Whovians: Doctor Who- Not Very Confidential

NOTE: As every good author should, I generally avoid confusing lingo-ism here on the blog.  The astute reader will see that I am making an exception in this case and refer to "Whovians" without any explanatory preamble.  I chose to do this because, frankly, you have to BE one to appreciate the amazing revelation I am about to proclaim...

Okay, Whovians, we all like our Doctor, don’t we?  We get invested not only in the character and the show, but the actor too. David Tennant found his Shakespearian works in FAR greater demand with the 18-40 crowd after he’d achieved his Whovian fame, and we can’t just attribute that to his looks.
The Doctors become more than just faces, more than just an interesting actor doing interesting things. We become fans. Slowly and surely.

I’m a Scot in the center of America, and I’ve seen it happen in the last five years. When I arrived here in 2001, few had even heard of Doctor Who. Now my American family all watch, and I can only assume from the constant stream of heretofore obscure British Who actors on US evening chat shows that it's  happening all over the country.

Who is YOUR favorite Doctor? Leave a comment below, lets take a poll;)

As avid fans, we crave every new Doctor Who facet we discover. We watch episodes multiple times, we have Whovian Series marathons, trying to leech every possible second of emotion from the screen. We track long plot arcs like junkies, and we whine like spoiled children when the series ends.
Do you know what we need?  We need a loan of The Doctor's T.A.R.D.I.S., we need to go back in time to January 2005, take a small camera, magically get a piece of telepathic paper to prove we’re authorized to be on the film set, and film a ‘behind-the-scenes’ show for each episode. YES, one show for each episode. We need on-the-set interviews, we need to shoot the TV show as it’s filmed, we need a Doctor Who back door.

Now to those who are already familiar with Doctor Who Confidential, (DWC) this is old hat. But to the new fans all over the world, who had to beg borrow or steal our new episodes, this is a great idea.

OKAY: time to stop teasing… and you knew what I’m going to say…. It’s already been done!
(hint, stay tuned to the end of the post for examples and links)

In the UK, back in 2005, after the airing of every new episode on BBC1, the British fans got a very personal message; "Now turn to BBC3 to get a behind-the-scenes look at tonight's episode"
Series 1 and 2 had a full 30 minute behind-the-scenes episode. It was so popular they extended it to 45 minutes in season 3.

They didn’t throttle the budget looking for a suitable narrator-

• DWC Series 1 starred Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, and the Editor in the Long Game, DW series 1 episode 7)
• DWC; Series 2 starred Mark Gatiss (The League of Gentleman and Doctor Who on radio)
• DWC; Series 3 and 4 starred Anthony Head (Buffy, Vampire Slayer and Mister Finch in School Reunion DW series 2, episode 17)
• DWC; Series 5, perhaps suffering from budget cuts saw Alex Price, a BBC Doctor Who voice actor doing the narration.
• DWC; Series 6, the last to actually have a DWC, starred Russel Tovey, who had been considered for the Eleventh Doctor, before Matt Smith was decided upon. (He starred in Being Human, and as Midshipman Alonso Frame in the 2009-10 Doctor Who Christmas special, The End of Time)

After Series 6, because of budget cuts, they scrapped the show. The fans went mental, (a Brittish-ism for going crazy, also known as potty, la-la, doo-lally) After the huge protest, BBC transferred all future content to the Doctor Who website.

Anyway… to those who have not seen it, the show is eye-poppingly good. Just like I said above; interviews, silly trivia, cast shots, production stuff, editors notes, directors notes, and film from the run thru’s the read thru’s and the actual weekly meetings with techies and cast. It didn’t matter that they looked behind the scenes. It didn’t matter that they debunked the ‘truth’ behind the filming.

The show was called; Doctor Who Confidential, it played once after each episode, the BBC made a tentative effort to put it un dvd, and was promptly forgotten.

But not by us. The poor exiles of the British Isles, who download in the dead of night, who swap ‘Whovian’ discs in smoky cafés. The outcast/unclean pariahs who, although we still call ourselves ‘British’, haven’t had sausage and chips from a real chippie in thirty years. And then there are the poor foreign followers, who struggle to understand the show in the original English. It doesn't matter the method by which we watch...we’re all fans. All want to see this MEGA find. This richly veined seam of television gold.

I mean, I consider myself a fan, and I just found it in 2013. I mean, where was I for almost a decade?
Some of the shows on Youtube have only a few thousand hits. Every fan I encounter looks at me in utter disbelief when I tell them about the show. Then runs from my presence and for some reason has a sudden two week illness from work.

So… Doctor Who Confidential? Where can we find it?

Well first, here's a sample that you can watch right from my blog- featuring one of the best programmes EVER in Sci-Fi ~ "Blink" !



How do you find your own from here? Simple…
www.youtube.com
Search for "Doctor Who Confidential", and enjoy your evenings for a few weeks. I don’t think that every episode is up there, but it’s close. And because it’s not exactly, Doctor Who, the BBC hasn’t tried to ban it or rip it from the web. Go and watch the three doctors being just ordinary blokes, determined to enjoy every minute of being the world’s oldest sci-fi goodie.

Go to…
www.wikipedia.com
And search for the whole experience; series lists, links to play the programs, trivia too numerous to mention here, and more.

BUT BEFORE YOU GO…… Become a ‘follower’ of my blog…
Because very soon, I’ll tell you all about…. TORCHWOOD CONFIDENTIAL!
And don't be afraid, why not suggest new blog posts for me to investigate?