Did the Whovians get back with you in regards to which “Doctor Who” episodes/series, I should attempt to watch!? I only ask as my time window to watch them is greatly reduced from a few weeks ago, and if I could start to watch them as soon as I can, it would be quite helpful! :) A general overview of their Top 5s and your ‘go to’ Who, would be extremely helpful…
And, so began this seemingly innocent introduction into “Doctor Who” as I decided it was high time that I get my tail into gear and sink into a tv serial that has consistently been recommended to me over the years! I remember that some of the interested parties attempting to convince me when the ‘right moment’ to watch ‘Who’ would be (generally it was ALWAYS a right now, don’t wait kind of talk!) engaged in such a lengthy discussion of who “the Doctor” is but without giving me anything truly tangible to hold onto! I would be given little curtain glimpses of who he was, what the series was about, but it was more OR less a conversation that frittered around certain terminological Whovian codes: TARDIS, time lord, screwdriver (that was a unique tidbit!), time slips and time travel, and other words I have long since forgotten but as I watch the episodes some of what I learnt over the years is coming back to me!
I never wanted to read too much about the series, as I kind of like the idea of getting to know a character (especially one of this particular nature!) through watching their growth over the score of a serial! I started to ILL (inter-library loan) BBC dramas and comedies (i.e. As Times Goes By, The Good Life, Rosemary & Thyme, Monarch of the Glen, etc) a little over three years ago when my local library was encouraging us to ILL the series that were not yet in our collection! I’ll never forgot how they ordered the Complete Serial of “As Times Go By”, including the Anniversary Specials whilst we were unable to fetch them through ILL channels! That simply rocked our (my parents & I) world! I had it in the back of my mind to start to fetch “Who” but I simply shrugged it off.
The few times I pitched the idea, I noticed that my Mum & Da simply weren’t into seeing ‘Who’ as much as I was, so I let it slide a bit, as we were starting to get into Downtown Abbey, Sherlock (with Benedict Cumberbach), and finishing through Monarch of the Glen! (in 2012) When SFN started to come together, I knew it was time for ‘Who’ once and for all! I mean, all those years of people referring me to this serial (who knew my heart lie with Roddenberry’s Starfleet and Lucas’ Star Wars) must have been a recommendation that I could trust! I decided that even though I am going to post ‘diary entries’ for the episodes and series I watch for SFN, I wanted to make this a family affair! Therefore, with the exception of All Saint’s Day, my Mum & Da are watching ‘Who’ alongside me! They were the original inspiration behind why I have a sci-fi heart which is why it makes sense that on the brink of discovering a ‘new serial’ we engage in it together!
The fascinating bit to watching BBC tv serials on serial dvd, is that for the most part my local library has grown their own catalogue of resources to this end at least tenfold since 2009! However, the few that are not yet available I must say that the consortium by which my local library is a member of is a great one to get ‘complete and whole sets’ through ILL!! I realise that dvds and most media materials are ‘not’ available at all local libraries for ILL. (the reasons vary, but generally its because they do not loan out the same materials themselves) For this one reason, I am extra thankful that despite an initial hiccup, our second attempts to get ‘Who’ in time for SFN has been successful! Ooh, I had forgotten to say, that the most fascinating bit to watching the BBC in this fashion is that you never know what your in for as you slip in the disc, sit back on your couch and settle into,… the unexpected!
When I first heard the ‘music’ of Doctor Who I was simply transfixed! You see, this is not the first time traveler I have come across as although I had limited feeds for “Time Trax” I always was endeared to the character and his quirky sense of humour! Dr. Beckett was my mainstay for time traveling which I touched on yesterday in my feature “Seventeen to Seven“. And, lest I forget to mention “The Traveler” from “Star Trek: The Next Generation” who had the greatest impact on Wesley Crusher!? Yet. My fascination and concentration of time bending characters doesn’t stop there! Ooh, no! There was the young boy in “Flight of the Navigator“, the curious hovering ships in “Batteries Not Included“, the quirky adventures of Doc Brown & Marty McFly in “Back to the Future“, as much as trying to keep up with my favourite Starfleet Captains in the original five series of Trek!
The music brought back an inertia of happy memories of my ENTIRE EXPERIENCE in the science fiction universe which is not even limited to the few serials I have already mentioned! At some point, they all start to blur a bit in my mind’s eye, because I have literally watched a science fiction or fantasy tv serial as long as I have been watching murder mystery serials! Between the two, I could fill a voluminous tome of a journal! Here were my first tick-tocking reflections as a bit of a beat of a clock was present in the overtures: upbeat, adventurous, exciting, exploding with curious perplexities, possibilities that lie in the impossible, and a gearing up for the unknown!
I’m a wide-eyed adventurous girl slipping herself into the Whovian universe, geared up for excitingly curious escapades spent traveling with a quirky Professor-like Doctor, whose as mysterious as any person she’s ever greeted in a sci-fi series! Let these first adventures be the start of many more to come in the near future! As time is temporal and constantly in flux!
And, without further adieu here are the select episodes I will be viewing in order to achieve:
| A Crash-Course in Doctor Who |
[by order of suggested viewing]
[list complied by: Emma, Annie, Charlene, Rebekah, Rinn, Lianne, & Christine]
[anything in bold was cross-suggested by the Whovians!]
(Series One) Episodes: Rose, The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, Dalek, Father’s Day
(Series Two) Episodes: The Christmas Invasion, The Impossible Planet / Satan’s Pit, Tooth & Claw, Army of Ghosts, Doomsday, School Reunion, The Girl in the Fireplace, New Earth
(Series Three) Journey’s End, Human Nature / Family of Blood, Blink, The Runaway Bride, The Shakespeare Code
(Series Four) Turn Left, Midnight, Silence in the Library / The Forest of the Dead, The Fires of Pompeii, The Unicorn & the Wasp
(Series Five) Vincent & the Doctor, The Eleventh Hour, The Time of Angels / Flesh and Stone (to be seen with Blink)
(Series Six) The Doctor’s Wife
(Series Seven) Nightmare in Silver
How far will I reach into the Doctor Who universe!? How much of his world and life will I understand when November starts to fade from view and the Christmas holiday season enters into view!? What beautiful things will I learn from the Whovians taking part in SFN?! Where will the conversations and discussions lead me next!? And, just how fast can I re-Que the entire series in order to watch each set in its entirety!? Join me on *Saturdays* during November to find out!!
Meanwhile, I am going to open up my first-ever discussion thread here on JLAS!
You have the option of sharing in your own blog post about how you came to know Doctor Who, which series stood out to you thus far, and/or you can focus on one or more of the episodes I will be watching from the above list speaking about why you are captivated by it yourself! Be sure to come back to this post to attach the link of your post in the comments! ONLY link directly to the post you created on this topic, DO NOT link to the main page of your blog! I will be checking! Thank you! I cannot wait to see what everyone’s post!! :)
This feature is brought to you by:
{SOURCES: Sci-Fi November Badge provided by Rinn Reads for participants to advert the month long event and to encourage people to follow along with those of us who are contributing! SFN badge used with permission. SFN Feature badge created by Jorie in Canva.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2013.
Related Articles:
Doctor Who – (en.wikipedia.org)
TARDIS – (en.wikipedia.org)
