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Prime Ministers and Doctor Who (But mostly Doctor Who)
Trevor Noah hilariously compared the UK’s prime ministers — the way they keep suddenly having a new prime minister — to the Doctor’s regenerations in Doctor Who. In other words, the transition from one actor playing the Doctor to another — in Doctor Who.
To paraphrase, at least with Doctor Who there’s plenty of conjecture about who will be the next Doctor, then the media tells us… who. But with prime ministers, it’s a surprise.
If you were watching Doctor Who in the Chicago area in the 1980s, the Doctor’s regenerations were surprises until you saw it happen. (Originally classic Doctor Who was aired in half-hour episodes, several of which added up to stories, but WTTW Channel 11 in Chicago put the episodes together, so you saw full stories or two-parters.)
You didn’t even know the Doctor was about to die and regenerate. First you saw seven years’ worth of Tom Baker as the Doctor. Then you saw Jon Pertwee. Then you saw every Tom Baker story again. Next Peter Davison. Then it started from the beginning, with William Hartnell… a handful of Patrick Troughton episodes… Jon Pertwee… Tom Baker again… Peter Davison… Colin Baker, and finally Sylvester McCoy in the late 80s.
By the time you got to see Sylvester McCoy, you memorized all the Tom Baker stories — or at least The Brain of…