Who Will Watch Doctor Who? This Patch Editor....

Even a news editor needs hobbies and interests. Mine happens be starting a new season at 9 p.m. Saturday on BBC America.

Doctor Who, the British television import that will celebrate 50 years of existence in 2013, will starts season 7 of the new series on Saturday, and I'll be here to blog the season.

The show, if you haven't heard of it, follows the strange adventures of an alien who travels in a time machine shaped like a 1960s London police box, and who finds trouble wherever he travels. 

Doctor Who is one of the few TV shows that I watch, and the only fiction TV show that I watch. I've been a fan of the show since the 1990s, when I watched the imported classic reruns on my local PBS station. Those shows had the classic multi-part episodes, creaky sets and cheap special effects that people equated with the show, but which added to its charm. In college, I was active in online chat groups and newsgroups -- perhaps to a degree that I am reluctant to admit to here.

However, when I started my work life, I didn't bother to get cable, barely could receive broadcast channels, and I found I didn't miss television at all. While I was happy that the show was revived in 2005 with actor Christopher Eccelston in the lead role, my lack of cable or satellite prevent my watching the new show. I would catch occasional episodes with Eccleston and his successor, David Tennant, but they just didn't grab my imagination like the classic episodes.

I got into the show again two years ago after I watched trailers of the newest Doctor, Matt Smith, a few weeks after he had already made his debut. I actually had forgotten that he was supposed to be the newest actor in the revamped series. To me, the feel of the trailers recalled the classic series. At the time, I lived in a house with Comcast On Demand. I watched a marathon of episodes that weekend to catch up with the season, and I've been hooked ever since.

In fact, Smith quickly rose up the ranks as one of my favorite Doctors, probably second, third or fourth behind perhaps Peter Davison, Paul McGann and Tom Baker (depending on how I'm feeling that day). 

I still don't have cable, so I'll be catching up with the new series as it comes online on Amazon.com streaming, which has usually been the next morning. Feel free to respond to my blog posts in the comments, or you can start your own blog right here on Bellevue Patch alongside mine.

If you want instant comment gratification (and I'll be avoiding the comments, naturally until I watch), I'll post the trailer in this blog on the day of broadcast, and can feel free to make your comments.

Follow me on this blog as I watch this season, which will see off our beloved Pond family and welcome the new companion, Clara, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman.

Heck, I'm watching every episode twice anyway, and I definitely want people to converse with. So feel free to watch with me online here.