Doctor Who

I don't talk much about my passion for Doctor Who because it gets shoved to the periphery sometimes by other more dramatic things like having a sex change.


However, I was thinking the other day that I really should set the record straight on this one.


Doctor Who is one of my favourite things in the world.  There you go, I've said it.


When I was a lonely little boy I was obsessed with it - absolutely obsessed.  And in a good way - I needed that escape to cope with the bewilderment.  
It was a place to go.


I think it appeals to people who are different, to outsiders, because the Doctor himself is an outsider.  And he doesn't use weapons or violence - he gets out of scrapes using his imagination and his intelligence.  It's a wonderful thing.


But there's more to it than that.  It's a very personal glow of nostalgia, it's Proust's madelaine, it's a cuddle from childhood.  Every frame of it fills me with  happiness - even though I watch some of the classic episodes and know, really, that it's crap.  The crap special effects, the crap acting, the crap stories with endless running down corridors and companions twisting their ankle... the crapness is all part of the joy.


Like you don't not love your Dad because he's a crap dancer do you?  Because he's embarrassing at wedding receptions.  That's all part of why you love your Dad.  Doctor Who is like that.


I'm not geeky in my behaviour with Doctor Who - I don't have all the DVDs in alphabetical order or anything - in fact I've only got a few DVDs of it.  But I do hire out the DVDs from Lovefilm and watch them as a secret, personal, quiet little piece of joy.


I may however seem geeky - if for example you were to hear me and my friend Chris discussing the intricacies of Cyberman design or the merits and flaws of the JNT era you'd probably think I was a geek.  But me and Chris became friends because of Who and we still talk about it in the same way we did when we were little kids.  It's a special connection.  And I don't think he'd be that interested in talking about how wonderful patterned tights are (aren't they though?!)


And the new series?   I love it.  I think they've done such a fantastic job of keeping the spirit of the old series alive while making it... well... better.  Just unarguably good.  


When it came back and was so popular again it was vindication for us geeks - 
I think we all wore our anoraks with renewed pride  (mine is pink with embroidered blue flowers and I wear it with blue, sparkly heels).  


I think The Doctor is now a character like Sherlock Holmes - part of our mythology, part of our culture.  He will always be there in some form.


It's been a special part of my life and no matter how much I change there'll always be a place for it.


As the very first Doctor, William Hartnell, once said : 


'go forward in all your beliefs... and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine...'