You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them and why we suspend our disbelief.

I'm Eric Melinsky, and this is the last of my three part series on Doctor Who. So once again, I must warn you

spoilers ahead.

Now as I've mentioned before the experience for American Doctor Who fans is very different than fans in the UK.

In the 1970s American kids really had to discover Doctor Who on their own.

Some stations played it late at night, and so some of the first fans here were actually college students.

Even today BBC America plays new episodes at 9 o'clock, which is very much adult primetime.

But in the UK Doctor Who has always been a mainstream family show.

Very often kids are introduced to Doctor Who because their parents grew up on the show and

they're merchandise is everywhere. And that means for a lot of kids in the UK,

Doctor Who is their first experience being scared by something on television.

In fact, hiding behind the sofa because of the monsters on Doctor Who is such a common experience in the UK.

The phrase behind the sofa has become a meme on its own.

Oh yes, to the extent I can even remember the texture of my parents sofa as we say in the UK.

I can't remember the texture of it to this day because of the hiding behind it.

Robin Buns teaches culture and history at the University of Cambridge.

He raised his daughter to be a Doctor Who fan and he actually found it endearing to watch her be scared by the show.

Unfortunately when she was going up the room without television was too small to get behind the sofa,

but she suddenly buried her head in cushions.

Don't worry, she is not traumatized. She is now a teenager who is cosplayed as a Doctor Who alien.

What would fascinate me most about these aliens is that they're not

traditionally scary looking.

...