Warning: The following article about how Doctor Who 2005 reinvigorated my love of sci-fi contains spoilers.
It’s the 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who, and I can’t help feeling nostalgic. You see, in 2005, when Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper appeared in the Blue Box that’s bigger on the inside, I had lost interest in the genre of sci-fi, a genre I adored as a child.
When I was 17, I wasn’t watching many of the big sci-fi series. I had fallen out of love with the genre. I didn’t care for Battlestar Galactica, the Stargate franchise had become stale, and Lost – I just didn’t get it. I had fallen into sci-fi adjacent series, like Smallville, but my eyes were still on cartoons mostly, plus other series I loved were winding down.
Then, one night, I caught the end of the finale of Season 1 of Doctor Who. It was wild – I saw Christopher Eccleston transform into David Tennant, witnessed that cheeky grin, and immediately fell in love. I began my journey to find some way to watch it, and back in 2005, the best ways to rewatch something was to pirate a series (which I was not proficient in yet), or wait for the DVD release. I picked up the DVD as soon as it was available, and I did not know what to expect.
Now I’m Gonna’ Die in a Dungeon… in Cardiff!
When Doctor Who returned in 2005, it had a campness to it that I didn’t know I was missing. So many sci-fi series at the time were quite self-serious, but with Doctor Who, it toed that line of tragedy and hilarity.
When audiences had “The Long Game” to tickle their funny bones with its absurdly weird administrator villain played by Simon Pegg, they also had episodes like “Father’s Day,” which brought everyone to tears. There was rarely an episode where I didn’t laugh, cry or both. And on rewatch, there were notable staples that were placed in this season that have continued to this day. It’s a family-friendly series – Russell T. Davies and his writing team were not afraid of raising the stakes. Death is a constant companion of the Doctor’s, after all.
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“The Doctor Dances” is the only episode in this season where everyone lives, and there is an absolute sense of triumph when it happens. However, on rewatch, it is bittersweet. Going further in the season, you realize that death happens a lot. It showed many new fans that death is a vital part of life. It’s this balance act that made Doctor Who so enticing to me.
Another cheeky element that I adored was the practical effects and special effects. They were off-kilter and weird. It felt like a mishmash of a British soap and Power Rangers, and I loved it.
Absolutely Fantastic. And Do You Know What? So Was I!
I think what made Doctor Who 2005 so magnetic for me was the Doctor himself, Christopher Eccleston. He was a different kind of “hero,” one that I hadn’t met in fiction before – he was a coward, and there was heroism when he declared it. He was charming, he was daft, he was fantastic.
Coupling him with Billie Piper was a fascinating decision. I’m of the generation (as well as being a part of the world) that saw Billie Piper first as a teen singer. There are even nods to Doctor Who in her debut single. If you ask me, it was meant to be. She was mesmerizing, and I’ll always have a crush on her. And the charisma she brought to Doctor Who was just so utterly brilliant. Rose Tyler is so iconic now within the Whoniverse that whenever something even remotely seems close to Billie/Rose, fans get in an absolute frenzy.
Many cite David Tennant’s arrival as the explosion of Doctor Who‘s popularity in the mainstream. While I think that David is phenomenal, without Christopher and Billie kicking down that door, we wouldn’t be celebrating the 60th Anniversary right now.
Doctor Who has been a lot of things to a lot of people. It’s a soothing balm, a safe space, and a place to see a different kind of adventure than we’re used to. Doctor Who is full of wild and brilliant worlds filled with equally bonkers characters. It’s old, and it’s new, and it’s forever, and it brought me back to sci-fi, and for that alone, I’ll be a constant companion to it.
