"The Triumph of Intellect and Reason Over Brute Force and Cynicism"
Why you need to know about Doctor Who.
Cassidy Steele Dale writes to equip you with the forecasts, foresight skills and perspectives, and tools you may need to create a better, kinder world.
And one of those ways is to introduce you to a TV show that, in this day and age, should not exist.
If you’ve been reading this newsletter for long you already know I’m a fan of Star Trek, particularly the currently-running iteration Star Trek: Strange New Worlds which returns the series to its roots of tales about brave, seat-of-the-pants-spacefaring-principled-genius-hero-badass-explorers-in-a-brighter-future who boldly go. Star Trek is about aspiration, wonder, optimism, and bravery even in the face of danger and darkness.
Britain has had its own spiritual counterpart all along, though it’s little-known in the United States, and it’s older than Star Trek.
It’s called Doctor Who.
What’s it about? An alien who looks human who’s over a thousand years old. He’s from a world of time travelers who call themselves Time Lords. He travels in space and time in a ship that’s supposed to disguise itself to fit in wherever it lands but instead is stuck in the shape of an old London police box from the 1960s. He’s beyond brilliant, endlessly clever, and every time he suffers a fatal wound his body regenerates into a new — and very different — one. Sometimes he’s an old man, sometimes a young man, sometimes a woman — and with a different personality each time. But never a fashion sense.
In 60 years of broadcast we’ve never learned his real name. The Doctor is a mystery, often even unto himself. When he first stole his time machine and ran away from home he left his old name and identity behind. He chose the moniker “The Doctor” as a promise to himself to become a helper, one who decided to become "never cruel nor cowardly. Never give up. Never give in."
“Who are you?” many characters have asked. “I’m The Doctor,” he (or she) replies. “Yes, but what’s your name? You’re Doctor… who?”
A dozen-and-a-half amazing actors have played The Doctor over the past 60 years. What’s consistent throughout every incarnation is that The Doctor is captivated by wonder. And in every incarnation The Doctor rescues, solves problems, and lives by his wits alone. The Doctor helps.
Oh — and his ship, a TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) looks like this on the outside…
… but on the inside…
And that’s just the control room.
The show is bonkers. Anything can happen in any episode at any time. Doctor Who can switch genres at the drop of a hat, from history to science fiction to horror to fantasy to murder mystery.
One time The Doctor regenerated into a still-cooking body and crash-landed into a little girl’s back yard and we got a few seasons of the best fairy tale ever.
He (sorta) saves the day and comes back later when the little girl has grown up and she — like many others before — travels through space and time with him.
In one of the show’s great moments they go back and meet Vincent Van Gogh — who believes he’s a failure as an artist and a failure in life — and they bring him forward in time…
The show can also be deeply creepy and terrifying. (During the 1970s when the show was deep in sci-fi/horror mode, some wit observed that the safest place to watch Doctor Who was from behind the sofa.) In “Blink” The Doctor communicates with a present-day woman and her (aspiring) boyfriend through an underground-cult-film-turned-underground-cult-hit-videotape he recorded when he was trapped in 1969. The Doctor, knowing who she is and where she’ll be when she watches the videotape, warns her of a danger literally only feet away. (After this episode you’ll be afraid of every. statue. you. see. for the rest. of. your. life.)
Most of the time The Doctor’s traveling companions are human — he admires humans greatly — but he’s also had a snarky robot dog who shoots lasers out of its nose, and a couple of times he’s teamed up with a contemporary of Sherlock Holmes in 1880s London: a sword-wielding genius detective lizard woman, her wife, and their bomb-happy alien warrior-butler.
The Doctor is/was/will be married depending on when their timelines intersect. River Song (Alex Kingston) met one incarnation of The Doctor, married the next, and didn’t recognize the besotted third when, well...
Oh — and she’s an archaeologist/thief from the future. She travels in time and space on her own. And she steals every scene she’s in.
Once she learned that the last night of her life would be with The Doctor on the planet Darillium. That night doesn’t turn out the way she thought it would, in one of the best tear-jerking scenes I’ve ever seen. (I’ve sent this scene to friends of mine who have cancer. You. will. see. why.)
Everyone in the UK has seen Doctor Who at some point. It’s been among the most popular British TV shows for decades. Because of the show’s longevity and periodic recasting, the show’s fans often ask each other this one question: Who was your Doctor? What they mean is which Doctor first made you fall in love with the show?
Even the actors who play The Doctor have their own favorite previous Doctors. The Tenth Doctor’s (David Tennant) favorite Doctor was The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison). A few years into Tennant’s tenure, Davison’s daughter Georgia Moffett guest-starred on the show and charmed the heck out of the audience — and out of Tennant. Tennant’s jaw hit the floor, the two fell in love, got married, have kids now, and are one of the great Internet couples. Tennant and Davison compete for the title of “favorite Doctor” of Tennant’s kids. It doesn’t go well.
My wife and I have been trying to introduce our 8-year-old and 10-year-old to Doctor Who. The past few weeks we might have succeeded. And now might be a good time for you to give it a try.
The BBC made a distribution deal with the streaming service Disney+: The BBC would stream it within the UK via it’s own BBC iPlayer and Disney+ would distribute it to the rest of the world. This means that over the past few weeks the show has aired four one-hour specials — standalone episodes meant to introduce the entire world to Doctor Who.
The first special, “The Star Beast,” was very good. My kids were curious.
The second special, “The Wild Blue Yonder,” was incredible, incredibly strange, and scary. At the episode’s climax, when I saw The Doctor’s final decision, I snapped my head around fearing it would be too scary for my kids. My 10-year-old’s eyes were wide. My 8-year-old was standing right next to me and quietly saying “Noooooooooooooo.” But then the twist. They were hooked.
The third special, “The Giggle,” I can’t explain. It features a sociopathic intergalactic toymaker who can kill (or be defeated) by a game. The climax begins with a disaster, but in classic Doctor Who tradition, there’s a twist that saves the day. In this case, twice.
The fourth special — “The Church on Ruby Road” — a new Doctor, orphans saving an orphan from singing time-traveling flesh-eating goblins whose technology is entirely rope-and-knot-based, and it gets nuttier from there. It’s just pure, plain fun.
The next full season starts in May. I will be there with bells on. My kids think May is FOREVER AWAY.
When I showed my kids the trailer for next season my 8-year-old wanted to watch this snippet instead — over and over — of a moment when The Doctor was asked who the hell he was.
(YouTube is a weapon. And sometimes a weapon for good.)
Comedian and one-time late night host Craig Ferguson may be the biggest Doctor Who fan on the planet. And that was decades before his long-ago bandmate Peter Capaldi became the Thirteenth Doctor. Here’s him with Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi from you know where).
Craig Ferguson once observed that Doctor Who is about “the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism.” And he’s right. But there’s more:
After allllllllllll of this in the world— after alllllllllll of this — this show should not exist. It should have been canceled and dead and buried, the ashes stirred twice, and drowned again.
But no: Doctor Who is a victory. It’s a model for how we should aspire to be. Never cruel nor cowardly. Never give up. Never give in.
So put those words in whichever pocket is closest to your heart because we’re about to go into 2024. We have no time machine to escape these times; we’re supposed to be here. And we’re supposed to be brave. And we’re supposed to help.
We’re Doctors. High time we acted like it. Welcome to 2024.
We’re good for it. Let’s go.
It is your sister's fault that I know Dr. Who. Just sayin'.