Have we lost our sense of adventure and wonder?
Published April 13th, 2010Spent the evening watching episodes 1 and 2 of the 5th season of the new Doctor Who. Shh, don’t tell anyone - episode 1 hasn’t even aired in my country yet. But it has aired, and in a flat world - that means it’s fair game to watch. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
Anyway. It’s a shame this series isn’t on the air here. It’s a shame that this great series goes unwatched by so many that might really enjoy it just because its not easily accessible and it looks a little cheesy. It doesn’t have the production values of V or FlashForward or Lost - or most of the sci-fi genre on mainstream tv here. Frankly, that’s part of its charm. Unfortunately, people here are wowed by flash and meh to wonderful plots and great writing. And, flat out fun.
Doctor Who is all about adventure. It’s an adventure show. That’s all you need to know about it. Different worlds. Different times. Different realities. It asks “what if?” a million different ways. It goes out and finds the unknown. It revisits the “known” and shows you a different way it could have happened - as long as you have some imagination left. In the first episode of this new season, his companion says “I grew up.” The Doctor replies with “I’ll be sure to fix that.” That’s the right attitude for so much of life. It’s not about staying immature, it’s about never losing your sense of wonder.
We’ve lost our sense of wonder. Look at this list of the 20 best TV shows of the last 10 years. Now I like a lot of the shows on here. I haven’t seen them all. But they do seem to be good shows. But if you look - none are about adventure, exploration, the unknown. The sci-fi on there is inward-looking, introspective, delving sci-fi. Battlestar is about humans and humanity. Lost is about puzzles and weirdness and an island. An island! The only thing close is Buffy, but Firefly - same creator - covered real exploration and wonder.
We - humans - used to be explorers. We set forth out of Africa to settle new continents. We sailed across endless oceans to find new worlds. We set out across continents to see what was there. We set out to the moon. And then something happened. It started tailing off. We sent out robots to new worlds - but not that many. Why is mars not covered with them? Why is Titan such a mystery? What will we do about Europa? These are the real avenues of exploration left to us - and they’re back burnered. We are an introspective race now. All over the planet, we look inward and not outward. And our entertainment choices reflect this. Our sense of wonder of the unknown has been replaced by the mundane. Entertainment has sunk the most money this year into V and FlashForward - one a remake about aliens coming to US, and one based on a book where we see a short bit of the future. And for most people - it’s an ordinary day in the future. These are things that happened to US as a race. We did nothing to explore this.
Take a look at this list of the 10 best sci-fi tv shows. Doctor Who, Stargate, Farscape, Firefly, X-Files, and Star Trek are ALL about exploration. About seeing what’s out there. About finding out the unknown. X-Files particularly in their “monster of the week” episodes, less so in the main story arc episodes. We always find out where the monster came from, how it came to be, what it’s purpose was. The aliens in the main arc? We never know where they came from, why, or what they wanted. The main arc was the predecessor of shows like Lost. The monster of the week shows were spawned of the tradition of Star Trek. Roddenberry pitched the show as “Wagon Train to the stars” and that’s exactly what it was. A new planet every week. That’s how Stargate works. Farscape was something new every week. Firefly. X-Files. And Doctor Who. The universe is infinite - so let’s go see what’s out there.
That’s the beauty of these shows. And Doctor Who is continuing that tradition right now. The writing is fantastic. The stories are great. I can’t recommend it enough. It is a show about the wonders of the universe. And I hope wonders never cease.
I LOVE the fact that the production value of Doctor Who is so cheesy! If it was flashier, I think it would take away from a lot of its charm. I feel like it’s popular enough that they probably COULD spend more money on it, so I’m thinking (hoping) that it’s just a matter of they choose not to.
I have to still start this newest season! What? What? WHAT? That’s impossible!