I saw "The Day of the Doctor" movie at the local theater in 3-D on Monday evening. I'm not the most knowledgeable Dr. Who fan, but I enjoyed it very much.
Decades ago, I regularly watched the Tom Baker/Peter Davison episodes on PBS. (It fit nicely into my week-night schedule: watch Dr. Who from 10-10:30 P.M., and then go to bed.) But, I have not seen almost any of the series before or since.
Currently, my cable TV package does not include BBC, so I can't watch the show at home. However, my parents have a different cable TV package, which includes BBC. While visiting mom and dad, I have caught a few Dr. Who episodes starring David Tennant or Matt Smith. (The recent episodes appear to be much larger productions with bigger budgets and more elaborate special effects. In the Baker/Davison episodes, the Doctor mostly just talked a lot. Today, he really does some cool, heroic, science-fictiony action.)
Clearly, the 50th anniversary episode was a special event, with major progression in the title character's storyline and several touches paying tribute to the show's history. The writing and production showed great care for the character and franchise. (It reminded me of the final episode for Star Trek: The Next Generation.)
After seeing the movie, I exchanged text messages with a friend who lives in a different time zone. He's a big Dr. Who fan, and he loved the movie. He indicated the last three years of the show have been great.
Maybe I'll visit my parents more often... particularly when new episodes of Dr. Who are shown on BBC.
