Doctor Who Fandom
It strikes me that Doctor Who and its fandom has, overall, done me far more harm than good over the years.
It's sucked a hell of a lot of my disposable (and, considering my general lack of wealth, not-so-disposable) income. Stuff I've spent over my lifetime (or had spent on me before my working days) runs into the thousands and I've by no means got a collection that rivals the Levines or the DJ Howes of this world, but it's decent enough. There's no question that it's not fannish in size and scope. I have all the videos, all the DVDs, all the Targets, all the NAs and MAs, a very large number of the BBC novels, nineteen year's worth of DWMs, and a huge tranche of factual books, paperback and hardback, large and small. Not to mention toys, annuals... do I need it? Too many sentimental reasons to get rid, like my friend Rob has done... I'd miss it if it all went. And I still enjoy them, to a degree.
But those kids at school, twenty, fifteen, even ten years ago more often than not took the piss rather than liked it.
Online fan forums are a constant circular whirlwind, only entertaining and enjoyable if you avoid all debate - but I'm a Libran. I live for debate. I love it. To a point. The minute there's a chance of meaty discussion over squee, it becomes "Ratings! AI! Don't watch it then!" as if we now live in a black and white society whereby something is only perfect or unwatchable.
And then there's the way Who has gone. I hate it now, the new stuff - I've seen plenty of 'Classic' eps over the years I didn't like (or rather, Clunkers, to give them their pre-new Who name. No Classic series then, we just had 'Doctor Who' with Classic stories, Clunkers, Oddballs etc). But the New Who's that I don't love, I hate. Passionately. I'm a hater. Boo me! Hiss. Snark. Partly because these days they should know better than they used to.
I'm never going to contribute to Doctor Who. Not in a way that's meaningful to me. When I was a teenager I convinced myself that if it ever came back I'd be writing for it. In my early twenties I'd daydream of getting through drama school and then getting a part in it - and not necessarily as the Doctor. A good villain, or a nice meaty heroic self-sacrificial 'So And So Helped The Doctor Defeat the Daleks' type character, as Jean Luc Picard L'Officier might have said in a Universal Databank update.
I've had a missing episode lead, but it came to naught. So I'll never find a missing episode. I've tried to get into Macromedia Flash so I can have a go at Fanimating a Missing Episode... but it's bloody hard, and I can't get off the ground (especially with an AS in Psychology to get through, a job that's kind of gone off now again, a novel that's past 82k and may just get an ending, with some serious rewriting to follow that).
I've been banned from OG for slagging off Catherine Tate because I detest her, in a very unreasonable sort of way. So I'll never be a respected member of fandom - I mean, I'd have loved to have gone to a Fan Olympiad, as they're still going and I remember being excited about reading them way back in the 90s. I'd like to go to a Tavisode again and hobnob with me online mucker Steve Roberts, and so on - but there's no point in me going to another Tavisode, because I'll just get drunk and grumpy and moany, or feel excluded when the new series talk comes around and people might as well be talking about, y'know... football, or something else (well, many other things) I know nothing about.
Still like the old DVDs. Rather enjoy the classic series toys. And Big Finish. But you're not, dear reader, lest you ever thought otherwise, reading the early entries of the next Paul Cornell, Gary Russell, Nick Briggs or whatever. Doctor Who is the thing I know the most about, and it will never make me money or bring me kudos. Which is a bit of a shame, my teenage self would probably say, if he saw me now. But maybe growing out of Doctor Who (albeit still enjoying the old stuff from a nostalgic point of view) HAS to happen, and should have happened years ago. The question is... where to next?
Not throwing myself into work, that's for sure. I'm just not... interested enough. Twenty Seven in ten days. Not a *great* deal to show for it, apart from a vast knowledge of Doctor Who.
It's sucked a hell of a lot of my disposable (and, considering my general lack of wealth, not-so-disposable) income. Stuff I've spent over my lifetime (or had spent on me before my working days) runs into the thousands and I've by no means got a collection that rivals the Levines or the DJ Howes of this world, but it's decent enough. There's no question that it's not fannish in size and scope. I have all the videos, all the DVDs, all the Targets, all the NAs and MAs, a very large number of the BBC novels, nineteen year's worth of DWMs, and a huge tranche of factual books, paperback and hardback, large and small. Not to mention toys, annuals... do I need it? Too many sentimental reasons to get rid, like my friend Rob has done... I'd miss it if it all went. And I still enjoy them, to a degree.
But those kids at school, twenty, fifteen, even ten years ago more often than not took the piss rather than liked it.
Online fan forums are a constant circular whirlwind, only entertaining and enjoyable if you avoid all debate - but I'm a Libran. I live for debate. I love it. To a point. The minute there's a chance of meaty discussion over squee, it becomes "Ratings! AI! Don't watch it then!" as if we now live in a black and white society whereby something is only perfect or unwatchable.
And then there's the way Who has gone. I hate it now, the new stuff - I've seen plenty of 'Classic' eps over the years I didn't like (or rather, Clunkers, to give them their pre-new Who name. No Classic series then, we just had 'Doctor Who' with Classic stories, Clunkers, Oddballs etc). But the New Who's that I don't love, I hate. Passionately. I'm a hater. Boo me! Hiss. Snark. Partly because these days they should know better than they used to.
I'm never going to contribute to Doctor Who. Not in a way that's meaningful to me. When I was a teenager I convinced myself that if it ever came back I'd be writing for it. In my early twenties I'd daydream of getting through drama school and then getting a part in it - and not necessarily as the Doctor. A good villain, or a nice meaty heroic self-sacrificial 'So And So Helped The Doctor Defeat the Daleks' type character, as Jean Luc Picard L'Officier might have said in a Universal Databank update.
I've had a missing episode lead, but it came to naught. So I'll never find a missing episode. I've tried to get into Macromedia Flash so I can have a go at Fanimating a Missing Episode... but it's bloody hard, and I can't get off the ground (especially with an AS in Psychology to get through, a job that's kind of gone off now again, a novel that's past 82k and may just get an ending, with some serious rewriting to follow that).
I've been banned from OG for slagging off Catherine Tate because I detest her, in a very unreasonable sort of way. So I'll never be a respected member of fandom - I mean, I'd have loved to have gone to a Fan Olympiad, as they're still going and I remember being excited about reading them way back in the 90s. I'd like to go to a Tavisode again and hobnob with me online mucker Steve Roberts, and so on - but there's no point in me going to another Tavisode, because I'll just get drunk and grumpy and moany, or feel excluded when the new series talk comes around and people might as well be talking about, y'know... football, or something else (well, many other things) I know nothing about.
Still like the old DVDs. Rather enjoy the classic series toys. And Big Finish. But you're not, dear reader, lest you ever thought otherwise, reading the early entries of the next Paul Cornell, Gary Russell, Nick Briggs or whatever. Doctor Who is the thing I know the most about, and it will never make me money or bring me kudos. Which is a bit of a shame, my teenage self would probably say, if he saw me now. But maybe growing out of Doctor Who (albeit still enjoying the old stuff from a nostalgic point of view) HAS to happen, and should have happened years ago. The question is... where to next?
Not throwing myself into work, that's for sure. I'm just not... interested enough. Twenty Seven in ten days. Not a *great* deal to show for it, apart from a vast knowledge of Doctor Who.