The Thing About Tumblr

This is going to be an opinion piece! Mostly because I've realized that if this is going to be sustainable, it needs to branch out and talk about things I think about stuff. It's going to be long, too. So without further ado, here's my opinion on something I've thought a lot about.

Doctor Who?

It's been a while since I posted anything. That's mainly because I graduated, went to Italy, and started job searching.Not in Italy. I'm back home now. Job searching. So that's kind of time consuming. I'd like to get back into the swing of things though, and what better topic to start on than a nerdy thing I'm particularly passionate about: Doctor Who.

Doo Wee Ooo

For those of you who don't know, Doctor Who is a British sci-fi series that's been running for 50 nearly uninterrupted years. It's about an alien, The Doctor, who travels through time and space with his companions, landing on a planet and saving the day just in time. Neil Gaiman says it best, I think:

Doctor Who has never pretended to be hard science fiction … At best Doctor Who is a fairytale, with fairytale logic about this wonderful man in this big blue box who at the beginning of every story lands somewhere where there is a problem.

 And again:

No, look, there's a blue box. It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It can go anywhere in time and space and sometimes even where it's meant to go. And when it turns up, there's a bloke in it called The Doctor and there will be stuff wrong and he will do his best to sort it out and he will probably succeed 'cause he's awesome. Now sit down, shut up, and watch 'Blink'.

It's been running for so long with the same canon because The Doctor has a nifty little ability to regenerate, which means that as he's dying his entire body will reconstruct itself into a new one. This allows for multiple people to play The Doctor while still keeping him as the same character.

As you can see, fashion is optional between regenerations.

I love this show for a lot of reasons. Which might sound weird to high school me, who thought this was the dumbest concept for a show ever. High school me was also kind of an asshole who didn't know anything about anything, so he didn't deserve and wasn't ready to watch Doctor Who.

For full disclosure, I'll admit I started watching Doctor Who after my first breakup. It was the start of summer after my sophomore year of college and I didn't really envy the thought of three uninterrupted months alone with myself and all the bad feelings that go with a breakup. So I started watching this strictly as a distraction. And I fell in love with it, completely by accident.

I started with the revised series, which premiered in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, and as an aside I recommend people new to the series start there if they don't want to jump into the middle of something. I'd done some research into the show's past so I had a basis walking in, but that was about it. So I didn't really know what to expect from this odd British show about aliens with English accents.

And then I was addicted. I worked through six series right before the seventh premiered. I own a customizable sonic screwdriver. I ran/run a Tumblr blog that's an role play of The Doctor. I convinced my mother to buy me a bow tie because bow ties are cool, even if she didn't realize what I was doing when I asked. I could debate the merits of each Doctor, tell you why Martha deserved much better writing in her season, and argue why The Doctor is not someone you want to emulate but definitely someone you want to let affect you.

So the biggest question is, why?

All the happy endings?

It's because Doctor Who isn't a typical show by today's standards. It's not cynical or ironic. It doesn't rely on dark themes and depressing ideology to appeal to viewers who are used to Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones. That's not even an indictment against those shows, because they're clearly popular for a reason. All I'm saying is that Doctor Who is a genuinely hopeful and optimistic program about a protagonist who really believes the best of you. And I say 'you' because it is insanely personal if you're willing to watch it that way.

That gif perfectly describes what this show, and The Doctor himself, is all about. And at the time I started watching, it was what I needed to hear. I liked the idea of a hero who saves the world and does it not for the glory, or for the recognition, but because he's curious and wants to help. Everyone should want a hero like that. His weapon is a screwdriver, something primarily used to fix things. It's sentimental and saccharine and I love it.

This show is about hope. But it's also about inspiring you to be a better person, and realizing that you're already capable of amazing things. All of The Doctor's companions start out in various states of monotony. Then they meet The Doctor, and they realize that their potential is limitless.

I saw a lot of this happen while I was running that RP blog (I plan on starting it back up once the show comes back on air in August; I need new content to post new stuff). Fans of the show and the character message me, asking for genuine advice from The Doctor. I know they know it isn't technically real, but for that moment they want to believe in a character who loves them, and I am always happy to give them that.

It's why I'm not embarrassed of that blog. I've had people tell me that the things I post have brightened their day, stopped them from hurting themselves, or even stopping them from taking their own life. That's a huge weight this show carries, and it goes far beyond one little blog. This is a show meant to make people look at the world in a brighter light. This is a show that succeeds in doing that.

So that's a lot of nerding out, and a more genuine nerding out than I'm used to giving. But I stand by it, and I recommend that everyone should give Doctor Who a chance. It's not for everyone; I'll be the first to admit that. But if it's for you, then you'll find a show worth obsessing over and hopefully take something away from it.

Stay beautiful. Be cool. And always geek out.