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Tuesday, April 24. 2012
The Regeneration of Dr. Who
What a racket. Are you familiar with the British, BBC franchise TV show — the longest running science fiction show in world history? You probably have no couth if you’re not at least aware of the program. There was a time about 30-plus years ago when Dr. Who was all the rage here in the Colonies. But, like all good things it came to an end. I think, I don’t really know. I stopped watching sometime around the early to mid 1980’s. Who can keep track of these little milestones in one’s history? Especially with mitigating circumstances the likes of which most parents would be horrified to learn were in their children’s lives. Well, maybe not horrified, but at least terribly disappointed.So, Dr. Who was wildly popular in the U.S. for a while and even more so in Great Britain for decades. The gimmick was — what makes it a great racket is, well, let’s put it like this: built in to the character is the plot twisting metamorphosis Dr. Who goes through every so often and changes from one person to another. It’s called “regeneration.” Back in the day it was from one man to another, but this is the 21st Century when women can be equally geeky and nerdy, so Dr. Who could be a woman! Who knows, Dr. Who may have made that leap already and I just don’t know it because I haven’t been following the franchise, not since the early 1980’s.
I just checked on Wikipedia, the Bible for all things about all things, and there has never been a woman Doctor. C’mon man! It’s the 21st Century already!
And let’s be honest here: most of what I have to say on Dr. Who will most likely be bullshit surrounded by the minimal amount of facts necessary to make this post not only “accurate” to some degree, but (hopefully) interesting as well. And, it must be noted, I wasn’t all that into Dr. Who even when it was on my nightly viewing schedule. It was part of the late night regime: The Bob Newhart Show, Letterman and Dr. Who.
Back in the day, Dr. Who was a stoner’s show. It didn’t aspire to be a stoner’s show, the really good ones don’t, it just appealed to that kind of personality. You know: intellectual, or pseudo-intellectual, people with their intelligence stunted by daily abusive usage of marijuana and other mind-altering substances. My humble opinion: Dr. Who was never an LSD kind of show, it was more of a marijuana kind of show. The show was frustrating and slow while tripping on hallucinogens, but warm, fuzzy and thought provoking when smoking pot.
Dr. Who fans were, and maybe still are, like Star Trek fans: obsessive in their idolatry, so much so that when Comic-Con rolls around every year here in Sandy Eggo, Dr. Who-philes will be seen dressed as their favorite version of the character.
Oh yes … and like Trekkies, Whokkies have their favorite era, personage of Dr. Who. There are some Trekkies who swear by the original series, or the original with its spin-off movies. Then there is the Next Generation crowd and they show up to Comic-Con dressed in those costumes and still other Trekkies slavishly adhere to … err … one of the other permutations of the Star Trek franchise.
This is something I found to be curious. That commercial for the Tribeca Film Festival On Demand with Robert De Niro just flashed on the TV. The question is: Why hasn’t De Niro ever showed up as a villain in a Star Trek movie? Okay, totally unrelated tangent.
The point is (getting back to the original thesis of this screed) Dr. Who has a following going back at least one generation, over 40 years to be not so exact. Actually 50 years! Back in the late 1970’s is when I watched the show, up until about 1982. The actor who played The Doctor was Tom Baker. Sadly I can’t recall anything specific about the show with Mr. Baker as the Doctor because, as mentioned earlier, it was a show for stoners and … err … it’s hard to retain specifics for 30 years.As often as I’ve watched every episode of The Bob Newhart Show in syndication, I couldn’t point to any specific episode and explain why I liked it. But with Newhart, we laughed long and loud in every episode, every time we saw the episodes, repeatedly.
Same with Dr. Who, sort of. It was fun watching the Doctor and his lovely assistant, and the Doctor had many “companions” throughout the years. The universal favorite was Mary Jane Smith, played by Elizabeth Sladen. Sadly, Sladen passed away last year at the age of 65. Cancer once again robbing the world of another great figure in the arts. Now that I think of it, Mary Jane was a principle reason the show was so popular.
As I recall there was never any sexual tension between the Time Lord and his female companion (there was a male companion on occasion) because the Time Lord isn’t human like us, he just looks like us. But c’mon, they’re jumping through both time and space, saving planet and galaxy alike in those human forms one would automatically assume were completely anatomically correct. Wouldn’t he feel a little something stirring when his female companions are around?
Just saying, maybe the Doctor and Mary Jane had a long strange trip from some far-flung galaxy to Earth and in the down time Dr. Who says, “You know Mary Jane, I’ve got this anatomically correct male human form and, well, every time I look at you I get this tingly, throbbing sensation in the part they call the crotch!”“I dare say Doctor, I get a little wobbly myself! It’s called being horny!”
“Well then Mary Jane, let’s experiment with the human sexual activity, see what happens!”
“Yes, lets, Doctor! Do you have a manual on human sexuality and sexual practices, or would you prefer I show you? … Oh my Doctor! It’s so big!”
And off they go to some comfortable room in the TARDIS to experiment with sex. And we would hope they read the chapters in the manual that include “foreplay” in the title.
Just a theory. As we can find out from the wildly popular Wikipedia the producers of the latest iteration of the show (started in 2005) relented on the old rule about no sexual or romantic tension between the Doctor and his companions and had the good doctor going so far as to marry one of his assistants. Elisabeth Sladen starred in a Dr. Who spin-off called The Sarah Jane Adventures, but obviously that show has ceased filming. The last episode with Sladen was “The Man Who Never Was.”
And then there’s the TARDIS, the transporter used by the Doctor and his companions to go from one Earthly place to another or some unearthly place. On the outside it looks like a London Police Box, all blue and shiny with a blinking light on top, but inside it’s a palatial manse complete with control room, and rooms for … err … everything else. It takes a special kind of key to get inside and the good Doctor does his thing in it.
There is a “history” to the particular TARDIS used in the show. It malfunctions, sending the Doctor to places unexpected, but where he needs to be and its cloaking device … I’m sorry, I’m confusing Star Trek with Dr. Who, the chameleon circuit is broke and the TARDIS is stuck in the police box motif.
Crazy show, right? It’s one of the most popular programs ever on TV anywhere. On this planet anyway. There might be some longer running hit series on some cable network in a galaxy far, far away from a long time ago … You know, Dr. Who pre-dates Star Trek and Star Wars and not only outlasted both, but has managed to remain more interesting than the two American creations. But I don’t want to be accused (again) of America bashing.
If you watch The Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson, you know the “American On Purpose” is a big fan of Dr. Who. he has a little toy replica of the TARDIS on his desk. Every once in a while he will have a guest who is equally enamored with the Time Lord and their entire segment will be devoted to all things in the Dr. Who universe. I couldn’t swear to it, but I would bet Craig Ferguson shows up at Comic-Con dressed as the Doctor.So, as you might have found out watching Ferguson every night for the past seven years, Dr. Who is back on the air and now is more popular than ever—and with an entirely new generation venerating the good Doctor, number 11 being played by Matt Smith. I haven’t seen the latest regeneration of The Doctor, and haven’t seen any since Peter Davison became the Fifth Doctor after Tom Baker. But if past is prologue, and with the Doctor, the past can be the future too, this latest regeneration is great television.
Unfortunately, it isn’t aired on PBS these days. If you want to watch it you need to get BBC America. Damn! I have a niece living in London at the moment and she watches it religiously on what would be regular TV over there. Lucky girl.
And Who knows, you may not have to be stoned to watch it these days.
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