So weird.

I was JUST ranting about Season Two of the beloved BBC “Doctor Who” reboot a couple weeks. As a casual fan and watcher of the sci-fi/fantasy classic that’s the oldest major genre show out there (Who and Strangeways are ‘around’ the same age so…ancient.) I bought my favorite season on DVD at Christmas (Season Four, the one with the deliriously wonderful Catherine Tate as the Doctor’s companion, ‘Donna Noble’) which then led to further interest into acquiring and watching more seasons so we snagged Seasons 2 and 3 of the rebooted show which ran on the BBC for 3 decades or so before it was axed for 15 years and then restarted in 2005 with a new Doctor.

Note for the clueless: the “Doctor” is a time traveling humanoid alien who zips through time and space [but mainly hangs around the UK…] going on adventures with human ‘companions’ while battling all sorts of weird alien species all bent on destroying the earth/galaxy/universe. Most of the aliens are buggy/octopus things living in robot shells for some reason. Cleverly, the creators gave the Doctor the ability to regenerate if he’s mortally wounded…which means if the actor playing the Doctor is bored or no longer pulling in ratings, he can be easily replaced by a new actor. Recently, the show just switched to the 13th Doctor and in a shocking twist, the Doctor is now played by a female actor. (Gaaaaaaasp!)

The rebooted series began with Doctor #9, moody actor Christopher Eccleston who only stayed for one season before being replaced by David Tennant, the Scottish actor best known for playing ‘Barty Crouch Jr’ in “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”. Tennant became HUGELY popular for his role as Doctor #10 and with his companion ‘Rose Tyler’ played by actress/pop singer Billie Piper, they become one of the most beloved teams in “Whovian History”.

But, not without controversy…Rose and her Doctor had a not so subtle ‘thing’ going on, meaning ROMANCE was in the air between the two which delighted many newer fans to “Who” especially women but many older fans grumbled at this travesty in traditional “Doctor/Companion” relations where the Doctor had usually been a more avuncular character, too quirky and odd and OLD (the Doctor is over 900 years old) for romance. Plus, there was the fact that “Doctor Who” was originally created as a children’s show, or family entertainment and hanky panky was not to be a factor in the Doctor’s life and adventures. If romances developed, they were either mild crushes or more likely, developed between a female and a male Companion. Yes, the show has FLIRTED with Doctor Love but it really wasn’t until the Rose Tyler Years that it bloomed into something tangible.

Part of that had to do with the fact that the rebooted series originally cast 3 relatively young, attractive even sexy actors as the their first three Doctors (Eccleston, Tennant and the very young Matt Smith currently on tv screens playing Prince Phillip on “The Crown” and a very popular 11th Doctor with his own set of issues with Companions falling in love with him) while in the past, many of the Doctors had either been rather old and/or far too strange to be desirable as practical mates.

I got turned on to the new “Who” because of my love for the British comedian Catherine Tate and very much enjoyed her one year turn as the Doctor’s decidedly NON-romantic interest. She was a pal to the Doctor and while she cared very much for the exasperating old sod, she was not the slightest bit interested in his body or hearts (he has two actually…) I had dipped my toe into seeing bits and pieces of pre-Catherine Tate episodes (meaning prior to “her” season, which was the 4th and ran in 2008) but hadn’t really committed until purchasing Seasons 2 and 3 in the last few weeks. What I had seen, I hadn’t loved much…the Doctor/Rose Tyler Affair in Season 2 and then the subsequent problematic relationship with the Doctor’s next companion, feisty medical student Martha Jones (played by Freema Agyeman and the Doctor’s first full time Companion of color in the show’s history up to that time.)

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, that long, drawn out exposition out of the way, let’s get to the poo about everyone but me’s favorite “Doctor/Companion Love Couple” of Doctor #10/Rose Tyler coming to the upcoming EMERALD CITY COMIC CON, March 1-4, 2018 at the Washington State Convention Center in downtown Seattle. Yes, David Tennant and the lovely Billie Piper will be there on Thursday/Friday (and the just added Saturday) of the convention!

You can even pay rather large amounts of money to get their autograph and a photo! (Go Here to pre-register for those sessions…)

Surprisingly, there are still tickets available for ECCC…4 Day passes are of course long gone as are tickets for Saturday, but you can still grab individual day tickets for Thurs/Fri/Sunday. Go HERE to snag them. 

There’s other stars to check out at Comic Con…like humpy Harry Potter co-star Matthew Lewis…

Tags: Billie Piper, david tennant, ECCC 2018, Emerald City Comic Con, Matthew Lewis