Across the world and the U. S., three-day conventions have been planned over the weekend to celebrate the airing, the surprisingly long life, and the popularity of one of the world’s longest running TV shows. Max Thomas has been ready for over a year.
Fifty years ago, the BBC aired a new show in Britain about a humanoid who goes by simply The Doctor and can travel through space and time with the help of a Time and Relative Dimension in Space machine, or TARDIS. Since then, Doctor Who has become a worldwide sensation.
This weekend, Who Fest in Addison will allow the DFW area to join the celebration. The convention has been hyped up at smaller celebrations, like the British Emporium’s annual Doctor Who Day in October, but has been sold out for several months. The convention will consist of trivia, videos, droves of fans, special episode showings and, most notably, costume contests.
Two years ago, when he was 14, Thomas told a buddy that he would build a life-size Dalek, an alien robot character from the show. His buddy called B.S. and Thomas set out to prove him wrong. With the help of his dad, who runs a prop shop in Southlake, Texas, Thomas was able to build a moving replica of the robot named Derek. Since then, Thomas and Derek have entered in several contests, often winning “Best in Show.” Often, other contenders will drop out after seeing Derek, said Thomas. “They said they had ‘no chance.’”
Doctor Who fans in the U.S. and around the world are made up of a variety of people. Children as young as 10 and adults well into their 50s all find a trans-generational, common theme they cannot get enough of: adventure.
“I think the thing that captivates people about it is this idea of the potential of traveling anywhere; anywhere in time and space and having adventures,” said Derek Kompare, an associate professor in the film and media arts department at SMU and a fan of the show for over 30 years. “It’s got adventure, it’s got romance, it’s got drama, it’s got all sorts of things… and I think all those different sorts of flavors are really compelling.”
William Snider, 27, attended Doctor Who Day dressed as the Doctor with a special date who is also a fan of the show: his mom, Pamela, who went as herself. The two have only been watching the show since the beginning of the year, but both found that they had a “predisposition to like the show” because of their other interests, William said.
The Doctor is a Time Lord, a species with the ability to travel anywhere in time or space. This particular Time Lord, the last of his kind, has taken on the responsibility of protecting all life forms in multiple universes. In order to make his travels a little less lonely and a little more interesting, the Doctor usually picks up a companion or two to join him. Enter humans.
It is this aspect of the show that has allowed so many people to cling to this world of the fantastic with a sense of reality. The show tends to depict humans with a fairly monotonous life style before the Doctor crashes into their lives and sweeps them off into a world of wonder and adventure. Along the way, the companions discover new ways of looking at the world, the Doctor and themselves.
“What makes it obsessive?” said Jeff Herndon, a longtime fan of the show and professor at Texas A&M; in Commerce. “All of space and time, everything in between, anywhere you ever wanted to go, anything you ever wanted to see…. It is a program in which literally anything is possible.”
The show has managed to create longevity through its design. One of the perks of being a Time Lord is the ability to regenerate. When the Time Lord is subjected to an event that would kill any other being, he is given a new form and continues his existence, albeit with some new quirks. This has allowed the show to run for many seasons, switching out actors when necessary and even stopping and rebooting the show several years later. While the Doctor regenerates, the show strives to preserve the primary elements of his persona and just portray it in a different way.
“It’s so great that [the] Doctors can still be so great as the same person as they regenerate,” Pamela Snider said.
In honor of the 50th anniversary, the show has planned the Doctor’s 11th regeneration. Peter Capaldi, a prominent British TV star, will replace the current Doctor, Matt Smith.
While the show undoubtedly loses fans any time the Doctor regenerates, it also opens itself up to a whole new audience. This was certainly the case with the last regeneration. By casting the youngest portrayal of the Doctor to date, the show’s appeal in the U.S. skyrocketed, bringing the Doctor Who fandom phenomenon to a new high. Today, Doctor Who references pervade pop culture around the world.
“Watch it. It’s one of those things where if you don’t do it, you won’t know if you like it,” Herndon said. “This has been around long enough that, in terms of pop culture, it’s always been on the cutting edge.”
