I first stumbled upon Doctor Who in 2011. Matt Smith was the Doctor then. The Girl Who Waited was the episode… Season 6, Episode 10. I saw the white room and the twisted gardens and gasped. This is it! This is where it all started…for me anyway.

I analyzed this episode, not with a wide-eyed curiosity as I had so long before. Instead, I soaked in all the answers to my questions as they rolled in. Suddenly, in context, everything made sense. I did laugh at the irony of the Doctor. I have viewed over 800 Doctor Who episodes. Not once has that man ever stayed in the TARDIS. Not once has he ever sat back, giving verbal advice while someone else runs into the face of danger. Of all the episodes, this had to be the most un-Doctor episode I could have seen. Ironic that this would be my first.

Unlike all other episodes, in this story, the Doctor is cold, calculative, not funny, serious, so insanely smart…oh good god was he sharp. There was no running (for him anyway). No jelly babies. No twenty foot scarves, quirky clothes, or cheerful recorders. There were no witty one liners or quotes from Shakespeare. Only the Doctor, his brain, and a woman he desperately tried to save. A woman who vowed to hate him. I remember then wondering why she would hate the Doctor so much. And who was this Doctor person anyway?

It feels like forever since I have been full circle 2011. And here it is now almost 2017. It would take me an entire five years to determine where to begin. It would take me another year just to get to this point.

Story. Just another story. Isn’t it? A story betwixt with adventure, romance, excitement, danger, saving of the worlds, philosophy, detective work, and oh…so much more. This is a story that makes you think. It makes you cry, and laugh. It makes you analyze and question and puzzle. And oh, does he make you puzzle him.