You're gonna be bothered by how cool I am.

So, um, a few weeks ago I decided I was going to try to catch up with ALL of the new Doctor Who series (or "NuWho" as I'm learning to call it) before the new episodes start on the 27th (or whenever us non-Brits get them). I am a hop and a skip into Series 5 now (through "Flesh and Stone" as of this morning) and it looks like I'm going to make it.

Anyway, I have SO MANY THOUGHTS, so let me show you them!

- I know Tennant is a fan favorite, but my heart is still partial to Eccleston. I feel like Tennant had the most to do dramatically, as we see him lose companion after companion that we got attached to. But there was such a quiet badassery to the Ninth Doctor that was a stark contrast to Tennant's more manic personality. Matt Smith seems to have a similar calm power - how awesome was it when he showed the Abraxi the other lifeforms that made the mistake of targeting Earth, culminating in the shots of all his previous incarnations and stepping through Ten's face?!

- I had actually seen Series 1 already (thanks to wahlee_98 who lent me her DVDs ages ago) but I watched it again to start with. "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances" are still one of my favorite two-parters, and it's no surprise to me that that was Steven Moffat's first turn behind the writing wheel. That two-parter through the end of Series One is one of my favorite chunks of Who, period. Gosh, I love Annette Badland, who played Margaret Slitheen. Jackie Tyler and Mickey are still probably my favorite ancillary characters that weren't full time companions. OTHER THAN WILF, OMG!

- Going through Series 2, I started to see why a lot of fans disliked Rose. Not that I felt the same - LOVE ROSE - but her relationship with the Doctor was so blatantly proto-romantic and she was portrayed as So Special to the Doctor that I can see where it would have been off-putting, especially to fans of the older serials. That's one reason I really appreciate "School Reunion" - even though the adventure is kind of meh - because it really explores what the Doctor means to his companions and what they mean to him. As I understand, Sarah Jane was something of an anomaly among VintageWho (is there a term for this, btw?) companions, in that she and Four had a much closer relationship than the Doctor had with his other companions. So much so that she's still affected by it all those years later and you can tell it hurts her to see him with a much younger girl and that he thinks so little of her (in quantity, I mean, not quality) that he's never mentioned her to Rose. And it's here that Rose realizes what will probably happen once she's out of the Doctor's life - out of sight, out of mind (though it turns out it takes a regeneration for him to actually "move on"). I love the scene with Rose and Sarah Jane, where SJ tells her it's still worth it, even though her heart will eventually be broken.

- This brings me to "shipping" the Doctor. Man, can I ever tell this is controversial in the fandom! And can I just say that Ten must be the most snogged Doctor in the history of TimeLord-ing? Seriously - Rose, Jack, Jackie, Madame de Pompadour, Martha, Donna, Joan Redfern, the chick from Planet of the Dead, and who knows who else I've forgotten or we didn't see. Even Kylie Minogue broke off a piece of that action! He might have even had a rendezvous with River Song while he was traveling on his own. OH, AND DID I MENTION HE TOTALLY SHAGGED QUEEN ELIZABETH I?!?!

But seriously, I don't know what it is about clever, mostly asexual male characters that fans have such trouble when they get to have a little romance. Some people were TICKED, for example, at Sheldon in TBBT getting a "love interest." I mean ... Ten said himself (to Joan) that he's capable of having those feelings, but it obviously complicates things that he's 900-and-change years old and doesn't get older and a human could live their whole life with him, and it's still just a small fraction of his own life. I have a feeling that his immense capacity for compassion makes it ridiculously easy for him to fall in love, but that most of the time he tries to keep at a distance. I think this was part of the problem with Martha - that he had fallen for Rose and didn't feel that way about Martha (who he knew felt that way about him). Though I do think he was seriously insensitive to her several times (could have smacked him for that "it's like when you've got a crush on someone and they don't know you exist" line).

I thought Rose's "consolation prize" at the end of Journey's End - while I suppose the best resolution of that relationship that was possible, at least for fans of Doctor/Rose - was still quite weird and disturbing. I'm guessing this is why Rose couldn't stay in the "real" world - Handy (love that nickname) couldn't be in the same universe with the real Doctor, and someone had to take care of him. But Handy wasn't the man Rose loved - she loved the man who protected the world, not the one who stayed behind to be with her. I heard Billie Piper compare it to Beauty and the Beast, where Belle gets the handsome prince, but Beast was who she fell in love with, which makes the ending kind of sad.

And then there's River. River, River, River. I was spoiled silly on her before I even started rewatching (yes, even the bit about her parents), and part of the reason I started trying to catch up was because I found the idea of her relationship to the Doctor so fascinating. So since I knew what was coming, I probably loved her more than I might have otherwise. The end of "Forest of the Dead" was really moving and swoony for me, like peeking at the end of the Most Epic Love Story Ever. I love the idea that the Doctor's first meeting with her ends with her self sacrifice, something the Doctor usually reserves for himself and which probably adds to his affection for her. I know that probably most of their purely romantic meetings will happen off-screen, as they're probably not going to be that significant to the regular narrative, except the fact that they happen. I also know that things will probably become more complicated for them (who did she kill?), but I find it refreshing that we know she's not going to suddenly turn out to be evil (God, I hate that trope).

OKAY, THAT'S QUITE ENOUGH ABOUT SHIPPING FOR NOW, unless it comes up in the comments. Oh! Except to say that Mr. and Mrs. Mickey and Martha are the HOTTEST COUPLE EVER (Mickey with a beard - *fans self*), and, errr, what happened to the other guy she was engaged to?

