The BBC seems younger, all of a sudden. The growing longevity of the resurrected Doctor Who is a success story for the network, even if, at the time, BBC suits said revisiting Doctor Who would never work.
As the new season has shown — Saturday's episode is the sixth of the new Doctor Who's sixth season — every new Doctor infuses fresh energy and attitude into one of TV's longest-running serial dramas.
And Matt Smith, the youngest and arguably most eccentric of all the actors to have donned the cape and scarf of the universe's sole remaining Time Lord, has not just made Doctor Who his own.
He has earned the show some respect. Smith's recent BAFTA nomination, the U.K. equivalent of an Emmy, is the first acting nod for a serialized sci-fi show that can trace its origins back to 1963.
Smith has imbued the role with a buoyant wit, but there are also moments of genuine empathy and emotion there.
Look beneath the flashy exterior, and Doctor Who is no wafer-thin superhero tale. As the last new episode showed, it can also be a sobering meditation on the nature of existence and what it means to be human.
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