Doctor ... Who?

I'm having a really good time watching all the (modern-era*) episodes of Doctor Who in order, and I'm definitely catching things that didn't make sense in certain episodes when I saw them before ("New New York" ... "New new Doctor!" I get it now!). And since I'm borrowing them from the library, I'm not paying $300** for the privilege (although I would quite like to own them, so I could watch them over again, and whenever I want to ... but not enough to spend $300 on it).

*I have to confess, I've never seen the older ones. I believe this may be sacrilegious in England, but can I help it that I didn't grow up there? This means, once I've caught up on the modern ones, I'll have something to do next!

**According to Amazon, each of the "first" three series are list-priced at $100 (oh, sorry, $99.98, like that's better), though they do discount them, and of course one could try eBay or the like. But still.

I would like to say that the whole Time Lord transformation idea is an absolutely brilliant way to deal with the issue of the main actor wanting to leave a series. Instead of the "old Darrin/new Darrin" foolishness, just have the character able to (in times of extreme danger only) transform from one actor to the next. Out with Eccleston, in with Tennant!

Shall I also reveal just how much of a nerd I am? Why not! When I was first starting this, and trying to figure out the chronology and the actors and all, I realized that the ninth Doctor is Christopher Eccleston (Eccleston has nine letters), and the tenth Doctor is David Tennant (Tennant, right?). Bingo, I can now remember which is who. I'm sure this is very old news to the faithful, but I came up with it on my own, and was as proud as can be. I'm all about the mnemonics, me.

Of course, using the library does have its issues. The biggest pro is, it's free, and that is big. The biggest con, I think, is that they sometimes will let other people take out things I want, so that they are not immediately available for me. Can you believe the nerve? And the next con is that you can borrow each one for seven days, which seems like a very short time when it means you can't borrow ahead very far, but a very long time when you're waiting for others to return things.

For example, I went to the library one day to pick up series two, and found discs 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Two is out. That was a week and a half ago, and it's still not mine. Humph. And you know that when 2 comes in, 3 will be out. But there's no point in borrowing 3 while waiting for 2. (Actually, I took 3 out when I got 1, in case 2 came in that week, but it didn't.) I hate waiting.

I initially found it ... ah, interesting that the library broke up the set to loan out the discs individually. I'm of two minds about the practice. On the one hand, no pressure to watch all the episodes in the space of a week. On the other, you may end up requesting and waiting for discs and be frustrated like the above example.

Actually, different libraries have different policies, meaning I can sometimes get the complete season in another place (but there are, presumably, six times as many people requesting it, so the wait tends to be longer). This is one of those times when having cards to three different library systems* works in my favor.

*I realized the other day that I have two of those (14-digit) card numbers memorized, while I can never remember my (9-digit) driver's license number. It may have been (okay, was) less secure when your Social Security Number** was your license number, but at least I could remember it.

**I understand that babies are issued SSNs now, is that right? At birth, I mean, or possibly in utero. Gather 'round Grandma, kiddies, while I tell you what it was like Back in the Day. I believe I was 13 when I got mine. (Of course, that's 26 years ago, giving me plenty of time to memorize nine whole digits.) Excuse me while I totter off to rest now.

Confused yet? Me, too.