Welcome aboard!
Out of curiosity though, what do you make the fact that it is heavily centralised in the UK and not all over the world? Does it bother you?
Please don't take this the wrong way, I am not trying to imply that American's only watch american centered television.
Hello Ice,
No offense taken at all. I'd never be offended by a reasonable and intelligent question such as yours.
I'll start with the last part of your question. Ironically, when my life seems to be going through the most important phases of developement the Doctor shows up again on TV in the States.
Art Immitating life. It was in the early 1980's that i first discovered him. Our Public Televsion stations used to air the entire serialized episodes in 2 and 3 hour blocks on Saturday Nights. Sometimes we even got episodes of Red Dwarf and Blake's 7 which would air either right before or right after the Doctor.
At the time they were showing the Tom Baker/Peter davison episodes.
I had a very rought time in High School, as many a geek did growing up. About this time the Doctor Started airing again, this time with the McCoy episodes.
Needless to say all good things and all that.
Set the fastforward machine to 1996. Yes the Fox Movie.
I had lost my job, I was in the midst of College and I was depressed and desperately trying to find myself. The Movie aired, it brought back a lot of memories and I liked it, even if others didn't think it was so good. It was while talking to a friend shortly thereafter that I discovered that his mate was opening a Doctor Who On-Line store here in the States. (No longer open) So, I started working there and that was a good point in my life for a while.
I remember we were all a little dissapointed that as flawed as it was the Fox movie never quite made it into a TV series at the time.
More years pass, I left that job and started my adult life, things went by and frankly I lost touch with the Doctor again for a long time.
I started hearing rumors about the new series in 2005, but before I could follow up on them Hurrican Katrina hit New Orleans, where I lived and tossed me and my family around the country. I ended up in Tennessee of all places (the Deep South indeed
).
It has taken me a year to get my head and my life straight again, and low and behold what do I discover, the Doctor is back with us here again.
So, in many ways I am dissapointed we haven't gotten more of the Doctor here in the US, but at the same time, he always seems to be there when I need him most. Cheesey as that may sound.
Now, why is it so UK Centric?
The Doctor to me is Brittain, he is the spirit of the Empire, the Ultimate English ideal all wrapped up in a Big Blue Box.
He's Sherlock Holmes, He's Biggles, He's Action Man, He's Sir Lancelot, He's James Bond, He's even a bit of the Black Adder. He is a good, noble, and strong Brittish hero and he always shall be.
Every Nation has it's icons...we have Superman, the Uk has the Doctor.
You see, it is a very big mistake when fans try to compare or argue Star trek against Doctor Who. It doesn't work. Star Trek is not right, it's not a good comparison to the Doctor.
The Doctor is a Super Hero and he's MUCH better compared to the likes of Batman than he is the crew of the Enterprise. But, we in America (well not all of us) have issues with seperating our genres into neat little packages. You can't have a super hero ina space show. No, a space show has to be pure (I really dislike most American Science Fiction television by the way. I think the last good SF series this country produced was Babylon 5). The idea that you can have this GREAT SCIENCE FICTION SUPER HERO is as alien to us as the Doctor himself. That is why we had to do that STUPID 1/2 Human crap in the movie (I disavow that as having happened by the way, The Doctor was pulling that guy's leg), we needed to tether the Doctor into something the not so imaginitive American viewer could swallow.
But, I am not like most of my peers. i come from a background of studying more historical entertainment. Everything from the Pulp Fiction of the 30's and 40's to comics, to even Retro Video and Computer games (The Commodore 64 is the finest video game machine ever built, you should agree with me being from OZ. I imagine the Brits here will either say its the Speccy or the Beeb Micro).
I see the Doctor for what he is. He's the distilled essance of everything that was truly great and IS truly great from the British Pulp Fiction era. He was created in the 1960's by guys who grew up reading the British pulps and he is that kind of hero made better and better by all who have followed him.
My favorite Doctor is Pertwee if that tells you anything.
I know this was a bit long winded, but I hope it at least answered your qustion. Thanks for the greeting.
-Ray