Whoa.

Let's be honest. It's hard for us Joe Sixpacks on the wrong side of the pond to think about the Brits as much of anything besides imperial has-beens--the once-rans of being awesomest in the world, fish-sticky knobbledy-toothed funny talkers with blistering red coats, football which is actually soccer, and the bee's honey.

Now, I have encountered a series which will enlighten the average American as to the errors of these misconceptions. I concede they are still British, but they're clever.

DOCTOR WHO!

Maybe you're not into the sci-fis. Maybe you think: "God all British people ever talk about is that stupid show. Aren't there ALIENS? Isn't there TIME TRAVEL? Ahhh, I can't stand it already. Buy me a cheeseburger!"

The time travel works because they don't try to explain it, beyond "you can't go back on your personal time line." Divert, divert, divert. Aliens work because they're surprisingly imaginative and well-designed. As the show goes on, there are less aliens and more non-corporeal beings standing in metaphorically as aspects of human nature. Which is fun, and offers a surprising degree of contemplative thematic meat for a raucous space adventure. "Ugh, Turn on Gossip Girl," you say, "it's just like the OC except without the moralistic didacticism!" (mental transcript ends here. subject falls into an electronically induced state of ennui, cynicism, despondency, or value-corruption toxicity)

And characters. The Doctor is an archetypal epic hero. Epic epic, as in last of the Time Lords, universal wanderer, civilization saver, reformed pacifist, defender of everything, tragedy being he is doomed to be alone for all of time. He picks up young, doe-eyed women who grow to see themselves through the Doctor's eyes and understand that they're special, too, and that all of persistent humanity is special. All very heart-warming, and in SPACE, with a time machine.

It's pulpy, full-on whimsical, and yet has no shame in tackling Big Questions like what are we doing here? is humanity fundamentally good? how many times in one show can we use small-scale explosion and smoke effects? Granted, it doesn't always pose these questions RESPONSIBLY, ie in the manner we're taught Art that is Great SHOULD pose questions, but how unrealistic is that? No individual can take everything into account, physics and the wikinets tell us no one person can actually know more than a tiny eetsy little bit and that bit is ever-changing, so let's throw caution to the wind, my friends, and get our hands dirty. Isn't that what our contemporaneity is all ABOUT? Toss out paralytic reverence, let's teach ourselves that we're capable.

Yes! headstands! adho mukha svanasana!