Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Doctor Who: The Return of Doctor Mysterio

It’s been exactly one year since we last had any new Doctor Who. That’s the longest period of time the series has been off the air with no new material since it was resurrected in 2005. Given the awful year that was, perhaps it’s entirely appropriate that the Doctor’s heroics have been absent. Maybe 2016 just wasn’t designed for taking fanciful trips in the TARDIS. And what of 2017? Next year, we may need the weekly diversion of the Doctor more than ever. Somebody has to bestow hope and show us that corners of light still exist in the universe. Such a train of thought makes this year’s holiday offering all the more prescient, as a warmer, kinder hour of Who.

Since the very first moments of Moffat’s tenure as head honcho of Who, he’s been unveiling stories about the Doctor making lifelong impressions on the minds of children. (Even further back than that, actually, as “The Girl in the Fireplace” was his first real foray into the idea.) Some of these stories last an episode; others lead to ongoing story arcs. It’s an idea he’s returned to over and over again, and the most sensible explanation for this obsession is that he’s working through and commenting on his own childhood memories and feelings of the series as it formed and shaped the young Steven Moffat.

Read the rest of this recap by clicking here and visiting Vulture.

Graphic courtesy Design by Stuart Manning