Couch Potato Chronicles: Midterm Exam for Series 5 "Doctor Who"

Alas, poor Ten! I knew him, gentle reader,
a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy hairstyles.

It's summer, and even if I have a mountain of nerd work to do, I simply can't do ONLY nerd work, because that will drive me mad.

So ... I'm launching the "Couch Potato Chronicles" tag for the blog, for me to use when I'm blogging about TV (and not just any TV, but my own TV fixations). Don't tell the Nerd Lords, mmmmkay? And summer TV this time means lots of "Doctor Who" (and World Cup soccer action -- but that doesn't start until later).

Having said all that, let's get down to business and talk about the Eleventh Doctor and the fifth season of the show.

"Bowties are cool."
But how is the SHOW?

We've reached the halfway point of the new season (or "series," in Britspeak), so it is -- in academic terms -- midterm exam time. I stumbled across this discussion, and it made me stop and think.

So how IS the new Who doing? I was enthralled by the fabulous first episode, and it did give a fresh colorful start to everything. For the briefest moment, I could imagine I was watching a brand-new and attention-grabbing sci fi show, meaning that I for that briefest moment appreciated the new Who for being itself, not for the absence of the Tenth Doctor. (You know I adore Ten, so that was a darn good achievement. Eleven having to win the trust of Amy was the perfect metaphor for him having to win the trust of the legions of Ten fans, for many of whom Ten was the ONLY Doctor.)

Going on. The stories this season have been fun (well, mostly, with some uneven patches), but now that we're at the midpoint, I'm looking back and assessing, and I just have to say, something seems to be missing. (No, not Ten! Something else.)

Then earlier today, because I'm apparently a masochist, I re-watched Tennant's finale, "The End of Time." I couldn't finish it. It was literally making me choke up all over again (that cafe scene with Wilf --!). So I went over to the DVD's Special Features instead and thought, oh, I'll just take a peep at Tennant's video diaries, since they're always funny. I had forgotten that Tennant himself choked up trying to talk about his last day filming, and then I had to stop. I turned everything off and went grocery shopping. Really.

But I'm sitting here now, on a break from reading yet another gigantic nerd-tome, and I'm thinking, Hm. So that's what's missing. Not the sobbing and heartbreak in themselves, but the real sense of emotional investment in the story and the characters.

Life's a beeyotch when you have TWO hearts to break.
IN THE RAIN.

Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) remains a cipher halfway into the season, and she seems as slippery as ever. One of my Who-fanatic friends absolutely hates Amy, and I can't say that I'm too fond of her myself. (The Cine-Sib likes her, though.) Rose Tyler and Martha Jones and Donna Noble ... so what if sometimes they seemed TOO emotional? They came across as actual people.

This time around, the character who actually seemed to grow on you a bit (i.e., Rory) ... well. Anyway. Matt Smith's Eleventh Doctor is quirky and odd in all the right ways, but I can't seem to get a hold of him as a personality. There have been moments where you get a flash of his personhood, but his individuality isn't quite formed. I'll even quote him in the first episode ("I'm still cooking") to describe him even now, and we're halfway done with the season already.

Yes, I know he's a Time Lord and alien and not-human and all, but he's still a character, and you have to be able to connect in some visceral way with your character or you won't really care about what happens to him or what he does. Example: OK, I admit it, me screaming at the TV during Tennant's turn in "The Waters of Mars" -- "Don't do it! Don't you dare! Don't you dare! ... DAMMIT! Now we're all screwed!" (That was a difficult hour for me to watch, to be honest; it was like watching someone you love turn into someone you didn't know anymore. Even if it's only for a moment, it's horrifying ... and in TV terms, gorgeously riveting.) Tennant at his best, and he usually was, made you invest in his Doctor and all his joys and sorrows, triumphs and disasters. Ten could break your heart or scare you silly or drive you crazy all in the same episode (or, shoot, even in the same five minutes).

This season with Eleven saw me saying, "Oh, that's interesting. Hmmmm." The closest it's ever come to making me really invest was "Amy's Choice" making me wonder how much the Doctor actually hates himself. But even that question doesn't have quite the emotional punch that it should have.

He dreamed himself into this fugly sweater.
Somebody needs therapy, clearly.

The new Moffat Who simply hasn't gotten under my skin or into my gut the way the Davies one did. Some of the best episodes of the Ten era really made you think and feel; they pushed your buttons. They provided fodder for some great conversations among my Whovian friends and me. (Of course, some episodes were just awful. Don't even get me started on "Planet of the Dead." Boooo!) Anyway, as I've said, I like Eleven very much, but he's got a long way to go before he can enjoy the same affection that I give Ten. Still, Ten had to earn that over time with moments like this. There's plenty of time for Eleven to earn the same.

Of course, maybe I'm too demanding. Besides, maybe I'm also a sadist in terms of screenwriting. I love Joss Whedon, after all, and you remember the Joss Whedon School of Character Development, right? Torment your character and see what happens. Just watch the finale of "Buffy" season 2.

So if I had to grade the new Who season so far? A good solid B. Season premiere gets an A. The season hasn't quite followed it up, but I'm watching! And hoping. And I'm having fun, just not as much fun as I think is possible in the Whoniverse. Still, funniest moment so far: the Doctor fending off the Daleks with a Jammie Dodger cookie. Oh, and best guest star so far: Iain Glen as Father Octavian in "Flesh and Stone," whose last moments were glorious. I'm really sorry he's gone; I wanted more of him.

In the end, Eleven's off to a good start, and it's not fair to say that he's not Ten. But, I don't think anybody's going to shout at me TOO much for missing Ten, that impossible, adorable man Time Lord.