Introduction

Hi there! Welcome to TARDIS Thoughts, a blog where I analyze the heck out of the sci-fi phenomenon that is Doctor Who.

I just finally decided to watch this series, so I'm "new to Who," as the current hashtag de jour goes. I'd heard of the series before now, though, though I don't remember how I heard of it. Technically my first episode was "The Satan Pit" (series 2, episode 9) -- I watched it cause I had a half hour till something I wanted to watch was going to be on. What I didn't realize was that Doctor Who eps are an hour long, meaning I missed the show I wanted to watch (I don't think we had a DVR then). Also, that episode is NOT the one to watch if, like me, you can't stand horror movies. It scared the living daylights out of me. (The fact that it's about Satan might've had something to do with it, since I'm a Christian and have been brought up with a certain view of Satan...though this view did not include him looking like some huge, scary Balrog - ironically, I was not scared of the Balrog in The Lord of the Rings movies, or even in the Lord of the Rings: The Third Age game I own, where your party has to help Gandalf fight the thing). Basically, unless you are ok with creepy horror-movie-level monsters, you should not watch any episodes of Doctor Who late at night if you can help it. (Same with Fringe actually, for the same reasons - though that show is a little less scary in that regard).

Anyway, that turned me off to the show for a while - well also I don't think we had BBC America at the time (the time I watched it it was on Syfy, which is more likely to be in your cable package than BBC America is, it seems). But then recently, when we got a new cable provider and our package did include BBC America, I decided to start watching the show after seeing all the commercials for Series 7 (the current series/season). But I also wanted to catch up on the old episodes, so I started recording episodes of the show a day or two before the series 7 premiere, since BBC America was doing a Doctor Who marathon leading up to said premiere.

As a result, the episode analysis here will start with the old episodes and gradually work its way to Series 7. I know you Whovians (the fandom term for Doctor Who fans, for those who don't know) reading this are probably more interested in Series 7 right now, but I don't want to be lost on the plot, so I'm playing catchup. (Some shows are like that. Miss even one episode and you'll be lost. Fringe is like this for me. Also SMASH and Pretty Little Liars). But since I started recording late in the marathon, and some episodes were lost due to our DVR's default settings (which keep only 5 episodes of a show), I'll be starting with series 2 episode 10 ("Love & Monsters"), which was the oldest episode on my DVR at the time I changed the settings to record all episodes, and work my way from there. I have all Series 3 and Series 4 on my DVR at present, a bit of Series 6, and of course the episodes of Series 7 that have aired so far. (Plus I had recorded some of the specials - "The Science of Doctor Who," "The Women of Doctor Who," etc - but I already watched those). So I will watch all those, I think, and then backtrack to watch Series 1 and the rest of Series 2 (episodes 1-9). Now is a great time for me to catch up, since Series 7 is on a break till the Christmas Special.

So, want to join me, Whovians? If so, keep TARDIS Thoughts on your radar!

One last note: Since I watched the specials I'd recorded before watching the episodes, I was spoiled on some of the big moments of the series, mostly stuff having to do with the Companions that was discussed in the "Women of Doctor Who" special. Like I know who River Song really is. And what happens to Rose in Series 2. I realize now that I should not have watched those specials, cause I hate spoilers. I've probably gotten some looking up stuff about the show on Wikipedia too, because a lot of spoilers on Wikipedia are NOT marked as such (something that annoys the heck out of me). I will try to keep said spoilers out of my analysis for the sake of other novice Whovians who may not have seen the episodes, but I can't promise they'll be 100% spoiler-free. So each post will have a spoiler warning expressly for this purpose. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

That all being said, I hope you enjoy TARDIS Thoughts! As the Doctor would say, "Allons-y!"

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