The Pro-Social Twelve-Hundred Year Old Regenerating Time Travelling Space Alien
Wednesday, February 5, 2014EDIT: I wrote this last week but like the idiot I am I saved it instead of publishing it so it's a little outdated but HERE YOU GO
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Today in class we talked about pro-social media, focusing most of our discussion on television shows. Although there are TONS of preschool and younger children's shows out there that are pro-social, we struggled to think of any shows targeted at those in middle-childhood or older that were pro-social AND not violent. For example, there are plenty of superhero cartoons out there that are very pro-social, but most of that is in the context of beating up bad guys to save people.
I sat there in class trying to think of a show that could apply, and of course it didn't come to me until after class was over.
DOCTOR WHO
But.
BUT.
One of the main points of the Doctor is that he doesn't use violence when he can avoid it. He hates guns. The Doctor travels throughout time and space, usually with a human companion, meeting people and exploring new places and saving and helping people wherever he can.
And it's a family-friendly show. It's the sort of show that's complicated and smart enough to keep adult viewers but fantastical and silly enough that a kid as young as six or seven could enjoy it.
As the show's current head writer Steven Moffat put it,
“When they made this particular hero, they didn’t give him a gun, they gave him a screwdriver to fix things. They didn’t give him a tank or a warship or an x-wing fighter, they gave him a call box from which you can call for help. And the didn’t give him a superpower or pointy ears or a heat ray, they gave him an extra heart. They gave him two hearts. And that’s an extraordinary thing; there will never come a time when we don’t need a hero like the doctor.”
So if you're looking for a pro-social show to watch with your family, I recommend this one. If you can get past the campy, terrible-budget aliens in the first season of the revamped show, that is.
Posted by Malallory in doctor who, pro-social, science fiction, television, violence
