Six Degrees of Doctor Who

Long before I read The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy I was fan of Douglas Adams, thanks to The Pirate Planet. Doctor Who as a franchise, with its almost 50 years of history is like a friend who's really well connected. Think of it also like a reference or a letter of introduction. From Hitchhikers I went onto the Dirk Gently books and only last year I read Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion partly because of his friendship with Adams (and a little bit because he's married to my eternal crush -- Romana II Lalla Ward). I'm not quite that superficial, I was interested in the subject matter, but I must admit that it added a little incentive, a certain oomph.

Countless times I've been flipping through the channels and come across a British television show shot in that familiar way (standard multi-camera set-up interiors/exteriors on film). The Tomorrow People and Sapphire and Steel both grabbed me that way.

Recognizing a familiar Doctor Who actor (regular or guest cast) is a sure-fire way to draw me in. I first developed a taste for Amicus films because I found a DVD featuring Jon Pertwee in The House That Dripped Blood (which in turn led me to The Vault of Horror with Tom Baker). Soon I was scouring the basement of HMV for anything with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. Which renewed my love of Hammer Horror from when I was a kid.

I once made a list of all the Doctor Who related actors that appeared in I, Claudius -- I believe I came close to 50. And they were from all eras of the show: Stratford Johns (Four to Doomsday), Kevin Stoney (The Dalek Masterplan/The Invasion/Revenge of the Cybermen) Derek Jacobi (Utopia), and Patricia Quinn (Dragonfire) and on and on. And of course it was said Mr. Johns who led to my fascination with the old British series Z-Cars.

Mark Eden and Derren Nesbitt who appeared together in the first Doctor serial Marco Polo both coincidentally appeared together in The Prisoner episode "It's Your Funeral". The Prisoner is one my other all-time favorite shows on its own merits, but definitely ranks high because of the same British-ness that Doctor Who oozes. And on a Sunday morning you will definitely find me often worshiping at the alter of Coronation Street, a mainstay on CBC television, but not something I ever watched until I recognized Helen Worth (Colony in Space) one week during university. All it took was five seconds of lingering to be pulled in to the absorbing comings and goings of "The Street".

Probably the most significant Doctor Who introduction I've had of late is my new-found affection for Agatha Christie mysteries. I ashamed to confess that I'd never cracked a spine of one of these ubiquitous inhabitants of summer cottages and musty Value Village shelves (most people I know left them behind in adolescence). Thanks to Gareth Robert's new series story The Unicorn and the Wasp I've been making up for lost time.

Oh course there's also that category I like to call, "Doctor Who made me do it". Questionable things I did or watched because of my love of the show. With no further delay, here are my top 10 things "Doctor Who made me do:

10) Watched The Secret Smile, a lurid little ITV drama that cast David Tennant as an evil stalker. This I watched right before his debut as the 10th Doctor. It took months to erase the image of him as a creepy destroyer of lives.

9) Stopped eating after 7 and returned to the Y (following a month hiatus) as a result of lusting after Matt Smith's slim 27 year old towel-clad body in The Lodger. Who was I kidding.

8) Spent two nights in Cardiff, one of the most boring cities in the UK, just to frequent such exciting Doctor Who locations as a deserted waterfront and a non-descript shopping mall.

7) Developed a massive crush on a girl in grade 10 who reminded me of Lalla Ward.

6) Struggled with the entirety of Escape Velocity, just so I could finish the BBC books' trapped-on-Earth arc. (Okay, I lie, I skipped to the last 20 pages to see how it finished up).

5) Sat through 90% of Torchwood season 1 and 75% of season 2.

4) Skipped out of the after party of my high school graduation to watch The Dalek of Invasion of Earth. Ouch, that one feels particularly pathetic.

3) Killed innumerable trees making endless Doctor-Who-related lists.

2) Attended a rather tedious production of Arsenic and Old Lace in Canterbury, which starred Louise Jameson as one of the old biddies. You know you're getting old when...

1) Two words: Gorgonzola cheese. Blech!

But God do I still love The Pirate Planet after all these years. Every time I hear the Captain complain about "zombie Mentiads and interfering Doctors" I get giddy. The poor old fellow just wants to be left alone to rape unsuspecting planets of all their mineral wealth and collect the leftovers in tubes like footballs -- why is everyone getting in his face. Take away all the Adams trappings and dialogue and you have a pretty conventional plot (City of Death is the same). Doesn't matter in the least, because like Russell T Davies he's just throwing stuff against the wall to see what will stick or like Steven Moffat he revels in recycling ideas into whatever new form takes his fancy (like say Dirk Gently).

Original viewing date: September 15, 1984

Spirit: Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum

Music: "We Belong" by Pat Benatar