I cannot believe it has been twenty years since Doctor Who came back. It feels like yesterday, and yet simultaneously, as though it was a million years ago. At the time, I was living in London and I remember sitting on the top deck of a bus when I saw a huge billboard of Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper at the end of my road. My heart leapt. When the series became a success, having lived through the years of ridicule, I felt like screaming at the world, “I TOLD YOU SO!!” Suddenly, Doctor Who was back where it belonged as a national treasure. That is an overused phrase nowadays, but surely Doctor Who qualifies?
I was eleven in 1989 when it got “rested”, so to have closure between the Seventh Doctor and Ace on primetime television in the 2020s, and to have a rematch between Mel and the Rani was mind-boggling to say the least. Now, Doctor Who has been back for so long that there are fully grown adults walking about who only remember the modern series. Timey-wimey indeed. “Am I six?” said Belinda recently when the Doctor used the phrase. I think a part of all of us Doctor Who fans are six years old still being thrilled and rattled by adventures in time and space.
Here’s to the next twenty years!
Code Nine x
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