Doctor Who memories

[gamergirlavatar @gamergirlavatar]

@mirime I acted the same way when I lost my first Doctor (The 9th Doctor). David had to prove himself to me, something of which he failed (I’m not insulting him, I just didn’t see him as The Doctor at first) so I took a break from the show. It lasted for years. I also love Capaldi as The Doctor. He is The Doctor to me. I also really like how Capaldi is so nice to his fans when he is filming. That just makes him a even better Doctor.

[Mirime @mirime]

@gamergirlavatar I liked Tennant but must admit I stopped watching for a bit. Couldn’t stay away though and caught up eventually!

[gamergirlavatar @gamergirlavatar]

@mirime I only started watching again because one day one of my friends said she had never seen it. I showed it to her. Than one day she said she was pass season two and she said to me “you call yourself a Doctor Who fan when your not pass season two”. Sense than there has been a war to see who can watch the new episodes first. I finally saw all of Tennants episodes and Matts episodes and I am now on season nine. Now I can’t stay away from Doctor Who for more than a day. I was just so hurt when Christopher left after one season, but now I know why he left and I agree with him on his actions. Show business can be tricky.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@gamergirlavatar @mirime

Losing “your” Doctor can be traumatic. I think I was sort of lucky as I am old enough to have watched the Pertwee Doctor turn into Tom Baker, but young enough to not have an emotional attachment to Pertwee – I was more scared of the spiders.

So I was almost preprogrammed to accept regeneration. It was just a thing the Doctor did. But when the new (AG) series started I had an Australian girlfriend who had never seen Doctor Who. And I was so excited! Amazingly so. So we watched every episode, her maybe a bit dutifully at first, but eventually she loved it. And then, in the final episode, Eccleston turned into Tennant and she burst into tears and couldn’t understand it (I thought I’d leave it as a surprise). As the tears rolled down her cheeks she was asking me “What just happened? What is going on? Who is he? Where is the Doctor?”

So I can now understand the trauma that I never really had to deal with. Am glad you’ve come back. Every Doctor is worth it.

[Mirime @mirime]

@craig I’d have thought three and a half would have been young enough not to have an emotional attachment! I think it was the scarf I was attached given that I probably didn’t have a clue what was going on. Certainly from my simultaneously hazy and clear memory of Castrovalva I really didn’t understand anything that was happening – which is one of the fun things about rewatching old episodes, the things that suddenly make sense, the references I get now that went over my head then.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@mirime I got you beat, I was three and a quarter when Pertwee turned into Tom Baker. 🙂 But I think any age can be enough to have an emotional attachment to your Doctor. I admit, Doctor Four to Five was a bit weird though and probably less easier to process than past regenerations (apart from the first one). Although I did love Davison’s first story and his use of a cricket ball in space still stays with me so he made an immediate impact.

[Mirime @mirime]

@craig though no doubt considered in poor taste by anyone in the universe who remembers the Krikkit Wars – assuming Hitchhikers Guide and Doctor Who happen in the same universe.

[Craig @craig Emperor]

@mirime Assuming Hitchhikers Guide and Doctor Who happen in the same universe is just wrong. Don’t you know Peter Davison is then an edible pig? Being fed to his real life wife. 🙂

[blenkinsopthebrave @blenkinsopthebrave]

@craig, @mirime

Reading your posts on confronting a new Doctor, I think back to my first experience. I was 11 when I saw the very first episode of Doctor Who in 1964 ( it was a bit late in arriving in Australia). It was a life-changing experience. Then the Doctor (not simply my Doctor, but, as far as I, or anyone watching then was concerned, the Doctor), changed into the Troughton Doctor, my response was: “But that’s not right”.

As a result, I only watched the second Doctor intermittently, but when I watched “The War Games”, and the whole idea of the Doctor regenerating was adressed explicitly, I embraced it wholeheartedly. By the time the new season started and the third Doctor staggered out of the TARDIS, I wanted to wear a velvet smoking jacket with ruffled shirt, as I had reached the amazingly sophisticated age of 17. And it was 1970, after all.

Fortunately, in 2015, the Doctor does not wear carpet slippers, but really cool boots, which continues to help me keep me young!

[janetteB @janetteb]

I never really had to deal with the shock of a favourite Doctor regenerating thanks to the timey wimey nature of ABC’s Dr Who screening back in the late 70s. When the new series finished they would re run old stories so for the first few years that I was watching a fourth Doctor series would be followed by a third Doctor series and then the regeneration from three to four was anticipated and not unwelcome, though I enjoyed the third Doctor too. By the time that the fifth Doctor came along I was moving out of home and heading off in search of my own adventures.

I have found the AG Who regenerations harder to adjust to. I was very disappointed when Ecclestone quit after one series, and remember there being some rather negative responses to Tennant when he first appeared in this household, though he won me over with the “new teeth”. By the end of Christmas Invasion he was fully established as The Doctor. It was the same with Matt. It took the better part of Eleventh Hour to convince us all. Even though I was looking forward to Capaldi’s installation in the Tardis it still took some time before I was fully convinced that he is the Doctor. That is no reflection on the ability of any of the actors. We have been remarkably blessed since the regeneration of the series with some of the best casting for the role but accepting that some one who looks totally different to someone else and even acts differently is the same person is not actually a natural thing to do. Trust Dr Who to do the impossible..

Cheers

Janette

[winston @winston]

I go into regeneration shock every time the Doctor changes. Each time I think  “I don’t like him” and each time by the end of his first episode I do. Different face- same Doctor.  CapDoc  reminds us that he is a 2000+ year old Time Lord even if he is a madman in a blue box. I like this mysterious ,funny, crusty Doctor.

