User blog:POMfannumber1/My Journey With the Doctor

Seeing as I have been a Whovian for almost fifty years now, I thought I'd share my journey with the Doctor.

How it all Began
It all started in August 1965.

I had vaguely heard of Doctor Who before. Some of my friends watched it, and my cousin watched the very first episode in 1963. I must have seen a picture of the Zarbi, because I knew the name, even though I had no clue at all about them until I read the Target novelization of The Web Planet. However, at that point, sci-fi was unheard of in my mind and I moved on.

When I was a child, we didn't have a television. My parents thought it would be a waste of money to see me gawping at "vulgar depictions of horrible animal puppets" as my mother put it. One day, a kind family friend was going with his twin daughters to see Dr. Who and the Daleks. My parents let me, but said that if there was anything "vulgar", the friend would take me back home. So I went. Yes, there are some rather vulgar things in there, but the family friend didn't make us leave. I was hooked. I had to know more about this show. I was finally able to join in the Doctor Who discussions with my friends, but I didn't know about Moroks, Mechonoids or the Monk. But at least I'd seen Doctor Who.

As the months passed, I couldn't stop thinking about Doctor Who. In 1966, Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD came out. I was planning to see it, but my father had been told by one of our neighbours about Doctor Who, and I was told in no uncertain terms that I would not be seeing Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 AD.

Jon Pertwee
Just before the seventh season of Doctor Who, one of my friends, said that he had an uncle who had colour television - would I like to watch Doctor Who each week with them? I jumped at the oppertunity. On the big day, the day that the first part of Spearhead from Space was airing, I raced round to the uncle's house and we watched it together.

It would become routine for me to go round to the uncle's house to see Doctor Who. But after the peniultimate part of Colony in Space, the uncle moved. So my friend and I went to my cousin's house to see it in black and white. It was a hard change, I tell you. A very hard change. However, there was a glimmer. My cousin got a tape recorder for his birthday, and starting with The Sea Devils episode two, he recorded every single episode. While my cousin and friend would go off to do something else, I would watch the episode over and over again. Sadly, my cousin had to wipe the episode after a few days.

When I was sixteen, I moved out into a small, grotty flat. I broke the bank by not only getting a small television, but an audio recorder too! From the first episode of The Time Warrior, I ordered utter silence from the rest of the house. But it was a flat, and you could very easily hear everything that went on in the house. So my recordings included phones ringing, the little girl who lived above me singing, and the man next to me stirring coffee extremaly loudly. If I asked him to be quiet, he'd do it even louder. And just about everything that happened in the flats, such as the creaky step on the third floor, and anyone talking, cooking, watching television, napping, just about every noise you can think of.

And then, at the end of Planet of the Spiders, I watched a regeneration...

Organised Fandom
I continued watching and recording Doctor Who when Tom Baker started. My cousin stopped watching Doctor Who because he didn't like this Doctor. Around that time, I started getting into horror, and my favourite magazine, for a while, was World of Horror, which once featured an advertisment for Keith Miller's Doctor Who Fan Club! I joined the same day. My first newsletter was the last one. But, after a long wait, the new Doctor Who Digest started. I loved it. Mainly because of one reason. Jeff Trimm's Doctor Who Tape Collectors' Club. The first tape was a tape which had The Tenth Planet part four, The War Games part ten, Planet of the Spiders part six, and Robot part one. I loved it. That was the reason I got a tape recorder.

The next two tapes were The Savages and Robot. I loved those too. After that, due to legal issues, the club shut down. But something changed, getting these tapes. I turned from a person who liked Doctor Who a lot, but liked other things, to a Whovian, for better or for worst. Horror, fantasy and other sci-fi stuff like Star Trek and Quatermass.

If I advise you anything, friends, it's this. Don't buy bootlegs! For goodness sake, don't! I got in touch with some "people" who were a bit naughty. There were creepy people, who would make a deal with you - you pay a ridicolus amount and I'll give you say, Day of the Daleks. I can remember spending about four hundred pounds for a colour copy of Doctor Who and the Silurians.

The reason why I bought these bootlegs was because the quality of Doctor Who was getting worse. The fifteenth season was so so, The Key to Time was alright, but the next season was down right awful. After The Creature From the Pit, I stopped watching Doctor Who for a long while...

The 1980s
1983. Doctor Who's third decade began! I hadn't thought much about Doctor Who. However, I had read about there being a ninety minute special called The Five Doctors. I watched it and loved it. OK, this Doctor did seem a little young, and too nice, but still it was fantastic! I bought all the merchandise, including spending about fourty pounds on the VHS of Revenge of the Cybermen, which I hadn't seen since '75. I truly felt a Whovian again.

I stayed with Doctor Who through the '80s, when Doctor Who was seen as bad. I bought every Target novelization, every issue of Doctor Who Weekly, every VHS. I recently got married to my second wife and she simply couldn't understand my love for Doctor Who. After The Caves of Androzani ended, she agreed to watch the Sixth Doctor from the beginning with me. But she refused to after the first part of The Twin Deliemma. I can't blame her.

So she left me to watch the Sixth and Seventh Doctors on my own. We slept in different bedrooms. I decorated my room with posters of Tom Baker, Daleks, Sontarans, and other Doctor Who stuff. Everything seemed to be doing well, until Michael Grade cancelled Doctor Who...

To be continued!