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Don your bowties and British accents, Whovians, the TARDIS has landed at UNM.
Ben Ginsburg said he started and is now the president of UNM Whovians. a the Doctor Who fan club. He founded the club to create a space for fans of the show to meet and socialize.
“One day, I wore a TARDIS hat and there were a ton people who came up and started talking to me,” Ginsburg said.
Ginsburg said he began recruiting for the club during the spring semester. He put up posters around campus to find other Dr. Who lovers.
Doctor Who is a science fiction program which has aired on and off for 50 years on the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) Channel One. The Doctor is a Time Lord, or a time traveling alien, who travels in the TARDIS, a machine that can travel both through time and space. Whovians are fans of the Doctor Who series.
In addition to hanging posters, Ginsburg said he stopped people wearing Doctor Who stuff on the street and gave them cards about the club.
The club will be an informal group, focused on watching Doctor Who and meeting people who enjoy the series, Ginsburg said.
“It’s going to be an unorthodox group that will hopefully get people socializing,” he said.
Club member Brandan Chapman, a sophomore studying creative writing, said he joined the club during the spring semester. He wanted to meet other Whovians, since Doctor Who is his favorite thing.
Chapman said he grew up in Roswell, and is interested in the concept of aliens. He prefers the way Doctor Who presents aliens as compared to the way they are presented in his hometown.
“Mostly Roswell is like the cliché, little green men, while Doctor Who makes it more realistic,” Chapman said.
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Though he is just a member, Chapman said he may be interested in working more with the club, possibly in an officer position.
Ginsburg said reactions to the club have been primarily positive, but there were some negative reactions.
“Friday Night Live got reactions from ‘You damn nerds’ to ‘Oh my God, I love everything about you,’” Ginsburg said.
These reactions haven’t affected the recruitment or the club, he said.
“People like different things, people don’t like different things. The point of the group is to get people together who like similar things,” he said.
UNM Whovians
facebook.com/unmwhovians
The club can also be reached at whovians@unm.edu.
