About this weblog
Hello everyone, and welcome to my humble weblog.
I am a Whovian who decided to share his love for Doctor Who – and thoughts about the series – here. The format of the weblog is straightforward: I am going to put out one post per episode, starting with Rose. I will do my best to find little gems of wisdom – things we may learn from the Doctor and other characters and use them in real life to live it better. And whether I find them or not (and they are present in most of the episodes!), I will also try to point out little gems of storytelling – nice subtleties you might or might not notice on the first viewing, and even some more obvious things that I happened to like.
After completing each of the series, I am going to summarize it in one or more separate weblog posts.
I might occasionally deviate from this structure – for example, I might write a post about a serial of classic Who (I watched some of them, and I will probably watch more at some point).
I am also going to write about Serious Things™. One of the things I like about Doctor Who is that the series doesn’t shy away from difficult topics. Even if I do not always agree with the creators – the answers they seem to give are sometimes wrong – I like that they pose questions. As a father, watching the series with a child, I love that I can have a great discussion about life and values inspired by an episode – sometimes even longer than the said episode. That’s why the subtitle of the weblog is Learning life lessons from the Doctor – many episodes provoke very serious questions and discussions. Even if not every episode does, I love looking for tiny details which are often overlooked when watching an episode and focusing on the main plot. Tiny gestures, odd word selection, background events, behind the scenes facts – that sort of stuff. Sometimes I spot them on my own, sometimes I read about them on the Internet – in either case I want to share them.
I am also going to write how Doctor Who fits my personal beliefs. As a Catholic, one of the things I love about Doctor Who is that its message is often – perhaps a bit surprisingly – very much in line with my worldview. If you aren’t a Catholic, don’t worry – I will do my best to respect everyone, even if I don’t agree with them (more about it in a moment). Who knows (Who nose?), you might also learn something interesting about Catholicism here! Note, however, that I am not officially representing the doctrine of the Catholic Church, and while I do my best to stay orthodox, I might inadvertently misrepresent what Church says on some topic. If you notice a case of that – please email me and correct me! Also, in case you don't know Doctor Who (yet?), be advised that it is not a Catholic show, and while its message often aligns with the teaching of the Holy Church, many times it runs counter to it. (I point out such places on this weblog, too.)
Anyway, my core beliefs about fundamental issues – like love, religion, morality, life, death, and others – will appear on this weblog, and talking about fundamental issues sometimes leads to very heated discussions. I can promise you, though, that I am going to respect other people – even if I do not respect their opinions. (When you think about it, respecting an opinion you don’t agree with is nonsensical. Why would I respect some view I am convinced is wrong? Respecting the person having that opinion – now that is different. I can – and I should! – respect people even if we have opposing views.) Still, people might disagree with me once in a while. In fact, this is one of the reason I don’t have a “comments” feature here. If you want discussion, send me an email – I’ll be more than happy to exchange thoughts – but I admit that I’m very much afraid of the burden of comment moderation. I may even edit a post or two, including (parts of) discussions we may have over email (with all the participants’ consenting, of course). Sadly, the Internet is full of people who do not want to respect people disagreeing with them, so allowing everyone to express themselves is risky…
Last but not least, this weblog is a labor of love, but it takes some time to rewatch episodes I know, think about them and write my thoughts down. If you like it and find it valuable, please consider supporting me (financially or in other ways). I am going to write about two posts per month about the first series, but what I am going to next depends on how much time I can afford to spend on this weblog. In other words, more people’s support will mean more frequent posts, and less support might even mean the weblog gets abandoned at some point.