So.
I am one of those people you may or may not have met yet, but possibly you have.
I like Doctor Who.
A lot.
There are a lot of people out there who like Doctor Who as well, and in the last few years there have been more and more just pouring out of the woodwork now that the series is everywhere. Time was there was no such thing as mainstream Who and those who knew of the series were in a definite minority even among other science fiction enthusiasts, but now there is a lot more of it about; it gets referenced in pop culture, there are heaps of t shirts and cute socks and desktop ornaments and all sorts of baubles from the marketing gold mine. Characters in other TV series (most notably Big Bang Theory for it's uber-geek bent) mention the show in passing now as casually as they might have mentioned Twilight Zone or Outer Limits to express a disbelief at the unusual and the strange, or maybe just because the writers wanted their characters to sound cool for their knowledge of the Newest Big Thing in science fiction.
In the lore of the series itself, the Doctor is everywhere. And it seems as if life has imitated art.
Doctor Who was not always what it is today. It was by no means THE show that everyone was watching, at least not to the extent of rabid media buzz and hyped visits by the current cast and producer to places far overseas to promote the series. Indeed, original producer Verity Lambert did not take William Hartnell, Carole Anne Ford, William Russell and Jacqueline Hill to Mexico or South Korea to promote the series; a publicity shot of the cast and crew toasting the series with a glass of champagne at BBC Television Centre was often as good as it got. Back then, it was relatively unknown in the global theatre, being seen mainly in the UK and some other places within the Commonwealth, but the big screaming hoopla of hype that comes with North American audiences was simply not there.
The series started in 1963 right after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and it was almost as dead as the US President himself because it was a ratings bomb at its premiere. The BBC were taking a chance on the concept and allowing its outspoken Canadian creator, Sydney Newman, to take even more chances by hiring the first female producer in BBC history to craft the show for their audience. So when nobody turned out to watch a science fiction series about adventures in time and space right after a prominent world leader was murdered in the street, it seemed like the Doctor and his companions were defeated before they even began their travels. But through perseverance and determination, the production team made their case for the show and it soared to record heights a few weeks later at the introduction of the series' mainstay villains: the Daleks.
That was over 51 years ago, and Doctor Who is still around. True there was that 18 month absence of the show back in 1986. There was what they thought was the final episode in December 1989, although everyone in the higher offices scrambles to maintain that they had every intention of bringing the show back, but that's from their post 2005 perspective when it was a sudden huge flavour hit and no one wanted to say anything bad about it. And maybe they did have such plans, which were thankfully not realized if the disastrous TV movie from 1996 was any indicator of what we would have had. There were always hints that the Doctor would return, though. He never really left; all the time there was no Doctor Who on TV there was certainly no absence of it on bookshelves with a successful novel series carrying on from where the original "classic" series ended in 1989. There were radio plays. There was a stage play starring two of the TV series' actors in their roles as the Doctor. Home video brought the Doctor to a whole new audience, and continued to supply fans of the "classic" era with delight anytime any of the missing black and white episodes turned up. And where the episodes were missing in visual form, there were off air recordings released commercially to bridge those gaps, so even though you couldn't see the missing episodes, you could certainly hear them. Along with those releases came new audio adventures with "classic" cast members reprising their original roles in stories meant to mesh seamlessly with their own eras. In 2005, though, the series was back on TV and looking incredible and attracting huge audiences around the world. It seemed that everyone wanted a new hero, and the Doctor's time had come.
This is the bit where I get a bit subjective. I was born in 1971 and got my first taste of the Doctor's adventures when I was 8, maybe 9. At that time there was Star Wars everything, Star Trek was in syndication, and Glen A. Larson was providing networks with series such as Battlestar Galactica, Knight Rider and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. A lot of money was being spent on network mass market sci fi, and there was Doctor Who as the underdog, chugging along in a doggedly British way on Public Broadcasting in the US (Buffalo 17 for me) and TVOntario to name but one in Canada. By the time I saw it, Doctor Who was already about 15 years old and I had no idea what I was getting myself into, I only knew that there was something incredible happening on TV and it was not the same thing my friends were watching. Yeah I watched all that other stuff but when it came to sheer enjoyment, it was me and the Doctor all the way. Yes, it's fair to say that I grew up watching the show, and I enjoyed this somewhat aloof attitude it allowed me to carry off like I was in on some huge secret that no-one else was. But then again by the time I was really digging the rich history that was the show I was a teenager and we all know what they're like when they want to be different, right?
