Touching on NuWho...

[avevale_intelligencer]

When I first encountered fandom, back in the early post-Devonian period, I quickly learned about the various divisions and dissensions within the fan community, and the group that was always spoken of in hushed whispers was the Doctor Who fans. I'm not sure I ever even saw one, in those early days; a lot of my fellow media fen watched Doctor Who religiously, of course, as did I, but there was a difference between that and being a Doctor Who fan as such (or "per say," as people amusingly write these days).

Proof, if proof were needed, that that spirit lives on to this day is supplied in the vitriolic letters between various segments of fandom in the SF magazines. Three such caught my eye yesterday in the pages of SFX (whose editor doesn't seem to have considered that publishing letters from one section of the readership being obnoxious and pissy about another section of the readership might not be calculated to win them any new readers, especially now they aren't the only fish in the sea). Phrases such as "grow up" and "if you don't like it, don't watch it" and so on were bandied about freely. And, of course, hilariously enough, each group thinks it is the only one being mature and sensible, and all the others are dweebish, pop-eyed anoraks with no social skills.

Of course it isn't that simple. I haven't liked NuWho since halfway through the first season (and I tried, oh gods, I tried) but, as alluded to in song earlier, I can't not watch it. It's too almost-good, and there's too much there that I've loved since I was a dweebish, pop-eyed child, and the defects are so glaringly obvious and remediable that it's impossible not to think that one day they might get it right. There are wonderful ideas in NuWho, great stories, and if it only didn't call itself by that name, if this gurning prat wasn't pretending to be *my* Doctor, I could enjoy it with a whole heart. And that attitude is neither mature nor sensible, but I'm afraid I can't help that.

They talk about having a companion who doesn't hero-worship the Doctor being a new and wonderful thing, as if the whole idea of companions hero-worshipping the Doctor hadn't been brought in with Rose Tyler, because for some unfathomable reason the makers decided that this family series needed unresolved sexual tension. They repudiate accusations of "stunt casting," when it's painfully obvious that from its very beginning NuWho has been made dependent on "stunt casting"--what else was Eccleston?

And, of course, they equate popularity and success with merit. Gods know I've been stamped on enough times for doing that myself, and sometimes I believe it's true...but I think that if they had been able to bring back the real Doctor Who with modern production values, if they had not made any of the changes they didn't have to make, it would have been just as popular and successful, if not more so, because this character, that ship, are embedded in our dweebish, pop-eyed national soul. All RTD had to do to be where he is today, surfing the biggest wave on the shore of British television, was bring back Doctor Who in some economically workable form. He didn't *have* to make the changes that make my teeth itch every time I watch it, turn the Time Lord into a working-class hero, turn the companion into a Mary Sue with added soap opera, turn the TARDIS into some sort of broken-down camper van that can't even run without throwing the passengers all over the floor. He didn't have to do that. He did that because he wanted to, and because he could, and because there was so much about the series that he hated with a passion.

Which, if nothing else, proves he's a true Doctor Who fan.

Comments

[harmonyheifer.livejournal.com]

Wow, Who doesn't trip any triggers for me, but I'm an American who somehow managed to bumble twenty some odd years in fandom without actually seeing an episode of Doctor Who because I grew up in the really rural midwest without a PBS station. As a young adult I was without cable and without much time to watch TV as a single working mother.

That is how I came to Dr. Who with no expectations whatsoever. I took it at face value, and have really enjoyed it. There is a thread of emotion in your post that sounds very familiar to me and it sounds like myself when I go on about some bastardization of Star Trek, and trust me, there have been many, bastardizations, and rants about them. I have heard fans of the original Battlestar Galactica rant about how the new one is crap also.

I think this is what happens when someone takes something that we knew and loved with all the flaws and quirks as children or young adults and tinkers with it. The odds are against them tinkering with it in a way that suits everyone, and it is a given that some people are going to be upset or annoyed or offended. I'm sorry that the changes in the new Doctor Who are making it hard for you to enjoy the new series, and even more sorry that you can't seem to stop watching since it upsets you. I've been there with Trek. Sometimes it felt like watching a train wreck in slow motion over and over. I would get angry and disgusted with the writers then feel the same with myself for just not watching. But I did keep watching, because once in a while they got it right and I could enjoy it. The ratio of good to crap varied wildly.

Of course, now I feel ignorant for liking Dr Who and Torchwood, but ignorance can be bliss, and since I have nothing to compare them with, I can enjoy them without the emotional baggage. I've come to view most of American culture as pretty tasteless, so it makes sense that as an American my ability to see the flaws in the new Who as limited. Hell, there are people in fandom who look down on media fen, so I'm used to having my taste in entertainment questioned. I don't bother to argue, because my instinct is that my taste is pretty questionable, and everyone has a right to like what they like. I have found your comments about Who very interesting, and I've noticed we agree on some things, which I have noted with some pleasure and amusement.

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

I don't intend to make anyone feel ignorant for liking NuWho or Torchwood. They have many fine qualities, and even if they didn't, there are lots of things dear to my heart that have far less to recommend them, believe me, so I have no room to talk. Anyway, I think ignorance has been getting an undeservedly bad press. It's let me enjoy lots of things that better-informed people have found far too implausible or inaccurate to handle. Yay ignorance, say I, in this limited context anyway.

On the other hand, I've never had any problem with the various incarnations of Trek...so my situation as regards NuWho has given me an insight into how some people (maybe you among them) feel about Voyager or Enterprise (both of which I got on fine with, despite noting the various inconsistencies and occasional retrodden ideas and so on).

And as for being looked down on as a media fan...I am so used to that that if it went away I'd feel lost (well, no, not really). Right from that first encounter it was made very clear to me that the media community was the only one where a newbie could find friendly conversation, and once I was in there I was marked for life. You could practically see the borderline, in the old One Tun, between the tables where the media fen sat and the bar where the trufen stood, occasionally drawing aside with small moues of disgust to allow a media fan to pass through and buy drinks.

I believe that there is a considerable weakening of that attitude in these latter years, and a good thing too, but books in all genres will always have more snob appeal than films and telly, so I don't suppose it'll ever go away completely. Maybe it's just that as we all get older we get a little more perspective. I, for instance, am a lot smaller when further away than I used to be.

Thank you for the insightful comment. :)

[min0taur.livejournal.com]

I've found that my affection for Dr. Who is tied to some specific memories at the wrists and ankles. To wit: Watching John Pertwee's Third Doctor with friends in Mardon Hall at Exeter as a pleasant evening ritual, joining the Whoosier Network (the Indianapolis Dr. Who fan club) to help bring the series to our local PBS affiliate from the later Fourth Doctor's tenure up through the Sixth, and willingly accepting the narrative necessity of a totally Anglophone spacetime continuum in exchange for some ripping good yarns. Sure, CGI makes for some more cinematic whiz-bang in the new series, and that's always enjoyable in its way, but I always admired the original BBC productions for their imaginative range and the rich results they got from modest means. I don't think that's entirely a matter of nostalgia for vanished youth. ;-) More a matter of selective time travel.