the sake of Clara and the Doctor, and frankly, myself, let’s hope he stays dead. Without the two distractions mentioned above, Clara should be set to have a good run this season as the Doctor’s companion. I am expecting that, hoping for that. She deserves it.

Missy Won’t be a Major Factor Throughout the Season

I think we have all heard by now that Missy isn’t going to stay dead in season 9. She will be back, and that has been confirmed. I am expecting, though, that she will not play a major role in season 9 like she did in season 8. Maybe I should classify this as a hope, rather than an expectation. I don’t mind the Missy character, but I feel like we did that last season, and I don’t know why we need to bring her back. I would like to see Capaldi’s Doctor move past the events of last season and see some fresh new stories. The character has proven to be one of the more popular aspects of last season, so I could be completely wrong with this expectation. Michelle Gomez also appeared with Capaldi and Jenna Coleman at San Diego Comic Con, hinting that the three of them may become a trio of traveling buddies on the show. This could lead to a different, awkward love triangle. Whenever the Master/Mistress is involved, you never know what could happen.

Capaldi Will Not be Getting a Haircut

We saw his hair start to get longer throughout the season last year, then it got shorter again in the finale, then longer again for the Christmas special. The look in the Christmas special came after he had been traveling for a bit on his own. It is a wilder, less restrained look, and it appears to be what we will be seeing for season 9. I think we will be getting much more of this Doctor’s character, and I think he will be getting wilder and less restrained. I think his confidence is going to go up. Gone will be the days of him wondering whether he is a good man, feeling unsure of himself. He will be confident. We see it in the season 9 trailer when he says “I’m the Doctor and I save people.” I think that line combined with the quick scene we get of the Doctor putting on a pair of RayBans epitomize a shift in the Doctor’s outlook. He is believes in himself as a hero and he can do anything. I think that sounds fantastic, and I can’t wait to see it play out. I got a little bored last year with all the indecision and self-doubt. That is not who the Doctor typically is. It looks like, starting with this next season, that’s not who he will be either.

There you have it, three of my expectations or hopes for this upcoming season. Whatever happens, I can’t wait for September 19. It will be another great season. What about you? What are you hoping to see in the upcoming season? Let me know in the comments, or you can email me at [email protected]. And in case you haven’t seen the trailer for the upcoming season, check it out here:

To Whom it May Concern:

Maybe that’s too formal a greeting for this letter, but it’s too late now, it’s there, and we’re going to roll with it. I am addressing you, all of you, whom I may know, who do not like Doctor Who. Yes, you folks who simply roll you eyes when I mention the series, or make a disgusted face, or refuse to understand my constant references to the show. This letter is for you. Not to win you over, because the truth is, i don’t really care if you like Doctor Who or not. To be fair, and to give full disclosure, while I am not bothered by whether you like the series, please know that behind your back I am secretly judging you because you do not like the series. I just want this post to be honest…

Sorry, tangent.

The point of this letter is for you to be informed about why I like Doctor Who. I don’t know if you’ll ever get the series, but I want you to get why i like the series. In this letter I am going to explain three reasons why I like Doctor Who: The history and mythos that has been created around the character, the Doctor himself, and simply because it is good, clean fun. Hopefully, at the end of the letter, you can at least understand why I like Doctor Who.

The History and Mythos of the Show

One of my favorite things I hear from you non-Whovian types is this: “Oh, I tried Doctor Who once, and I just didn’t get it, so I don’t watch it.” Doctor Who has been delivering classic stories and entertaining fans around the world for over 50 years. While the series was “rebooted” in 2005, the reboot was a continuation of the original series, feeding off the history that had been built since 1963. There are hundreds of episodes of Doctor Who, hundreds of stories. In fact, there are so many stories that we don’t even know where some of them are. The original tapes have been lost, or are secretly being kept hidden from us, depending on who you believe (the truth is probably somewhere in the middle). The Doctor we see on TV today is the same character we watched in 1963, and by we, I mean other people who were actually alive back in 1963. There have been thirteenish incarnations of the Doctor, and each one has been different and unique, some I have liked more than others. The point is, there is a lot of Doctor Who out there. So much Doctor Who, I would say it is almost impossible to decide whether you like the show based on just trying it once.

