Doctor Who Season 3 mini-review

Time and Reflection, Drenched in Shadows
Originally uploaded by Brainless Angel.

The following is a short personal review of Season 3 of the revived Doctor Who Series. It will be free of any major spoilers for the new season, but assumes the reader has viewed up to the end of Season 2 with "Doomsday." If you haven't seen it yet, go do so now. I'll wait.

CBC loving Canadians have yet to see season 3 of Doctor Who. Even though development funds for the revived series of Doctor Who came from the CBC, for reasons beyond me, the air-dates in Canada are months past the original run on the BBC. This leads to the situation of being able to buy the series on DVD before the first run in Canada has finished. This also leads to being forced to download "pirate" copies for home viewing. Does that sound right to you?

After downloading (and watching) the two newest Doctor Who episodes, "Smith and Jones" and "The Shakespeare Code," and I am thoroughly impressed with the new companion. Martha Jones is smart, funny, and asks all the right questions. The fantastic writing of Russell T. Davies an Doctor Who novelist Gareth Roberts make these episodes fun and a real treat. The story arc codeword "Saxon" is this year's "Bad Wolf," so keep an eye out for it.

When Rose left The Doctor at the end of season two, I wasn't sure I would enjoy a change of companions. In the history of the show, companions change more frequently then Doctors, but the companion is the character through whom we experience the wonders of intergalactic time travel. Rose Tyler had both wide-eyed nativity and the stunning good looks, which are fine qualities to have in such a situation. But I guess as the character gains confidence and wisdom, our ability to project ourselves into their place diminishes. We have significantly less in common with the Dalek destroying Bad Wolf/Time Goddess then we have with a teenage shop girl.

Now that I have an "in" to get current episodes, an I'm confident in Martha Jones, I can't wait for next Saturday's episode, when "The Face of Boe" shows up in "Gridlock."