Doctor Who- A Celebration!

[Martin Curnow]

Been watching some Tom Baker stories on DVD this week and wallowing in nostalgia.

Watching the extras on the Horror of Fang Rock DVD, it got me thinking there's no other programme on TV where I know who is the current producer or recognise the director's name let alone know who produced it and who script-edited it 20 and even 40 years ago.

When an actor dies, if they appeared in Dr Who (even if it was years and years ago and only fleetingly) we know about it and mourn their passing.

As someone wrote in DWM earlier in this year, who'd ever have imagined all those years ago that William Hartnell would be on BBC1 prime time on Christmas Day 2008.

When Matt Smith steps out of that blue box next year, he's the same man that walked out of the fog on 23rd Novemebr 1963 and he's walking out of the same TARDIS that has taken the Dcotor and us on so many wonderful adventures.

So, not a thread for an anniversary of anything or anybody from Dr Who, not a thread debating the values of production or the merits of a story or an era --- just a thread to celebrate the fact of Doctor Who.

[Rob McCow]

What I love about Doctor Who is that even when it's being a bit dull, a little disappointing or below par, it is still miles above so much other television. Over 26 + 5 years it's been wildly inconsistent except in terms of entertainment. Even the worst stories have something to recommend them - most of them have lots to recommend them!

Give me Doctor Who any day, it's streets ahead.

[Andrew Curnow]

What I really love, and although it may be a feature of other shows I somehow think of it as solely a Who thing, is that we are able to love it because of, not in spite of, its failings. It's probably a by-product of all those years off air when DWM started to develop its own unique sense of humour, and also the fact that during the 90s the video range was effectively a replacement for new TV shows - and so we've all learned to love the nonsense as much as the quality. I'm as fond of Day of the Daleks, with its psychedelic production values, with its oh-so-stilted Daleks, even with it's "Oh look, there's Arthur Brownlow" moment; as I am of Genesis with its peerless "I would do it" and "Do I have the right" scenes.

[duncan]

I love the way the show gets us watching as a family. Even the many many repeats that are on the digital channels gets the wife and kids into the room when it's on.

[Terileptil]

What I love about Doctor Who is that even when it's being a bit dull, a little disappointing or below par, it is still miles above so much other television. Over 26 + 5 years it's been wildly inconsistent except in terms of entertainment. Even the worst stories have something to recommend them - most of them have lots to recommend them!

Give me Doctor Who any day, it's streets ahead.

Agreed. I mean all of the clunkers are miles above trash like John & Kate Plus Eight or The Hills.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Hmmm - what makes Doctor Who so special?

I think I've said before part of the charm is the Tardis itself. Which is silly because the Tardis itself is really little more than a plot device to move between stories.

But it's something special. When I described it in a short story, I called it a curious mix between state-of-the-art control centre and antiques shop. And it is, both hi-tech and antiquated at the time.

It's kind of a cabinet of wonder caught between magic and super-science. We've all had cars which haven't been the most cutting edge, and yet we've been quite fond of. The Tardis is the Doctors Mark 1 Astra ...