The Significance of Doctor Who

I was recently hospitalised with COVID and had some very scary moments. Moments of mental disassociation, of mental confusion, some mild hallucinations and 2 solid weeks of oxygen being just moments away at some points from intensive care and intubation.

One of the things that this kind of experience is a catalyst for, I am finding, is self examination. I'm a bit obsessed with renewal and transformation at the moment and part of examining that is  to look at the things, that to this point, have made me me.

Here we go.

One of the biggest influences in my life has been and is Dr Who. It is literally in the top 5 things that has made me who I am.

But why? I had to ask. What is it about a being travelling round in a Police Box that has shaped me.

Now first off I am so used to people rolling their eyes when I mention Dr Who, even in this new era of it's supposed coolness which it definitely wasn't when I was a kid. And you know I can understand that because the BBC never really invested the budget it deserved and if you look it on surface value then yea I can see the problem but.....how many shows in the world are there, that have lasted coming up to  what will be 60 years in 2023.

How many shows in the world, the world can boast that their 50th anniversary show was broadcast in 90 countries simultaneously.

Those 2 facts alone must show even the most opposed person that there is cultural significance here, wether they like it or not

But  none of that really matters to a personal journey.

As a kid, I was not possessed of brawn, but I had a brain. I was not unpopular but I wasn't exactly one of the cool kids and being a scifi/fantasy fan definitely put me in quite a niche camp back then.

But there was Dr Who.

My brain was enticed by the concept of Dimensional Transcendance - basically something being bigger on the inside than the outside.

I was entranced by the thought of being able to go back in time and perhaps meet my great great great grandfather who bought his way out of slavery or the chance to go forward in time to see what gadgets my great grandchildren might be playing with or to explore the universe and try to understand concepts that I couldn't conceive of, and meet beings that I couldn't possibly imagine.

Do you begin to understand - it was giving my mind permission to fly. To break the bounds of the drudgery of everyday school. there are literally no limits  with Dr Who. It is every genre of story possible.

But it wasn't any of that. It was the Dr themselves.

Here was a being of incredible intelligence. And everything he did was about using that intelligence. Remember I was a lad of little brawn and slightly more brain and I had found a hero whose priority was to use the brain to find a solution. Now yes more often than not the solution may have involved blowing things up but that was not the way of the Dr.

Thought, intelligence, compassion, curiosity, excitement. I had found a hero I could relate to. A hero that showed me how to use what I already had to be more than I was.

I cannot emphasise the imprint this made on me. this was important to who I was and who I wanted to be.

And one day a clever writer wrote this line. Someone asks the Dr if he is ever serious and he replies

"I'm always serious , just not serious about the way I'm serious"

And I felt like I was home. I laugh a lot, I joke a lot I can't help it. it's part of my memetic DNA but never ever think that denotes a lack of seriousness.

Dr Who encapsulates for me a philosophy of living that few other shows  have ever managed to capture.

At it's best It made me who I am and showed me who i want to be.. That's that's no small thing. This shonky old ancient showed that people would ridicule because of its shaky sets. And it's funky looking monsters. Well, despite its shortcomings, it has given me what I needed to get by when I needed it. So let the haters roll their eyes.

I know who I am. I know what I like. My biggest problem - I don't have a Tardis of my own.

So this isn't just my journey. I just want to curate a journey for all of us. So I'm going to ask you to do two things. Number one, tell me. What is your geek Definer? What is the one thing that's had the biggest influence on your life today? Let me know when you've done that and you can do the second thing.

And that is tell a friend, this is the beginning for the naked geek. This is the first episode. This is where it starts. I want to spread the net as wide as I can. If you haven't listened today and you've enjoyed what this is about, then do me a favour.

Tell a friend,

So on to the next one, I'm David Monteith, The Naked Geek.