The Eleventh Doctor

Alright, so it's finally happened. The Eleventh Doctor Who has finally premiered in the US. *cue cheers and whistles* As of this past Saturday, we now have Matt Smith's version of the Doctor on TV, and as a dutiful little new series Whovian, I was right there, watching the recap and mythos special before the premiere and recording it all just in case something came up that required leaving the room.

So far, I have liked Doctors Nine and Ten, but here's a confession: when he first showed up, I did not care for Ten. I'd thoroughly enjoyed the darkness of Nine, and he was, in fact, my first Doctor, so that automatically earned him a special place in the SciFi Geek quarter of my heart. When Ten showed up, though, I felt the urge to headdesk. He was just so... cheerful. After Nine, it was a bit jarring. However, David Tennant settled into the role after a few episodes, and like a determined puppy, Ten eventually broke down my walls and became yet another beloved Doctor.

I'm keeping that initial resistance firmly in mind when it comes to Eleven. The whole food thing definitely threw me off, so perhaps not the best introduction, but by the end of the episode, I could see potential. There were some highly amusing moments, and he'll probably settle into his version of the Doctor in a few episodes. I'll be looking forward to that time.

See, the interesting thing about Doctor Who is that it's not like a soap opera, where a new actor takes over an established role and everybody pretends it's the same guy. Each new Doctor is expected to be his own person. It's the great thing about Time Lords being able to regenerate - no awkward attempts to play the role like the actor's predecessor. Same history, same core, different outward personality. It makes for some fantastic possibilities.

One of these days, I will attempt to subject myself to the earlier Doctors out of sheer curiosity, but for now, I'm just going to try to get used to Eleven and hope that glimmer of potential that showed up in his first episode turns into a character I can fully enjoy - or, at the very least, enjoy enough that I stop marveling over the way his hair doesn't actually look like it belongs on his head. It should be interesting, at the very least.