Doctor Who and Networking: Who's There!

Designer Tara Reich as Idris from "The Doctor's Wife"

I, of course, had had nothing to do with Brian's accomplishment. In one of my triumphs of networking, I had hit Westfield Comics' branch on the west side of Madison (check out Manager Bob Moreau's blog) on Free Comic Book Day in May - which turned out to be where Brian had set up his TARDIS. (Many were the fans who took photos that day, often posing next to or coming out of the Doctor's time machine.) Conversation ensued, I took my own photos, and we stayed in touch. Which is what networking is all about, come to think of it. Brian kindly invited me to join in the fun of the premiere event, and it was a delightful mix of longtime fans and, yes, people who were seeing the show for the first time. (I can't quite imagine what the latter group must have made of it; from time to time throughout the party that followed, I'd find myself encountering one or another fan trying to summarize briefly the history of a series that began in 1963. Best advice I could come up with: Start with the first season of the show's restart in 2005. Thank you, BBC America and DVDs!) And the networking went on, including meeting a designer whose eye-catching re-creation of a costume in one of the season's best episodes is only one of her accomplishments. (She showed me photos of some of her other Doctor Who-based outfits, many inspired by the show but not copied from it: wonderful!)

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Where's the TARDIS Brings WHO Premiere to Madison



Happy Doctor Who premiere atteendees

Who'd have thought it? Thanks to BBC America - and the incredible efforts of a Doctor Who enthusiast - Madison, Wisconsin, was the site of yesterday's world premiere of the restart of the BBC series with the eighth episode of the sixth season: "Let's Kill Hitler" by Steven Moffat. (Our showing was simultaneous with the showing in the United Kingdom itself; ordinarily, U.S. showings are delayed a few hours in order to put them in prime time.)

Months and months and months ago, Brian Bull decided he'd join the BBC's "Where's the TARDIS" competition, in which fans produced their own versions of the vehicle in which the time-and-space-traveling Doctor voyages. Brian's edition was an ice-fishing shanty, and his entry included images of the construction of the wintry project. Long story short: Brian's entry won - and part of the prize was the premiere, shown in the Madison Sundance Cinemas 608 theater at the Hilldale Mall.

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Steven Moffat sets an example for pop-culture heroes, no spoilers

At least, I hope I won't give away anything, in case readers haven't yet had a chance to see Doctor Who 6:7, "A Good Man Goes to War." And, note, I have yet to go back to rewatch the Moffat DW oeuvre: 1:9-10 ("The Empty Child," "The Doctor Dances"), 2:4 ("The Girl in the Fireplace"), 3:10 ("Blink"), 4:8-9 ("Silence in the Library," "Forest of the Dead"), all 5, and all 6. Topping it all off, of course, is that none of us has seen what Moffat will do in the second half of the sixth season.

But here is The Thing: A tedious trend in serialized pop culture is that somehow people who are married can't be heroic. Or interesting enough to care about. A character, once introduced as single, must stay single - or, if married, be returned to a single state, as is "normal" for that character. I'll accept that Reed and Sue Richards may be an exception - but even there, I think it's because Sue began as invisible and has pretty much remained that way. A married couple as equal partners, equally heroic, equally interesting, equally loving ... The "mainstream" serial pop-culture world not only does not have this as its norm, it rarely has it at all. Heck, the primary super-heroic family success story that springs to mind is The Incredibles, but that was conceived as a post-heroic-turns-heroic adventure - and, additionally, it was also pretty much a one-off.

But Moffat? He seems to specialize in giving viewers a world in which mothers and fathers - even some of the bad guys - act heroically and lovingly on behalf of their children. And a world in which the children are important, and abandonment is catastrophic. And in which marriage is not a boring end to adventure and heroics and edge-of-the-seat cliffhangers. Admittedly, Moffat must have had at least some of the story arc of Amy and Rory planned long in advance - but what a change it has been for the series, which has not had such Companions in any other arc since its inception in 1963!

And why haven't more creators realized that the story possibilities are increased, not lessened, when there is a family at its center? Why must they kill the baby, break up the couple, drive one of the couple insane, make one of the characters a cipher or villain, or otherwise confine their stories to a "normal" state of focus on One Single Hero, bravely facing adventures alone? Swiss Family Robinson showed readers in 1812 that a story could have a strong family as a major element and still be popular. (But, then, Johann Wyss was not setting up a series designed to spin off stories for decades.) There are a few comic-book writers who have avoided the routine of couple destruction; we should treasure them. But their stories aren't the norm.

Kudos to Steven Moffat - and to Doctor Who. I can hardly wait until "late summer," when BBC America promises Season Six will continue. (Keeping hope alive that, as at the start of Season Six, America will get to see episodes on the same day they air in England.)

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