Not to be outdone, Doctor Who fans have come up with some of the coolest cross stitch out there.
From pickleladyfarm on Etsy!
From elfstitch on Etsy!
Knitters may be crazy, but I think cross stitchers are completely insane. And I love it.
ek
When you let it known to the world that you’re a Doctor Who fan, you usually find yourself answering questions about how long you’ve been watching and what you remember watching first.
“Who’s your Doctor? Who’s your first Doctor?”
For many people—British, American, or beyond—the answer is usually Tom Baker. The Fourth Doctor is their Doctor, and they remember watching syndicated Fourth Doctor stories on PBS or BBC2 when they were kids. I do remember watching Doctor Who on PBS when I was a kid, but Tom Baker isn’t the first Doctor I think of. For me, it’s Pat Troughton. Which is curious, considering so many of his episodes are lost and very little else was broadcast abroad because by the time the BBC sent tapes overseas color was the standard and stations weren’t interested in paying to air black and white.
Luckily for me, I’m from Chicago, and WTTW aired TONS of Doctor Who. It’s presence on WTTW went relatively uninterrupted from 1975 to 1996. Which is really impressive, considering Doctor Who was shelved in 1989. But WTTW had a special tie with Doctor Who; it was the channel that premiered “The Five Doctors”, even before the BBC did in the UK. Why? From what I can tell, it had a lot to do with stereo sound transmission.
Here I present part 1 of what I hope to be a continuing series of discussions comparing and contrasting Star Trek and Doctor Who episodes that aired in the same week. My focus is sound-driven, so there are clips to watch and listen to for illustration and reinforcement. This is kind of like a window into the research I do. Enjoy!
This week I’m giving a talk on my dissertation project, which is an historical study of television production in the UK using Doctor Who as a test subject. An idea that popped into my head to try and highlight the differences (and similarities) between American and British television at the time was to find an episode of Star Trek that aired the same week as an episode of Doctor Who, and play clips to show the difference. It seems like it would be a good jumping-off point into further discussion of the differences in television at the time. A logical starting point is the first aired episode of Star Trek, “The Man Trap,” which transmitted on Thursday, September 8, 1966 on NBC. Two days later the BBC transmitted part 1 of “The Smugglers,” which is unfortunately on the list of wiped episodes. While we have the remaining audio, the video is gone, and if I’m giving a visual presentation I should stick with something that the students can watch. The next overlap of existing episodes is “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” [ST], aired Thursday, October 6th, 1966 on NBC, and the first part of “The Tenth Planet” [DW] aired on Saturday, October 8th, 1966. So that’s where I’ll begin. read more
It was only a matter of time before Doctor Who found its way onto Knitty.com, one of the most popular knitting pattern magazines on the Internet. This summer’s Knitty Surprise features “Bigger on the Inside,” a cleverly designed shawl with modern shaping and a slew of adorable lace TARDISes.
I love the ‘Time Vortex’ lace, and the angular ribbing compliments the TARDISes perfectly! And hey, maybe this will get more knitters watching Doctor Who!
Queue it up here:
And get it here!
ek
A few weeks ago on Twitter I asked the question:
Why do you think Doctor Who is important?
In a very un-scientific fashion, I went through and took tallies (literally) of what words/phrases/themes cropped up in most of the responses.
The heavy hitters were its narrative themes, appeal to multiple generations of viewers, the educational aspects of its narrative and presentation, and its tenure on tv. A few people also noted it as a site for viewing changes over the course of television history, how it has inspired people to be in their professions (be it in science or media production), and how the Doctor can be seen as a role model. read more