Any series that has been on the air for any length of time has had its ups and downs. Not every season is the same in caliber or quality. Look at a show like The Office that was on for like eight or nine seasons. Overall, the series was pretty good, but there were some stretches in there that were pretty sketchy. It only makes sense that there would be runs of Doctor Who that were the same. If all your basing it on is some very old reruns you saw on PBS, I implore you to give it more than just one try. You may find a Doctor you like, or you may find a story you like, something that might draw you in. As pointed out, there is a lot of material, so there is probably something for everyone.

The fact that there is so much history behind the show is something that I love. I don’t get sick of learning about Doctor Who, because there is so much and I will never learn it all. While to most of you, my non-Whovian friends, I may seem like I know a lot or that i am obsessed, let me just say that compared to a lot of other folks out there, i know nothing. It is so intriguing to look back at the history of the show and the characters and there is just so much. As a history buff, I love it. It is a back story and history that is as intriguing as Star Trek’s or Star Wars’. I know, it seems like with this latest surge in popularity for the show that it’s all about the fangirls, I promise there is much more depth there.

The Doctor Himself

To be clear, his name is simply the Doctor. Well, that’s not actually true. We don’t really know his name. Doctor is the name he chose for himself. In any case, it’s not “Doctor Who.” In reality, the name of the show is really kind of a running joke throughout. Whenever the Doctor introduces himself as the Doctor, it’s almost always followed up with, “Doctor? Doctor Who?” That’s really not the point here, though. The second reason I really like the show is the main character, the Doctor himself. I know that when I write this next part, it might be confusing to you. I think the Doctor is easy to identify with. Wait…Easy to identify with? He is an alien, time traveller who is currently over 1000 years old. How is that easy to identify with? He is also a generally good guy, but he’s not perfect. He has had to make decisions and choices that he’s not proud of, but he somehow finds a way to keep going and generally tries to make the universe a better place. Don’t we all think of ourselves as the heroes of our own stories? And don’t we all make mistakes? The Doctor reminds me of myself, in some small way, in that I am always trying to move forward and make the best of whatever situation I might find myself in. Like the Doctor, I have the hardest time forgiving myself. Like the Doctor, I would like to think I am generally a good person. Like the Doctor, I have an almost magical blue box that can travel throughout space and time…oh wait…I guess two out of three then.

I also really like that in a world that almost worships violence, the Doctor uses his brain to get out of trouble. He never carries a gun, and his weapon of choice is his sonic screwdriver (or spoon). Do you know what a screwdriver does? It fixes things, usually without making other things or people dead. The Doctor is a fun example for my kids of someone who is not afraid to stand up to a bully, but does it without violence. He uses words and reason instead. I think we need more heroes like that in the world today.

It’s Good Clean Fun

That actually leads into my last point. Doctor Who is fun, entertaining series, that I can watch, and I don’t get nervous when my kids are in the room. The stories keep me entertained, and some are even a little creepy, but I don’t worry about the language or the sex or the violence. In fact, I am tempted to just have my kids watch nothing but Doctor Who and see what happens. i think they we would be nicer to each other, instead of always beating each other up. Seriously, some days it’s like the Thunder Dome at my house. Doctor Who was originally a kids’ show, and it hasn’t totally lost its roots. It is still family friendly, but they have made it more appealing for adults. Or maybe, we as adults are just more open-minded to this kind of entertainment than previous generations were. In any case, the show is good clean fun, and we need more of it in TV today.

That’s it, my friends, three reasons why i like Doctor Who. No I turn it over to you. What questions might you non-Whovians have about Doctor Who? Let me know in the comments, or email me at [email protected]. I would love to hear from you.

For my fellow Whovians, please feel free to share this with your non-Whovian friends through Facebook of Twitter or Google +. Also, feel free to let me know why you love Doctor Who. Everyone has their reasons, and yours may be totally different from mine.

I can say this, i do believe Doctor Who could be for everyone, if everyone gave it a chance, and everyone should.

