Geek Syndicate
she looked good in a bikini. Savage warrior woman Leela (Louise Jameson) also spent most of her time in the TARDIS in skimpy leatherwear, but at least coupled it with a dose of knife-wielding aggression that let her rise above the wounds inflicted by the Costume Department. It sounds very laddish. The traditional jibe is that companions were cast as something “for the dads to look at” and there is some truth in that. But if the classic companion is someone to have something explained to them, the modern one is there to humanise the Doctor, keep him in check, and be the human path through all the alien time-travel weirdness. That isn’t a gender specific role, so maybe a female Doctor could have a hot young male companion. I hear there’s a market for that. Doctor Who’s fanbase is very diverse, now you mention it. I’ve probably sounded critical of its slightly fractured “old school” fanbase but it’s a show rooted in outsiders and non-conformists, one that has celebrated diversity (albeit by analogy, rather than direct casting) and the overcoming of obstacles by coming together to defeat them. Its monsters are the oppressive, the uniform, the intolerant; things that want to consume or destroy or conquer. Its most iconic villain, the Daleks, are genocidal aliens who can do nothing but hate. EX-TER-MIN-ATE! Yes, thank you. But it proves one of the main points about Doctor Who, and it’s this: over fifty years it has ingrained itself in wider popular culture, even when the show itself has been off the air. At its best, it’s a show about life, and heart and the good in the world, and about how things can be better by the application of reason and understanding. Generations of British kids have this show built into their make-up and that message is an important one to impart, even more so in an age of audience segmentation and targeting. It’s a show trying to be all things to everyone, and that makes it pretty lovable. OK, I’m sold. So where do I start? Well, thats a whole other story....
Matt farr
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