A Whovian's Reaction to the latest Doctor Who Season

Fri, Nov 12– I remember sitting in my dorm in October of 2013 and my roommate constantly trying to convince me to watch at least one episode of Doctor Who. I finally caved in and for some reason, the first episode I watched was season 2, episode 13 – "Doomsday." Imagine my confusion to find a random ginger in a wedding dress in this crazy-looking room with David Tennant as the Doctor puzzled as well.

I never questioned my roommate why she asked me to start at that point, but after realizing my mistake, I backtracked to Christopher Eccleston's season with episode 1. That's when the adventure began and my love for Doctor Who closely became an obsession, especially with Matt Smith as the Doctor.

Doctor Who also gave me the confidence to cosplay as the Doctor and his companions at different conventions as seen below:

The rise of Doctor Who in the United States grew with the rise of Netflix. Many Americans discovered the show for the very first time and the fandom here in the U.S. grew like never before in the show's history.

But with every rise of a show, there is a fall. From 2013 into the past two-three years, Netflix has removed Doctor Who from their streaming services, and that was just the beginning of the fall of Doctor Who here in the U.S. Viewers are able to watch the show live if they have a VPN to watch the show on BBC One. For viewers who are not able to watch it live, and have cable, can access the latest episodes on BBCAmerica.

Let's be honest, many Americans have chosen to opt out of cable and have moved entirely onto streaming. For a show that keeps moving from one streaming service to another on the reg, this presents a problem to regain the audience they once had when the show was on Netflix for both the U.S. and for the U.K.

Currently, you are able to access previous episodes since season 1 on HBO Max, but there is one dilemma. Even though HBO Max said they would have Season 13 on their site, they didn't say when. For those like me who like to stay up to date with the latest episodes, their only other option to stream without cable is to have an AMC+ account. It may be just me, but I'm tired of having many different streaming services. And since my free trial of AMC+ is finished, I will have to catch it live or just submit it to purchasing yet another streaming service.

Here's the thing, if we were on season 11 or 12, I would have just chosen not to be up-to-date and just watch it when it's on HBO Max. The reason I am so adamant about being up-to-date is that a shift has occurred with the future of Doctor Who. If you read my last article, I was talking about the possible end of Doctor who. The writing has been not great even though the acting is. The show had no longer felt familiar and in some instances even into season 13, it still doesn't.

Yet, I can't help but be excited for this season after watching the first two episodes of season 13. The mix of the return of the Sontarians, the mystery of the flux, a new companion, and a new villain who slightly scares me, brings me back to Matt Smith's season. I caught myself smiling and with anticipation as the show's cliffhanger had me yelling at my tv. Maybe that was just me?

Not only do the new episodes finally are doing Jodie Whitacker justice, but we also have an exciting return coming soon for Doctor Who!

Russel T. Davis is returning in 2023.

That's right folks, you might have heard this announcement made earlier this fall but if you haven't, here it is. Russel T. Davis, who was the head writer since 2005 with season 1, is returning to take over current head writer Chris Chibnall. This is great news dear Whovians!

I look forward to this season and to the future of Doctor Who. This Whovian is happy with Doctor Who again.