Please say hello to Ritch, guys! Ritch is an all around awesome blogger, who flippin’ loves Doctor Who. In fact, that’s how we were introduced in the first place. “Alice, do you know Ritch? He LOVES Doctor Who!”
Ritch has a great new project that he’s putting together, just in time for the premier of series 7 (and not too far from now, the 50th anniversary of the series): he plans to review every single Doctor Who episode, ever, but he needs some help. He’s put together a Kickstarter campaign to help fund this huge undertaking. (Nearly 50 years of episodes, I mean DAMN!)
As far as Kickstarters go, he’s not asking much, but I still wanted to get to know a little bit more and give Ritch an opportunity to talk more about his motivation for the project. Hopefully, after reading our little Q&A about his project and his love of The Doctor, he’ll get a few new supporters.
Alice Marie: What are your reviews going to bring to the public that no one else’s can?
Ritch: Well I’ve been video blogging for quite a while now, and I think I have a knack for making things relatable to a wider audience. Most Doctor Who fans have a habit of spouting off facts rather than talking about the show relatably. They tell people that the Doctor is “a Time Lord from Gallifrey in the constellation Kasterborous and travels in a Police Box which is really a TARDIS,” and wonder why the other person hasn’t the faintest idea what they’re on about. I want to make the original series more accessible to new fans. Its not very accessible as is; the BBC doesn’t sell the DVDs in “seasons”, or even release them in the right order. Its bizarre.
Besides that, I’m very much into watching media through lenses pertaining to gender, and sexuality, and race. Science Fiction has such a straight white male oriented history, that I think the fandom perspective tends to be quite unintentionally biased. I think I can work progressive analyses into my reviews without throwing the fandom into an uproar. I criticize out of love, rather than the anger or bitterness which I think a lot of bloggers do.
AM: So how long have you been a Whovian?
R: I’ve only been a proper Whovian since 2005, really. I watched it when I was a child a bit, and I vividly remember seeing the Paul McGann movie when it first came out. I think I saw the Peter Cushing films. It just wasn’t on much when I was young, so Star Trek was my poison in those days. Oh how misguided I was.
AM: Who is your Doctor?
R: There’s only one Doctor, and he’s a splendid chap! All of him!
AM: Davies or Moff?
R: Davies, any day. Russell T Davies just understands people better than Steven Moffat does. I think Moffat’s a really great writer, but he only tells one love story, over and over. When he writes Amy and Rory, when he writes River and the Doctor, when he writes Susan and Steve in Coupling, he’s just telling the story of how he and his wife started out. And of becoming a dad, too. Over and over again. Despite common blogger criticisms, I don’t think he’s not saying, “Men are this way, women are this way.” I think he’s saying, “This is the love story I’ve lived, and its all I know.” I read a post from him once saying he’s very aware of this. Which gets a bit old, doesn’t it? It’s a shame. But yeah, Davies is a better writer, but Moffat is still very talented.
So there you have it, Ritch is a man with plenty opinions and there’s plenty more where that came from. Don’t you want to help a fellow Whovian out, so that he can make the video series a reality? I know you do! Go here to donate, and in the meanwhile, check out this great preview of what’s to come!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPsoKDQjQ_o
