Doctor Who | Blog

In an age of always-on interconnectivity, it’s very difficult to be surprised. It’s even more difficult when a part of you wants to ruin the surprise. Such is the double-edged nature of the spoiler.

In ancient pre-Internet times, being a fan meant being completely clueless about inside info regarding your favourite show. This was an especially pernicious problem for North American Doctor Who fans, who had only year-old, overpriced copies of Doctor Who Magazine at their local comic book shop for sustenance. That’s where I discovered the “breaking news” that Peter Davison would soon be replaced by Colin Baker as the Doctor, some time after the transition had taken place. 

Rassilon protect you if you wanted to actually watch honest-to- goodness new episodes of Doctor Who. I remember pooling my money together with other fans in 1990 to pay over $100 for shipping, NTSC conversion and transfer of a VHS cassette of “Remembrance of the Daleks.”

Not to slip into “an ‘in my day’” diatribe (cue the elderly, cantankerous voice), but modern Who fans have it almost too easy. In fact, the amount of work required to NOT find minute facts about upcoming episodes, sometimes immediately after filming, can be daunting for the dedicated fanboy or girl. There are photo sites set up to document pictures from shooting sets, YouTube videos with random reviews by random people, forum posts that might read “OMG TEH DOCTOR DIED!?!? DAM U DARLIKS” in the title, and many, many other ways to glean info that, as a fan, you really don’t want to know. And while broadcasters have made serious progress in recent years with worldwide distribution, it’s still a waiting game for North American fans if they want to watch the Doctor on television, so in order to avoid ruining the surprise, it’s necessary to ignore any media, social or otherwise, coming out of the UK.

As one of the three hosts of the Radio Free Skaro podcast, I’m part of the problem. While we generally try to avoid giving away spoilers on- air about upcoming episodes, as a Doctor Who news source, we dance a fine line when every week a new tidbit comes forth that we at least have to hint about. On a personal level, all three of us have to pick and choose what we do and don’t read and report, because as fans we don’t want always want to be spoiled.

Or do we? The internet is such a “hit the button, get a pellet” 
Pavlovian tunnel that it’s easy to succumb to temptation, especially when that pellet is your favorite flavour, Vitamin Who. There’s been more than one occasion where I’ve actually reared back from my computer, fought clicking a link...and then simply given up and gone ahead and looked.

So whither the pleasure of uncertainty? While it’s obviously more difficult than ever to keep a secret, the BBC has done an amazing job of keeping a lid on big events. No-one was quite sure that Derek Jacobi would become the Master until it happened in front of our eyes (spoiler), David Tennant’s faux regeneration at the end of “The Stolen Earth” completely caught fandom by surprise (spoiler) and the reveal of Matt Smith as the new Doctor (OMG SPOIL0RZ) was kept under wraps until it was revealed on a special BBC program. While we have more Doctor Who info then ever, there’s one rule that the BBC is following for our own good, and it’s the oldest edict in drama. Always leave them wanting more.


Link: Panini Comics
 

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Warren Frey blogs about Doctor Who and is one of the hosts of Radio Free Skaro, Canada's most popular Doctor Who podcast.