Doctor Who?: 57 Academics just punched the air.

I'm about to burst. I've tried to keep my love for the Doctor from my blog, but I can't take it anymore. He's won me over: heart and soul; he's playing the left hand while I'm wailing away on the right.

This summer, post-graduation, I've been enjoying the world of TV-on both DVD and the internets. Streaming Videos (something that Jake Kane from Veronica Mars is supposedly responsible for) are the new video games. More recently, I've been breezing through some BBC series. It helps that they're shorter than American series (usually about 13 episodes, less than the 22-plus that the L.A./Vancouver crowds seem to favor). And, well, I didn't learn everything I know from what I watched on the BBC, but here are six things I did:

1. Blonde witches will always be killed within the first season of their show. (Hex)
2. You can sing along to popular songs and solve crime, all while getting caught up in an illicit affair. (Blackpool)
3. Human sexuality in the 51st century is extremely fluid. (Doctor Who/Torchwood)

4. James McAvoy owns the screen, no matter the circumstances. (Shameless, plus Becoming Jane which I just got back from. YAY!)

5. Soap opera + alien lifeforms + a strangely immortal human from the distant future = genre-bending hilarity. (Torchwood/Doctor Who)

6. David Tennant rocks my world. (Doctor Who/Blackpool)

Anyway, all these shows have brilliant moments to them, but I am heavily recruited to Doctor Who at the moment, having just finished watching the season 3 episode "The Shakespeare Code." It's a non-stuffy literature person's comedy-meta dream come true. First off, the main conflict deals with an alien race of witches (yes, 3, around a boiling cauldron) that are genetically encoded to follow the power of words, so who should they recruit to their evil cause but the man most credited with creating new words in the English language? The bard himself. (There's also an appearance of the "lost" Shakespeare sequel Love's Labours Won, though as a performer mentions "the sequel's never as good as the original.")

There are also some JK Rowling nods that made me squee and LOL (not necessarily in that order). Martha Jones (the Doctor's companion du jour) says the whole witches business makes her feel like she's in Harry Potter, to which the Doctor responds (remember, he basically exists outside of time): "Oh, wait until you read the 7th. I cried."

Moi aussi, Sir Doctor. Moi aussi.

There's also a great reference to a created word from JK's Potterverse in the climactic scene, but I can't bear to spoil it for anyone. Although the end does hold a great scene where Queen Elizabeth I descends upon the Globe theatre and after seeing the Doctor (who has not--as far as we or he knows--met her before) states: "The Doctor! My worst enemy!" He (also a sworn enemy of Queen Victoria) later says, "Well, I'm looking forward to that."

If for a moment you're confused about all this alien activity in 1599, don't worry. So is Martha (pictured left). How could the world end in 1599, if she's from the future? After thinking a moment, the Doctor says, "I know, Back to the Future. It's like Back to the Future."
Martha: The film?

Doctor: No, the novelization.

References to 2 of my favorite pieces of entertainment (HP and BTTF). No wonder I'm in love.

Not to mention all throughout the show, we're hearing the Doctor quote Shakespeare to him and Shakespeare having moments like, "Ooh, I like that. I think I'll use that." Very meta-tastic. By the end, good ole Will starts composing a sonnet to Martha, his "dark lady" by his own admission.

It all works so well, because the Doctor is a consistent character who grows. He will always need a companion (though he might not admit it), and he will always know that everything can be boiled down to a science. For example, in response to a witch's use of a voodoo doll, the Doctor quips, "You may call it magic, but I call it a DNA Replication Module." Love. It.

And David Tennant is a little easy on the eyes as well, one must admit. Quirky-charming. Just the way I like 'em.