Now it's 2015 and there are more people who call themselves Doctor Who fans than ever, and out of them I would say maybe 80% haven't got a fucking clue what they're talking about. They wear the t shirts, they wear the idiotic bow ties and fezzes of the worst Doctor in series history and call themselves mega fans, but they have never seen anything from before 2005. I remember I was out with a friend of mine somewhere in Toronto and the subject of the show came up and she said she liked it but hastened to add "The new stuff, though, not the old," like there was something wrong with the original series. Indeed, there are some of these new fans out there who refer to past Doctors as the worst ones ever and fall on current Doctor Peter Capaldi as their new savior (and a lot of this was before his episodes even made a debut, go figure) because to not like the current everything about the show is Not What Fans Do.
Hi. I'm a fan. And I have HATED every second of the current run of Doctor Who since April 3, 2010, when the first episode starring Matt Smith as the Doctor, The Eleventh Hour, was broadcast. I watched in horror as new executive producer Steven Moffat went berzerk with self indulgent smugness and turned my favourite show EVER into mass market mush. I wanted to believe when Smith left in a Christmas special in 2013 that there was hope, that we were going to see something better, and while Peter Capaldi as a lifelong fan himself brought something back to the role that Smith could never manage (credibility, class... the list is long) there was still this Moffat presence hanging over it all, steering the series further away from something special and more into his own ego driven custom version. Ironically, Moffat calls himself a fan but makes sure to tell everyone that he is not making a series for fans to enjoy because it would limit it (which is really anti-creative speak for it doesn't sell enough plastic crap to keep his BBC paymasters happy).
There is nothing that burns me more than hearing the new followers of Moffat's vision go on about what big fans they are and know that they have no appreciation for the series that made this current tripe possible. "OHMYGOD Clara is, like, TOTALLY my favourite companion EVER," some will say. Clara sucks. I really liked Zoe. And Barbara. And Ace. These names mean nothing to some of these new fans.
So here's what I am going to do.
After I watched the last season of the series with Peter Capaldi as the Doctor and was let down again and again by pointless plot points and uninteresting characters I swore I needed a break to wash the foul taste of it all out of my mouth. I did not watch the 2014 Christmas special; I pulled out my DVD box sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Babylon 5, and decide to watch all of these series again before watching more Doctor Who.
Once I am done all of them, I am starting again. From the start. Even from before the start, really; I am going to read the "prequel" novellas published by Telos Press and then go back to the televised series and watch the episodes. But that's not all. Armed with my own continuity guide I am going to pause the viewing and read novels that were written to fit in between televised episodes. And where the episodes do not exist, I will listen to the audio versions, and the new audio stories by Big Finish which feature original series characters. And when I hit a crossover series such as Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures or Blake's 7 (which is admittedly a stretch but it comes so close to touching Doctor Who it's a crime that it never happened) I will include those as well, and their audio stories and their novels.
The last time I did anything like this it took me 3 years and that was the TV series and a selection of audio stories alone. This might take a bit longer, but it will be time well spent. And I will share all my thoughts on here. It's possible that no-one is even going to read this because blogs are a dime a dozen, I know, and blogs by ranting elitists even more so.
Bit I want to tell the story of the Doctor and I. I am not yet ready to start the project, though - I figure it is going to be close to Easter 2015 by the time I get going. Meanwhile though, I am sure I will come up with other bits to serve as an intro to what is going to be a big project.
And it's one I hope I can enjoy sharing.
