Things to Love about Who

Unless you’re net-savvy, you’re not yet watching a program called Doctor Who — the BBC’s revival of a classic sci-fi series.

And that’s a shame — because this show raises more moral and ethical questions in forty-five minutes than most American television shows do in an entire season. Examples:

– A character, revealed to be a murderer, teeters on the brink of an uncomfortable death. On American television, the Main Character would save the murderer and turn him or her over to police; The Doctor, however, merely watches. When the murderer dies, he shrugs. “All things have an end!”

– On most American television shows, helpful people (with the exception of minor characters) are rewarded with survival. On Doctor Who, helpful people — even major characters whose actions save everyone else — are the most likely to be killed. Real adventures, The Doctor explains, are “always this dangerous.”

In short: what appears to be a glitzy, dizzy children’s show serves up a complex universe where even heroes do questionable things for complicated reasons.

Instead of rushing to produce the next low-budget reality series, American networks would do well to explore producing more programs that aren’t afraid to raise more questions than they answer.