Geekily Yours,

Jake Dietz, the geeky mormon

We are finally back with some more New Who at 10. This time, the fan favorite episode we are revisiting is “The Girl in the Fireplace.” Not a surprise that this is a fan favorite, since it was written by the Moffat. Of course, again, this is pre show runner Moffat, so it was before we blamed him for every nit picky thing we don’t like about the series, and just enjoyed his normally complex stories. It seems like most of his work during the RTD days was far and away the best writing on the show. His episodes seem a little darker, a little more serious. Plus, he gives us some great “monsters.” This time, the monsters are some clockwork robots who are trying to piece together their ship so they can get home. The one thing their missing is a “brain” for their ship, and since their ship is the Madame de Pompadour, they need her brain, the original Madame de Pompadour’s brain, when she reaches the right age that is. This means they have created a portal to her time through her fireplace, and this is what the Doctor discovers and is able to talk to her first as a little girl, and then as she gets older, since time is passing more quickly on the other side of the fireplace. In the end, the Doctor has to take a one way trip to her time to save her from the robots. He’s ok with that, because he wouldn’t mind spending the rest of his time with her. However, in classic Doctor Who and Moffat fashion, the time travel rule just barely established is broken, and the Doctor is able to return to his TARDIS. When he goes back to get Madame de Pompadour, it is too late, she has already passed away.

That’s the summary of the episode. A couple of thoughts I had this time around. This was really a last-ditch effort by the show runners to give the Doctor a romance life outside of Rose, and somehow sever those romantic ties. They already brought Mickey back, but it was too late. The romance was what everyone was expecting, and they couldn’t hide from it. The whole time, as I was watching this, I felt like the Doctor was cheating on Rose. I think that may have been a common feeling among fans, so what should have been a nice, yet gif romance felt wrong somehow. I really struggled with this because it almost makes the Doctor out to be a player (do the kids still use that term?), when I don’t think he is. Personally, I like when the Doctor has no romantic connections, to his companions or anyone else. I have enjoyed Capaldi’s Doctor for that reason, until the whole weird Clara-Doctor-Danny Pink love triangle, then it was ruined. I think at this point, there was nothing that could stop the romance between Rose and the Doctor, so this last effort was doomed to be a failure.

The other thought I had was how similar this story was to Amy’s first story, minus the fish fingers and custard. The Doctor meets Madame de Pompadour when she is a little girl, finds her in danger and promises to be right back, comes back years later. In “The Eleventh Hour,” the Doctor shows up and meets Amy as a little girl, Amelia, actually, she is danger, he wants to help and promises to be right back, comes back years later. Both Amy and Madame de Pompadour believe he was an imaginary friend from their childhood, only to find out as adults that he was in fact real. Madame de Pompadour was, in fact, the original girl who waited. Just a little thought I had.

I really enjoyed this episode quite a bit. I loved that Madame de Pompadour was equal to the Doctor in almost every way, which is probably why he was so attracted to her. Plus, I enjoyed the interaction between Mickey and Rose. The blatant disobeying the Doctor to go look for the robot on the ship is why we love his companions. He always tells them to not run off, and of course they do. Plus the robots, the clockwork robots, were really cool monsters. It was cool to see them return in “Deep Breath.” But my favorite part of this episode, by far, is the horse. The horse on the spaceship, and the Doctor breaking through the horse to rescue Madame de Pompadour. That is a classic Doctor Who moment, and for me, one of the most memorable moments from this episode. This is another example of Moffat at his best, and a prime example of why he took over as the show runner for the series.

I would definitely recommend this episode. It is one of my favorite Rose episodes, probably because she plays such a minor role in the story. This is also where I start really feeling bad for Mickey, because this is where he starts realizing that he is losing Rose, and he’ll never really have her back. And, apparently, she is tough to get over because in the end, he choses to stay in an alternate reality where she doesn’t exist, instead of going home where she does, just to get away from her. Talk about being over dramatic.

What did you think of this episode? Is it one of your favorites from the 10th Doctor, or is it average at best? Let us know in the comments. Our next New Who at 10 will take a look at “The Fires of Pompeii.” This of course is Peter Capaldi’s first appearance in Doctor Who. What will the tie end up being between this episode and the current Doctor? Who knows. It will probably end up being something lame in the end.

On Thursday, March 26, the new Doctor Who series hit it’s 10 anniversary. I know it all ties together with the old, but it is pretty impressive that not only were they able to bring Doctor Who back from the dead, they were able to turn it into a worldwide phenomenon. It is huge today, and not just in the niche culture, it is spreading throughout mainstream culture as well.

Since the year makes the 10th anniversary of the re-boot, I thought it would be fun to revisit some of the favorite episodes of each Doctor so far. I also thought it would be fun to get your input as well. I opened this up last week to my Facebook followers. I asked them to let me know their favorite episode  for each of the new Doctor-9-12. It was pretty interesting to see the results. Let me break them down by individual Doctor and his results.

