One of the nice things about being a parent is sharing all the things you love with your child.

No doubt Oneal and I have always been Star Wars geeks, and that’s something we’ve shared with Lucas since he was born. But there are many other things we love and enjoy, and watching our son discover them has been such a treat. One of those things is Doctor Who.

Oneal grew up watching Doctor Who, and I remember reading a novel years ago. But I didn’t get into it until my friend Mary Ann sat us down one night and made us watch Blink. After that, we were hooked. We watched the 2005 Doctor Who series, starring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper, and kept up until Peter Capaldi was cast until the Twelfth Doctor. We watched all the specials, and even built some costumes!

I am sad to say we didn’t watch much of Capaldi’s run, and even less of Jodie Whittaker. But we heard about the 60th anniversary specials, and the 2023 Christmas special, and we heard the TARDIS calling again.

We’d tried to get Lucas to watch Doctor Who last year. We started off with Rose, but Lucas got scared of the Autons. He was curious about the older Doctors, so we found some YouTube videos, but nothing really grabbed him. He had some books from his Ninang Trish (autographed too!) and he quite liked those.

Together, we watched the 60th anniversary specials, and the 2023 Christmas special, and Lucas seemed curious enough to try again. But instead of Rose, we went with The Eleventh Hour. It seemed to be a great introduction: a curious, feisty little girl, and a silly, funny Doctor. Sure enough, Lucas was hooked! We finished that season in record time.

That’s not to say there weren’t any hiccups. I had to warn him that some episodes were funny, and others were scary, and many were just plain weird or silly. For a while we kept switching between Eleven and Nine, until I put my foot down and said, we need to finish Nine and watch the show in order! At least this time, he was ready for the Nestene Consciousness, and he wasn’t so scared anymore.

It helped that we had some Doctor Who books lying around. Lucas read through them, and he got to know the different aliens we’d see in the show. When he finally saw them on the TV, he would be so thrilled. “It’s the Cybermen!” he’d squeal. “The Silurians!” he exclaim. Every time he sees River Song, he’s so happy and excited.

We’re almost done with the Tenth Doctor now. He finally saw Blink a few weeks ago, and naturally he had to hide his face while watching (below, right).

Soon we’ll be back to Eleven, his first Doctor. I think he’s eager to see Amy and Rory again, and of course River too.

While rewatching all these episodes with Lucas, I remembered all sorts of things, like how much I preferred Eleven to Ten, how much I cried over Vincent and the Doctor, how terrifyingly well written were episodes like Silence in the Library and Midnight. I remembered how much I love Donna Noble as a companion, because she’s funny and sassy and is decidedly not in love with the Doctor. I remembered what a child the Doctor could be in his joy and wonder.

It was so much fun to rediscover all these with Lucas. And maybe we’ll meet Twelve and Thirteen together.