The Doctor Who Saved My Soul

Doctor Who, for those that don’t know, is one of the most popular television shows in the world.  It originates from Britain, and is actually celebrating it beginning 50 years ago....  I don’t see how its not the longest running show ever....

When I first saw it, there was nothing on TV like it, especially not in the USA.  The humor was not only funny, but incredibly smart, filled with all sorts of wonderful imagination.  After watching that show, way back in the 80s, I grew a sort of disdain for the television shows in the US....




Fact is, humor in the US is very rarely smart.  Nine times out of ten, humor in the US is a veiled sexual reference.  Kid shows are laced with them, so the parents have something to laugh at while the kids watch.  I personally think its one of the reasons kids are growing up so sexualized, but yeah, that’s another war entirely.

My first Doctor was Tom Baker, and obviously I hit the series at the right time.  Tom Baker’s Doctor was really a smart kid, playing around the universe.  The humor was amazing, this bumbling child man would get into situations where everyone underestimated him, and he used it to his advantage every time.

As a kid, I understood the sentiment, and it was hard not to look up to this fellow.  He was brilliant, he wanted to explore, and he always wanted to do what was right.  Above all he had a seriousness inside of him, a sincerity that was beautiful to behold.

Doctor Who was a true highlight of my life, sitting up on Saturday nights with my Grandmother waiting to be transported away by a silly man in a little blue box.  I witnessed the Doctor change forms again and again, and each time, I was captivated by this man who was always different, but had the same overall soul.



The show WAS eventually taken off the air, but brought back thankfully.  The new Doctors are very similar to the old, but they have more grit, more...adult themes.  Its almost as if the Doctor grew into a teenager.

The show is invariably silly, but always has this great heart and soul.  It’s a show for the ages, and considering it started in 1963, it belongs to the ages, both past and present.  The writing is beyond imaginative, and even though I’m not fully enjoying the current plot lines, I still look forward to every new episode with delight.

If I look back into my life, and really look at all the stuff I went through, I can say that Doctor Who is probably the biggest reason I am who I am today, as far as entertainment goes.  The idea that a being could but 750 years old (as Tom Baker’s Doctor declared he was) and still have this child like sense of wonder....  It opened my eyes to what people lose when they become adults.  And as the years rolled on, and the Doctor continued his journey, I knew, I’d be DAMNED if I’d let this world strip that from me.

And I’m proud to stand here and say, it didn’t.  Life has made me cry, hurt my soul and my body, and it has torn me asunder more times than I can count.  But I have never let it force me into the mold of selling my soul for a paycheck, nor have I let it force me to stop marveling at a sunset, or how birds fly, or how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly....