Watching DOCTOR WHO On The Big Screen Is Something Every Fan Should Experience

By BDC on Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

From the first moment I heard they were playing the first episode of season 8 Doctor Who in a theater in my city, I was in.

Was there any particular magic to seeing it on the big screen? No, not really. But I found as I passed the popcorn and came up to the screen where the Whovian magic was to be seen, that a huddle of loyal fans had already been waiting patiently for entrance long before me and I was a half hour early.

There were truly all walks of life. Middle aged guys, young girls, a father and his two sons both armed with sonic screw drivers…and I with my family foursome. As I sat amongst them, I felt at home; I felt like family. As the anticipation grew, I could hear the huddled discussions in awe and wonder at what to expect. Would the new Doctor be fun to watch? Will we like him? Can we depend on him as we have all the others to entertain us and rescue us from the boredom of our everyday lives? It was like gathering outside the nursery at the hospital waiting to see a new member of the family for the first time.

So the anticipation grew and I realized my wife had a minimum of knowledge about the Doctor. I had said this new Doctor would be a great jumping on point. But I suddenly wasn’t sure. Then, she reminded me that this wasn’t her first TARDIS rodeo. To my surprise, she recited her memories of watching with me as Tom Baker lit up the small screen and took us both to places unknown. She was, however, a bit out of touch with the last few doctors. That will have to remedied.

As the theater lights went down and the screen came alive, we got to see a comical recital of the past lives of the Doctor from none other than Strax of the Paternoster Gang. A lot of his prattle is lost on the ‘uninitiated’ especially with his gender recognition problems. The introduction of the Paternoster Gang was probably reassuring to the hardened Who fans, but it probably made it harder and harder to be a good jumping on point.

Then came the new Doctor. Comical. Confused. Different. All the things you would expect from a new Doctor. But, as it went on, it became harder and harder to watch. Who was this rambling old man? Could this really be the Doctor? We were used to the confusion and period of adjustment. I had just watched David Tennant’s first episode as the Doctor. He spent most of the episode out cold and recuperating. The Doctor needs time to adjust. But this seemed different. I mean more different than the usual different. As I said, it was difficult to watch him; painful almost. The reason eluded me for a while until I saw it in Clara’s eyes.

We were feeling what she was feeling. Instead of trying to explain the change, we saw it through Clara’s eyes. We lived with her and the Matt Smith Doctor. We watched them flirt. There was something there, right? And now, her friend was gone, and she was feeling the pain of the loss. But, she hadn’t really lost him. He was right there in front of her. A different face maybe, but it was him, and through Clara, we wondered if he would be there to rescue her. We wondered if he would come back at all. Capaldi looked almost damaged as he mottled around the set like a mad man. But that was just it, right? He was damaged; different. And, like Clara, we had to deal with the change. We had to come to grips with the fact that no matter how different he looked or acted, that man was the Doctor and he needed our love and help now more than ever!

So, as I watched all of this explode off the big screen, I realized the genius of the writing of Steven Moffat. He had played us like a small orchestration and played it beautifully. We came though every emotion that Clara had. But, unlike Clara, WE had the resolve of Madame Vastra that he was still the same man. Played perfectly.

And from the cheers and snickers of the audience, I could tell they were played too, but played in a way that they gladly volunteered for. Being there, experiencing the new Doctor with ‘family’ was a joy. We shared Clara’s fear and Madame Vastra’s resolve. A jumping on point indeed. For we all were invited to jump on and ride the Tardis ‘INTO DARKNESS’ with this new and bewildering Doctor.