Of all TV shows, Doctor Who is the closest to my heart. I watched PBS reruns of John Pertwee, Tom Baker, and Peter Davison when I was very young. The imagination and intelligence of the show appealed to me. I didn't notice its weaknesses. The slow pace, and the cheesy special effects - maybe, in a way, they made the show even more appealing, because the show was telling me, again, use your imagination. Just like you do when you're wandering the woods on a winter day, pretending you're on an alien planet. There's probably only two pieces of pop culture you need to see to understand my childhood, how happy and fulfilling those endless seasons were. One of them is Doctor Who. (The other is The Legend of Zelda.)
The show's hero, known only as The Doctor, has certainly influenced me, though he is so close to my childhood that it's difficult to tell the trees apart from the forest. I hesitate to blame my eventual personality on him; perhaps this is only coincidence. Or maybe it's enough to say that his example gave me permission to develop certain antisocial tendencies.
Generally, I think the Doctor is one of the best role models on TV, because he's a superhero of the intellect, and we don't get enough of those. His science may be sketchy, if not laughable, but the point is he uses his brain to solve his problems. Do you realize how many superheroes there are, and how few of them work this way? Even Batman, a smart fellow who defines himself by an avoidance of lethal weapons, ultimately closes each case with his fists. Superman may have a superbrain, depending on who's writing him, but he doesn't need it. He can laser a hole in your head just as easy as look at you. The Doctor is the number one brainy hero, and I'm not even sure if anyone deserves second place.
Of course, role models have a way of letting you down. A lesson for an older child; models are never the same as the thing they imitate. Never quite realistic. The Doctor is an outsider and an alpha male at the same time. He doesn't care, he drops out of the competition. But sooner or later everyone around him is forced, by his genius, to recognize his alpha status. They submit to him, even though they don't understand him. Because his brilliance is overwhelming.
I've been waiting my whole life for that to happen to me. For a long time I thought I had dropped out of the competition, but in fact I had only redefined it, naming myself Alpha Male of Nobody. I don't have to prove anything to anyone, because I'm outside and above. I thought I was independent, but it doesn't work that way. Without recognition to feed my ego, I disappear.
It's not enough to just be the smart guy. Except for limited moments of recognition in academia, or gaming, or internet posting, the world does not submit to the smart guy. And anyways, in the rare case that it does - Well, that's how things like Scientology happen. The smart guy is no less corruptible than anyone else, when people start believing his hype. Smart guys do save the day. They do it a lot, more than they get credit for. But they do it slowly, methodically, and often without enough foresight. There are always drawbacks. Smart guys create a new world that's better and scarier than yesterday's.
The new Doctor Who series is much more refined than the old one. Its pace is too fast and it's still capable of embarrassing itself, but overall it is a smarter and more self-aware show. The new show devoted an episode to what happens when people don't recognize the Doctor's alpha status. It was called Midnight. It was scary, and realistic, and maybe I should have seen it when I was a kid. I don't know. It's the forest for the trees - I can't tell.
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