Cut my story some slack for a couple reasons: I’m exhausted from Comic Con/Wizard World Austin and the UK is six hours ahead. If anybody spoils the special for me, so help me…Nelson, I’m looking in your direction ever since BSG.
On to the heart of the post…
Being almost a generation older, the definitive actor to play the Doctor will always be Tom Baker, aka The Fourth Doctor, and the person to actively hold the role the longest; eight seasons. Tom’s run is probably when most Americans got wind of the show through various PBS stations carrying it. I readily admit David Tennant definitely put his mark upon the well-loved character yet he belongs to the newer, younger fans. Let’s just say Tom v. David is the UK’s version of Shatner v. Stewart with America’s obsession franchise.
I stumbled upon Doctor Who sometime after we moved to Houston. Enthralled by our new 36-channel cable TV system, I was lounging around one Saturday morning surfing because MTV wasn’t holding my interest for once. Then I saw something involving shooting, a robot dog and a scantily clad lady. (It was an episode with Leela and K-9 accompanying Tom Baker.) I recall cheesy laser effects and I could hear the British accents but I changed the channel quickly due to it looking super lame; compared to Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers’ special effects’ budgets.
After we moved to Indianapolis, Doctor Who returned on my personal radar. There non-PBS stations carried it. A couple other kids at school explained the show’s premise and still I thought, “It looks rather crappy yet it is very British.” However, I would skim over TV Guide, check for any episodes with at least an interesting premise whenever I was bored and desperate to watch TV.
The first placed I resided where I found a dedicated, better-educated fan base was Philly. Before the Russell Davies’ reboot, Doctor Who seemed to be an British-Canadian-East Coast thing. The show’s base weakened as you travelled west in my experience. The Summer of 1987 with my parents in Philly strengthened my understanding. I also got hooked watching the daily serials (most stories were broken up into four or six-parts of almost 30 minutes) or weekend “movies.” The majority were Tom Baker runs with some Peter Davison.
I continued to follow the Doctor but he was pretty low on my Sci-Fi radar compared to Star Trek in the Eighties. Its two cancellations were a shame was my reaction yet it would be one more thing Thatcher could be blamed for; she despised the BBC.
Fox’s attempt to re-invigorate Doctor Who in the mid-Nineties was flawed despite having it open with Sylvester McCoy’s “death.” Whoever was in charge didn’t know the source material well and you can tell it was done on the cheap for an American production:
- Vancouver bears little resemblance to San Francisco.
- I like Eric Roberts but having him as the Master was a stretch.
- Replacing McCoy with even lesser-known Paul McGann probably puzzled audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
I missed seeing its debut in 1996 to boot. Sci-Fi/SyFy re-aired when the Davies stuff took off. The only good thing to say…Paul McGann as the eighth doctor is cannon.
After the Nineties, I concluded that the only way to bring Doctor Who back would be to widen its audience, namely get Americans to like it beyond PBS viewers. The first step involved casting a Brit many Americans knew, say Rowan Atkinson; his comedy bit as the Doctor was clever. Second step required a larger budget to have effects on par with the weekly Star Trek shows; by partnering with a major US network, this could be easily achieved.
It’s a good thing the BBC ignored my advice! They did follow it a tad with the budget by having it co-funded through three, maybe four networks if your cable bill chips in via BBC America. I’m glad the show runners were able to keep Doctor Who distinctly British with the principal casting. It’s their program much like Star Trek is ours.
What I’m impressed with is how well they’ve integrated the new, current run with the enormous legacy it has. New fans don’t have to absorb the previous stuff to understand how the story goes. Old fans (like myself) don’t feel like the previous eight doctors were erased or retconned out. It’s similar to the Bond reboot until Skyfall (did Bond come full circle or start over, I side with the former). Meanwhile, American franchises be they comics, TV or film, keep fumbling the ball. All often I see DC and Marvel comics jettison the past half-heartedly, depending upon the character. Doctor Who was rebooted well. The past stuff is there, on a shelf if you want to refer to it, see it or sometimes it is brought out in small servings (Cybermen, Daleks, Nimons, Sontarans). It just isn’t ditched or dumped on top with a huge backstory before the show gets rolling.
The BBC took the best lessons from American and British storytelling. Not every episode is a winner yet it remains compelling.
I am really stoked about catching Matt Smith’s final season on NetFlix, the special and the debut of Peter Capaldi.
Share your memories of how you discovered the show. I know I have a couple cousins I want to hear from!
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