I mentioned how the Little Man was sick yesterday afternoon. After his nap, still not feeling one hundred percent, he climbed into bed with me as I sat down to watch an episode of Doctor Who. Now, for those who don’t know, I’ve only seen a handful of episodes of Doctor Who. The first one I ever saw was not long after a TARDIS appeared across from my house. It seems that there were quite a few people out there who found it unbelievable that a science fiction writer had never seen Doctor Who. I tried to explain that I was not a fan of most television and movie science fiction. I’d grown up reading science fiction and that is what I enjoy. That said, people convinced me to watch one episode of Doctor Who and the episode they selected for me was “Blink,” which I enjoyed.
Since the, I acquired the first two seasons of the new Doctor Who with the thought of eventually watching them. I generally don’t have much time for television, and when I do, I’m usually looking for some form of relaxing, enjoyable entertainment. Last night, I was in one of those moods where that was just what the doctor ordered, so to speak.
So I put on “Aliens of London” from Season 1 of Doctor Who. (I’d already seen the first three episodes) and explained to the Little Man that this was a show with spaceships and aliens. For the first few minutes, the Little Man (who is nearly 3-1/2, by the way) kept asking where the spaceships were. Of course, we saw one crash into the Thames soon enough.
“Is that the Enterprise, Daddy?” the Little Man asked.
“No,” I said, severely. “Listen, it’s fine to make that kind of mistake in here when it is just you and me. But you have to be careful in the outside world. You could make some people very unhappy by misidentifying which franchise it is you are watching.”
The Little Man just blinked at me.
Of course, he kept asking for spaceships. I tried to explain to him that the TARDIS was a spaceship, of sorts. He was having none of that. With more than three years of experience in this world, the Little Man knew a spaceship when he saw one and the TARDIS was most definitely not a spaceship.
Perhaps the funniest moment came when the Doctor had cornered the (presumed dead) alien at number 10 Downing Street. They had the alien trapped and the creature tried to make his escape. It was a tense scene and the creature was about to reveal itself. Now, if you’ve seen the episode, you know exactly what’s coming. But I hadn’t seen the episode and neither had the Little Man. So when the alien was finally revealed, I sat there momentarily confused. Not so the Little Man. He burst out laughing at the top of his lungs, “Daddy, it’s a pig!”
I guess you can say that the Little Man’s first experience with Doctor Who was a good one. It cheered him up when he was sick and it made him laugh and feel better. And isn’t that what doctors are for?
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