Let me preface this post by clearly stating- as a child I was known to hide behind couches during episodes of the animated series Scooby-Doo. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that the Doctor Who episode “Blink” absolutely terrified me. I knew Professor Becker warned us about this being a scary episode and because of that I was a nervous wreck the entire episode, waiting for the scary to happen. And then it happened. Before I knew it, I was sweating and full of panic. For this reason, it baffles me that families with children have viewed this episode. While I may be the definition of a wimp, it still astounds me that children have watched this episode and did not demand to sleep in their parents bed after it. Makes me wonder, are children in Britain braver than American children?
The Wiley-Blackwell article discusses the new Doctor Who bringing the Saturday evening, seven o’clock time slot back to prominence. According to the piece, family viewing never left the British culture, but family programming had. The “regenerated” Doctor Who brought this option back to the airwaves, but only for the United Kingdom. In America, would Doctor Who be viewed as “family programming”? The BBC’s goal is to “inform, educate, and entertain,” but where was the information and education in “Blink”? I (and most other Americans, I believe) think of family programming as a show like Modern Family or The Middle. The goal of these shows is not to educate, but to provide entertainment the whole family can sit down and enjoy that leaves out explicit language, sex, and violence.
While I did not think “Blink” was exceptionally educational, I can find that point in “Vincent and the Doctor”. This was much more of an educational episode. For fear of showing off my art history ignorance, I did not know Van Gough’s paintings were disregarded during his lifespan or that he committed suicide at such a young age. In this way, I learned from Doctor Who in a very entertaining way. But I still wonder, why the scare tactics? Maybe it is just me, but perhaps America and Great Britain have differing views on what family programming means and how much viewers of all ages can endure.
All this being said, once I got over the shakes of fear, I enjoyed the episodes of Doctor Who and the creative entertainment it provided.
I definitely agree that “Blink” is not a very educational episode of Who, but at the same time it’s not unique in its lack of in-your-face education. I think the episodes were representative of the show because they showed the extremes that it can go to: super sci-fi and grown up (critical thinking is KILLER) or extremely educational.
I would argue that, at least in the new Who, the majority of episodes are not exactly educational in a “I’m teaching you something right now, so listen to these facts” way. I believe that the education is more of an underlying cultural one (the article we’re reading talks about the show as being quintessentially British) or more of a practical one. It’s like what we’re always told in Arts & Letters: these skills are going to do you better than just learning some facts. I believe that Who encourages critical thinking – time travel gets confusing – as well as expanding the mind to include not just the world outside, but the entire universe and the endless possibilities it holds.
“Blink” reminded me of something that might have played on “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” on Nickelodeon when we were kids. That show scared me silly (and still might, don’t judge) when I was a kid, but I loved it. Just like Scooby Doo also scared me sometimes. Kids love being scared. Kids are weird. The difference between AYAOTD and Who is that the latter has something everyone can enjoy somewhat. Teenaged siblings probably jumped for joy when “Blink” aired during family TV night just like little Sally probably jumped for joy whenever the Adipose episode (so cute, look them up) aired. Because Who has to target so many different audiences, it has to go into some sort of rotation as to what genre and audience it will favor from week to week.
AYAOTD is still scary 15 years later, by the way. I wouldn’t suggest going back to any of it. Dreams: haunted.
I agree with both of you that “Blink” isn’t what I would consider traditionally educational. And I also agree with Brenna that most episodes of Doctor Who aren’t educational in the way that “Vincent and the Doctor” may have been (if they were, I might think that there actually had been a race of marine vampires living in historic Venice).
Like Brenna said, when Doctor Who is educational, it is often not “here is an important piece of knowledge about history or science or literature” etc. I think that, in the case of Doctor Who, education is more about teaching people something much less concrete than facts. I think one of the strongest storytelling traits of Who is how much it, mostly through the Doctor, makes you consider morality, ethics, love, friendship and humanity in all its vast complicatedness.
If you think about it, “Vincent and the Doctor” wasn’t really about learning art history. It was about complicated relationships and understanding this very complex, isolated man. It wasn’t moving because I learned that Van Gogh painted sunflowers near the end of his life – it was moving because of the beautiful portrait of this one man and how the Doctor and Amy touched him, and he touched them.
In a way, Doctor Who is educational like Harry Potter is educational – teaching people, especially children, how to care about others, how to do the right thing even in the face of the toughest obstacles, how to find a moral compass and make decisions based on it, how to always think the best of people, etc. etc.
That is absolutely what I would want my theoretical children to watch and learn. In fact, I could use some of those lessons myself.
I also agree that “Blink” was not a very educational episode of Who. I really like Brenna’s comparison of the episode to AYAOTD where the episode seemed more like a theme park ride than something educational. I’m not a Doctor Who expert by any means, like many of our classmates I watched my first 2 episodes last Monday, but it seems practical that a show that has a reputation for being educational can get away with having an episode every now and then. In my opinion, a show like Who probably wouldn’t have the success it enjoys if it was just fact bomb after fact bomb. Both episodes of Who were refreshing to me because it was something different that what I’m used to on American TV.
Educational and entertaining has an uphill battle in America. I remember one of my favorite shows growing up was The Magic School Bus. However, Magic School Bus was on PBS and not on a network like Nickelodeon or CartoonNetwork. I also remember that the only place that I would watch Magic School Bus was at school, when my teachers would have us watch episodes in class. When I was at home, I would opt to watch other, more entertaining shows. I like the public service broadcasting like Doctor Who and The Magic School Bus. It’s disappointing that shows that have educational aspects to them are limited to such a small audience in America.