The Doctor and The Cat

I make no secret of the fact that I am a giant geek, and I love Doctor Who.* I actually didn't start watching the new series until January** when my friend Nola got me into it. She and I pretty much share a brain, so when she told me I'd like it, I trusted her. And she, of course, was right. I love it!

I love Christopher Eccelson, who played the 9th incarnation of the Doctor in the first season of the new series, I LOVE David Tennant who came next, and I am madly in love with Matt Smith, the current Doctor, and want to have babies with him. (Don't feel sorry for my husband, here; he wouldn't mind being in a Freema Agyeman/Karen Gillan sandwich.)

So, Husband and I are now finished with Season 5 and onto Season 6, when in a few short episodes we'll be all caught up with the new series.

And it's occurred to me recently, while thinking about "Doctor Who" and letting my son, the Juban Princeling, watch PBS Kids because I am a horrible evil mother worse than Hitler's mother and I let my son watch TV (gasp, clutch pearls, call Child Services), that the children's animated show, "The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!" is really not so different from "Doctor Who."

Photo of Matt Smith as my boyfriend, er,
The Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond, and
the TARDIS, taken from Chaotic Geek

"Doctor Who" is based on a character called The Doctor, a Time Lord who can travel across space and time. He uses a TARDIS which stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. He always travels with a young (attractive, female) companion. They have adventures in places most humans don't get to see or even know about. The companion learns things.

Photo of the Cat in the Hat, with Sally and
Nick in the Thinga-ma-jigger, taken from Moxie Bird

"The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That!" is also based on a fantastical being who shows up to whisk away his two young friends, Sally and Nick, and takes them in his Thinga-ma-jigger to exotic locales for adventures and learning.

In an episode of "TCITHKALABT," Nick and Sally learn about whale songs; in an episode of "Doctor Who," it is thousands of years in the future and Spaceship UK is floating around the universe on top of a giant space whale. In "TCITHKALABT" (which I am now copy-pasting because that it a pain in the ass to type) Nick and Sally learn about ecosystems and how animals depend on plants and flowers to survive. In "Doctor Who" the Doctor discovers a living being inside a star that has been sourced for energy fuel for a spaceship. In "TCITHKALABT" Sally and Nick learn how to build a bird's nest for some eggs they find. In nearly every episode of "Doctor Who" the Doctor has to save Earth and/or the entire Universe and/or all parallel universes from imminent destruction.

So you see, the two shows are actually quite similar. I'm pretty sure if I keep letting the Princeling watch "TCITHKALABT" he'll grow up to enjoy "Doctor Who." (And also if I dress him in a Yankees jersey he'll grow up to be Derek Jeter!)

Would it be bad parenting of me to start a letter-writing campaign to PBS Kids to get the Weeping Angels into an episode of "The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That!"? They are super cool.

*The new series. I've never seen the original series because once when I was about 4 years old and it was on, I had a nightmare about The Doctor.

**Trauma from childhood nightmare, see above.