'Why now?'

Last week, while hanging out at the shop, I got a text message from another buddy, commenting on the episode of Doctor Who he'd just watched. As I was talking with a fellow fan, I showed him the text as well. After a moment of being pleased that the texter was watching the show, I was asked 'Why now?'

Lester, for that is his name, had an interesting point. I've been watching Doctor Who for nearly thirty years now. Having grown up in Jamaica when the series first aired there, Lester's been watching it for longer than that, having gotten to see episodes that no longer exist in their visual form. After all our polite support of the series over the years, after all the fan fiction I'd written, after everything else, why do I know so many people giving the show a try and getting so on board with it?

Looking back on the original run of the series, I can see why it might have been difficult to get into for many people. The episodes from the 1960s are in black and white, having a different pace than modern television. The episodes from the 1970s have wonky special effects, often deemed important in the post-Star Wars world. The episodes from the 1980s are a mix of good, completely wonky ('Time Flight' any one?), or so filled with continuity that fans need diagrams to work it all out ('Attack of the Cybermen' springs to mind). Watch the wrong episode and it can be easy to be turned off.

The length that the programme ran could also be intimidating. 26 years, 700 some episodes (even with 108 still visually missing), as well as books and magazines and such can be very overwhelming. I do remember talking to people and them expressing the feeling that they would need to 'know too much' in order to understand it. The style of longer stories over four or six or however many episodes held back some. Testing the show required a time investment that many found insurmountable.

If all that is the case, then why do so many new fans of the show dip into the 'classic' series as well? Why did sales of the 'classic' series on DVD jump once the new series became popular?

The 'Rosetta Stone' effect.

It's happened to me with bands before. I'd hear a song and wouldn't care for it. After it got into rotation, I'd start to hate it. Why did other people like this so much?

Then the band would come out with a new song. I'd hear it and like it. Wow! That was that band I didn't like? Really? I'd listen to the original song and the whatever I didn't like about it, the singer's voice or a hook, suddenly worked for me. I liked it now as well. Now I understood the appeal.

That's what I think is happening here. The traditional aspects of Doctor Who transferred from the classic series to the current one so that older fans can see it's largely the same show (even if there are parts of it they don't care for) and newer fans can look back on older episodes and see some of what they like in there (even if the effects are often rubbish to new eyes). The rest of the current series reflects how television is made today, and the BBC supports it in words and money like they rarely did before. Shorter stories, a faster pace, an emotional core, better effects are all there to draw the modern viewer in to this universe. The format of Doctor Who is flexible enough to survive this 'regeneration' intact.

Much like it has survived in the past when television has changed. When the show started being filmed in colour, started seeing more action sequences, became darker, or became a series of novels to keep the torch alive. Much like it will change in the future as needed, given the chance.

Because that's what the Doctor does best, adapt and survive. Okay, well, what he does best is save the universe with an eraser, a piece of string, a crystal from a far off planet, his Sonic Screwdriver, and a joke, but let's not split hairs, hmm?