The Doctor Meets Doctor Who Fandom

Being a fan of geek culture is about more than just entertainment. For the true believer, Star Wars is a religion, Superman and Captain America idealistic inspirations, Star Trek a motivation to pursue a career in STEM, and Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel representative of what women can accomplish and achieve.

Fandoms don’t just inspire, however, as they are also welcoming environments of acceptance where friendships are forged, a place that can even help one cope with difficult times. Stories dot the Internet about how everything from Black Panther to Orphan Black to Supernatural have made a difference in someone’s life – not just because of the movies, comic books, and televisions episodes but the community that grew around them as well.

In the 2013 one-shot IDW comic book “The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who,” writer Paul Cornell and artist Jimmy Broxton explored this inspiring connection through the lenses of another staple of geek culture – the long-running BBC television series Doctor Who. In their narrative, a hole between two universes causes the TARDIS to land in a parallel dimension where Doctor Who is merely a television show and the Doctor is an actor named Matt Smith.

The Eleventh Doctor – likewise portrayed by actor Matt Smith on the BBC – makes his initial foray into this universe in an area of London where Doctor Who is filming and finds himself surrounded by fans asking for autographs. The sudden appearance of the TARDIS dismissed by the crowd as some sort of special effect, while the Doctor rationalizes that he must have visited the planet at some point in his future – and its past – to justify his popularity.

Unfortunately the Doctor’s visit is not greeted with the same enthusiasm by everyone. Twelve-year-old Ally is a fan, but one who has learned to keep her love of Doctor Who a secret from her fellow classmates. She continues to be bullied nonetheless, and one of her antagonists points a finger in her face shortly after the Doctor’s arrival. “You gonna run away now?” he asks. “Go on, run away. I’m a monster! Run away to Doctor Who!” Ally simply hides her sonic screwdriver and mutters, “I know it’s not real.”

She basically says the same thing to the Doctor – “I know you’re not the Doctor” – over-and-over once they inevitably meet. The Doctor is confused by the statement, so Ally explains that Doctor Who is a television show, and even takes the Doctor home to a bedroom filled with action figures, posters, and DVDs to prove her point. The Doctor soon realizes where the TARDIS has landed, no matter how impossible it might seem. Ally, however, still fears the truth. “You’re not the Doctor!” she screams. “I don’t need to believe that. I don’t want to. I’m not a child!”

Ally’s mother Emma arrives home at that moment, obviously dismayed and angry to find some strange man who looks like Matt Smith in her daughter’s bedroom. Realizing he has no other choice, the Doctor takes them to the TARDIS and shows them that it is indeed bigger on the inside than it is on the outside, just like on television.

When the Doctor later agonizes over how to return to his own dimension, Ally suggests that he attend an upcoming Doctor Who convention. At first the Doctor dismisses the idea as too “weird,” but when Ally’s mom kicks him under the table, he finally relents.

“It’s great you’re here,” Emma tells the Doctor when they arrive at the con. “I mean, it’s like a miracle. Ally’s dad left when she was five. We don’t see much of him. She thinks she has to look after me. There’s a lot she doesn’t say. I think she’s being bullied. If you can get her to tell you, if you can do anything…”

Ally herself confides her insecurities to the Doctor, explaining how she was “scared there was a monster in her wardrobe” when she was younger but once she started watching Doctor Who, she wasn’t afraid anymore. Other kids at school watched the show as well, although when they got older, it was no longer as “cool.” Ally also has difficulty fitting in because she is interested in science and the other girls only want to talk about “fashion and music and blokes.” She then adds that life is easier for the Doctor because he’s not like everyone else.

The Doctor objects to the implication that he is better than other people, but Ally insists that’s not what she meant. To demonstrate, she leads him further into the convention so that he can see for himself. Just like in the real world, the Doctor Who fandom of “The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who” is filled with fans that are an actual community and have embraced their love for Doctor Who in ways that go beyond watching the show.

There’s the pair of women who record an all-female Doctor Who podcast each week, the guy that became a comic book artist because of his own love for Doctor Who, and even a fanfiction author who explores the romantic relationships on the series through her writing. When the Doctor is unnerved by what he reads, saying he doesn’t “think that ever happened,” the author replies, “I think that – that’s the point!”

And it is indeed the point for many. It’s not just the television series or the movie franchise that matters, it’s the community that grows from them, its acceptance of people for who they are, and the opportunities to express oneself that it provides. For the female podcasters, the comic book artist, and the fanfiction writer, it’s not so much about Doctor Who as it is the inspiration that can be found in it.

After the convention has ended, the Doctor asks Ally if she is being bullied at school. Ally, however, refuses to talk about it. “It hurts to admit it because you’re still playing by the rules of whoever’s doing this to you,” the Doctor replies. “But Ally, in your world there are just problems that need sorting. There are no monsters.”

While there may not be monsters in the real world, it’s a different matter when it comes to the world of Doctor Who. Still trying to figure out how the TARDIS fell through a hole between two universes, the Doctor uses his sonic screwdriver and detects a Cyberman hiding in the very wardrobe that Ally once believed contained a monster. “Ally, what did I say about not playing by the rules?” he asks. “We can’t beat it in a fight. We have to take this battle to where we want it to be. So the first thing we do is… run away!”

Realizing the Doctor Who television show mimics the events in his own life, the Doctor heads to where the series is filming its next episode – which is about the Doctor finding himself in a world where Doctor Who is a television show. The factual and fictional then collide as the Doctor – with the help of actor Matt Smith – sends the Cyberman through the time-space continuum and what he refers to as “the long way home.” 

With his adventure concluded, the Doctor inevitable takes his leave but his lessons have not been lost on Ally. The next time she comes face-to-face with the classmate who’s been bullying her, she does exactly what the Doctor would do – she runs away. She eventually stops, however, and tells her pursuer that she understands his homelife is difficult and he is looking for someone to hit because of that fact, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

The bully becomes angry at her words and punches Ally in the face. Unfortunately for him, Ally has led him outside the house of their school’s headmistress, who witnesses the altercation. When the bully then threatens Ally, she merely cuts him off. “You gonna tell me you’re a monster again?” she asks. “You’re just a problem that needed sorting.”

There are lessons to be learned from Doctor Who, as well as a community of fans that have formed around it. Ally learned those lessons first-hand and embraced them in a way that changed her life – a case of life imitating art imitating life. The Doctor may have traveled to a world that thought he was fictional, but the fictional world of “The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who” comic book resonates in the real world, and has meaning in it as well.

Anthony Letizia