A Great Show Called 'Doctor Who':

[MaCaulay]

I consider myself to be a fairly big nerd. I play video games, I watch anime/read manga, watch cartoons aimed at children half my age, participate in discussions such as "Could a lightsaber cut through Adamantium?" (No.) and generally participate in nerd culture whenever I can. But there was always one thing that I never got into, 'Doctor Who'.

Now that isn't to say that I did not like The Doctor, it was just that DW had become such a massive cultural thing that by the time I had found it I didn't really know where to start. The turning point for me was when I caught a glance (and by glance I mean that I was channel surfing and couldn't find anything else interesting) of 'Let's Kill Hitler'. I began watching the episode and realised that from my years of being a nerd and spending most of my time on the internet I had inadvertently picked a massive amount of Doctor Who knowledge. For example... My father sat down to watch the episode with me and was a little confused by everything that was happening, asking me questions like "Who is that woman and why is she white now?" and to my astonishment I was able to respond with "That is River Song. She is Amy and Rory's daughter and she is part time lord so what you just saw was her regenerating." Of course this only confused him more but the point is I knew all sorts of things about this show that I had never watched. And this intrigued me.

So fast forward a couple of months and I am now an avid "Whovian" with a massive man crush on David Tennant. So my question to you is this, what was/is something inherently nerdy that you have never gotten into? Is their a television series or a collection of books that you never got into? And I guess more importantly, why did you not get into these things? Were they just not for you or did you feel like there was to big of a hype-machine behind it that it would never be as good for you as it was for everybody else?

Let me know I am truly interested in seeing what you all have to say.

 

[aba1]

Actually for me it would be Star trek and Dr.Who. Star trek because I have just never bothered to give it a swing but I think I will eventually and Dr Who because well it didn't have enough of a ongoing story to keep me held for the long haul. I didn't mind it, it had very interesting mythology and decent characters but it felt like nothing ever really happened short of changing companions every once in a blue moon or becoming a different actor. That isn't to say nothing happened just not nearly enough for me to remained interested.

 

[TaintedSaint]

Yeah I fought the who bug for years now. But when i gave in it became and obsession. I have seen every episode of the new show as well as the original series "besides the ones that no longer exist" Best story ever is the caves of androzani final 5th doctor story. If you have not seen it you need to.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

I actually didn't really know what it was for a while, due to not being born in Britain. When the show started getting internationally popular a few years ago I just never really bothered to find out what it was. As far as I knew, Doctor Who was a rapper. But eventually I learned a bit more about it, there came a point where I knew it was some guy going around space and time in a blue phone booth.

Funnily enough, it was actually the Doctor Whooves character from My Little Pony that gave me the final push. I started watching it this last March and I've already gone through the entirety of New Who and a bit of the Hartnell years. I adore it.

 

[smithy_2045]

I've only just got through series 6 of (new) Doctor Who. My dad is a big fan, and while I've always found it interesting, I never watched it with any continuity until recently.

 

[Rastien]

For me it's star wars, i cannot stand it... i respect all the people that do but for me it's just abit... dated :/ it wasn't my generation and the other thing that irks me abit is alot of people naturally assume because i'm geeky i instantly like star wars :/ it's like... no it's really not for me.

 

[Coppernerves]

For me it's Star Trek, I'd like to watch the original series some time, but I can't find anywhere on the internets that'll stream it to the UK for free.

Also, are you sure a lightsaber can't cut adamantium? I know it can't be cut or broken or bent with mechanical force, but surely it can be melted, otherwise how could it ever be used for anything?

 

[DJjaffacake]

I'm not a massive fan of Star Trek, I regularly get into (friendly) arguments with my trekkie friend about it in comparison to Star Wars and Mass Effect (which he doesn't mind and hates respectively).

I've also never gotten into anime, or Japanese culture in general. I just don't find it particularly interesting or entertaining.

Edit: Oh, cartoons and comics as well.

 

[Starik20X6]

Nerdy things I've never got into?

- Magic The Gathering, Warhammer and D&D are all super expensive and I've got nobody to play them with. Especially Warhammer on the money front. And I thought my LEGO habit was costly...
- Dr. Who and Star Trek[footnote]I did really enjoy the new movie, if that counts for anything.[/footnote] could be interesting but I don't have time and inclination to study up on the lore.
- Reading comics seems like it'd be so much more expensive and time consuming than just watching the cartoons/movies they put out, most of which are top-notch now.
- Classic cartoons like Ninja Turtles, He-Man, Transformers and G.I. Joe were all a little before my time, as such I never picked them up.

