2018-01-07

I'd gotten to see the first two episodes of this past season of "Doctor Who," "The Pilot" and "Smile," with Barbara last spring, and I quite enjoyed them and the Doctor's new companion, Bill. I'm an old-school "Doctor Who" fan, having first gotten into the show via rerun episodes of the Fourth Doctor's reign back in the mid-'80s (Tom Baker is still my favorite), and I quite like the revival as well. Peter Capaldi in particular made me happy; it was nice to see an older, gruffer Doctor again. But I gave up cable TV (well, I suppose it's more accurate to say that it gave me up) over a year ago, and so I didn't see any of the rest of the 10th season.

It was therefore nice to find out last week that the season is now available on Amazon Prime! I re-watched those first two episodes on Friday and Saturday nights, then moved on to "Thin Ice" (which felt appropriate given the frigid weather this weekend) and "Knock Knock." All four were good, but I'd probably pick "The Pilot" as my favorite of the season so far. It's always fun to see the Doctor interacting with a new companion-to-be, and Bill is just so great. I am aware that the 10th season is Capaldi's last, but I'm hopeful that the remaining seasons will continue the entertaining interactions between the Doctor and Bill. And I'm quite interested to see Jodie Whittaker's take on the Doctor in the next season. Fantastic!