Inspired by The Doctor

Isaac is both fascinated and terrified by Doctor Who.  We came late to "The Doctor" fan club and still don't watch it regularly.  Matt usually has it playing while he is on the treadmill and occasionally he and I will find the time to sit down and watch an episode together.  But, for about a year, if it was playing Isaac refused to be in the room.

At the same time, any reference he saw excited him -- pictures, cartoons, toys.  He bought himself a Dalek necklace at a comic book convention last summer and peruses the rack of figurines at the local comic book store whenever we are there.  One of our favorite coffee shops has a Tardis replica that Isaac loves and wants in his room.

Matt has been frustrated by Isaac's resistance to watching the show.  I have had to remind him many times that he is still only 8 -- his threshold for "scary" is different than ours.  He is starting to get past it, though, and has sat down and watched a few episodes with Matt recently.  Because he wants Isaac to warm up to it, Matt has been careful to pick ones that are less scary and he is always mindful of taking the time to talk about what they watched once it is over.

Last fall, a friend of ours sent Isaac a book commemorating the 50th anniversary, Doctor Who: The Vault.  Isaac will sit and look through it over and over.  He will compare The Doctors and look at the monsters and try to pick out characters he remembers.  He is not really reading the book, it is more of a browsing volume.  But if there is a question that comes up when he and Matt are watching the show or talking about something that happened, he will pull out the book to look it up.

One of Isaac's buddies is also a Doctor Who fan.  Last week, on the way home from school, Isaac announced that he and Abe are going to write a book of Doctor Who poems and illustrations.  I am pretty sure this was Abe's idea, but Isaac was excited about it -- he and Abe already had a couple of poems composed and pictures drawn.  Here are a couple of their verses . . . .

Doctor Who?

You know who

The Companions know

And so do you

Fezes are red

Tardises are blue

Daleks are evil

But The Doctor will save you

I am not sure what the plurals of "fez" or "Tardis" are, but I thought these were a pretty good start.  There was apparently a debate between the boys about the last line of the second poem -- Abe wanted to pay homage to The Doctors' bow ties, but Isaac insisted that bow ties were not ubiquitous enough in the show to merit it.  Upon arriving at home, Isaac proceeded to look in his book at every Doctor to see how many wore bow ties.  He felt vindicated when his search was complete -- a majority of The Doctors were sans bow tie. 

There has not been much progress on the collection of original Doctor Who poems in the last few days.  Maybe this snow day will jump start the creative process again.  Or maybe we will watch a few episodes to get some inspiration.