Are you too old to watch Doctor Who?

20 June 2010

John Howell

Recently I've begun to ask myself whether I'm too old to be a Doctor Who fan. Have I been suckered into watching a kids show? Is watching Doctor Who well into your 40s something you should be embarrassed to admit in public? Secretly I believe even my wife thinks that I'm watching a show aimed at kids and have let my viewing standards drop considerably (although she'll deny it if asked directly as she did when she read this article). My main problem is that since its revival - apart from the odd, off kilter episode - I've struggled to fault it.

While I was highly skeptical when the BBC resurrected the Doctor in 2005, believing that one, it would fail to live up to my earlier memories or two, that they would ruin it by applying a modern brush, it appears that even the latest regeneration into actor Matt Smith (of which I was highly doubtful) has been an overwhelming success. A couple of recent episodes The Time of Angels (Part 1 and 2), Vincent and the Doctor, written by Richard Curtis, the man responsible for Black Adder and Four Weddings and a Funeral, and especially, The Lodger, were fantastic. Matt Smith is a perfect choice and in a very short time has captured the essence of the role and added his own inimitable style (a style evident in his lead role in the political drama Party Animals). The Lodger was a great science fiction story about an extraterrestrial craft stranded above a building on Earth told in a convincing and humorous way, with some of the best editing and dialogue in a Doctor Who episode for some time. For once the writers left the viewer to work out what was happening instead of explicitly stating everything up front. James Corden and Daisy Haggard played poignant love locked guest stars perfectly. The overarching story for Matt Smith's first season, "the crack in time", has also been great, deftly handled by executive producer and writer Steven Moffat who took over from Russell T. Davies after David Tennant retired from the role.

The recent season hasn't been without its disappointments though, as anyone who watched the second fifth season episode, Victory of the Daleks, can testify. This was easily the worst Dalek episode ever, and completely unbelievable even in a science fiction context. It also didn't help that the new Dalek design made them look like a collection of of colourful Apple Mac accessories, over sized electronic toys with about as much menace as a Barbie doll.

So should I be feeling embarrassed about liking a show that appears to be aimed at a younger audience. The answer I'm looking for is "no", but still embarrassment remains. In an attempt to get to the bottom of this significant social question, in the interests of science, and to purge my feelings of guilt, embarrassment and general social discomfort, I asked a selection of Doctor Who fans of all ages if they would be embarrassed to reveal to someone they didn't know that they were a fan of the show and watched it regularly. You can see the results gathered from 28 people on the right (14 under 35 and 14 over 35) with only 3 people younger than 35 embarrassed to admit they were fans, while a larger group of 7 fans over the age of 35 revealing discomfort. While not an exhaustive examination by any means, I was happy to note that I wasn't totally alone in feeling some level of embarrassment.

Perhaps it's the longevity of the show that is producing my response? Unbelievably, Doctor Who was first broadcast in 1963 and was something I watched from a very young age. What other shows are still going 40 years later? There was only a 9 year gap between 1996 to 2005 before its revival (or as someone commented below, a 16 year gap if you don't count the mercifully short lived US TV miniseries in 1996).

Perhaps it makes me feel slightly childish since it brings back memories of childhood when I watched it last? Or maybe it's the social stigma attached to science fiction fans everywhere, from Doctor Who to Star Trek, that has tainted my outlook? Strangely enough, I had lunch with my parents yesterday, just before I was about to publish this article, and without prompting of any kind, they told me how much they were enjoying the latest episodes of Doctor Who. No embarrassment there at all.

Really though, when all is said and done, I'm just being stupid. I should just get over it. It's a great show no matter how old you are. The latest Doctor is probably the best for some time (not as good as Tom Baker, of course). Matt Smith is better though - dare I say it - than David Tennant, who was always too over the top for my liking.

Now that I've purged myself publicly, I'm not going to worry about it. I hope the good Doctor continues darting through time and space, so that in another 40 years I can enjoy it as much as I do now. The season five finale The Big Bang starring the Doctor, Matt Smith, and his effervescent companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) will be broadcast 26 June in the UK.

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