Doctor Who gets a UK Google doodle. Where's our Whodle?
Today many Whovians down in Doctor Whoville, kids and parents too, woke to Google鈥檚 50迟丑听 Anniversary Doctor Whodle to play the Who game, while American families waited crying 鈥淏oo Who! Why isn鈥檛 it on our home pages too?鈥�
鈥淢om, the WHOLE WORLD鈥檚 playing the Doctor Who doodle and our browser鈥檚 not showing it,鈥� wailed Quin, 10, whose friends in England were crowing online about the largest doodle Google has done yet.
Shortly thereafter, I began to wail in frustration as my Internet tech skills completely failed me. I couldn鈥檛 find the doodle. It isn鈥檛 on my home page.
After getting some help from an editor, I can tell parents there鈥檚 nothing wrong with your browsers or Internet skills, the interactive Doctor Who doodle is just not available on the US site, but The Telegraph of London reports 鈥渋t will soon be on home pages all over the world.鈥� Impatient Whovians can find it now on . [Editor's note: The link to the British Google home page was misprinted in the original version of this article.]
Thanks to that foreign link, Quin is hopelessly addicted to the Doctor Who Time Lord game that鈥檚 part of today鈥檚 doodle.
Time Lords march along the top of word Google to mark the shows 50th anniversary and the second "O" has been transformed into a聽play聽button, which when pressed releases a "dalek."
The dalek 鈥渆xterminates鈥� the word and starts the聽game聽where users can choose which of the 11 Time Lords they want to be in聽a maze challenge traveling time and space in the Tardis (time machine) as you go up in levels. Every time the player loses a life they regenerate as the next doctor.
The highly quotable, inspiring and funny Doctor Who is a common thread in our family history that binds us together, as the Doctor (when played by David Tennant) would say, 鈥渇rom a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint 鈥� it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff.鈥�
We鈥檝e watched all the seasons together and on our own time-y wimey. Last year Ian, 18, was headed out the door to his senior year of high school in a bright red fez and bow tie.
鈥淚t's a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool,鈥� Ian quoted directly from a Doctor Who episode I鈥檇 missed in which the doctor (played by Matt Smith) says exactly that.
Here鈥檚 a little hit parade of the best Doctor Who quotes for kids to hear:
1.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽鈥淵ou want weapons? We鈥檙e in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!鈥濃�� The Doctor, Season 2, Episode 2
2.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽鈥淚n 900 years of time and space, I鈥檝e never met anyone who wasn鈥檛 important.鈥濃�� The Doctor, Season 6, Christmas Special
3.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽鈥淲hen you鈥檙e a kid, they tell you it鈥檚 all鈥� Grow up,聽get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that鈥檚 it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that. It鈥檚 so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.鈥濃�� Elton Pope, Season 2, Episode 10.
4.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽鈥淭he way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don鈥檛 always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don鈥檛 always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.鈥� 鈥� The Doctor, Season 5, Episode 10
5.聽聽聽聽聽聽聽鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive鈥� wormhole refractors鈥� You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold.鈥濃�� The Doctor, Season 6, Episode 6
Perhaps the most important quote doesn鈥檛 come from The Doctor at all, but from the character Rose Tyler who said, 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 just give up. You don鈥檛 just let things happen. You make a stand! You say no! You have the guts to do what鈥檚 right, even when everyone else just runs away.鈥�
This may be the only visit to 鈥渢he doctor鈥� the kids will ever love and remember fondly because his practice is universal, he makes house calls right into your living room, prescribes books, hand holding, the value of life and the occasional fez.聽聽
Time to make an appointment with the telly, the time machine, and your kids for the 50th 听蝉别补蝉辞苍.
