by Hope Loman Rowan Public Library
We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!
— The Doctor, Season 2, Episode 2
Once derided as something only “nerds” or “geeks” would enjoy, the sci-fi genre has become mainstream entertainment, appealing to boys and girls of all ages. The Star Wars franchise is one of the biggest movie series ever and only continues to expand, with seven official movies to date and plans for even more; Star Trek, originally premiering on CBS forty years ago, just had a successful summer blockbuster, with a new television series expected to premiere early next year; most recently, the series Stranger Things became an overnight phenomenon when it came to Netflix this June. Now, all of the series that have just been listed are distinctly American in origin, so I would be remiss if I failed to mention a certain sci-fi franchise that is just as popular and beloved, but might not be as easily recognizable to us “across the pond” because of its English origins: Doctor Who.
Doctor Who is a British science-fiction TV program that has two distinct series: the Classic Series, which ran from November 1963 to December of 1983 in twenty-five minute episodes, and the Revived Series, which has run in forty-five minute episode format from March of 2005 up to the present on the channel BBC One. Doctor Who, a Time Lord from the alien planet Gallifrey, goes on various adventures as he travels through time and space in his Time and Relative Dimension in Space (TARDIS) machine, disguised as a blue British Police box. As a Time Lord, he has the ability to regenerate, causing the Doctor to gain a completely different appearance and set of character traits (a clever explanation for when the actor wishes to be written off the show). Doctor Who is often joined by his companions, a changing cast of men and women who act as the audience’s surrogate, and fights against a rogues gallery including the mutant Daleks and robot-like Cybermen.
If this premise sounds intriguing to you at all, then the Rowan Public Library can be your Doctor Who central. We have copies of the complete seasons of each of the Revived Series, as well as different collections of episodes of the Classic Series and several different Doctor Who specials. If you are a fan of graphic novels, there are also copies of The Tenth Doctor, volumes 1 through 3 by Nick Abadzis and Robbie Morrison, The Eleventh Doctor by Al Ewing, and The Twelfth Doctor by Robbie Morrison. For reference, there is the Doctor Who Character Encyclopedia¸ and for a behind-the-scenes look at the history of the Classic Series and how it was made, there is The Making of Doctor Who by Terrance Dicks and Doctor Who, the Key to Time: a Year-by-Year Record. Visitors to NC Live can also find some interesting ebooks and articles in regards to this subject: one fun find is Who is the Doctor: The Unofficial Guide to Doctor Who—The New Series by Graeme Burk, which is part episode guide, part series of essays written by authors of official Doctor Who fanzines.
Finally, we now have Doctor Who’s Days on Tuesdays—a new program every second Tuesday at 4:30 at Rowan Public Library HQ where we have begun screening episodes of the Revived Series, beginning with the Ninth Doctor. Doctor Who was originally intended as a family show; for this reason, although we are advertising the program as being primarily for teenagers, we wouldn’t mind seeing their parents or younger siblings come along. So if this article has piqued your interest at all, as the Doctor once said: All of the time and space, everything that ever happened or ever will—where do you want to start?
No comments:
Post a Comment