I am really, really enjoying the new Dr. Who series. I confess I’ve never seen the older versions but the new one hits all the right buttons. I’m about 3/4 through season 2 and it’s really hard to pick a favorite thus far, though The Girl in the Fireplace probably comes close.
One thing that especially appeals to me is the rigidity of the timeline. We see that t is possible to change events, but there are severe consequences for doing so – the universe “heals itself” by closing off paradoxes like an infectedd wound and then sending “antibodies” to excise it. And, alternate realities do exist but they are walled off in such a way that even the TARDIS can’t easily access them. Its not clear to me if this is how it always was or whether it’s a consequence of the Time War. In either case, though, it puts the show within a very specific (and unique, given the basic storyline features time travel so centrally) set of constraints. The exact mechanics of when the Doctor’s appearance makes him “part of events” and when he is outside those events are still mysterious to me but it’s good to have some unknowns.
The show just really, really rocks. The only problem is that it has obliterated whatever token anime watching I was still trying to do on the side (especially now that I’ve completed Bebop).
Also, I’m guessing that the Torchwood thing becomes more important later, since they’ve dropped a reference to it almost every episode since the Doctor regenerated.
“The Torchwood thing” turned into a spin-off series. There was a lot of mention of it to build up hype for the series. My wife liked it, but I never got into it. It may be hurting me now; I suspect that a significant character in the most recent two-parter comes from Torchwood, but I have no clue who she is.
I didn’t expect to like the new Dr. Who series, since I was never a fan of the original. But I’ve been enjoying the new series.