Sunday, July 4, 2010

I have a theory that it's a demon...errr, The Doctor behind the Rise of The Aspergians

Ever notice the correlation of the rise of the Aspergians being in direct proportion to that of the increase in popularity of Doctor Who?
Ok, ok, laymans terms...
Take notes, there'll be an exam on this sometime in the future.
Once upon a time Doctor Who fans (known as Whovians) had to hide their allegiance to That Bloke in The Blue Police Box.
Cos we were all called nerds (the word geek hadn't been invented back in the dawn of time) and crackpots and other Rude Schoolyard Names.
So we huddled together, not making eye contact, never uttering His Name (not that we knew it but you know what I mean) and never again admitting within the hearing of anyone who might remotely be considered on nodding terms with the Cool Kids that Doctor Who graced our idiot boxes every night from Monday -Thursday before the 6 o'clock news.
Then....He disappeared from our screens completely and we were left all alone.
Still not admitting to being a secret Whovian, still hiding our worship of the whole sci-fi genre as it was still seen as 'not really serious' and 'playing at kid's stuff'.
And there were whispers of 'little professors', nerdy kids who took things far too seriously but strangely could rattle off the names of every Star Trek episode, could name every element, could recall obscure facts from memory....but they couldn't tie their shoelaces.
The 'absent-minded professor' personified.
Then...whispers about A Movie of The Bloke in The Blue Police Box.
More talk about little professors and then the connection to Autism.
We sat at home, with the phone off the hook, glued to the idiot box when The Movie was aired.
Eric Roberts only slightly tanked as The Master but, hey!
Doctor Who was back!
And so were the open discussions about Autism and this new branch of it known as Asperger's.
Then, once it became the talk show circuit show-pony of the month to trot out bizarre and random facts about these geeky kids (the word had been invented at long last) mothers and grandmothers were ringing each other across suburbs/states/whole continents asking each other if their beloved child who fitted all the symptoms might be one of these 'new' Asperger's kids.
And there was still no sign from the Whovians.
Parents searched and looked and asked questions and somewhere, Russell T. Davies was pulling his proverbial finger out to get Him With No Name back on the small screen.
And then....
The Rise of The Aspergians began in earnest.
Doctor Who was back and He Was Super Funky!
Suddenly it was the formerly cool kids watching the show, the former nerds geeks being consulted for back stories, who was this foe, what was the name of that alien, why did the Doctor have companions, who was the robot dog and what did TARDIS actually stand for, again?
Doctor Who made Aspergians cool and Aspergians made Doctor Who mega popular.
Ergo, Doctor Who is an Aspergian Time Lord who's misplaced his Aspergians on Earth...?

4 comments:

Mary O. Paddock said...

LOL. I never thought about it, but Daniel (resident Aspy) has long been a fan of Dr Who--actually long before anyone else in the house paid any attention to him. When I'm unclear as to the Doctor's motivation for doing this or that, Daniel invariably has the answer. Could it be that he sees something of himself in the Doc?

Ro said...

There are rules and guidelines with the Doctor (who is logical), Mary, although being sci-fi they are easily broken/altered but I've noticed that this is more readily accepted by Aspies than any other rule breaking.
Plus, the Doctor appears to have few social skills at times, abruptly questions people, interrupts conversations, doesn't hesitate to say if something isn't right and generally expects everyone to play fair.
Yep, I'd say Daniel (and many other Aspies) pretty much sees a LOT of himself in Doctor Who! ;)

@jencull (jen) said...

I was a Trekie, not a Whovian but I still had to hide out with that. I suppose I didn't know any whovians as they were underground? Just a different part of the underground to me:) Yep, I am as geeky as they come:) Jen

Ro said...

LOL Jen, it was like opening a door when I found a couple of other Trekies in high school, we teamed up to see the first Star Trek Movie!