The 9th Doctor 

This one was almost unanimous. By far the favorite episode was “The Empty Child,” which didn’t surprise me all that much. That is my personal favorite from this season as well. I am assuming most people meant both “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances,” as they are just two parts of the same story. There was only one other vote for a different episode. That episode was “The Parting of the Ways.” I think there were a couple of things that contribute to this result. I think the two biggest factors is the fact the 9’s time was so short and the series was still new so everyone was getting their feet wet. Whatever the reason, Empty Child is an overwhelming favorite from 9’s time.

The 10th Doctor

it was the exact opposite for 10. There were quite a few episodes mentioned, and none of them had a huge number of votes. Surprisingly, “Blink” was not the number 1. Instead, it was “The Girl in the Fireplace,” by 1 vote. There were a total of 8 episodes mentioned for 10, as wells as quite a few people saying they couldn’t pick one. Interesting the difference between our shortest tenured Doctor and our longest.

The 11th Doctor

There were only a couple of repeats for number 11 in the voting. One was “Vincent and the Doctor,” a personal favorite, and the other was “Christmas Carol,” the rest was a wide variety, but almost all of them were feel good episodes. Apparently, 11 was our feel good Doctor. Which just seems to fit with his goofy, yet lovable personality. He was always looking for a happy ending, it seemed like, and more often than not, his episodes ended that way.

The 12th Doctor

We had quite a variety for our newest Doctor, which I  found surprising, just because there were only 12 or so episodes to choose from, yet 5 were mentioned. That’s pretty interesting. 3 had multiple votes, including “Robot of Sherwood,” “Death in Heaven,” and our frontrunner, “Flatline.” I was surprised that Robot and Heaven had multiple votes, since I didn’t care for either one the first time around. It will be interesting for me to see what i think when I watch them again.

“The Day of the Doctor” also got some mentions, but I didn’t count it with any one Doctor since there were 3 Doctors in it, primarily (13 all together). This was a great special, and I still felt like I wanted to revisit it with the rest of the episodes mentioned by the readers.

So what happens next? Well, starting next week, I will begin reviewing each of these episodes as I revisit them, meaning I will watch them again. i think it will be a fun way to pass the time between now and when new Doctor Who episodes will be starting again. I will let everyone know which ones I will be reviewing each week so you can follow along at home, if you’d like. I think it will be loads of fun. The first one we will be revisiting will be “The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.” That review should be published next Wednesday.

Please let me know as we go if there are any favorites you want added to the list, and I will be sure to add them.

The revelation that Missy was actually the Mistress, a female regeneration of the Master was a big shock to most people. I had heard some rumblings on the internet about it being a possibility, but I thought those folks were crazy, and then I ignored them. I thought it was more likely that Missy was a regeneration of River or something along those lines, so I was obviously surprised when I found out the truth. I was surprised, and then I was really turned off. The whole thing didn’t sit well with me, and I had a hard time taking it seriously. I know this whole post is somewhat late to the party, but I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to say about this whole thing, or if I wanted to say anything and just let it all go. Except now, Missy is coming back for series 9, so I wanted to weigh in with my thoughts.

I had a lot of high hopes for series 8, and maybe they were too high. I really liked the look of Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and I was excited to see where he was going to take the character. I wasn’t totally disappointed with it. Yes, there were some shaky moments in the series, especially toward the beginning, and there were times where his Doctor simply made me feel uncomfortable. By the end of the series, however, I was really enjoying 12.

I was also excited about Clara coming back. Here, I was totally and utterly disappointed. From a Clara standpoint, I wish series 8 had never happened, or at least that Danny had never happened. In any case, he did and it did, so I have to accept that and move on. I am hoping Clara’s character gets the full season she deserves with series 9, and I can move on from series 8. Although, truth be told, my inability to move on from series 8 as far as Clara is concerned is really my issue that i need to get over.

Series 8 had its moments of greatness and its moments of mediocrity, like every series of Doctor Who, so that’s fine. Overall, the series was perfectly alright. That is, if you don’t count the series finale. I didn’t feel like it was groundbreaking or Earth shattering or anything like that. I’ll tell what I thought when I saw the last two episodes:

That’s right. I felt like the show jumped the shark. I really felt like changing the Master’s gender was simply a gimmick and nothing more. It was Moffat basically doing it because he can, and that’s it. I don’t have a problem with strong female characters, whether antagonists or protagonists. That doesn’t bother me at all, but i don’t feel like that is what Moffat was doing here. He wasn’t introducing a strong, original female character. He was just reintroducing a strong male character as a female, which is totally different. I know the whole thing is supposed to be so different and so groundbreaking, and only Moffat would dare to do it. That’s simply not true. Every time the Doctor has regenerated since the reboot, there have been a ton of people wanting him to regenerate into a woman. Of course, there have been a lot of people who have been against the idea. The point is, the idea of a Time Lord regenerating not a Time Lady is not new, and it’s not Moffat’s.

