A few years ago, I did a series of 47 daily posts which all looked at different questions related to the revival series of Doctor Who, focusing on stuff I like about the show. I worked out a series of questions in advance and then picked one randomly for each day. I’ve decided to revisit the series to see how my opinions may or may not have changed, and to bring two of my daughters into the discussion, since they are both big fans and have recently finished watching the revival series.
Why 47? It’s my favorite number.
Why Doctor Who? It’s my favorite show.
Why the modern day Doctor Who only? Simply because I remember it better.
Why are we looking back at this now? Because we’re on a 47 day countdown to November 23, the birthday of this series.
Check out Day #1 here
When I first did this, it was September 2016, which means we were in between the Christmas episodes The Husbands of River Song and The Return of Dr. Mysterio, and were yet to debut Peter Capaldi’s last season on the show. Jodie Whittaker was even further away. How has the passage of time, evolution of opinions, and three further seasons of the program impacted my opinions?
Today is Day #2, and our theme is…
Best Expansion of the Myth
My choice last time:
The Last Great Time War
My choice this time?
Well, it’s not the Timeless Child, that’s for sure. The Timeless Child might be the most far-reaching expansion to the myth that we’ve had recently, but it’s one of the worst presented.
I still like the Time War in terms of what an effective thing it was for storytelling. But today I’m going to pick a different idea.
The Doctor can change the TARDIS’ desktop theme.
I think this was first introduced by Steven Moffat in the Time Crash mini-episode back in 2007, and it’s been mentioned a couple of times since. It’s a handy little fix to explain the abrupt adjustments in the production design that the show has reveled in over the years.
What do my daughters say?
My girls aren’t as familiar with classic Doctor Who in the same was I am, but they have seen a handful of episodes.
Johanna (16) picks the Timeless Child, but she’s being sarcastic.
Laurelle (14) also picks the Timeless Child, and then she laughs and says she’s just kidding. Then she changes it to the Time War, as probably the biggest and best done expansion of the mythology of the series.
Blue Towel Productions 