The Wonder Years was about the growing pains and uncertainties of a teenager Kevin Arnold, with the turbulent 60s-70s US as the backdrop. There is plenty of nostalgic and contemplative music from that period, which I feel was also a big drawcard. This TV series will always have a special place for me (along with Happy Days as a matter of fact) probably because I had recently completed high school and was fresh into university and was still able to relate to some of the issues portrayed in the series. The quality of the video is actually not very good, seemingly recorded directly from normal TV broadcast. But heck, I will take this bootleg collection any day since it seems more and more unlikely that this series will to ever be officially released the entire series because of licensing rights for the numerous songs (more than 200 according to a reviewer on Amazon) used throughout the series.

A quote from the show sums up the trials of growing aptly.

When you’re a little kid you’re a bit of everything; Scientist, Philosopher, Artist. Sometimes it seems like growing up is giving these things up one at a time.

ps. This video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KoEi1zXwBg is no longer available, as of January 2011.

The final episode, which is actually part of a 2-episode season finale and aptly titled “The final journey”, in a sense ties up many loose ends. After the hustle and bustle, everyone had someone to return to, or almost anyway. In the end, the parting of ways was almost matter-of-fact, without the emotional attachments we are more used to in previous episodes/years when Doctor’s companions left the show.

I don’t know how the rest of the audience will react, but for me, while the episode was very exciting to watch (packing in many twists and turns in an extended 60-odd-minute episode, compared to the usual 50 minutes or so), I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss knowing that some of the familiar faces will probably never return again in the future seasons. Furthermore, there is a sense of loss for the Doctor too – portrayed brilliantly by David Tennant – who will set out on a new journey alone, yet again: the life of a traveller knowing he may be the last of his kind and yet unable to stop. For me the sadness and inevitability is best summed up in the scene when he could not say the words Rose wanted to hear, but the “humanised” Doctor could and did…

For those who are unfamiliar with the BBC TV series Doctor Who, it “is in fact the longest-running science fiction television series in the history of broadcasting, a series that began on the BBC1 network in the United Kingdom in November 1963 and ran until 1989.”, according to Outpost Gallifrey which is seemingly the most comprehensive site on Doctor Who at the moment. It was eventually returned to TV in early 2005 for all new adventures.

Doctor Who was created as a show for older children to be aired late Saturday afternoons and, due to a sudden boost during its first season caused by a race of mechanical nasties called the Daleks, became an overnight British sensation. This is a story about the adventures of an alien – in human form, of course – known as the Doctor who travels around the galaxy and through time with his various companions. He is a Time Lord and is therefore able to regenerate himself from time to time (during near-death experiences), with each incarnation played by a different actor and taking on very different personalities.

My first experience with Doctor Who was during my secondary school days. After watching a few episodes of TV series, I was immediately hooked. After that I watched every single episode shown on free-to-air TV (mainly episodes of the third, fourth and sixth Doctors) and read all the books accompanying the BBC series I could get my hands on from the local library. Naturally I was a little sad when the show was eventually axed. However, all is not lost and there is new life to the Doctor finally and I look forward to catching up with the Doctor again!

It is quite a refreshing experience to watch Doctor Who while being able to browse additional information on the internet, such as episode guides, tidbits on characters/actors and so on. In fact, this is not unlike the “interactive” experience I had while reading the Da Vinci Code when I was able to immediately find more information about various locations or myths while going through the book. Ah, the beauty of internet!

Resources returned by Google:

• Outpost Gallifrey, probably the most comprehensive and authoritative source on Doctor Who
• official BBC Doctor Who site
• SciFi.com’s Doctor Who section
• Doctor Who Online
• A Canadian-based Doctor Who guide, where some episode titles are slightly different from the UK versions.
• The Who Universe
• Text-based Doctor Who site in USA