It has not escaped my notice that Doctor Who is, for many (especially Brits), intergenerational television—a show that families watch together. The tradition in any given family may have started at any number of points across the past six decades or so, whether the whole family sat down to watch together from the start, or parents who had watched for some time showed their kids something they thought they could share an interest in (or vice versa).

I’m relatively new to the fandom myself (hence my name here), so even though I grew up at the height of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors’ eras, as an American whose parents weren’t big into either television or science fiction/fantasy, Doctor Who wasn’t part of my personal landscape. I didn’t have the same kind of childhood fandom experience that many of my contemporaries do. On the other hand, I do have that kind of memories of an American franchise: Star Trek.

Now I can’t honestly say that my dad was a Star Trek fan, but if it was on when he sat down, he’d happily watch it. On one such occasion, I happened upon him in our TV room, sitting in front of the tube watching something odd, and ended up sitting down to watch with him.

Much like other Who fans, though my overall memories of that first shared experience are sketchy, I still remember which episode we watched. (I’m pretty sure it was “Patterns of Force”; I distinctly remember Kirk and Spock being locked up together in a jail cell.) I watched the show frequently after school from then on, but almost never did my dad and I end up watching together. So while I can point to him as a direct influence on my Star Trek fandom, I can’t truly call it an intergenerational television experience.

At least not in that direction. Recently, as I was watching something on my computer with my headphones on, my daughters (as they often do) got drawn into the story by the bright, moving pictures they saw flickering over my shoulder. I decided they’d probably enjoy Discovery, so we found a time to sit down together, and I had them watch Star Trek: TOS.

Yep—I started them on the classic ’60s show (sound familiar?). To be fair, they had seen a couple of episodes before, so it didn’t come as a complete shock to their systems. And I only had them watch a few key episodes, to give them a little more context for Discovery. They liked it well enough, despite a few plot points they declared “silly,” but were pleased to get back to the production values of modern television when we started the current show.

In its own odd way, all this has reminded me of how I’ve been introducing them to Doctor Who. They fell in love with the Twelfth Doctor and Bill, and were then open to learning more of the show’s history. We can jump around in the various eras, and they find something to enjoy about every story I’ve shown them so far. Similarly, I can show them episodes from TOS, The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, or Discovery, and they’ll find things they like.

But even more, I’ve noticed that I enjoy that contextual sharing. While in the Star Trek franchise I may jump around the properties to teach them about the mirror universe or get a feeling for Spock’s character before starting Discovery, in Doctor Who I’ve shown them the origins and evolution of the Master so “World Enough and Time” makes more sense, or introduced them to Sarah Jane Smith during her time with the Third or Fourth Doctors before watching “School Reunion.”

I think that may be part of the overall appeal of intergenerational viewing of any kind; parents want to share things they love with their children, and give them context for the way those stories helped shape the parents into who they are. I didn’t get a lot of that from my own parents—at least not in the form of visual media—but we had our own common references.

I hope that my girls will pass on this tradition in the years and decades to come—both by sharing with me, as they discover their own new favorites, and some day in the far future, with their own children or other loved ones. After all, that intergenerational street goes both ways. And if I’m really lucky, my family’s intergenerational love for Doctor Who will continue well into the future.