Why I Love Doctor Who

Deep, deep down, I knew I would have to write this post. I say that as if I were dreading it, and in a way, I am. How does one express their sheer unadulterated love for a television programme? It's pathetic. Or is it?

I remember it being late at night (so, around 6pm for the child me), and there was something on the television. My dad said I should sit and watch it with him. Something very strange indeed was happening. A creature was walking slowly towards the screen. It was made of plastic, tall, and looked like a man. But I knew it wasn't a man. It moved towards the screen, looming menacingly, before the camera cut to another face. A man who seemed to have all the authority of the universe was shocked. Terrified. As the camera zoomed in on him, a loud, screamlike music interrupted, and that was it. I had seen my first Doctor Who cliffhanger.

Everything about it had captivated me. The theme music, the psychedelic visuals, the creature - I later discovered was called an Auton - and the man of authority who displayed both courage and fear all in one: The Doctor.

Of course, as I grew older, I learnt more facts about the programme. It was about a man who lived and explored in a telephone box. Except that it wasn't a telephone box, but a spaceship - the TARDIS - and in that ship the man travelled through space and time. I also learnt that this man could change his appearance. He wouldn't always be exactly the same Doctor, but one thing was certain: wherever there was danger, wherever life was threatened, and wherever anything seemed a little out of the ordinary, he would be there, putting things right. Fighting our corner against the big bad monsters, and sometimes against ourselves. He would save the world and us humans over and over again, and when he was done, he would pop into his TARDIS for yet more adventures in time and space. How could that not captivate a ten-year-old boy?

I could litter this post with a myraid facts about the series and its mythology; I could launch into a critical treatise into the effects of the programme as integral to British culture; I could even list the big names which have been associated with the show since the very beginning, and its influences on so many people's lives and careers. I could do all that, but I won't. Over the course of forty seven years, Doctor Who has created an entire universe of its own, and none of that really matters. What really matters is that in 1963, the BBC took a chance on the premise that "a thing that looks like a police box, standing in a junkyard: it can go anywhere in time and space". With the endless possibilities for storytelling which that statement from the very first episode of the programme held, the concept of Doctor Who is indelible, delightful, and so wonderfully life-affirming. After all this time, the Doctor has survived, and even after 16 years off the air the programme has proven its capacity to regenerate. Doctor Who will last forever, and will forever bring joy to me and countless other ten-year-olds-at-heart.

That's why I Love Doctor Who.