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Earning My Geek Cred

After careful deliberation and soul-searching, I feel the time has finally come for me to come out:  I am a geek.

I know my family and friends will find this news shocking, but the signs were there for anyone who cared to see them:  I build my own computers, and have several in my home.  I prefer open-source software and open standards.  I read books on theoretical physics and evolutionary biology for fun.  I rarely buy a consumer electronics device that is not subsequently hacked, cracked, or otherwise made to do something it's manufacturer never intended.  And, most telling?  I have a deep and abiding love for science fiction.

In order to fully realize my geek potential, however, there are certain benchmarks within the sci-fi realm; I've met most of them.  I have a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of comic books; I have seen all the Star Wars movies (with the exception of Empire, they're quite bad); I have seen every episode of every Star Trek series (the animated series doesn't count, as it's not in canon); I've read many of the classics, including the Foundation and Rama series (interesting concepts, but tedious and poorly written), and the original Dune series (quite well-written, but thoroughly uninteresting); I'm frequently able to watch The Big Bang Theory without reference to Wikipedia; I'm still pissed at Fox for canceling Firefly; and I worship Joss Whedon as a god.  Yet there is a final prerequisite to be met in order to achieve true geekdom:  Doctor Who.

Doctor Who was a BBC series that followed the adventures of the time-traveling Doctor and his ever-changing string of companions as they fought aliens, put right what went wrong, and, sometimes, set a few things wrong themselves.  Doctor Who is considered one of the classics of sci-fi television, right alongside Star Trek; it also has the distinction of being the longest-running sci-fi series in history.  That kind of continuity is daunting, particularly when one's only exposure to the series is via the occasional PBS rerun, which seemed to air on no particular schedule, in no particular order.  Factor in the Doctor's talent for "regeneration", whereby he escapes death by regenerating into a completely new body (and a completely different actor), and such non-chronological viewing becomes highly confusing, and hardly worth the trouble.  It's no surprise I didn't know Who.

All that changed when the series relaunched in 2005.  That seemed the perfect jumping-on point for a new viewer.  I was not disappointed.  I have enjoyed the new series immensely, having caught up via Netflix On Demand.  The series is quirky, campy, cheesy, silly, and, at times, utterly ridiculous, but it's all done so deliberately and self-consciously that it remains entertaining without becoming annoying.  It also manages the occasional flashes of sci-fi brilliance, such as the Series 3 episode "Blink".

But Doctor Who 2005 was a relaunch, not a reboot; the series introduces us to the 9th doctor (and later, the 10th and 11th).  Everything that happened in Classic Who still happened, and it's still a continuity of which I am largely unaware.

So, in order to fully attain my geek status (and hopefully receive the membership card and decoder ring), I am hereby announcing an ambitious new project:  the Complete Doctor Who.  26 Seasons.  8 Doctors.  Over 700 episodes.  In chronological order.  I will watch them.  Bad writing, silly storylines, cheesy effects, big hair and all.