What it really comes down to, what it really felt like to me was that Moffat was saying that he couldn’t come up with anything new and shocking, so he turned to a gimmick instead. And it was in typical Moffat fashion. Oh, everyone wants the Doctor to regenerate into a woman, well, I’m not going to give them that, because they want it. Instead, I’m going to give them almost that and just randomly throw it in for no reason.

To me, turning to gimmicks says that the fancies isn’t intelligent enough to realize that’s what’s happened, that they won’t get that it was just a gimmick, and they don’t need anything new or smart. They’ll be just fine with whatever. It’s almost like giving a fan base the finger, and then laughing about it. Of course, he can be laughing about it because it all went over so well with the fans. A lot of people embraced Missy, enough that they just happen to be bringing her back for series 9. Yay! (he says with sarcasm).

The really great news with all of this is that Moffat is on board for all of series 9, so we get to see what gimmick he has up his sleeve for the finale at the end of 9. Maybe it is all just a big set up for the big gimmick, having the Doctor regenerate into a Time Lady. That has to be the direction all of it is going, right? Can it be too far away at this point? I don’t think so.

Let’s hope that’s not the case, at least not doing just as a trick to get people to watch. I think when you get to the point that all you have left is easy little gimmicks like this, maybe it’s time to move on, and let someone else step in and take over. Just a thought to throw out there.

What were your thoughts about Missy being the Master? Did you think it was bold new move? Or did you feel like I did? Let us know in the comments.

This is a question that you here all the time as a Whovian. It is almost a standard greeting when you meet another Whovian for the first time. I ran into a group of Mormon missionaries the other day at the airport, a common occurrence here in Salt Lake City, and one of them noticed my super cool Doctor Who shirt. When she saw the shirt, her first question was which Doctor was my favorite. Before I could think too hard about it, I blurted out that the 12th is my favorite Doctor. At first, I thought about retracting that statement, but then I didn’t. I felt justified in saying it, and hopefully this post will help explain why.

That’s me, and I am wearing my super cool Doctor Who shirt that I mentioned in the post. My wife’s shirt is pretty awesome too.

Growing up, I was not into Doctor Who. That’s the honest truth. I am not a lifelong fan. I openly admit that I am a recent convert to the Doctor Who mythos. That doesn’t mean that I am less passionate than others. I love the show and the mythos and everything about Doctor Who, and I have tried to study up, not just on current Who, but classic Who as well. None of that changes the fact that I am a latecomer to the game. As a child, all I knew about Doctor Who was that it was some old show that aired late on Saturday night on PBS. Somehow, I was convinced that if it was on PBS, it probably was either boring or educational, so I just wasn’t interested. I knew he had a big floppy hat and a really long scarf, but that was it. I didn’t even know that there were multiple Doctors. I just knew about Tom Baker.

I heard about the reboot of the Doctor Who series as it was being launched, but again, I wasn’t interested. This came at a time when I was trying to hide my inner geek. I am not proud of that, but there was a space of a few years where I tried to not be a geek for a while. My wife was the one who convinced me to let my inner geek out, so I did. And as i did, I kept hearing about this Doctor Who show, and I was intrigued. I felt like it was something I could maybe get into and throw myself into as I was embracing my inner geek.

I didn’t know where to start at first. I am usually someone who likes to start something at the beginning and watch everything or read everything sequentially. As I studied up on Doctor Who and the series, I began to realize that it would be quite a bit to get caught up on. So I decided that I would start with the reboot. I wasn’t sure how to start, but I had heard that the series was on Netflix. My love of Doctor Who is tied to Netflix. We didn’t have Netflix at the time that I was wanting to start watching the show, so I started a subscription for us. Doctor Who is the reason we have Netflix. I had a job at the time where I worked the graveyard shift, and because it was slow, we had the opportunity to catch up on our Netflix viewing. This is when and where I met the Doctor for the first time.

