Doctor Doctor

My daughter is a Doctor Who fan!!

And I am, of course, elated! Indeed, I am so distracted by this revelation that I squandered 500 thalers on the DVD box sets for Seasons 1 through 3 in one afternoon! Sigh.

On reflection, I wonder if I should have paid another visit to the Pearl River Delta & got them there. The total cost would have been approximately the same, but I would have at least had a (few) good meals thrown in. And a relaxing break from work as well.

But back to the situation at hand:

It was one of those cliffhanger episodes from Season 4 that was screened on BBC Entertainment that sparked the little one's enthusiasm. The episode was The Stolen Earth, in which the planet was snatched from its location in space and relocated in a region which it shared with 26 other planets/planetoids. The Doctor arrived too late to see it go, but began to track the Earth as quickly as only the Doctor can. Yet, it was the antics of those former companions of his, left in dire straits on the world, that fascinated my daughter so.

She didn't know who these people were, of course. She wasn't even sure what was happening. I believe she was just humouring her old man & her mother (both of us are fans, btw). But the shock and despair on their faces when the enemy was revealed had her completely hooked from that moment on. The initiation of the long-awaited Doctor's regeneration sequence also helped to put her in a frenzy. She went around shouting 'Exx-Termin-Nate!' for a good 10 minutes after the show ended, and immediately demanded that we watch the next episode at once.

We explained, as patiently as we could, that she would have to wait a week before the conclusion, shown in Journey's End, much to her disappointment. I had half-expected her to forget about the whole thing, to tell the truth. But when show came around again, she was right there, cheering the Doctor & Rose on as they sought to thwart the nefarious schemes of the Daleks!

Then came the deluge: Who is the Doctor? Why is the show called Doctor Who? Why doesn't Rose get the credit she deserves? How does the Doctor do that? It goes on it that vein for a good while. It was worse than the week before, when she was making us go through the history of each character in the Stolen Earth. Fortunately, the missus had recorded the episode, which made things easier & harder at the same time.

Finally, I rushed out to hunt down the DVD sets. HMV's prices were exorbitant, but given the typical person's propensity to watch US rather than UK television, it was not surprising that there's no market for BBC shows.

Well, she's gone through Box 1 - that's the one with the Ecclestone bloke - and about to embark on the second - the Tenth Doctor, the Tennant Chap. Hope it fires her mind like the old series did for me when I discovered it. All things considered, I really wanted to be like the Doctor when I was growing up. I can think of worse dreams, I suppose.