User talk:Matt Hadick

Apologies
I am here almost every day of the year, but unfortunately your request about adding comments to the Space Opera blog came at a time when I needed to take some personal time away from the wiki. That said, yours was about the last mail I read on my talk page before dealing with my RL mini-crisis — now happily resolved — and I thought I had hit "publish". Evidently I didn't, although I still have the draft response in a local file.

Basically, the gist was that I don't particularly consider Doctor Who space opera, although there are a few individual stories — mostly non-televised — that fit the sub-genre.

If anything, Doctor Who is actually anti-space opera since it is built on the central premise of an individual running away from his society. Far from being a part of his society, the Doctor is an iconoclast who has no interest in building any kind of societal structures. Indeed, he's a hero because he destroyed his entire society. Most space operas are, by contrast, about people who are members of a collective whole — Starfleet, the Rebel Alliance, etc. — battling some other grand force like the Klingons or the Empire. Space opera heroes tend to be those that protect an existing regime or restore an old one — which is not usually the Doctor's gig at all.

Doctor Who is about a single thief who opts for largely aimless travel, random scientific investigation and acts of benevolent anarchy on the way to adventures in fishing, cricket, football, and good drink.

In any event, I really am sorry for not responding in a more timely fashion. It was not my intent, desire, or usual practice. Please feel free to call on us again, because we are very interested in being a part of the larger Wikia community. If you need to make announcements here to generate activity elsewhere on Wikia, please do not hesitate to use Board:Tales from the Tardis. 01:32: Tue 03 Sep 2013