Who?

     Making the rounds on the InterTubez is a little video PSA that I find quite relevant. It has nothing to do with either idiot politicians spouting nonsense about science, or cute kittehs/puppehs/bunnehs (though I'm never opposed to the latter).

     No, this has to do with one of the great science fiction dynasties of our time.

     Doctor Who.

     For the uninitiated, that is not a question, it's a title. The good Doctor is a creation of the BBC, and next year he'll be celebrating his 50th anniversary, having first been portrayed by William Hartnell in an episode called "The Unearthly Child" in 1963. 

     A native of the planet Gallifrey, the Doctor roams all of time and space in a craft called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space). He often travels with a companion or companions, depending on his mood. And, oh yeah ... he regenerates. At a point of death, his body can generate a into a totally new form. That explains how 11 different actors have played the role over the last 49-plus years, a stretch that includes a 1989-2005 programming hiatus (with only a one-off 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann in between).

     So why, you ask, am I Who-ing it up today? 

     Well, a new season — the seventh since the 2005 series reboot welcomed the Doctor into the 21st century — will begin airing on BBC America on Sept. 1.

     I'm excited. So are many of my friends and fellow Whovians. We just want to share the Who love.

     Plus, there's that PSA I mentioned earlier:

     In this clip, celebrity nerd Chris Hardwick, founder of Nerdist, supports the current BBC America campaign on Twitter, #newtoWHO. Think of it as a pledge drive for Whovians. 

     The idea is to have existing Who geeks — such as myself — tweet (or perhaps blog) about when they first felt the call of the TARDIS. Hopefully, the theory goes, we can entice some fresh blood into the proceedings. Or at least aid some of our own family members who may have difficulty following our conversations/vocabulary.

     In his lifespan — OK, his TV lifespan; the character himself is more than 900 years old, though at the moment he doesn't look a day over 29 — the Doctor has been fun, fresh, cheesy, wise and dangerous. He's been through different faces, different wardrobes (fezzes ARE cool) and different tastebuds (fish fingers and custard, not so much). He's brought death to some and salvation to many.

     But there is one constant for those of us who remain devoted to the show: You never forget your first Doctor.

Good Old Four

     Mine's Tom Baker.

     Good old Four. He of the iconic 67-foot-long multi-hued scarf and tricked out hair. Oh, and the constantly proffered bag o' jelly babies.
     I fully admit the plots in his tenure (1974-1981) were utterly cheesetastic and the f/x were worse. It was a guilty pleasure. And I loved every second.

     Back in the Long Ago, when I first watched Four and his various traveling companions hurtling across space in that blue box, there was no cable. No On Demand. No DVDs/DVRs. Not even a VCR. All I had was a console TV the size of a damned Buick. There were maybe 10 channels feeding into it via signal from a roof antenna. I HAD TO GET UP TO CHANGE THE CHANNELS MANUALLY.

     There also appeared to be no set schedule for this cheesy show I stumbled across as a kid and really, really liked. Our available PBS station seemed to only get episodes in when it could afford them. So I never had a sense of episodic order to my Who experience. But it sure was fun. I still rack up old episodes these days, too, despite my love of the rebooted series. I was just watching 1975's "The Ark in Space" a few nights ago on Netflix.
     If you have that service, that's actually the best way to get into the Doctor. All six of the reboot series are available there, in order, in their entirety. If you're like me, you'll start watching and emerge a few days later sleep-deprived but utterly enthralled.
     As I said, season seven begins Sept. 1 on BBA America. So you've got two weeks to catch up.
     Geronimo.