Chicks Dig Time Lords by Lynne M. Thomas (2010)

A series of essays by women about the BBC television series, Doctor Who, describing what the good Doctor has meant to them.

Book Review: Chicks Dig Time Lords is the light, pop-culture book one might grab at the library as reading material for down-time during a Doctor Who holiday binge. It's also the kind of book to convince me that I'm not a real fan as I have zip interest in attending conventions, cosplay, creating fan fiction, fretting about the fan base, or even leaving the house much. This is a book by and for the fandom and folks somehow connected with the show (e.g., an actor's sister). Most of the women (more than half are from North America, though there is an Australian!) are lifelong fans of the show, and the contents include interviews and a cartoon (there're even suggestions for good convention food). Most of the writers began watching the "classic" episodes with the older Doctors -- many of the American viewers first encountered the Fourth Doctor, y'know, the one with the wild curly hair, perpetually bewildered expression, and a scarf always long enough to trip over. Chicks Dig Time Lords is all in good fun, attempting to balance the traditional audience skew toward male fans. Most of the articles are light and amusing except one that (among other fault finding) castigates the Doctor for rarely kissing men and a female character for "only" being a medical doctor. Sorry, my standards aren't that high. And sorry again, although tempted, I'm not going to apply the Bechdel Test to every episode of the show -- Doctor Who is too slender a reed to bear such weight; the series makes a reasonable effort at political correctness. Soon we'll have a (much overdue) female Doctor. Plus, Catherine Tate was on the show, so that's good enough for me. Chicks Dig Time Lords is now outdated, as it ends with the Tenth (and so far, the best -- he of the "quicksilver charm and fantastic hair") Doctor. Actually, I only finished reading (it got a little repetitious) so I could write this review in good conscience. Entertaining and diverting, but without much substance. Not bad, but not necessary. Just for fun. Best aimed at die-hard (seriously die-hard) fans and scholars only; this collection could be of use to pop-culture academics studying fan bases and related phenomena. But I did learn at least two things: fans of professional sports are just as much a fandom as geek fans, and the Doctor Who fandom is definitely bigger on the inside.  [3★]