Free Doctor Who On iTunes

iTunes on Facebook has just alerted me to the availability of free Doctor Who on iTunes! “The Eleventh Hour” and something called “Best of the Doctor” (presumably the Eleventh Doctor) are currently available on iTunes through BBC America. You can likely find a link on the iTunes Facebook page. 

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Doctor Who: The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe

Spoilers for the Doctor Who 2011 Christmas Special!

This year, I have access to BBCA. And that means that I can watch the Doctor Who Christmas special as it airs in the U.S. It was a fantastic episode. There was a nice element of fantasy, some clever lines, a heart-warming story, an nail-biting deadline — everything a Christmas special needs — and yet my favorite part was the last few minutes. 

Twas the Night Before Christmas, Doctor Who-Style

BBC America has a contest for the best Doctor Who-based version of the classic Christmas poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” and fans have created some great poems. Of course, I always love it when people can write cleverly re-write poems and songs. There were two that were my particular favorites. 

Being the Doctor and Being Trans

I love Doctor Who. A while ago, a friend wrote a blog post about Doctor Who that just provided even more reasons to love the show, “The queer connection: Trans identity and the Doctor.” Hir post focuses on the similarities between the Doctor and trans people. I think it’s a fascinating idea.

The Wedding of River Song

Spoilers!

So intense, and it doesn’t make any sense, but it does. And “pterodactyls are vermin. Do not feed.” Bringing back Dickens, Churchill, a Dalek. “It’s always two minutes past five.” The Doctor reading a “Knitting for Girls” magazine. “Live chess” super creepy — the Doctor’s gotten ruthless. Except not so much: the person aimed a gun at him, and the Doctor still reached to save him as he fell through a trapdoor.

Doctor Who: Closing Time

Spoilers!

For all that “Closing Time” was a stand-alone, companion-less episode (“filler,” as I’ve seen it called online), I really liked it. The Cybermen plotline seemed rather secondary to me, but I think it showed a great deal about the Doctor. I juxtapose it against “Waters of Mars,” which was the stand-alone, companion-less episode before the Tenth Doctor’s regeneration, and the contrast between the two is stark. In his desperation, the Tenth Doctor turns into the Time Lord Victorious; the Eleventh Doctor, though facing what he views as his final death (not just regeneration) and fighting a desire to squeeze in as much as possible before he dies, seems to be quintessentially Doctor-y: talking a thousand miles a minute, conversing with children, saving the world, caring for his friends, continually getting distracted. He is aware that he will die, and that knowledge makes him feel very old at times, but he approaches death in a way different from he has in the past.

Night and the Doctor (Doctor Who mini-episodes)

Spoilers!

It may be worth purchasing the complete sixth season of Doctor Who in actual DVD form (as opposed to the cheaper, no-physical-copy version) in order to get the five mini-episodes that comprise Night and the Doctor. The Doctor in a tuxedo, plenty of River Song, little glimpses into the Doctor’s relationships with Amy and Rory — they may be tiny little video clips (emphasis on mini), but they’re wonderful.