Who's turning fifty: Part one

Another anniversary, for another famous fictional icon,
is materialising fast

(With apologies to the Radio Times)

Most of my writing about Doctor Who (and there’s a vast embarrassment of, well embarrassments, really) has been for other fans, (and can be found here:http://doctorwho.org.nz/ and here: http://www.zeusblog.tetrap.com/) and is therefore pitched at a certain level, for an often very specific brief. ‘Niche’ might be the word I’m looking for, or ‘geeky’, if you prefer.

But a piece which hasn’t been published before, and is hopefully a little more accessible than usual, is this speech I delivered six years ago for a Speechcraft course.

It’s not a spectacular example of public speaking, but it did force me to try to explain my love for Doctor Who to people who weren’t already converted to the same cause, and possibly even suspicious or dismissive of the programme.

Whether my captive audience found the following three minutes entertaining or not, I couldn’t say, but I found it a useful exercise in questioning what to me what is unquestionable, and asking why anyone should watch this wonderfully-silly little programme..

Why the Doctor is Good for you (2007)

I have a secret affliction. 

It’s been described by some as the social equivalent of a venereal disease, with symptoms which include being very unlikely to see a woman naked until you‘re well into your twenties.

It doesn’t so much break families up as ensure that they’re never started in the first place. Tap-dancing your way to social ridicule is so last century – this will do it for you in seconds.

I am a Doctor Who fan. 

Particularly since the unbelievably-popular revival of the programme a couple of years ago I now know that I’m far from alone, so I’m going to justify this affliction, and prove that it’s good for you.

1. General Knowledge

The programme is older than I am – 44 years old this November, in fact.

When it first began it was intended to be educational – oh yes! – because you see, the lead character, the Doctor, is essentially a scholar, an explorer and a scientist.

The programme may not always use ‘real science’ but when it does, it always strives to get it right.  Consequently countless gems of physics, chemistry and biology rattle about inside my brain because I’ve seen or heard them on Doctor Who!  These same gems have led some others to pursue careers in science, taking them in directions of  research which may one day benefit all of us.

The Doctor is also a Time traveller, which very intentionally opens up history to its audience.  We get to meet figures from Nero to Richard the Lionheart, to Charles Dickens and experience events from the eruption of Vesuvius to the French revolution first hand.  While being entertained we learn.  And I know this because with every crossword or quiz I’ve ever done in my life I’ve owed at least a couple of correct answers to Doctor Who.

2. Values

I don’t mean in a preachy US sitcom sort of way, definitely not.

The irony of Doctor Who is that it takes a 900 year old time-travelling alien with two hearts to demonstrate the best qualities of being human. 

How to be brave when the monsters come, but tolerant and gracious when encountering something different.

To be interested in everything and to abhore violence, cruelity and oppression.

To always try to use brains over brawn and wits over weaponery.

To be passionate in your beliefs, to uphold the rights of the individual and to never lose your sense of wonder, no matter how old or well-travelled you are.

I think it’s better to have these things reinforced by a television programme than not at all.

3.  Creativity

Lets return to the nature of being a Geek  I’ll be the first to admit that the more extreme examples can be a little socially challenged.  In fact I’ve seen and heard sights you wouldn’t believe but I hope to keep this speech at an acceptable length, this week, so I’ll move on

With this unfortunate ‘nerdery’ also comes surprising intelligence, creativity and motivation.  Some call it the geek gene, some compare it to a strain of autism, but what geeks lack in social graces they seem to have in abundance creatively. 

I myself missed out on the intelligence, but over the last two decades have illustrated books and magazines, written and had published reviews, essays and a short story, and even drawn a couple of comic strips about Doctor Who.

A young relative, who’s interest has nothing to do with me, honest, struggled a little at school until he got his first ever ‘A’.  It was for a project on, well, I think you can guess.  This gave him a taste for the satisfaction in doing something well and his marks have stayed good ever since.

In another league altogether, the current production team and even lead actor of the new series are all top in the fields they work in because they grew up as Doctor Who fans.  The lunatics really have taken over the asylum, but it must be a good thing because the programme wins BAFTA’s these days.

So you see, watching Doctor Who can offer you brain food, a moral compass and a creative catalyst – it’s all there.

