The Doctor Dances

Two days ago, I left secondary school for good, only a short A-level period away from the outside world. Today, I saw ‘The Doctor Dances’, on the same evening that I read Lance Parkin’s ‘Gallifrey Chronicles’, freshly arrived from Amazon. It made me realise how symbolic it all is, in a way that I had hardly looked at before. I had been nostalgic and quite depressed, that my schooldays were over, and with them, the Doctor that I had grown up with – I was sure that Parkin’s novel would see the death of my beloved 8th Doctor. The new series had come and now nearly gone, and mostly I had been quite miserable at that too. But now… now I can see it in a new light, because in a way, the new series marks the end of one era, and the beginning of another. I will move in a new direction, and it seems that ‘Doctor Who’ can move with me.

The world outside is certainly a very evil place, and I am very well aware that real life is not like ‘Doctor Who’, but today I was allowed to feel just that little spark of hope that can make all the difference. “Today, everybody lives!” The image of the Doctor, laughing with joy, arms flung out and surrounded with light, like an ancient wizard, fey and mighty, is one that I hope will stay with me forever.

This, finally, and in ‘The Empty Child’ last time, was the Doctor, and I love him, fictional or not. Don’t we all? Or why are we on this site? The characterisation, that is, the writing, and what he does and says, were so triumphantly right, and it proves that even if maybe real life cannot, ‘Doctor Who’ can still be like ‘Doctor Who’. This week it was ‘Doctor Who’, not “Russell T Davies Presents ‘Rose’, featuring Christopher Eccleston as Doctor Who”! It was superlative. Funny, romantic, with a superb spaceship special effect, touching (particularly Jack’s apparent sacrifice), dark, dangerous, haunting, exuberant.

So, now I can think of the new series in a better light altogether. I can forget ‘Aliens of London’, ‘Rose’, ‘The Long Game’… as somebody important once nearly said, whatever happens, we’ll always have London, 1941, we’ll always have the Doctor. And he dances! I love it.

I really hope Steven Moffat is reading this, somewhere, because I’d like to finish with some personal praise - : Mr Moffat, you are incredible. You are, as the Ninth Doctor would say, “fantastic!”; as my friend Luke would say, “a legend”; as I would say, “stupendous, life-enhancing, cool”! Well done. Thank you!