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| The Doctor hates linear time. |
This, of course, has some pretty serious benefits that may not be readily apparent. If said interest is in serial form, then there is zero wait time between new installments. Reading a comic series while it's current? Hope you're cool with the month-long gap before the next issue. Watching a show? Have a good week. Hope the show isn't on hiatus.
I read the entirety of Y: the Last Man years after it's run. Yes, I am horribly late on a fantastic series, but I read all 60 issues at my leisure. No publisher-enforced delays.
I watched all ten years of Stargate: SG-1 after it had finished. Those silly cliffhangers that SG-1 loved for it's last 5 years? Yeah, I've got the next episode right here. Let's just keep going.
There are, of course drawbacks. If you haven't seen something other nerds have, they'll look down on you. And nobody looks down harder than nerds. It's a fact. If it's something short, like say...oh off the top of my head, Firefly, then it is gone far too quickly. All 14 glorious episodes of that wondrous show passed my eyes within one short week, no new content to follow. Re-watches, my only solace.
If you're up on your trends, then of course you get the much sought-after social marker of "in the know." God forbid one is "out of the know." Such a fate is too terrible to consider. So you're securely in the middle of the know. What do you get for your trouble? Some conversation. But you're a nerd. So who is talking about this thing that won't still be talking about it whenever you get around to catching up? What else do you get? Waiting. Horrible, endless waiting. Watching a show at your own pace reveals amazing stories with thrilling twists. Watching them at the network's pace reveals cliffhangers and drawn out plots designed to keep you coming back. I'm not saying they magically get worse live, but the cliffhangers hurt more that way. They hurt me. It's the difference between, "I can't wait to see how this ends," and "TELL ME HOW THIS ENDS NOW!"
I'm impatient. I live in the magical land of the internet. Things show up when I want them, sometimes materializing at my whim! What do you mean I can't have the next episode of Doctor Who until -next- Saturday? Why not? You have to make it? I didn't ask for your excuses!
I've had both of these relationships with the wonderful Doctor Who. I've spent the last year watching the show on Netflix and finally caught up. This is the outcome I sought, nay, longed for. To be current in Doctor Who. Now that I am, I'm irritated at the (totally reasonable, mind you) week long wait between episodes. I'm like the Girl in the Fireplace, with the Doctor popping into my life when he can, with me stuck on the slow path.
Some Notes: The post name is a quote from Vincent and the Doctor, the tenth episode of Doctor Who series 5. That episode is also the source of the Eleventh Doctor picture gracing this page. The scene in question can be found here! I linked TV Tropes in this blog, an action for which I am very sorry. I hope you are able to salvage your existence from that glorious time-sucking vortex. That is of course if you even made it this far after following that link. Finally, comparisons between myself and Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson extend no farther than the stated slow path existence. I hope my pseudo-historical rantics (ranting antics!) have both confused and entertained you.