Happiness Comes in Unexpected Packages (2013 Edition)

I had some down moments this year, all within the realm of "first world problems", of course, but all things are relative. Like so many with such ultimately trivial problems, I found solace in pop culture. For me, the year was bookended by two unexpected - but remarkably welcome - returns.

The first was on January 8th when David Bowie marked his 66th birthday by releasing his first new music in nearly ten years, while the other was the November return of Paul McGann to Doctor Who to help set the stage for the story marking the show's 50th birthday. What made me so damn happy about these things is not just that they happened but that they were both so good.

In Bowie's case, The Next Day turned out to be his best album since either Scary Monsters or Let's Dance (depending on which denomination of Bowie-ism one follows). The term "return to form" has to some degree been applied to most of Bowie's post-Tin Machine albums, but The Next Day is arguably the first to deserve that designation. That's not because the albums from 1993-2003 weren't good - some of them were excellent - but rather because this one is the first since the early-80s that finds Bowie remaking a genre of pop music in his own image. 

In this case, that genre is "Bowie". Having proven - especially with Heathen and Reality - that Bowie was a genre worthy of respect, the man himself seemed excited to push it into new ground. The end result was as strong a collection of songs as he's had in years, work that evokes his 70s heydays (i.e. the albums/phases that some practitioners of Bowie-ism assert are the only ones worthy of attention) without sounding like retreads. It almost seems unfair to the album as a whole to pick favorites, but it goes with the territory to note that "The Stars (Are Out Tonight)", "I'd Rather Be High" and "You Feel So Lonely You Could Die" would be strong candidates for any Bowie compilation I'd put together.

In its 50 year history, over a dozen actors have played the lead role in Doctor Who on TV. Paul McGann, who starred in a mid-90s attempt to revive to show, was the 8th. Because it didn't lead to an ongoing series and the show's 2005 revival cast a new lead, McGann's first TV appearance as the Doctor was also his only TV appearance, making him the George Lazenby of Doctor Who. Despite the lack of screen time, McGann's portrayal of the Doctor remained popular with many fans, especially because he continued to play the role in a series of audio dramas, many of which aired on BBC radio. 

Despite statements that no past Doctors aside from David Tennant and the ret-conned incarnation played by John Hurt would appear in the story to mark the show's 50th anniversary, rumors abounded that McGann would have some involvement, even though the man himself denied them (albeit with enough ambiguity to keep fan hopes alive). That hope came to fruition on November 14th when a short prequel episode entitled "Night of the Doctor" was released online. Though ostensibly designed to tie up a bit of the show's continuity - and turn some of that continuity on its head - "Night of the Doctor" is more significant as both a tightly-paced piece of drama about a man forced to make a difficult choice and a valedictory for the actor playing that man. In the course of six minutes or so, McGann showed that, while his screen time as the Doctor, was limited his portrayal certainly wasn't. Aided and abetted by a sharply written script by Steven Moffat, arguably his best in a couple years, McGann displayed the kind of balance between humor and verbal bite that characterizes most of my favorite Doctors. 

Considering how much I enjoyed "Night of the Doctor", perhaps the most surprising thing is that  neither the 50th anniversary story that followed nor last week's Christmas special, which depicted yet another change of Doctor, felt disappointing. When 2013 started, I wasn't sure it would be a great year to be a fan of Doctor Who or David Bowie, let alone both. Sometimes it's nice to be wrong.

What Does 15 Add Up To in Time Lord Years?

15 years ago today, Doctor Who came back from six years of TV oblivion in the form of a one-off movie that sadly failed to set the stage for a new series. 15 years later, Doctor Who is in the midst of the sixth season of its revived incarnation and has seen the premiere of an episode by arguably the most acclaimed writer to ever write for the show (and maybe for television in general), Neil Gaiman. It's interesting that, like that attempted 1996 relaunch, Gaiman's episode The Doctor's Wife spends a great deal of time exploring the nature of the TARDIS and the Doctor's relationship to it. As such, it ends up being a good point of comparison as far as where the program stands 15 years since the first post-"classic series" attempt to revamp it.

The most obvious thing that stands out is that both episodes demonstrate the importance of getting the Doctor right. Whatever the flaws of the 1996 attempt, Paul McGann was undeniably good. This was brought home watching some of his screen test footage that was included on the DVD release. While the material itself seemed a bit dicey, McGann's conviction for the role draws you in. In the same way, current Doctor Matt Smith gives his all in every episode, making even some conceptually shaky stories very entertaining.

In terms of content, The Doctor's Wife comes across as a sincere valentine to the show, while the 1996 movie was an earnest albeit flawed effort to revamp it for a new audience, both guided by people who genuinely love the show. Ultimately, though, neither episode is likely to rank as one of Doctor Who's finest hours. In this way, both of these stories bring to mind the contributions of the one Doctor Who writer who challenges Gaiman's level of acclaim, the late great Douglas Adams (about whom Gaiman wrote a biography in the 1980s).

Putting aside his brilliant salvage job, City of Death, Douglas Adams wrote two full stories during Tom Baker's tenure in the late 70s. The first of them, The Pirate Planet, was silly but fun, while the other, Shada, is legendary not for its quality but rather because it was never finished. in short, Doctor Who rarely lends itself to perfection, and as tonight's episode reminds me that seems just as it should be.