377 days - Blog #24 - My on, off, still kinda off love for Dr. Who, or why it's a good thing I don't have cable because I think too much about television

So the other night, I fell down a YouTube Doctor Who rabbit hole.   That comes partly from the fact I figured out how to watch YouTube on Roku.  And partly because I couldn’t commit to an episode of the show I am watching half-heartedly on Netflix (which is just really about the Six Feet Under binge I finished a few weeks ago and had to find a way to stay with the characters and ended up watching a lame NBC family drama featuring one of the actors with Ally McBeal and some British guy I know I’ve seen in something other than American television).

Anyway, I went on YouTube via Roku and watched John Oliver’s brilliant commentary on Ferguson again.  Watch it if you haven’t already.  Like I said.  Brilliant. 

But then, just to prove the point that even I get weary of the gloom and doom of the reality of racism and violence, I skipped to another one of my YouTube favorites, the Doctor Who (official?) channel.

You see, there is a series premiere on Saturday.  More than that, there is a Doctor premiere.  And I thought to myself, wow, yeah, I forgot… hm.

Because, once upon a time, I was a zealous Whovian.

Thanks to Facebook, I was able to go back to three years ago this week, which was probably the height of that fanaticism.  It was also, of course, the point when we were waiting for that mid season (or profit squeezing gimmick) return after the big River Song reveal.  I was totally besotted and felt compelled to convert my nearest and dearest to my religion.

That year – 2011 – of course, was the summer of Whosdays.  It bled into the fall of Whosdays and somewhat of the winter.  Whosdays were the weekly ritual I created upon my move back to Worcester when friends came over every Tuesday night and we watched two or three episodes of Who, starting from the beginning of the 2005 reboot.  In true supper club Jessie fashion, I selected the episodes and conjured a theme of snacks from the grouping.  The best, most lingering result, I think was the time I chose Wales and made up a cheese leek dip.  So good.  Really.  So absolutely good that I brought it out for the Welsh part of The Merry Wives of Windsor a couple months back.  (basically English cheddar, caramelized leeks, a bit of beer… and yeah, a touch of Marmite… melted).  

But Whosdays… yeah, they were glorious.  It made Tuesday my favorite day.  It made me love that show even more.

And I already loved it.  I became one of those people in 2009.  Funnily enough, I was at a similar point with An Ever Fixed Mark then – waiting out some perspective to tackle another edit, holding my breath to hear from a beta reader or two.  I had just joined Netflix… and I figured I would give this show I mocked previously because of Billie Piper a legitimate chance.   Yeah… I consumed the whole thing in a matter of months… and that was when I still had to wait for freaking DVDs from Netflix.  Streaming was quite new at that point.  (Sad that it seems so long ago and such a hardship.)

In the years since, I have had many a geeked out conversation that broke off from the crowd.  I dorked out on spoilers and how this actor was also in that BBC thing or this National Theater production.  I awaited each season with baited breath, but not without multiple viewings (and I mean MULTIPLE to the point I can probably recite half of them) of previous episodes.  I even own four of the soundtracks (yes, I’m listening to them as I write this).  Because I’m a nerd.

And I loved being a nerd.

Until I overdosed.  Or I saw the other side of the shark.  I’m not sure what happened first, or if one caused the other.  But… somewhere in season 5 the writing started to dilute.  No, dilute isn't the right word.  Some of those episodes are really like a good wine.  They do get better with multiple viewings.  Plus, series 5 does include Vincent and the Doctor.  Richard Curtis.  Come on.

And six was the whole River Song thing… and I adore(d) her.  Then everyone else did.  And it got to be, well, less special.  It was gimmick-y.  It was this meme and that meme and then another meme or another one.  It was costumes and Tardis jewelry and t-shirts and keychains and lots of other cheap plastic stuff manufactured in China, to look like a telephone box from the UK when they were realizing the value of socialism.   It was about David Tennant or Matt Smith’s hair.  They shot guns.  Everyone was noticeably white… and straight.  And the story arc was lost in… I don’t know… actually, I don’t know.  Russell Davies wrote a tighter season.  A much more diverse cast.  A more human storyline.  I felt like my great love affair with the Doctor degenerated to friendship.

Then… well… the Doctor is an old white guy again.  Because, of course, we need more of them to save the universe.  Now, I am not just a little bit jaded because Peter Capaldi broke the Vicar’s heart in the 90’s (YouTube is frustratingly cheap in offering up a clip of the Vicar, but see the episode Songs of Praise or the second Christmas special... and you'll understand)  But even so… hasn’t this been done before?

Shake it off.  This is me.  This is about where I am in my life.  It isn’t (entirely) about the show. The writing isn’t bad.  I just grew into other interests.  Like I said, the love affair is just friends now.

But the memories don’t diminish.  I really did just go onto Facebook and found the event I created for August 23, 2011.  It was the Season One finale … with the theme of… no kidding, Wales.  The invention of the leek dip.  I can’t say I remember the night in vivid detail – there was undoubtedly some wine or beer or magical concoction from the Speakeasy bar… but I did smile reading the event description.  We didn’t have much conversation.  It was a lot of watching (I insist on silence, not the silence) and got ANNOYED when there was too much chatter during the episode.  But there was something about sharing that and the brief discussion after and the snacks and the wine…and that permission to not be a grownup for the evening and just be a nerd and watch tv.

So… I’ll probably still buy the episodes to keep current with my ex infatuation.  I mean, it is the Doctor.  Anything could happen.