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As we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves
― William Hartnell
The clever people at CERN are smashing particles together in the hope that Doctor Who will turn up and tell them to stop
― Ben Aaronovitch, Moon Over Soho
We're all stories, in the end.
― Steven Moffat |
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Stuck at home? Looking for something to do? Perhaps some TV show to binge?
Might I suggest Doctor Who?
You've heard of it, I'm sure, but basically, it's a story about an alien in a box who travels with companions throughout time and space and has adventures along the way.
While it leans more toward the science fiction side of things than fantasy, this long-running British TV show has featured elements of almost every genre imaginable. In its history, it's certainly had its ups and downs; real stinkers as well as excellent stories. Overall, though, I think it's worth it. But it also has the most episodes of any SF TV show ever, even more than Star Trek, so there's a lot out there.
Chances are you're already familiar with it. If not, something that's been around (with a brief hiatus mostly through the 1990s) since 1963 can seem daunting to newcomers. So, if you're not familiar with it, but think you might be interested, I have some suggestions for how to approach the show. And I'm going to try to do this without too many spoilers, even though there are spoilers all over everywhere.
For example, this happened in one village in the UK.
The way they've kept the show going this long was due to a trick they pulled back in the 60s: the titular character, known only as The Doctor, has the ability to "regenerate," taking on a new form at physical death. This gives the producers the opportunity to replace the actors periodically, each with his or her new take on the character. As of this writing, there have been, canonically, thirteen Doctors -- though there are some caveats to that; but I promised few spoilers.
Now, if you're like me, when you binge-watch a TV show, you probably start at the beginning and watch the episodes in order.
This is a problematic approach to Doctor Who. For one thing, by today's standards, the early episodes were painfully primitive, produced on a shoestring, and require a great deal of suspension of disbelief. The best way to look at them, I think, is to pretend you're watching a stage production. A particularly low-budget, community theater stage production.
The stories, in my opinion, are worth it.
For another thing, many of the earlier episodes, including some of those featuring the First Doctor, and many of those featuring the Second Doctor, have been lost. Fans have recreated all of them, using production stills and audio recordings - and, in some cases, animation. But it appears that a number of serials from the classic era are lost forever (the BBC, which is publicly-funded, went through a period in the 1970s where they reused old video tape to save money). This is unfortunate, because the Second Doctor was, in my personal opinion, one of the best.
For a third thing, the classic series can be hard to find. As far as I've been able to determine, no one streaming site has all of them. But that's generally okay unless you're a rabid completionist; up until the time of the Fourth Doctor, the BBC wasn't big on things like series-long story arcs, continuity, or much concern about what has come before -- though there are exceptions. And it's not until the modern era, which began in 2005, that these concepts really started to become entrenched. This isn't usually a big problem; in a show featuring time travel, past events tend to be mutable.
So for these reasons, my opinion, which is mine, would be to make the 2005 revival your entry point if you're seeing it for the first time. Even that might seem daunting (even though there's not quite a full 15 series, or seasons, since then), in which case I'd suggest starting with the debut of the current Thirteenth Doctor, series 11, from October 2018.
From there, you could just stick with the twenty-first century series, or, at some point, go back and see if you can find early episodes. Just be prepared; the formats are very different. I'd definitely recommend watching at least some of the older ones before getting to the fiftieth anniversary storylines. The newer stories are largely self-contained, but there are certainly some Easter eggs and returning bad-guys from the classic era.
Or maybe you've seen some of the revived series and have been wondering about the classic era -- in which case I'd suggest you go ahead and dive into the classic episodes.
Here is a resource that could help a newbie viewer of Doctor Who. The Wikipedia page goes a long way to explaining the production timeline. It's about the revived series, but has a link to a list of classic episodes.
Now, some people, inexplicably, don't like the show. But you never know until you give it a shot. And as the first link above demonstrates, it's escaped its boundaries and become part of pop culture -- not just in the UK, but here in the US as well as other countries. |
In keeping with the theme, this week's picks lean toward science fiction.
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Fantasy: April 08, 2020 Issue [#10108]
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