Pop-culture Education

What's the point of being a parent if one cannot pass on one's favorites to the next generation?

Nevermind. That's a rhetorical question.

Judging by the Weird Al Yankovic obsession and the ongoing Doctor Who fever, looks like the responsible adults in the family have managed to inculcate a taste for the peerless to the tender 8-and 5- year old in residence.

Starting with Eat It all the way down to White & Nerdy, every single Weird Al's parody has been memorized and reenacted at home by the kids, much to Papa's satisfaction.

And, beginning with the doddering William Hartnell to the toothy curly-mopped Tom Baker to Paul McGann, the kids are curious about the early doctors and how the 8th regeneration has succeeded in creating less-boring and less-intimidating and more-adventurous and more-fun-loving doctors.

It all started skyrocketing with Christopher Eccleston as the ninth doctor in the revival of the long-standing TV series that made TARDIS: Time And Relative Dimension In Space a household name.

And thanks to Netflix, kids have immersed themselves in this show over summer, catching an episode or two as and when they've earned "watch time", so much so that they saw Eccleston wrap up Season 1 and regenerate into David Tennant as the Best Doctah Evah!

Kids are crazy about David Tennant's portrayal of the sole surviving (well... we'll leave that alone for now) Time Lord. And Mama approves, having passed her craziness along so effortlessly.

Kids are wrapping up viewing the last season with the eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith. New episodes are slated to come out with Clara now that Amy Pond is gone, but we'll have to wait for Netflix to bring it to us a year or so later.

There are impromptu shows and plays at home replete with Doctor Who vocabulary.

"Sonic it, Papa"
"Let's teleport, Og, we can be in Ireland now!"
"I'm driving the TARDIS to Bellerophon, which is a hot Jupiter; do you want to come, Mama?"
"No, Og, I get to drive the TARDIS because I am the Doctor!"
"But Ana, Doctor is not a girl, so, I get to drive, you can come along if you want..."
"I don't care, Og, I am the Doctor, see? Here is my Sonic screwdriver!"

Which incidentally led to us to wonder why there are no female Doctors. As far as the show goes, there have been female-looking Gallifreyans and by extension female-ish Time Lords (Ladies?). And since The Doctor can regenerate into whatever face, body, and features he chooses, would he choose the classic human female form for his next incarnation?

All in all, a very productive summer in terms of pop-culture education.

[image source: wikipedia]