The Colorful Geek

(warning: slightly spoilery)

Oh, how this breaks my heart.

My adventure in Doctor Who started a few years ago when I began watching the series with Chris Eccleston, aka, The Ninth Doctor.  From the very first episode, Rose, I was hooked.  I loved The Doctor, I loved Rose, I loved Mickey, and I even had a soft spot for Jackie Tyler.   Not knowing anything about the show, prior to watching it, I was a bit shocked at the end of the first season when Eccleston’s Doctor “dies” and regenerates into David Tennant.  I was completely disgruntled about it!  How could they do this to me??  Wellllll (channeling #10…), all I had to do was watch 1 episode (maybe 1 and a half being David was asleep for much of his first episode) to know that I was a Tenth Doctor girl through and through!  I sped through the episodes.  I just couldn’t get enough!  Now, I don’t cry much in shows and movies (no tears from me at the end of The Titanic), but when Rose got trapped in the parallel universe at the end of season 2, I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my face.  The anguish they felt, I felt too.

I liked Martha.  It did take me an episode or two little to warm up to her, but when I did, I loved her!  She was smart, inquisitive and brave, and like me, fell in love with The Doctor.  I was sad to see her go as well, but proud of her that she made it on her own terms.

Now Donna, oh Donna…  There is no one like Catherine Tate.  I actually got to see both David Tennant and Catherine Tate on the West End in 2011 in Much Ado About Nothing (AMAZING).  Well, that sassy red-head had me laughing and loving her from her very first episode.  She was the perfect match for The Doctor, and even better, because she didn’t fancy him!   I don’t think I cried as much at Donna’s finale as I did with Rose’s, but I was more devastated for her.   To see all of the universe, all of space and time, and then to save the entire world, what a beautiful and wonderful thing, but to have the memory of it taken away, in order to save her life, was incredibly upsetting to me.  She had the whole world in the palm of her hands and poof, it was gone from her memories.

In the meantime, in 2011, I went to the Doctor Who Experience in London with a friend.  I was still in the middle of season 3 or 4 when I saw it.  It was “lead” by Matt Smith’s Doctor, and for part of it, they showed the regeneration scene on a loop.  I knew David’s Doctor was going to end at some point and Matt Smith had already taken over, but I wasn’t there yet.  To see this regeneration scene was such a shock for me.  Without even seeing the episode, the emotional regeneration broke my heart.  Not to shortly after I returned home and continued watching the show in Netflix instant streaming, I go from Season 4 to Season 5, and when I started Season 5, I was in quite the shock to see Matt Smith prancing about.  I emailed a friend to see what was going on (Hi Chris!), and that is when I found out about the “movies”.  I held off for months, maybe even up to a year before I watched them, and when I did, I watched them one at a time, and right before The End of Time, I decided to start from Chris Eccleston and start all over.

See, to me, as long as I did not watch that final episode, David Tennant was still The Doctor!  Yes yes, I know, I am extremely silly, but it’s true!   Well, I did it.  I finally watched it.  I watch part 1 about a month ago, and tonight, I decided to take the leap and watch part 2 of The End of Time.   I loved it, it was everything the end of David Tennant’s run should be.   I felt the ending scene’s where he visits all his companions was a little much, yet, fitting.  I got most choked up when he visited Verity Newman, the great granddaughter of Joan Redfern, the woman he fell in love with in Human Nature and The Family of Blood — “Was she happy, in the end?” — I couldn’t help but get misty-eyed when he said that.  But my favorite moment came when the Sigma Ood showed up when the Doctor fell, trying to reach his TARDIS, “We will sing to you, Doctor.  The universe will sing you to your sleep”.  Oh, how I love the Ood!  Ever since The Doctor Donna, I have had a soft spot for the Ood!

sidebar: When Chris Ecclseton regenerated into David Tennant, it was simple, but when David regenerated into Matt Smith’s Doctor, he nearly blew up the TARDIS.  I guess there was so much awesomeness in David that when he regenerated, it exploded out.  Yep, he really was that awesome…

So goodbye, my dear Tenth Doctor.  Like the Sigma Ood so wisely says, This song is ending, but the story never ends.

From the Doctor Who Experience in London, 2011.

Had to add in a little Captain Jack Harkness…

They all fall in love with the Doctor…

well, except for Donna…