Fifty-seven years in time and space

I’d posted several times over the past week about the season premiere of “Doctor Who” (NO SPOILERS!) and tonight, after I expressed my satisfaction with the second half of the two-part episode, a Relay For Life friend of mine — a teacher, quite a bit younger than me — said the show sounded like fun and asked where she could find and stream previous seasons. (She’d also heard about it from other friends.)

This made me laugh — and she did, as well, once I explained that there were 57 years worth of “previous seasons” to consider. She had no idea that the show had such a history, and I’m sure her other friends are primarily familiar with the show since its 2005 relaunch.

When I started watching “Doctor Who” in college, and right after college, it was primarily a British thing, which aired in the U.S. primarily on public TV stations. The 2005 relaunch has been a lot better marketed on this side of the pond, and now it’s a lot more popular than it ever was when I was watching Tom Baker or Peter Davison or Jon Pertwee.

Side note: I got to see Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor, in person when Channel 8 brought him to Nashville as a fund-raiser in the mid-80s. The event was held in a school gym in Green Hills. I remember Pertwee making fun of the Daleks as an antagonist, saying all it took to avoid them was a flight of stairs. (The relaunch has given them a little better mobility than the classic series could afford.)