Recently, my son started watching Doctor Who on Netflix and after a few months of hearing about time vortexes and sonic screwdrivers, I decided to check it out for myself. For those who don't know: Doctor Who is a British program that has been running almost continually since its 1963 debut. It involves a 900-year-old Time Lord from the destroyed planet of Gallifrey who travels through time and space inside the TARDIS -- a sentient spacecraft shaped like an old UK police call box. He also has the ability to regenerate, taking on new forms and new personalities which also has conveniently allowed for new actors to assume the role over the last fifty years.

My childhood memories of Doctor Who were from the few Tom Baker episodes I saw on public television. I remembered the Doctor's fro, long scarf, and some truly terrible special effects, but that's about it. Not something I thought appropriate for adult viewing.





Not a Marx Brother.

Still, I tuned in for a new episode, and a funny thing happened: I cried. Then I watched another episode and guess what? I cried again. In fact, I watched four episodes over two days and for each one, I cried. I can't think of any other show that has made me cry four times, let alone four episodes in a row, so I began to investigate.

I checked the mirror. Perhaps, like the Doctor, I had regenerated too, but into the form of a 14-year-old girl. Nope, it was still me. Also my penis and testicles had not suddenly gone missing.





They were safe on top of my dresser in their special box as always.

But even though my appearance was the same, I'd definitely changed. I'd become a fanatic. More than a fanatic: I'm a zealot. I want to sit around all day writing Doctor Who scripts. Lots of them. Hell, I want to be the Doctor. Who says he can't be American? He can be anything. BBC, call me!





Or actually call my son. He's much better at making David Tennant faces.

Initially, I thought Doctor Who was packing such an emotional punch because of the way it dealt with deeply-rooted issues and mythologies. Still, Star Trek and even Star Wars did that too, and I never cried from them.





OK, I cried a little during Phantom Menace but that's only because George Lucas was urinating on my childhood.

Craig Ferguson has suggested that nerds like me like Doctor Who because it's about the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism, and that's a very accurate point, but it still doesn't explain why I'd become such a huge wuss and fanboy.