Look, I've never been a proper nerd because I never got the Doctor Who bug. Of course, it was always on the local PBS affiliate when I was at the Right Age For These Things, but the low-fi production values that led to three sets (the TARDIS, some tunnel, and a gravel pit near the BBC's studios) and storytelling that was paced at a level that I didn't think was quite fast enough made me not like it one bit1. Oh, as a reader of Starlog and someone who'd turn it on to give it a try every once in a while, so I had my favorite Doctors (in order: McCoy, Baker, Pertwee, and Davison,) but it just wasn't my thing.It wasn't my thing, of course, until I got far too old to really dig it and they snuck Christopher Eccleston into the role. His mad eyes, his body language, his ability to say ridiculous lines like they were born on his tongue and happened to gestate there for years before delivery makes me completely believe in the character in a way that nobody else has - he seems genuinely alien a lot of the time instead of just being British. I'm also shocked by how much I like Billie Piper as Rose. I've watched three episodes now (the pilot and second episode and the first half of the London two-parter - the second is torrenting now) and think it's now exactly the sort of show I always wanted Doctor Who to be now that I'm past the intended age of the viewing audience2.
Now that I like it, of course, Eccleston's saying he's not around for a second season, which is a bit maddening, but if the scripts keep this quality up, I'll be getting BitTorrents and watching and laughing and getting caught up in the madness in a way that I never managed to the first time around.
1For the record, I liked the first season of the War Of The Worlds series, so my taste was and is pretty questionable.
2Anyone who thinks that Doctor Who isn't for smart ten year olds is wrong, wrong, wrong.
