The Doctor Diaries: prologue

I think I might keep a blog diary as I watch my way through David Tennant's career as The Doctor. Why should I do that? Why would anybody want to read that? And why am I so far behind the times?

Well, first of all, a couple of colleges do pay me to talk about my favorite books (although they don't pay me much). And I sometimes review movies (like here and here). And of course any cultural product can be read as if it were a text. Hence, I'm going to "read" Tennant's Doctor Who series like a text. Who knows -- maybe I will have some literary or cultural insights. At the very least, I'll have tons of fun! I don't know if you'll want to read along. I hope you will.

 But wait, next question: why now? Why an eight year old series, instead of what's running this year? Two reasons. One personal, one cultural.

The cultural reason is that 2013 is the Doctor's 50th anniversary, so it's a perfect year to do a bit of a retrospective. I hope everyone is rewatching old seasons in preparation for this year's festivities.

The personal reason is that I was homeschooled, raised in a conservative family, never got to watch television except for a couple episodes of Star Trek at my grandmother's house in the summers, so somehow that got translated into me now being stuck as a permanent teenager. I never had those teenage crushes on movie and tv stars. I never had lots of teenage stages of identity crisis--until my 20s. I started the whole search for my identity in fashion, personality, taste, etc. pretty much in grad school. And now I'm stuck. Weird. I think I'll be a teenager until I'm 80. That's ok; it worked for Queen Elizabeth I.

Elizabeth as a young lady

Elizabeth as a not-so-young lady

 
The result is that now, in my 30s, I'm in love with Benedict Cumberbatch and addicted to tv shows for the first time ever. So, as a homeschooled, English teacher, writer, would-be nerd, I think I might share my thoughts as I watch David Tennant strut his foxy, inter-dimensional stuff.

No promises: I guarantee nothing. Nothing regular, nothing permanent. Who knows: I might post once on this and never again. I have real classes to teach and real books to write. But for now, well, we'll see. I hope you're watching, too, and having fun with the Doctor's 50th year. Please share your Doctor stories with me! Cheers.