I'm now back in Australia, and I'm glad to see
Doctor Who's profile has also risen here. I remember when, in the few shops that still stocked
Doctor Who books and videos, the
Doctor Who section gradually dwindled until it was the
Doctor Who shelf. Now just the release of a new DVD gets a full window display at the ABC Shop. Schoolgirl got on the bus yesterday. What did she have in her hand? A
Doctor Who book. As well she should. I remembered with a shudder when I was a teenager and used to display the
Doctor Who book I was reading as prominently as I could at school and rehearsals and stuff, thinking that out of all these people my age,
someone must be a
Doctor Who fan. No one was. Or, at least, no one admitted to it. The rooms I entered were probably full of
Doctor Who fans, but they were all thinking "God, what is he
doing? Doesn't he know that our kind can only survive if we stick to the shadows? The humans must not know that
Doctor Who fans walk amongst them!" Realising that there were no
Doctor Who fans around me, I resolved to create some, and I was moderately successful with that amongst some of my nerdier friends. But I also wanted to convert members of my other main group of friends - the future actors, writers, and directors. But when in 2003 I suggested to one such friend that, since the ABC was about to start showing the whole series again (one episode at 6pm every weeknight), perhaps he should watch it, because, you know, he might like it. AND HE LAUGHED. If I'd known what I know now, I'd have said, "Laugh now but one day we'll be in charge." Of the BBC. Of British politics. Hey, if
Doctor Who had featured as prominently in the Australia's federal election as it did in Britain's, maybe we'd have a minority government by now. What would your focus groups think of that, Karl Bitar?
