Perhaps the one nice thing I’m willing to say about Netflix streaming (after the massive log-in service outage that occurred on Sunday night that they won’t apologize for and the absurd price increase) is that they do have a deep catalog of streaming TV series. Even a year ago, you would be able to stream maybe half of a season of a TV show before you’d have to order the discs. This is now a rarity.

One of the shows I’ve been able to experience for the first time is the long-running British sci-fi favorite Doctor Who. I knew all about the mythology. I could identify TARDIS from a line-up of phone booths and emergency boxes and I could explain the regeneration and many forms of the doctor. But I hadn’t actually experienced the show until last week when I buckled. I resisted it because all too often I just don’t like a sci-fi TV program. This is not one of those cases.

The 2005 revival of the series adds flashy computer graphics and a younger-leaning cast to the halls of Doctor mythology. The Doctor (played this season by Christopher Eccleston) returns to earth in 2006 to prevent the Autons–plastic aliens that mimick other species–from conquering the planet. In the process, he meets a young shop clerk named Rose. Because of the Doctor’s efforts to destroy the Autons, he puts Rose out of a job. They continually bump into each other until they defeat the alien species together and launch off in the TARDIS–time traveling ship disguised as a police call box–for more adventures.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the series for me is the strange continuity.

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