9, in all his glory.

A lot of the people I knew who were familiar with the show told me to start with “Blink,” but I couldn’t do that. As I mentioned before, I like to start things at the beginning and work my way through sequentially. I had to start with “Rose.” I started with number 9. He was not what i was expecting at first. There he was, dressed all hip in his T-shirt and leather jacket. Where was the big hat and the scarf? And he was so cool. He was laid back and tough all at the same time. I’ll admit, though, it was hard to look past some of the special effects of that first season. i still felt like this was some kind of low budget SciFi, that wasn’t quite up to snuff. I had a hard time getting into as a result. I just wasn’t sure what I thought about this quirky little British show. Then I watched an episode called “The Empty Child,” and the follow-up “The Doctor Dances.” I was hooked. The very end of the story, when everyone is healed, and the Doctor is celebrating and saying, “Everybody lives, Rose, Everybody lives!” For me, that’s when I realized who the Doctor is. That’s when I was on board for the long haul. I really enjoyed the rest of the first series, and really loved the whole “Bad Wolf” storyline. And then, something cruel happened. My Doctor died. I really loved 9 and felt like he was my Doctor, and then he was gone. In his place was some lumpy, goofy looking guy who…wait a second, is that Barty Crouch, Jr.? This is too much. I don’t think I can keep watching.

10, looking all serious.

That was exactly how I felt as I watched “The Christmas Invasion.” This new guy, he wasn’t the Doctor. I didn’t like him at all. At least Rose was on my side. I think we both wanted 9 back at that time. I stuck with it, though, hoping that maybe he would be alright. He would never take 9’s place, but maybe he would do ok. I can’t pinpoint the exact episode or moment he became “my Doctor,” but it happened. It might have been “Blink,” which was really not very Doctor-centric, as far as episodes go. Maybe it was when he met up again with Donna Noble and they battled the Adipose. He and Donna were great together, some great moments and classic episodes. It was definitely solidified in “Waters of Mars,” when he declared himself the Time Lord Victorious. In any case, at the end of his time as the Doctor, I was convinced he was the greatest Doctor ever. No one could take his place. Of course, his time came to an end, in the worst last episode ever, and he had to go, even thought he didn’t want to. And I had to prepare myself for another adjustment.

Bow ties certainly are cool.

Enter number 11. And I thought 10 was goofy. Have you seen this guy? He spends the first 20 minutes ransacking this little girl’s house for food, and finally settle on fish fingers and custard. How ridiculous. Except, it wasn’t that ridiculous. Somehow it was endearing, as were his floppy hair and exaggerated movements. All of it together just seemed to work. The moment, though, for me came in the first episode, toward the end, when he stood up to the police force that was looking for the escaped prisoner. When they scanned him and went through all the faces of the previous Doctors, and he walks through and announces that he is the Doctor. He was the Doctor from that moment on. He holds a special place at our house, because he was the one my wife and kids really got into. He had so many classic stories and moments, and as it came down to the end, I was feeling the same thing I had felt when I got to the end of 10’s time. I knew it was coming, but I didn’t want it to come. How could 12 top what 11 had done?

Look at those eyebrows.

I don’t have all those answers yet. I have hope that it will happen though. I know for a lot of folks, this transition has been a rough one, and I get it, but for me, this time, it hasn’t been bad. I have actually enjoyed. I think a part of it is that I know now that I have cone through this twice before, and each time it worked out. i have confidence this time will too. I think I have just been enjoying getting to know this Doctor. Discovering his quirks and what makes him tick. It has been a good ride, so far, and I think it will get better in Series 9. I don’t know if he has had his moment yet where he has become “my Doctor,” but I am sure it is coming. I take that back. He did have his moment, at the end of “The Mummy on the Orient Express,” when Clara thought he didn’t value lives of those around him, and he demonstrated that there were few things that mattered more. Maybe that was his moment for me.

So, when someone asks me who my favorite Doctor is, I don’t think it is wrong for me to say the current one. I know if he’s not right now, he will be. It is how it has worked before. I have enjoyed each of them almost equally. Now, I am enjoying getting to know some of the classic Doctors, like watching some classic 4 or 6, or listening to the audio adventures of 8. Each version of the Doctor is just great and adds something to the overall story and Mythos, so it is hard for me to pick just one. I guess picking the current one is maybe the easy answer, the easy way out, but it might just be true, for now at least.