Reply #19: Which is why the new WHO will never qualify

[Deja Q]

13. Doctor Who

As nerdy as a Star Trek fan can be, the potential nerdiness of the Doctor Who fan is far greater. That's not a knock on the quality of either show (please, let's not start that debate), but the result of two other factors: Trek's much greater mainstream success, with half a dozen TV series and 10 feature films boosting the brand, means that when someone says "Beam me up, Scotty," at least people know what the hell they're referencing. The relative obscurity of Doctor Who, especially in the days when it was only viewable in America on PBS, kept it further underground. And the fact that the central character of Doctor Who is a flamboyant eccentric who wears things like a 25-foot scarf or a piece of celery on his lapel, whereas Star Trek favors dashing ladies' men in uniform—well, at best, you can say that one encourages individualism where the other encourages conformity. But dress like the Doctor in real life, and your ensemble is only barely missing a KICK ME sign. (That's less true of the new BBC series, at least.)

Emphasis added, of course...