Due to the combination of fanaticism and kindness that saw Ian and Darcy (the latter, I have never met) download all of series 4 from BBC.com as soon as each episode aired, then encode them onto DVDs for us, complete with a (seriously, who is this Darcy???), the easy access and high quality picture has made this my best menuDoctor Who experience yet. Though, I must say, the quality of the programming has played a significant part as well.
Though Donna Noble may be turning out to be my least favourite companion yet - no reflection on actress Catherine Tate, who's just fabulous, and her rapport with Tennant is a delight to watch - David Tennant's third outing as the Doctor has been some of the best sci-fi on TV, period. The writers have completely pulled out the stops that were already precariously teetering by the end of last season. Stephen Moffat's two-part "Silence in the Library" cleans The Matrix's virtual-reality clock with what I would say is the best VR caretaker yet, and belongs up there with sci-fi horror icons like Alien and The Thing, and any of The X-Files' best episodes. We got some relief with a taste of classic Doctor comic Britiphilia joy with an episode paying homage to classic English mysteries that saw the Doctor and Donna helping Agatha Christie solve a murder at a country mansion. And the two back-to-back episodes that gave both Tennant and Tate their respective vacations did what I've seen no other series do: instead of trying futilely to make the audience forget that Donna and then the Doctor weren't in an episode, each program unabashedly emphasized how incomplete each character is without the other.
As well, Doctor Who has continued the rather interesting thematic turn begun in series three. From the former best episode ever ("Human Nature Part I and II") through the story arc involvingthe Master and continuing to the end of the season, Doctor Who began bluntly taking on strong Messianic overtones. I can't forget the scene at the end of the Master arc where the Master, hurt, defeated, and overwhelmed by despair, sobbed and begged the Doctor to stop as the latter slowly walked to him, arms wide, repeating, "I forgive you" - and even that's a small part of where that theme has gone. Take it back to the beginning, and you have a man born of a human mother and immortal father, alone in the world and full of love for, and the burning desire to, save it. There's a lot going on these past two seasons, and I wonder.
Notable to this particular season is the focus on the individual. Doctor Who is typically about people helping the Doctor save and put everything in order. This season has been focusing on the importance and impact of small decisions and, subtly-yet-not, the repsonsibility of the individual in helping do and create good. The biblical overtones continue, sharply. I wonder.
We have just two or three episodes comprising an arc until the season's end, and I'll post again after I've had a few days to digest it.
...and your excuse for not watching the re-booted Doctor Who is...?
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