 

[Nantucket_v1legacy]

For me it would have to be Firefly.

Everybody keeps telling me how amazing it is and I keep meaning to watch it but I can't be arsed. When I see it on Netflix I momentarily argue with myself.

"Should I watch it today? Hmm..."
"But look up! Miami Vice"
"But I've seen that way too often. I've not seen Firefly yet..."
"Supernatural is there... you know you like looking at the men in that"
"True. Thanks subconscious!"

True story.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

- Dr. Who and Star Trek could be interesting but I don't have time and inclination to study up on the lore.

Personally, I don't think it does. The new Star Trek film might be perfectly fine in a lot of ways. It just seems to be embarrassed by the fact that it has the title "Star Trek". So much so that it does everything reasonable to distance itself. In the opening few minutes, they basically throw out everything but Enterprise. The rest of the film is a well made but fairly generic action sci-fi movie that happens to have a Star Trek aesthetic. Much of the focus of the film is on action - an odd choice given the universe tends to be based on exploration and diplomacy more than violence.

My take on the movie was that it was a perfectly fine action movie, but a terrible Star Trek film.

When it comes to Dr Who, I'm actually more conflicted. The effects are terrible, the acting is often spotty, and it relies on magic more often than not (A DNA "replicator" can be used to injure someone at a distance for example. Not sure how given that DNA is just a very large and complex organic chemical). The show has a lot of charm that makes it worth watching but even then I spend as much time complaining about some stupid thing or another that it makes me wonder if I actually hate the show and just like "The Doctor".

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

There are numerous sci-fi (read: nerdy) shows I don't like:
Battlestar Galactica
Stargate + spinoffs
Firefly
Star Trek: Enterprise
Farscape (admittedly I haven't really given it a good enough go)

Which is odd since I love Star Trek up to Voyager, Babylon 5, Red Dwarf, Dr Who, Twilight Zone and didn't mind a bit of X-Files.

I used to be conflicted over whether I liked new Dr Who (new being anything after the Dr Who Movie in 1998) but then I realized that I didn't really like any of the Doctors since Tom Baker's incarnation, so it wasn't exactly a new phenomenon. After that I figured it was better to go by episode rather than by doctor, since the way the writers are employed meant that the difference between each episode was usually larger than between each doctor generally, and I had to admit some of the new stories were pretty good, if not as good as the 3rd doctor's stories.

 

[Ljs1121]

Star Wars, Star Trek, anime and manga in general, and things made by Joss Whedon.

...Looking back, I don't think I can even call myself a nerd.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

I really really want to like Doctor Who. The premise is wonderful, the science fiction aspect of time travel is of my greatest love, and the series as a whole deserves my respect because of its long honorable run... however. I just don't like the stories... the dialogue. It always seems so fake or as if the show belongs on a children's station. It just keeps me from really liking it.

I feel terrible for it, I really want to like the show. Science Fiction is my favorite story structure and yet... I don't like the greatest science fiction show of them all.

 

[AngloDoom]

Star Wars. Any of them.

I was the right age to see them and everything - all my peers are shocked when I tell them I only watched the first two films last year - but because I didn't get into them when I was young they're just not interesting to me. I see 'cliché' when in the back of my mind I know it was the film that created those very tropes and gave influence to a lot of modern Sci-Fi, but because I viewed it backwards it just seems crappy.

Also, I like some Doctor Who - such as the Weeping Angel episodes - but for the most part I consider it really 'meh'.

 

[the December King]

For me Magic the Gathering was a choice not to get involved with- there was an adversarial and antagonistic attitude to the game from me and my D&D playing group, so we shunned it.

I don't know about other nerd activities... I'm not up on my anime. Nor comics, I suppose, and I'm not interested in pursuing comics in general. In fact, I'm not too big a fan of most of the superhero/comic movies, either, and have only a passing knowledge of them.

Love Doctor Who, though. I used to watch them growing up. Great memories.

 

[blackrave]

I started to watch Dr.Who with the post 2000 seasons
I like it, ocasionally it is cheesy, but mostly fun (and sometimes you get a glance at how cruel Doctor can actually be)
What puzzles me is "the Time War"- was it addressed in older seasons?