Doctor WHO?

His name is not Doctor Who. His name is the Doctor, and the show's name is Doctor Who. Trust me, Whovians can get pretty peeved about that innocent misconception. I will correct someone if I hear it, but I do understand how one could get confused. The trailer for the seventh series (or, in America, season) came out this morning at 6am Britain time/1am Eastern time and you can see it here if you haven't had the pleasure yet. I was able to see it only 20 minutes after it was released (I'd have seen it sooner if I hadn't been watching Battlestar Galactica right as it was available) and I have to admit, I kind of screamed once I saw it - it was a well-made preview that made the season look HELLA INTENSE. And just think, this isn't actually the seventh season. It's the seventh season since the series was revamped in 2005 (there was a period in the 1990s when there was only a tv movie - no weekly episodes), but this is a show that has been running since 1963. That's forty-nine years.

So what is it about the Doctor that makes fans so attached? I can't say much about the classic series, as I regrettably haven't seen any of the episodes or the 1996 movie, but I can talk about the new series. Since 2005, we have had three incarnations of the Doctor; Christopher Eccleston was the Ninth Doctor, David Tennant was Ten and Matt Smith is currently the Eleventh Doctor...we tend to talk about them as if they are separate entities since his personality does change ever so slightly with every regeneration, as the actors bring their own unique spin to the character. My favorite way to explain this is a quote from Lynne M. Thomas: "Eccleston was a tiger and Tennant was, well, Tigger. Smith [is] an uncoordinated house cat who pretends that he meant to do that after falling off a piece of furniture." Not only is this a fabulous - and accurate - description of the three different Doctors, it helps show that though they are all the Doctor (a cat), they are different variations of the Doctor (a tiger, Tigger, a house cat). The fans get to keep the character throughout the forty-nine years, but the show gets refreshed every time the actor gets replaced. And then there are the companions.

In the seven years since the revamp the Doctor has had five main companions; Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, and Amy Pond and Rory Williams. In addition to them, there have been "fringe" companions (those who came in and out of the story, but were not proper companions) - the main ones were Captain Jack Harkness (who went on to his own spinoff, Torchwood), Mickey Smith (Rose's ex-boyfriend), Jackie Tyler (Rose's mother), Wilfred Noble (Donna's grandfather) and River Song (you'll just have to watch to figure out who the hell she is). The companions are also a major reason the fans keep coming back, because they provide the emotional connection to the show. While we the fans do care immensely for the Doctor, it's the humanity the companions bring out in him that allows for our devotion. In Tennant's time, he and Rose fell in love, Martha had unrequited love and was kind of a rebound, Donna was a best friend who provided perspective. Then he regenerated, became Matt Smith, and met Amy who married Rory. Amy and Rory give him an excuse to keep fighting, but also tend to highlight his flaws.

Simply put, even though Doctor Who is a show centered around an alien who travels all over time and space, it is a show about human relationships and human flaws. It gives us an escape while showing us how to adjust to our own shortcomings. And that is why it has survived nearly fifty years.