It's no secret that the majority of my friends - including myself, at that - are happily wrapped up in one kind of fandom or another. And these fandoms most frequently center around shows because there's frequently new material to fall in love with, pick apart, gaze at adoringly, or become impossibly stressed over (irrationally so) while waiting for the next episode to come our way. I mean, come on - how many people out there haven't done that? We become caught up in something where we're given an escape - for anywhere from thirty minutes to around a hour - and when there's a dramatic conclusion to said hour, we want to know that the characters we've come to care about are going to be 'all right.' It's funny, in a way, how attached we can get, but in truth there's not a thing wrong with it. It's just something to enjoy, something to relax into and turn towards when we'd rather turn away from the rest of the world. Other times it's not even as complicated as that - it's simply because we're having fun.
But what does Doctor Who have that other shows don't? That's the question that was running around in the back of my mind after trading a bit of conversation back and forth with my best friend. There's something that sets Who apart from the other things we choose to embrace, and for more reasons than it's British. (Not that some fantastic shows aren't British, but there's more to it than that.)
So where's the appeal? Is it science fiction combined with fantasy, twisted up with a little bit of mystery and shaken in with a dash of romance so quick to pass that if you blink, you'll miss it?
Maybe. Those things definitely don't hurt.
But my theory is that the charm and appeal of Doctor Who comes from a show that's been given the power to evolve while staying in some elements, exactly the same. Think about it - here we have a Time Lord, one singular alien man who's over nine hundred years old - traveling here and there and everywhere in a time machine. A time machine disguised as an old-style police call box, at that.
Who thought this up, anyway? It's a completely insane, off the wall idea -
- and yet it's completely brilliant.
Give a generation an alien and they'll likely come to fancy him. There's something appealing about the extraterrestrial, about things that come from grounds and places beyond our history books and research. But give an immortal alien to a generation, and they'll pass him on. Send him to their children and friends - sometimes in laughter and others in rumors and all sorts of different emotions collected - because he'll be around for a very, very long time.
Give an immortal alien the ability to change his appearance (or more accurately, regenerate), and you've solidified something that will last from generation to generation.
Why? Because every time the Doctor regenerates, he changes. That might sound like a moot point, sure - what's the point of regenerating if he doesn't change? - but he doesn't just change his face. He changes his personality and demeanor, the way he walks and laughs, puts a skip in his step or takes it away, cools off the hot tempers of those he meets or flares his own to a new level. He becomes a different man with every change of face - every change of actor - and that gives him the chance to belong to a new generation of viewers. There's only one Doctor, but he's taken on many faces and reached many hearts.
Add a character like that into a story where there are endless possibilities, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. There's no limit to how many alien races a team of writers can make up, what sort of planets or galaxies or things no one's ever dared to speak aloud before can come to life. Because that's the beauty of an alien over nine hundred years old - he isn't bound by any rules. He can do what he likes, when he pleases, and we'd better just hold on for the ride.
No other show can hold a comparison to Doctor Who, and that's why I think it can be, at times, possible to become disenchanted with other shows. Because nothing else can give us that kind of fairytale, other worldly escape. It's really a past, present, and futuristic fairy tale, if you think about it - a man from the stars in his magical blue box? Come on, we've all thought about something like that at one time or another. Being able to go anywhere, at any time, for no reason?
Why?
Why not?
There's an infinite appeal that won't go away, because regardless of the age, the gender, or any other definitive factor, everyone looks at the stars. And everyone wonders what's beyond them - what might be out there that we haven't discovered yet. Doctor Who makes those wondering thoughts into full on being (not reality, come on - we know it isn't real), and gives them a face, a thought, a voice. There's an infinite number of stars in the sky, and therefore just as many possibilities (plus one) of places where the Doctor can travel.
There might be the danger of shows becoming repetitive and monotonous, but the truth is - give them a break, already. No one can compare with the Doctor and his blue box. Putting Earth against the entire universe, it's a vastly outnumbered game.
But it doesn't make one or the other any less special. It just makes them different. And in the case of the shows we give our time to, different isn't a bad idea at all.
It's the show that asks you every week, "where would you like to go?" And then it takes you there - there and so much further beyond than you could imagine.