We at SCIFI.radio are looking forward to the next episode.

First off, this has nothing to do with the premiere episode of the new season of Doctor Who. Jodie Whittaker IS The Doctor, all is right in the universe. No, this opinion piece is all about the pre-show and after show that BBC-America decided to air.

In a word … it stinks.

Not a huge fan of these after shows, but they seem to be popular, “Talking Dead” and “After Trek” being two that come to mind. And I’m sure, with the first woman playing The Doctor, it’s a big deal and something like that deserves some discussion about everyone’s opinion on this first episode, but BBC-America, one word of advice, get some real fans.

I don’t remember names, and since they ticked me off regarding their so called knowledge of Doctor Who, I think it’s best I not remember the names, but we had the so-called “Queen Of The Nerds”, who apparently has no knowledge of Doctor Who prior to Christopher Eccleston, said that Eccleston made his debut as The Doctor in 2009. Considering that was in 2005, I’m thinking we need to ask her for the Nerd Queen crown back and do a revote.

One gentleman claimed to have seen every episode twice. Every episode? You mean from An Unearthly Child with William Hatnell onwards, including the lost episodes? Do you also include the Flash animated web adventure The Scream Of Shalka” from 2003 with Richard E. Grant voicing The Doctor? Or the animated webcast of Shada” with the voices of Paul McGann, Lala Ward, and John Leeson also shown in 2003? How about the films starring Peter Cushing, despite him not being an alien, but a human inventor? No, you’ve seen every episode of the new series since 2005. No, no real Whovians here. Only person that I will not dispute his claim to being a fan of Doctor Who, is Wil Wheaton, however, when he was being interviewed, it seemed like he was reading lines that he was asked to say when on camera.

Before I continue, let me present my Geek Cred.

Wouldn’t be part Of SCIFI.radio if I didn’t have some geek cred.

It was the summer of 1984. The 18 year old me was heavy into comic books, and read about Marvel editor Jim Salicrup taking the comic adventures of The Doctor that was presented in Doctor Who Magazine, and putting them in a comic book format for the States. Got intrigued, and began my research (pre-internet, this meant walking to the book store, talking with my comic book shop guy, etc). Long running science fiction program, six (at the time) different actors having played the character, awesome theme music, I got even more interested.

At the time, the episodes of Doctor Who, mostly Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker (the rest of the Doctor’s were soon to follow), was shown on PBS stations across the country. The original series the episodes were thirty minute, multi-part episodes, usually four to six parts. A lot of the PBS stations were showing the stories as one movie, so to speak. That Saturday night, at 11:00 PM, I sat down and watched my very first episode of Doctor Who. It was City of Death with Tom Baker, with a very funny scene with John Cleese and Elanor Bron considering the TARDIS as a work of art … I was hooked.

I have seen at least four episodes of each of The Doctors. Patrick Troughton, I’ve not seen all his available episodes (remember, many of the earlier episodes have been lost). I’ve been getting the DVD’s of the episodes, beginning with William Hartnell, and there’s also my subscription to Britbox. I’ve had the Target novelisations of the episodes, different soundtracks, posters, sonic screwdrivers. I think I might know a thing or two about Doctor Who, from the beginning.

Things that irked me and others, about these specials:

One guy claimed it was good to see The Doctor surrounded by “People Of Color”.

Ooookay … Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, Bill Potts don’t count? And then guest stars on the show, even from the original series. Yeah, they’ve been on the show.

Mickey, Mickey Smith. Defending The Universe

It was commented on how we never saw The Doctor going through outfits. Robot with Tom Baker, Sylvester McCoy in Time And The Rani, David Tennant in The Christmas Invasion (How did those so called fans miss that one?).

And true Whovians enlarged this image to find all the outfits from the original series.

Never seen The Doctor make a sonic screwdriver from scratch? Patrick Troughton, Fury From The Deep.

I would do a mic drop, but that one costs me around $330.00

I get it, BBC-America, you want to have people on camera who are more easy on the eyes. But seriously, your whole presentation was a joke, and an insult to the fans, and to a point, the Geek Community as a whole. I understand that you would probably never get folks like myself, or any of the other SCIFI.radio staff members to host these shows for you, we ain’t pretty (That’s cruel, man), but you REALLY need to do better. Personally, I blame the entertainment industry as a whole, despite bringing us movies and television shows that we enjoy, but that’s a totally different opinion piece.

However, IF you’re interested…..We Happen To Know A Guy…..

Honestly, just bring us the episodes, and forget all the bells and whistles. OH, and don’t claim to present an extended edition later in the evening when it doesn’t pertain to anything extra in the episode itself.

Again, this has nothing to do with the episode. The thing about casting The Doctor is, it’s not about if the person is a man, woman, white, black, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, et cetera. It’s all about finding the right person for the job. Jodie Whittaker is an exceptional actress, and I know that she’s going to continue to do a great job in the role. I also think that we can paraphrase Sir Brigadier Alistair Godon Lethbridge-Stewart by saying, “The Doctor. Splendid person. All of them.”

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Gary DaBaum occasionally writes articles for SCIFI.radio, and has three shows on SCIFI.radio. He loves listening to music. He loves Doctor Who. And at age 52, he’s working on becoming a grumpy old man. He’s also working on a script, but Hollywood would probably not be interested in it … it features real geeks, not the Hollywood phonies … and definitely not the so called “Queen Of Nerds.”