So this series of Doctor Who is over…well, until Christmas and I’m already excited about the promise of what the Christmas Day special will have in store. In fact, this will probably be the first Christmas that I have actively looked forward to the show.

I’ve always been aware of Doctor Who but never really watched it – I think I caught a little of some of the old show when I was young but found it all rather terrifying and it just never caught my interest before it finished when I was in my early teens, and then there was the void for several years. I remember being quite surprised to hear that the show was coming back but was living in Japan then so didn’t really follow it too closely. My younger cousins love it though (they weren’t even born for the originals…wow, how old does that make me feel?!) so I watched one of the Christmas specials with them when I visited the UK that year but didn’t come home often enough to see others.

Then I moved back home, halfway through the tenth Doctor’s era. I figured it was a bit too late to start watching and besides, I thought, it never caught my attention when I was wee. However, THEN there was the big fuss about David Tennant leaving and a new Doctor being chosen and I saw a picture in some of the newspapers etc. of Matt Smith in the braces and bow tie combo and I suddenly took notice. Yep,  a lifetime of not watching Doctor Who was overturned by a cute guy with a fantastic fringe, in a bow tie and braces – I really am that simple. (In my defence, he does also wear some pretty yummy thick-framed glasses sometimes in real  life so what chance did  I have?! )

I’ll just watch one episode, I said to myself, see what all the fuss is about and  whether Matt Smith can live up to the amazing outfit…

♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥   ♥

I didn’t look back.

I have looked forward to watching the show every week and I  know I have no point of comparison, but 11 is definitely my doctor (and Amy is an  amazing companion)! I love his energy, his eccentricities (a fez?! Alas though, a  short-lived fez…) and how he spontaneously bursts out with bizarre comments. And the show in general has at times completely terrified me – not the Daleks, or other alienesque creatures – but the moments where the show takes elements from ordinary life, things that you wouldn’t think twice about and makes them so petrifying that they follow you into your dreams. A crack in a wall, for example, which has been the main undercurrent of this entire series, a disembodied voice calling from an intercom on a block of flats asking for help, statues (which you shouldn’t turn your back on!), friendly looking old people, dreams themselves…ideas that are so simple and yet stay with you. Who hasn’t been afraid of what lurks under the bed or in the wardrobe with the door slightly ajar? Simple but truly effective stuff.

With this final episode, problems raised early on were resolved and little elements which didn’t seem to make sense or were out of place in earlier episodes all came together – it was fantastic! We even have a few extra questions to ponder until the new series begins…

So this year I’ll be the one volunteering to keep my wee cousins company while they watch the Christmas special…and of course, my little cousins, I’m only watching it for the action and not for the yummy eccentric doctor. How soon is too soon to start the countdown to Christmas?! It feels like an awfully long time away…especially now that I finally have the time to watch the show without feeling guilty that perhaps I should be studying instead.

In fact, all my current favourite shows have recently finished their season – Glee, the Good Wife and, my guiltiest of guilty pleasures, Cougar Town. (Don’t judge me for that last one!) Is this some kind of conspiracy?!