»BLOG AROUND THE DOC«

The story is a bit weird: My partner (not in crime but in life) told me months ago about a TV-series referring pretty much to the 70′s. The BBC-production’s called »Life on Mars«→, a lot of people will remember. I won’t put this much further, just… the main character’d been played by John Simm→. Famous in Britain, he’s hardly known in Germany. But I liked him. He was convincing, playing “Sam Tyler”. Certain sense of humour, very vital, straight… loved the role, loved the actor. Started searching for more, came to »State of Play« →. Did some research on youtube, suddenly found the character of “The Master” – which was my personal “Doctor-Who-moment”! Utopia, The Sound of Drums, Last of the Time Lords finally lead me to “Doctor Who”. Bang! No, that’s understatement… actually, it was a

So far, so good – or bad. Because… it all happened in 2009. So when I first met “The Doctor” (the 10^th really was my first one, I’ve missed the 9^th, though rumours say a German tv-station had aired some episodes with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper – I never saw them) David Tennant had already announced he was going to leave the show by the end of the year.

Watched some episodes with “Perfect Ten” on youtube, somewhat in between the 2^nd and 3^rd season, can’t remember clearly. Thinking back, I guess I’d been caught by the “Runaway Bride”, the Doctor almost knocked me out just by the way of asking “Whot?!?” several times in different heights of his voice. And I bursted out laughing when I watched the Red-Nose-Day Comedy Special with Catherine Tate, great moment (and this astonishing Scottish accent)! So I became a good costumer of Amazon and now I own the Dr.-Who-seasons 1 – 4 on DVD. Recently, I even bought the specials, including “The End of Time”. Pardon, I shouldn’t say “even”. It’s just a must-have.

Some of the “ancient” fans of »Dr. Who« didn’t like the 10^th Doctor, his character or even David Tennant very much. Some blamed it on the scripts of Russell T. Davies – maybe, because the 10^th was very much relying upon his sonic screwdriver those days… seemed to be a universal remedy on that series, and maybe the 10^th was a little too chatty and a very lot more smart-alecky, not to talk about his beyond self-conscious going, overestimating his own capability habits, his vanity and arrogance… or because RTD just suddenly enriched the Doctor’s character by showing us his dark, rude, cruel side so our hero appeared a pretty lot more human – sometimes it’s a challenge to look into the mirror, innit, folks?

I can’t compare DT’s play to any other but the 9^th Doctor, having seen Chris Eccleston’s season now. I didn’t fell in love with him, but he was quite alright… missed the enthusiasm, DT showed on playing Dr. Who. But still Tennant’s been the first of all “Doctors” I got connected to, somehow. In my opinion he did it quite, quite good, because the show made me feel like a child again, made me dream and fantasize there might be something else, better, more mighty and greater beyond all that science and consciousness and rationality or open-sourced-digital-stuff and I’ve always had the impression that the actor had a certain connection to the Doctor, that he lived the Time Lord. Not really, of course. But as Tennant’s told often enough himself he had a great affinity for the character ever since he was a child. And if »10« means perfect – he’s been an 11 on that role, they wouldn’t have let him BE the »The Doctor« for three seasons without good reasons. Poor Matt Smith, he’s slipping into rather big boots (literally ), this is gonna be a real big challenge for the new boy!

You know, it’s as it’s said: All good things come to an end. The actor’s need of developing and progressing and to avoid typecasting is understandable and must be respected (though I can hardly see any point in leaving one series just to join another one, but that’s just a personal remark… wait!… yeah… right! just like anything else written down here!). Having seen DT playing so many various characters (»Secret Smile« -creepy, nasty!- in opposite to »Blackpool« → -funny, entertaining!-, for example) there’s no need to worry Mr. Tennant might fade away from our screens.

Nevertheless… me just like a huge crowd of people would have liked him to do another season… and another… and another… and another – until boredom might have overtook us all. So we all know deep inside our Doctor-Who-infiltrated-David-Tennant-assimilated-mad-brains-and-hearts: it’s just better that way. He just had to go before becoming some damned routine, something annoying, something we’d take all for granted and some day hardly noticed or remembered anymore – just like “Dallas”

Anyways… maybe there’s a tiny chance for regeneration? Things tend to look different from a little distance and so DT might be interested in some kind of retrospection, like »Time Crash«… or »The Five Doctors«, e.g. – but for sure it won’t be the »End of Time« if we’ll not see him returning.

Oh… and »post scriptum«: For all those of yours who always wanted to see »David Tennant naked«… better be careful what you wish for because…