The Doctor

Thanks to the glory that is Netflix, SB and I are truly obsessed with another television show of the past -- Dr. Who. While the good Doctor has been on TV since 1963 (with a gap stretching through most of the 90's and early 2000's), SB and I picked up with the newest series', which began in 2005.

In brief, Dr. Who is about a "time lord" (read alien, though he looks like a human) who travels through space and time for fun, often with a human companion, and ends up always saving entire peoples and planets and universes. At first I thought it was too weird, and I couldn't get into it. And I didn't really like the first actor to play the rebooted Doctor, Christopher Eccleston.

Fortunately for me, as part of the story, the Doctor "regenerates" periodically, meaning that he transforms physically and is thus played by a new actor moving forward. Not wanting to give up entirely, we decided to skip to the next incarnation of the Doctor, played by David Tennant. BAM! We instantly fell in love.

David Tennant played the Doctor in a funny, lighthearted, quirky way for three seasons, between 2005 and 2010. He is incredibly thin and wears glasses (often), a pinstripe suit, and Chuck Taylor sneakers. His weapons for fighting alien wrongdoers are his brilliant mind, his curiosity, his determination, and a "sonic screwdriver" (that mostly just opens doors). Essentially, he is the king of nerd heroes. 

But what makes Dr. Who special to me (besides my love for David Tennant), is that Dr. Who manages to be completely absurd escapism while also being surprisingly scary at times, and almost always incredibly touching. The Doctor is, more than anything, a compassionate hero. And his relationships with the other characters are somehow relatable despite the completely unreal scenarios in each episode. It is like a comic book with a whole lot of heart. 

How much do I love Dr. Who with David Tennant?

a) I have honestly had dreams that are my own Dr. Who episodes.

b) We recently used a Christmas gift card to purchase this Dr. Who mug! (The mug features the tardis, the Doctor's time/space machine/ship, disappearing from a London street and reappearing in space.) No joke.

So get your nerd on and check out Dr. Who!