About three weekends ago, R expressed an interest in getting into Lost. Unlike what seems to be a majority of our geekish peers, etc., we haven’t been watching it. Honestly, we’ve had plenty of shows to watch already, with part of the blame for this being TiVo, which eliminates any personal excuses that TV-watching humans used to use on themselves to get over missing a show. “It doesn’t come on at a good time, I hate watching commercials, I don’t have time, I keep forgetting to put in a tape,” etc. (For the record, these shows include House, Monk, Psych, Doctor Who, among others.)

Well, after some discussion, I ran all over town late that Saturday night, looking to rent a copy of the Season 1 DVD, though in the end, I went to the 24-hour Walmart (hack, spit) and just bought it outright. Two week’s later, we’ve started Season 2. With help from iTunes, we’ll probably be caught up with regular airings by the time the show comes back from its winter hiatus.

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So I’ve gotten my girlfriend hooked on Doctor Who, specifically the new series, aka strangely enough “The First Season”, which is currently rerunning on SciFi.

I don’t know why they named it Season 1 (and the currently-airing David Tennant season as Season 2), when in true chronology it would be something like the 27th.

This new series has a very awkward and uncomfortable connection to the old. The first episode has the Doctor facing an old enemy, although not a very common one. Here and there we see little snippets of the former series creep in — like a Cyberman head on display in a museum, copious (almost pre-Davison overkill) use of the sonic screwdriver, etc. The Doctor even faces his most popular foe, a Dalek, in an episode of the same name.

On the other hand, however, this new series has seemingly gone to great, almost Stephen King-like lengths to kill off as many of those vestiges as possible. For example, that Dalek the Doctor faces in Dalek is the last of its kind, and it dies (it basically commits suicide over a frankly rather disturbing eugenic principle).

While we’re on the topic of last of their kind, we learn in episode 2 (The End of the World) that Gallifrey — and apparently all the other Time Lords — was completely destroyed in a Time War that happened sometime after the Paul McGann movie and the start of this series. Lots of intergalactic races were involved in this war, including the Daleks, though apparently not Earthlings.

Of course, the Doctor insists he was the only survivor of the Time War, and yet he encounters a Dalek which fell through time into the early 21st century. Perhaps there were other survivors. For some reason, this oddly goofy yet troubled Doctor has convinced himself that he is all alone.

Anyway, the other thing I’m not fond of is Christopher Eccleston’s refusal to serve as the Doctor for more than one season. After having singlehandedly reintroduced the series to a new audience, and bringing a new level of sophisticated humor and aloof free-spiritedness to the character, he promptly buggers off. Apparently they say he is being well received. On the other hand, the Independent doesn’t think so.