Both hands on the keyboard and one foot in the grave. I'm Cates and I work at Tumblr. This is a personal account, opinions are my own. @cates on bluesky. She/Her 🌱
I started watching Doctor Who when I was super young (7 or 8, maybe?) in the late ‘80s. I love this show like no other. The 4th Doctor was my first Doctor, and I happily spent hours watching this show with my aunt on weekends while I was growing up.
When people ask me “What episode of ‘Doctor Who’ should I watch to get an idea of what it’s about?” this is the episode I recommend. It is sad and beautiful and funny and heartbreaking. It is lovely.
It seems to me there’s so much more to the world than the average eye is allowed to see. I believe, if you look hard, there are more wonders in this universe than you could ever have dreamt of.
In case you’re not a Doctor Who fan, or you’re not regularly within a three-mile radius of Doctor Who fans, you should know that the fandom has been waiting almost a year for new episodes of the show. The season finale of season (or series) six aired October 1st, 2011, and now at the end of August, 2012, we still don’t know when new episodes will hit… just that they are coming this fall. But it’s not just the return of the show that fans are anticipating: 2013 will mark the show’s 50th anniversary special. And, at least if you read into a statement made by show star Matt Smith, we might be anticipating multiple specials.
My 80-year-old aunt just messaged me on Facebook to ask “What should I really see and do to prepare for the upcoming Doctor Who special?” When I was a kid I used to watch it with her sometimes — my dad wasn’t a huge fan of “that British show about the guy with the Police Box,” but Aunt Lucinda and I both loved it. My parents got divorced when I was pretty young and my mom encouraged me to spend that time bonding with my dad’s family. The 4th Doctor was (and still is) our Doctor.
I spent about 10 minutes sending her recommendations of things to watch (she had no idea so much Classic Who was on Netflix!) and articles to read and then spent another 10 minutes just catching up with her. Aunt Lucinda’s health hasn’t been great lately, so it was wonderful to hear from her and to find out that she’s doing well and feeling better.
One of my favorite things about this show is how it spans generations. I’m 32, she’s 80, and we both are so excited about the 50th Anniversary Special that we’re bonding about it from a few hundred miles apart. Thanks for bringing people together, Doctor.
On this day in 1889, Vincent van Gogh mailed this drawing of cypress trees to his brother Theo in order to show him what the paintings he was working on looked like (the painting that corresponds to this drawing is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art). A few days earlier Vincent had written to Theo describing the motif that so captivated him in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence: “The cypresses still preoccupy me… It’s beautiful as regards lines and proportions, like an Egyptian obelisk… It’s the dark patch in a sun-drenched landscape, but it’s one of the most interesting dark notes, the most difficult to hit off exactly that I can imagine.” Come see this vivid, energetic drawing now on view in Five Centuries of European Works on Paper.
Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890). Cypresses (Les Cyprès), June 1889. Reed pen, graphite, quill, and brown and black ink on wove Latune et Cie Balcons paper. Brooklyn Museum, Frank L. Babbott Fund and A. Augustus Healy Fund, 38.123
