Doctor and Papa

I am a geek. As you know, that usually means a deep love bordering on the obsessive of many many things. I certainly grew up on Star Wars and Friends and Quantum Leap and Pulp Fiction and Kubrick and bits of everything, most of which deserve their own entries, but my main crack was comics. Mostly superhero comics, a topic that will definitely get its own entry.

It's funny how some things you enjoy float on an orbit nearby others, close but far enough to miss them. (While I love Star Wars, I never came close to Star Trek.)

On Pinterest, if you are a geek, you get assaulted by a million pins about shows or books or movies you never gave a chance to, but the love their fans profess make you want to give them a chance.

And for me, that one thing I gave the chance to was Doctor Who.

I knew about it and of it, how the British grew up on it, how they were all scared as children, peculiar special effects and I remember visiting my comic book store and looking at a cover of the Marvel UK comic, a non superpowered funny man with a long scarf and lots of hair running towards the reader.

My thoughts? No superpowers? No costume? No thanks.

From what I could tell from Pinterest, the show had been on hiatus for a long time, and you didn't need to know much about the backstory from the almost 50 year history of the character.

So I went to my drug dealer of choice( Netflix), and, one night when the kid had fallen asleep and so had the momma, I sat down and watched the first episode, the aptly named "Rose."

This was some ramdom night in November. Today, it's July, and Papa can tell you, not only did I grow up on geekstuffs, but also on videogames, and Shakespeare and Jack London and Hitchcock and Lost and I thought I knew it all, but the thing is, Doctor Who has become my favorite fictional character of all time.

The concept is truly simple and brilliant, this humanlike alien travels through all of time and space, speaking in a British accent, having adventures with an audience proxy, usually a girl, who serves as his companion and friend.

In a matter of a few episodes, I had become as excited and as giddy as I hadn't been by the discovery of anything new since I first discovered the X-Men twenty two years ago, when I was thirteen. Here was a character of high whimsy, smart, brilliant, caring, moral, to whom no one was unimportant. Unlike any hero I had ever followed before, the Doctor's might lies not in his fists or in his ammunition, but in his intentions: everyone must live.

Without having to rely on weapons or on point-and-click powers or punchy moves, the BBC and the show's caretakers created the ultimate superhero: orphaned, lost, damaged, but rebellious enough to see the beauty and value in all of creation. Not to mention that ever since the days of Marty McFly and Quantum Leap, time travel has been one of my favorite storytelling devices.

I decided not to watch too many episodes at a time, instead just watching one or two. A month and a half had gone by, and I was bursting at the seams with fandom; my every other thought was a theory from the episode I watched the night before, and I just had to share it. 

The one person I want to share anything with is with Momma, and I was all excited and jumpy like a two year old: "YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS WITH ME."  I made her a Harry Potter fan, a Marvel fan, I made her watch Star Wars with me, I knew she would love it too.

I'm happy to report that she probably loves it more.

I'll let her explain how the show changed her, but I had no idea a sci fi show could bring a couple so close together, or make them hold hands and bring out tissue paper so often!

So, yes, I am, we are, once the kid's been put to bed, Whovians.

Till next time,

-Poppa.