Who's A Good Doctor?

Growing up, I sporadically watched Tom Baker and his long flowing scarf-of-many-colours prancing around on the family television set as the 1970s version of the Doctor. I have to admit, though: I don't know that I ever really "got" Doctor Who, the British TV phenomenon. I kind of enjoyed Baker's antics but the special effects were so laughable and the plots so chaotic that I never really developed any fondness for it. As "British invasions" go, I'd always put Doctor Who safely above Benny Hill and Fawlty Towers but well below favourites like the Beatles or Monty Python's Flying Circus. In other words, I could more or less take or leave the Doctor. When the series finally ended in the mid-90s, I didn't even know it had still been running all those years since the early 80s when I'd last seen it.

In recent years, though, Doctor Who has returned, with a vengeance. Fans on both sides of the Atlantic have been talking up the latest incarnation, but my long held indifference to the show had thus far kept me from becoming the least bit interested. Just a few minutes ago, however, I saw an ad for the new season (or "series" as they call each annual set of episodes in the UK) and was at least intrigued enough to set up a recording of the next installment. Vicki's a big SF fan and so I know that she won't mind checking out an episode. The Doctor gets exactly one chance to hook me, which should be more than enough if the program is as good as its fans would have you believe. We'll see if he manages to reel me in this time.