Whovians: A loyal band
- Publication: The Southern Illinoisan
- Date: 1985-05-13
- Author: Dave DeWitte
- Page: 10
- Language: English
The president of The Whovian Society gazed out from beneath a knitted brow. Describing the importance of being a Whovian wasn't easy.
"It's kind of a unifying force among some people. It's hard to describe — weird actually," 15-year-old Tom Meyer of Carbondale said.
Meyer and his fellow Whovians know a camaraderie seen only among a few select groups — such as "Trekkies."
Unlike Trekkies — a dying breed of sci-fi buffs who face a life of Star Trek reruns, Whovians lead a day-to-day existence of suspense, hinging on the exploits of an eccentric 750-year-old chap known as The Doctor.
Southern Illinois sci-fi buffs who might have been hooked on Star Trek a decade ago are increasingly drawn to the Whovian lifestyle, which requires that you to nein to WSIU-TV (Channel 8) in Carbondale at 5:30 p.m. each weekday for a 30-minute dose of Doctor Who. The British-produced serial about an eccentric, wandering Time Lord is the longest-running science fiction television show in production today — a serious addiction for more than 100 million viewers in 54 countries around the world.
The attraction of the series is complex, starting with the lead character, a rogue Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey in the constellation Kasterborus who travels through time and space combatting evil in a peculiar time machine shaped — because of a broken circuit — like a British police call box from 1930s London.
Understanding Dr. Who takes a fair amount of intergalactic knowledge, which Meyer and other Whovians pick up through the massive quantity of Dr. Who comic books, magazines, picture books and other paraphernalia on the market. Although Whovians can't travel through time themselves, they occasionally travel long distances to science fiction conventions to shake the hand of one of the five British actors who have played the role of The Doctor over the years.
By an oddity of Time Lord physiology, the Doctor Who character has the power to "regenerate" his body when he is on the brink of death, resulting in complete replacement of mind and body. Although some regular viewers might be suspicious of the coincidental regeneration of the Doctor Who character at times when the British Broadcasting Corporation is re-casting the role of The Doctor, Meyer has a simple explanation.
"The Doctor's never had a truly successful regeneration," Meyer said. "He always comes out a little bit weird."
Through a quirk of distribution, WSIU's Dr. Who audience isn't always seeing the most recent regeneration of The Doctor.
Actor Peter Davidson, who played the role for three years, is relinquishing the role to Colin Baker. Meanwhile, the WSIU audience is three doctors behind, watching series produced while Jon Pertwee played the role. Pertwee is about to be replaced by actor Tom Baker in the WSIU sequence, which should be good news to Doctor Who fans. Baker, whose features suggest a refugee from a Marx Brothers comedy, is the all-time favorite regeneration of The Doctor. having played the role for seven years.
Each regeneration of The Doctor brings to the role his own personality. The dashing Pertwee plays the role as a "suave interplanetary crusader," in the words of the serials' distributors. During his five-year stint, the show won a 73 percent increase in adult viewers.
Baker, by contrast, "looked like a fugitive from the Marx Brothers," with a mop of curly brown hair, a smile like a piano keyboard and a 17-foot-long striped scarf decked over his 6'3" frame. He plays the role as a brilliant, though childlike bumbler who always manages to straighten things out just in time.
The rest of the cast is equally eccentric. A typical episode may include one or more of the characters known as "Doctor companions," often an alluring-yet-innocent young woman
"They usually get into trouble, which adds to the length of the program," Meyer snorted.
"The Brigadier," the very-British head of UNIT, a secret military wing of the United Nations devoted to saving the Earth from hostile forces, appears consistently throughout the series, along with one or more of a small army of villains and alien races.
One of the favorite enemies of all Doctor Who fans are the Daleks, a race of mechanized menaces resembling aluminum Art Deco salt shakers. The "destructive megalomaniacs," as Meyer describes them, suggest so much evil that ratings inevitably soar whenever a Doctor Who episode features them.
Is Doctor Who really more fun to watch than Star Trek? Meyer
doesn't go as far as to attack the all-American sci-fi show, but considers The Doctor to have greater long-term appeal.
"Star Trek is kind of on a rigid format," he said. "With Doctor Who, you're always in a different setting on a different planet... time travel helps too."
In addition to righting universal wrongs, The Doctor frequently helps keep human evolution from wandering astray through his time travels, Meyer said.
But The Doctor has his share of problems, too. One of them, according to Meyer, is BBC Comptroller Michael Grade, who wants ) sink the expensive series. The greats have prompted a massive write-in campaign to save the show.
But on the local scene, it looks as [ Doctor Who is safe, according to WSIU Station Manager Al Pizzato. le says sci-fi fans embraced the how immediately when it was introduced four years ago and the audience has grown every year. "The price has gone up every rear," he said. "They know you're got an audience and if you don't buy it, they say "it's up to you."
Although the audience doesn't contribute even half the $15,400 seeded to air the show last year, it would be a hard show to drop.
"We receive letters all the time from (Doctor Who fans)" he said. 'Sometimes they'll tell me who is )laying next in the series long before I've heard about it. They (now exactly what order the shows are produced in."
The program has spawned two fan clubs, the Whovians and the Doctor Who Appreciation Society that split off from the Whovians last year.
But not everyone watches the program for its brilliance. Some like it for its sheer silliness. The special effects are far from state of-the art and the monsters can be downright laughable at times.
"The special effects aren't 5( great, but they're fun to watch, especially if you don't take them seriously," Meyer said.
Whovians: Tom Meyer, Carl Budelsky and Steve Budelsky with 'Dr. Who' memorabilia
Spelling correction: Peter Davison
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: DeWitte, Dave (1985-05-13). Whovians: A loyal band. The Southern Illinoisan p. 10.
- MLA 7th ed.: DeWitte, Dave. "Whovians: A loyal band." The Southern Illinoisan [add city] 1985-05-13, 10. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: DeWitte, Dave. "Whovians: A loyal band." The Southern Illinoisan, edition, sec., 1985-05-13
- Turabian: DeWitte, Dave. "Whovians: A loyal band." The Southern Illinoisan, 1985-05-13, section, 10 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Whovians: A loyal band | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Whovians:_A_loyal_band | work=The Southern Illinoisan | pages=10 | date=1985-05-13 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Whovians: A loyal band | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Whovians:_A_loyal_band | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=23 March 2025}}</ref>
