There’s a new series of Dr Who.
I loved Dr Who as a kid. I recall being totally terrified by it too. It makes me think about, even with the slickness and ‘realism’ of visual media these days, nothing has ever scared me as much since. It was the ideas that scared me much more than the realism of it. I don’t think I needed to be convinced that yet another English quarry was actually a barren planet in another galaxy. I was scared because it introduced me to new thoughts and ideas and challenged my thinking in ways that drew me to realise that nothing is as sure as it first appears. It was a feat of the imagination. And it was unreal too. That was half the point.
I think Dr Who made me a critical thinker. It taught me about irony. Inconclusiveness.. The ineffable
I’ve had a thirst for these things ever since.
I like that the writer (and executive producer) of the new Dr Who series is also the writer of the UK original of the Queer as Folk series too. I like that the links between those shows are not as tenuous as only residing in me. I feel part of something.
Escapism always was a delicious luxury for me. And perhaps for so many others too. If the world you live in isn’t always that good to you, you have the facility of the imagination to take yourself away. Ultimately, after developing and then using that same imagination, you can re-create your world to match your own vision.
I do that.
I wonder if it would do me good to write on here what my life was like when I was a teenager? And what I have done to recreate it since?
I wonder.