‘Doctor Who’ thing of the day: Amy’s voiceover intro for the international episodes — good or bad?

I was a little upset to hear from friends and fellow Doctor Who fans in the U.S. that the BBC America versions of the episodes in the current season have been opening with a voiceover by Amy, setting up the scenario. I finally got a look — and hear — at the intro thanks to Ken, who sent this video:



As the bug on the bottom right of this screengrab video indicates, ABC1 in Australia is also running the intros; if this is the international version of Doctor Who, I presume that it’s the same on Space in Canada as well as on BBC America in the U.S.

What Amy says:

When I was a little girl, I had an imaginary friend. And when I grew up, he came back. He’s called the Doctor. He comes from somewhere else. He’s got a box called the TARDIS that’s bigger on the inside and can travel anywhere in time and space. I ran away with him, and we’ve been running ever since.

I have to say that this really bugs me. It makes it sound as if we don’t know anywhere near as much about the Doctor as we do. (We know perfectly well where the “somewhere else” he comes from is.) It makes it sound as if Doctor Who is all about Amy. Which it isn’t. One of the things I’ve loved most about New Who is that it has been about the Doctor — as a character, as a man — in ways that the classic series rarely went near. This appears to negate that.

Yes, sure, the episodes themselves are the same as we see in the U.K. (or, at least on BBC America, they air the first time unedited, even if they are edited for subsequent rebroadcast). But still: this messes with Doctor Who in ways that annoy me.

Am I alone in this?

(If you stumble across a cool Doctor Who thing, feel free to email me with a link.)

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