Chronicle of a Gentle Obsession

Another day simply cannot go by without I recommend to my dear and general readership a fan-damn-tastic show called "Doctor Who."

So here I go.

You may have heard of the series: it's a British sci-fi import that had its inception in 1963, vying against the Beatles and the Kennedy assassination for the world's attention. It's been around, more or less, ever since. Ten actors have portrayed The Doctor to date. Ten! ("Doctor who?" "Just, The Doctor" -- and now you get the joke.) Our hero is a TimeLord from the planet Gallifrey, an ancient race that unlocked the secrets of time travel and subsequently pledged themselves to observe only: never to judge, never to interfere. The Doctor, though, can't help himself but meddle about in all the worlds and all the injustices and invasions he sees crashing down around him: he hi-jacked a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) and off he went to defend the world. When he gets himself thoroughly into trouble, like a mortal wound, for instance, he doesn't die: his body repairs itself through a process called regeneration, which also changes his physical appearance. (Now isn't that handy... Handy! You have to close out Series 4 like a good British seven-year-old to appreciate that!)

That TARDIS, by the by, has a chameleon device, set to transform the exterior of the ship in order to blend in with the given surroundings. Except it broke, on a trip to the UK in 1963 (fancy that), and the ship's been a blue police box ever since.

Now, the question is NOT, how do you keep that going for forty-odd years? It's How in the world could you possibly mess that up?

You can catch the latest episodes on BBC America on Saturday nights, or you exercise your Netflix queue and line up YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH history for yourself.

Recommended for students who enjoyed (FINE, I'll use the term loosely) Rittgers' Sin, Penitence and Forgiveness class. (Watch how The Doctor always gives the baddies a chance to CHANGE their course of action before he whallops the stuffing out of them and then deactivates the anti-matter vortex-bomb with a kettle and some string.)

Recommended for students who enjoyed Huelin's Hermeneutics of Hospitality class. (The Doctor is Peregrinating above all, the great Wanderer! Between Doctors Eight and Nine, his home planet Gallifrey was destroyed. Watch his new sense of community form and be challenged...)

And finally, recommended for anybody in transition, anybody who happens to be wandering. I defy you to dislike this character who will save you from certain death and then take you tumbling through rifts in time and space and visiting places and peoples you never thought possible. It cannot be done, so there.

Happy Travels!