- Donna is definitely my favorite companion, and what happens to her in "Journey's End" is SO TRAGICALLY UNFAIR. Damn, the only other time I've cried that hard at a piece of fiction was "The Forest Again." Literal, audible sobbing. Surprised I didn't wake up my roommates. She was such a great foil for the Doctor, and it struck me while watching "Silence in the Library" that she probably reached out to Miss Evangelista because she felt a similar sense of being undervalued and worthless. Donna is so amazing and brilliant, but not in a way that most people would recognize right away. Her fiance's comments about her in "Runaway Bride" is how I'm certain most people see her - probably even how I would see her - unless they take the trouble to get to know her. And the fact that she is (probably) in her thirties, single, childless, and temping and kind of treading water in life was a huge touchstone for me and kind of hard to watch at times, especially as I neared a birthday. The Doctor's parting words to Wilf and her mother (who, thank heaven, finally began to appreciate her) were so--

Sorry, there I go again, BRB SOBBING--

Okay, that's better. His parting words to them were so moving, and the knowledge that her image was in the home of that Pompeii family, as a Household God, and that the Ood sang songs about her ... I think if she were to ever again become aware of that part of her life, she'd think it was worth dying to have it all come back, even for just a second. But it makes you wonder what would have been worse - having to go back to Chiswick and live a normal life with full awareness of what she'd done (and hence, what she was missing) or living that normal life never knowing what she'd been forced to give up. I think it's going to be a long time before I can revisit any of Series 4, because I just can't think of Donna without my heart aching and my tear ducts leaking. I do love that River knows who Donna is (and apparently what happened to her). She must have either heard the Doctor talk about her or heard her sung about or something.

- Oh, by the way, Series 4 is my favorite, too. Seriously not a weak episode in the bunch for me.

- Remind me NEVER to go to London for Christmas! Seriously, though, the specials have been just barely above tolerable for me, for the most part. "Christmas Invasion" was pretty good, and "End of Time" served its purpose pretty well, but the others, ehhh. EXCEPT for "Waters of Mars," which is my favorite by far of the specials. I was already a huge fan of Lindsay Duncan and her role in this is outstanding. I did love seeing Donna again and that she actually contributed a significant piece to the puzzle of what was going on, though of course she didn't realize it. Wilf is beyond awesome. I've only watched one of the Children in Need things - "Time Crash." Love Five's broccoli corsage.

- [ETA2: John Simm as the Master was AMAZING! I've loved him since State of Play (the original David Yates one) and he is so great here. Loved that he was actually the one to stop the Time Lords.]

- "End of Time" was quite ... final, and Series 5 seems to be almost a reset for the show. New Doctor, starting over after a bit of lone traveling, getting a new companion, etc. I'm guessing there are no callbacks to previous companions or characters so far? I know there's reference to at least one previous adventure (the Daleks at the end of S4 - spooky that Amy doesn't know about them; I'm guessing this has something to do with the crack?). Oh, well, two I guess (so far) - the angels, of course.

- I wondered how long it would take for me to warm to Eleven and Amy, but they both won me over before the end of "Eleventh Hour." And Rory - RORY! LOL that Amy used to make him dress up as "the raggedy Doctor" and that so many people in her life know about that and recognize the real Doctor immediately. I can't wait to find out more about Amy and Rory and their relationship. Arthur Darville gave us SO MUCH with that little scene in the courtyard with his reactions to "friend ... sort of boyfriend" and "Jeff." I can already tell he's going to be a favorite.

- [ETA: Slutshaming Amy for kissing the Doctor? SHAME ON YOU, FANDOM!]

- Why are the Daleks multi-colored now? Mark said they looked like Skittles. LOL "taste the rainbow." OF DEATH! I loved them serving tea to everyone and that the Doctor took a cookie and pretended it was a weapon.

- Speaking of which, I've been reading most of Mark's reaction posts. Best comment ever was in the "Utopia" post, where someone suggested they start calling Mark "Professor YANP" (for You Are Not Prepared).

- Favorite episode so far? If I had to pick, it would be the "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" two-parter. The Vashta Nerada are, for me, the scariest Who villains (though the army of Angels in S5 comes very close). And the emotional stuff, like the ghost-whatsit communication with Miss Evangelista, Donna and her "husband" just missing each other in the Library after she decides he must not have been real, and the Doctor-River stuff is just amazing.

- LOVE the scene where Eleven is trying to figure out what he likes to eat. I wanted to shout at him "Try a banana! Bananas are good!" LOL "You're Scottish - fry something!" and "Bacon ... are you trying to poison me?"

Speaking of which, this is SUCH a quotable show! Lemme just share some favorite gems off the top of my head.

- It's not really funny, but "I think you need a doctor" from the S1 finale sounds like a hilarious Bad Porno Line.

- "SOCIAL - INTERACTION - WILL - CEASE." Daleks are pretty hilarious anyway (while still managing to be scary), but that is the greatest Dalek line ever.

- "Are you my mummy?" (The callback in S4, not the original, of course.)

- "Worst! Rescue! EVER!" Oh my God, I had to pause and laugh myself to tears for like ten minutes.

- "How did you do that?!" "Oh, while we were chatting away I forgot to tell you ... I'm brilliant!"

- "By the way, Donna Noble, since you didn't ask. I'll have a salute." Oh, Donna, never change.

- "It's sonic, totally sonic, I am ... sonic'ed up!"

- "Excuse me, do you mind not farting while I'm trying to save the world?"

- "God bless the cactuses!" "It's cacti." "THAT'S RACIST!"

- "This is my timey wimey detector. It goes ding when there's stuff."

- "Harvey Wallbanger?! How is Harvey Wallbanger one word?!?!?!"

- Not a quote, but the pantomime scene in "Partners in Crime" is HYSTERICAL.

Man, I love this show!

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