Image: BBC
True Doctor Who fandom can and should take over your life. Expedite the process by saturating them with all things Who.
I resisted becoming a Doctor Who fan for a long time. I watched the first episode of the reboot three or four times, always losing interest about halfway through and wondering why people were so into this weird, awkward show.
That all changed recently when my friend Gena, a diehard Whovian, finally got fed up with my Doctor Who waffling and took it upon herself to make me a fan. “You will love it,” she insisted (or maybe threatened?), and to prove it, she had me over to her house for a full Doctor Who immersion marathon. She and her husband plied me with mimosas and snacks and we watched Doctor Who for 11 HOURS. When I finally stumbled out into the evening air, I felt like a born-again Whovian, bursting with the Good News and so excited to share it with everyone I met.
Doctor Who is an obsession best enjoyed with a group of likeminded fans. So how do you do as Gena did, and indoctrinate (heh heh) your friends into the cult of Who? Here’s a no-fail five-step system that worked for me, and will work for you, too:
1. Find their angle. I couldn’t grasp how Doctor Who was relevant to my interests until I heard it described as “Sherlock meets Star Trek,” two of my favorite shows of all time. Also, I love fashion, so Rose Tyler’s chav style and Jack Harkness’s gorgeous overcoats were huge selling points for me. Find the angle of the fan you’re targeting and work that angle hard. Maybe they’re into gorgeous British men who wear Converse with slouchy three-piece suits (and aren’t we all?). Maybe they have a thing for weird space creatures or complicated intergalactic romance or dystopian futures or British period dramas. Doctor Who has it all, so get specific in the ways you tempt your potential new fan.
2. Create a personalized Doctor Who curriculum. Diehard Whovians will probably get mad at me for saying this, but I’m just going to say it: some episodes in the first season of the reboot are a little boring. Boring enough that potential fans might watch them and think, “This show is boring,” and quit. To ensure your new fans get fully sucked in and maintain their enthusiasm, feel free to pick and choose episodes based on their personal interests and skip a few of the slower-paced ones. Keep the main narrative arc in mind, and make sure they don’t miss any major plot points, but when it comes to the first season, getting them addicted is paramount. They can always go back and rewatch certain episodes after they’re hooked.
3. Fully immerse them in the Doctor Who universe. Email them conspiracy theories about future Doctors and potential plot twists. Text them Dalek memes and heartstring-tugging photos of different Doctor/companion matchups. Turn “Moisturiiiiiize meeeee!” into your standard greeting for each other. True Doctor Who fandom can and should take over your life. Expedite the process by saturating them with all things Who.
4. Become their personal Doctor Who sponsor. This means you are available at all times to answer questions about Cybermen anatomy, Doctor regeneration, and Bad Wolf references. Sponsoring a new Doctor Who fan is a serious job. You must be willing to set aside important work and family obligations to talk them through the emotional turmoil following their first viewing of the “Doomsday” episode. You must patiently walk them through some of the more confusing time/space travel concepts. You must become an on-call therapist for them when a new Doctor forces them to confront their fear of change. It’s just part of the job.
5. Treat fan recruitment like a multi-level marketing scheme. Doctor Who fandom is like Mary Kay in that whoever you recruit into the fandom becomes your team, and whoever they recruit, and so on and so forth. The more people you recruit, the more people you have to attend your viewing parties, discuss theories with, and glean emotional support when you’re not sure about a new Doctor. Plus, I’ve heard that if you meet the highest level of fan recruitment goals, instead of a pink convertible you get an illicit night of pleasure with David Tennant. And if that’s not a goal worth working toward, I don’t know what is.