And I haven’t even mentioned what fantastic fun it is, the sheer joy of escaping reality for a while and getting lost in the lunacy and ingenuity of it all.

Thank you.

 

The Old One-Two

The new Doctor is actually anything but...

 

As much as I sometimes moan about my job, it does occasionally put me in a very privileged position.  My reputation, if not outright infamy for the interests highlighted in this blog mean that I sometimes get to interview stars and writers of genre TV.  These interviews are often drastically cut for space reasons, so fascinating, if more ‘arcane’ information is left undisclosed. I hope to remedy this and reproduce some of these fuller transcripts in future postings, but what I’m posting here is the result one of the rare occurrences when editors actually cared about my opinion.

Peter Capaldi was revealed to the world as Doctor Number 12 on August 4, and it was decided that a short piece from a life-long Doctor Who fan might be interesting.  Whether it was or not, I was only too happy to oblige, because I was more excited about this new Doctor casting than… well, probably ever.

Every new Doctor announcement through the decades was usually met by anxiety, resignation or utter confusion from me, but this time I wanted to punch the air – or at least the overhead luggage rack as I was commuting when I found out.

I’d been a fan of Capaldi’s since the exquisite 1983 film Local Hero.  Although the world now seems to know him as the majestically profane Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of it (despite a CV as long as a Who fan’s scarf) to me he will always be the awkward, besotted but determined young Danny Olsen, clambering over the rocks of a Scottish beach in his business suit and vainly pursuing Jenny Seagrove.

The fact that Capaldi acquitted himself so well facing the perhaps misguided BBC live announcement special in August, emerging from reality TV-tinged spectacle with dignity intact and some wonderful quotes to sustain us until his debut, speaks volumes.  This is an experienced and highly-regarded actor who’s going straight to the top of the favourite Doctors list, just you wait and see.

Here is the unedited piece which I submitted:

I was hiding behind the sofa from Doctor Who before I had even learned to walk and it quickly became love at first fright. 

Over the years I’ve managed to develop some awareness of when beginning a conversation with “So, who’s your favourite Doctor Who?” might not be appropriate, (answer: probably never), but yesterday it seemed that everyone wanted to talk about it.  Certainly there were more important issues in the news, but the item which had me searching online during my morning commute into Wellington was the announcement of the twelfth Doctor Who: 55-year-old Scot Peter Capaldi.

My reaction and it seems that I’m not alone, is that it feels as if the universe has finally come back into kilter.  Similarly-aged fan friends are happily posting that they are now younger than the actor playing the Doctor for the first time in eight years.  And perhaps for the first time since Peter Davison took the title role in 1981, (hot property at the time for All Creatures Great and Small), everyone seems to know who the ‘new guy’ is.  Many have seen his work (Local Hero, The Thick of It) and are excited about what he can bring to Doctor Who.

On the other hand, in the direct opposition to Davison’s casting (who at the time was the youngest Doctor ever); nay-sayers are now responding with: “But Capaldi’s too old!”

The programme is fifty this year, and has certainly been around longer than I have, but recently it has been making me feel like the old-timer.  Young floppy-haired poster-boy Doctors, adored by their female companions and famous women throughout history, have taken the programme to new heights of popularity and broken into that elusive female viewership market at last.  I’m delighted that there are now legions of teenage girls with Doctor Who posters on their walls; it was utterly unthinkable ‘in my day’.  But to be honest, I find it a little difficult to relate to the modern series sometimes.  My yearning for the days of a more patrician Doctor probably only makes me look outdated to contemporary fans.  And that’s OK, I was happy to turn the programme over to them, it didn’t really feel like mine anymore.  Screenings of Doctor Who episodes at the Embassy Theatre attended by young fans of both sexes dressed to the hilt as their favourite characters have taken place this year.  I didn’t go - somehow I think I’d feel like the embarrassing dad at a teenage party who doesn’t have the sense to stay off the dance floor.

But the programme has always been about change, and suddenly its makers have made an incredibly brave, but to me eminently sensible decision – the Doctor will be outwardly a man of experience once again.  I believe a versatile, seasoned actor can once again steer the programme in a new direction, but still take the younger audience it has worked so hard to capture along for the ride.  A tall order perhaps, but with Capaldi, I’m confident the TARDIS will be in good hands.