Sci-Fi did a replay of Doctor Who - "Girl in the Fireplace" (one of my favs) the other day. After watching it for the 1001st time, I thought I'd screen the episode w/ Calvin. I figured it was one of the least scary episodes and I'd be able to skip all the romantic scenes between the Doctor and Reinette.

What I didn't account for was Calvin becoming DEVASTATED about Reinette not getting to travel with the Doctor and dying before he could return for her. I completely understand his sadness. I was just shocked that it hit him so hard when we skipped most of the scenes of them making googly-eyes at each other. For a couple of hours afterward, the boy is very fragile. No more stories with sad endings any time in the near future for Calvin.

Thanks to qthewetsproket for passing this along.

I've been thinking rather unpure thoughts about the Doctor's daughter. Yes, even in my fantasies Jack comes in and steals her away.

In other news, Donna has completely overcome my Catherine Tate distaste. I like her more with each episode.

Before Christmas, I would let Calvin watch a segment a night of the animated-Who's "Infinity Quest" on YouTube. I had the Doctor Who soundtrack playing one day when I picked him up from school and he kept wanting to hear the theme song over and over. He keeps asking about the show, but I know he's definitely not old enough for most of the episodes.

What you must know is that this boy is scared (I mean full-on tantrum and crying and gnashing of teeth) to watch Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, and every other classic children's movie. On the other hand, he LOVES all the CGI dinosaur specials and shows such as Prehistoric Park, the Walking with Dinosaurs series, and Before the Dinosaurs. Cruella DeVille is too much, but an allosaurus dining on the carcass of a prenocephale is hunky-dory.

Today, BBC America was airing "The Runaway Bride" and I knew that the first half with the car chase and such would likely be fine, so I asked him if he wanted to watch. SURE! Nigel was gung ho and crawled onto the couch to watch. Both of them wanted to see the opening credits a few times because they "like the way the box spins and moves from side to side." I spent much of the time summarizing the dialog and explaining why Donna was so mad and the Doctor was confused. Calvin got a little antsy during the car chase because he didn't know, and I wouldn't tell him, how the scene was going to end. The tension was getting to him. But he wanted to watch more. Nigel was all about the eye-candy and loved the robots, spaceships, the flying TARDIS scenes, and the Racnoss.

We kept going and I paused before the lead baddie showed up in the scary costume to let him know what was about to happen and remind him what other shows we could watch instead if he wanted. Onward, Daddy! He thought the "spiderlady" was "really cool" and he wanted to do makeup like that sometime. I skipped through much of the climactic double-crossing, threats, and yelling...all while summarizing what's happening in the most basic of terms. Calvin was a little concerned about whether or not the Doctor would win but remained optimistic and eager to continue. He took the death of the bad guys well and cheered when the crisis ended.

I really should look more into what Who stuff is available for small kids.