[winston @winston]

@janetteb   I also really liked chris Eccleston and not hearing any news back then was completely shocked when he regenerated into David Tennant. Somehow although asleep through most of The Christmas Invasion by the end of the episode he was The Doctor. Great writing and acting.

[Anonymous @]

@janetteb @craig @winston @gamergirlavatar

I also was upset when Chris left – I was hooked by The Doctor Dances and also understood (well, I hardly understood it at all really) that there were some problems with Chris regarding the amount of interviews and tele-appearances he needed to make.

I do recall him saying “there are times where an actor doesn’t agree with the way a director and show runner is doing things.”

Other than that, he remained discreet, which is fair do, I reckon.

@janetteb I had exactly the same experience as you watching many repeats of the show each day. I seem to have jumped into Who and somehow worked out (with those yummy smarties I had every afternoon when Who aired at about 4 or 5 pm?) that this Doctor was ‘coming and going’ with a new face.

I noted when I first posted here two years ago, that I had quite the strict Slavic family but also lost Mum at the age of seven. My Aunty Evelyn then became my Mum (she was Aunty to me, as kids in those days didn’t use one’s elder’s given names as freely as today). She’d been a close friend of the family and then married Dad. It was almost like swapping doctors.

At seven I was too young to really know my birth mother well. She wasn’t the sort who played with me -too busy keeping an immaculate home, sewing every one of my father’s business shirt’s, his ties, my school uniforms, her ball gowns as well as working in the garden. I was left to my own devices. This meant exploring the neighbourhood where, amazingly, there were several very large and gloomy derelict mansions. Here, mates and I would set up house, playing Dalek and Sea Devils.

So: new mum, new Doctor. Sounds harsh but it works as a feeble comparison. I think I became used to pretty much anything….as long as I had those smarties. Eating them occasionally today brings back all those treasured memories: I can smell the dumplings and Swedish meatballs mum would be shaping, the sound of the spinner taking the water out of the clothes, the trees outside snapping at the window of the TV room, and then the honk of Dad’s car horn as he came home for the evening.

@blenkinsopthebrave I recall a free dress day last year and the year before where three Senior students had hunted about until they’d found exactly the right shade of cranberry velvet in a neatly fitting jacket with matching ruffled shirts at the local second hand St Vinnie’s store. As dedicated Who fans, they expressed it with their favourite Doctor – also  Pertwee, like your 17 year old self. They asked me to “come closer” and I saw that each had made their own cufflinks: one with dice, another with some Gallifreyan symbols and the last sporting a sonic crossed with the toilet plunger symbol of the dalek.

Tradition and dedication. These guys were surely playing for keeps. They were also into playing vinyl. Somehow I’d expected that too. 🙂 It’s good to see that nearly 45 years later, these young men are still rocking with the Doctor! Anyone who believes Nu Who is somehow rubbish or doesn’t have the same fan connection should check out these kid’s Facebook pages: avid viewers and supporters of the show in any vintage.

Kindest, Puro

(PS: it’s great to revisit this memory page with others: to re-meet older members and be introduced to our newer ones too)

[janetteB @janetteb]

@Purofilion, Were those gloomy derelict mansions in the Eastern suburbs of Adelaide by any chance? My s/o for many years had an old key that he found in one such derelict mansion near to where he lived. We were delighted to find that it fits one of the doors of our current home. (I believe that there were only 50 variations of those old keys so the odds of it fitting were reasonable.)

Those are very enterprising students and also proof that BG Who is known and loved by fans of all ages.

Cheers

Janette

[whofangirl73 @whofangirl-73]

Hey i’m from Adelaide :0)

I have enjoyed reading all your posts. I posted here last year, but I remember watching endless repeats of 4th dr growing up on Aust ABC. I didnt know he regenerated or understood back then. just thought they changed actors :0) and I liked Davison..

I had a giggle about Colin Baker. I watched faithfully thru that era of the show. It was only later I realised i was in a minority and alot disliked by fandom. I did like sone of his stories a lot (rRememberence Daleks). Hated Twin Dilemma tho. It was the 80s regards costume :0)

I think the last 3 dra have been supurb casting choices. Capaldi is the Dr, but so is/was Matt Smith. And Tenant…They have done a good job in casting…

I do worry tho that new series is so complicated with storylines that it will eventually lose casual viewer popularity once again.

 

 

 
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[janetteB @janetteb]

@whofangirl, An Adelaidian? Welcome. I live north of you. Nice to hear that there are fans who liked Colin Baker. My view of him has softened considerably after watching The Five-ish Doctors. He really was rather likable in that, not least because he willingly made fun of his own supposed arrogance.

Cheers

Janette

 

[Anonymous @]

@janetteb

Actually it was in the suburbs of Hyde Park? Not far from Glenelg which was my birth place -coincidentally not far from the time and place when the three Beaumont children were abducted.

@whofangirl-73 hello to you! Adelaide used to be my ‘place’ and whilst I lived in the locations mentioned above, I also stayed awhile in Blackwood and Bellevue Heights.

Glad you like the Doctor: I think though, that this series with its arcs and complications is very well respected. Even Season 5 with Matt Smith, a complicated series, which spoke personally to a lot of viewers was redolent with metaphor and allegory. I think the majority of Who viewers enjoy that aspect. Certainly last year had less ‘complicated’ episodes -certainly more standalone ones – and not many people (on other sites) were ‘blown away’.

Still, I remain optimistic and think there’s plenty of enthralling stuff in Who for every type of audience as along as they have patience.

Kindest and welcome  🙂

Puro

[janetteB @janetteb]

@Purofilion I know Hyde Park well. I lived in a decaying student share in Goodwood when I first moved to Adelaide and used to peddle from there to Glenelg every day and explore the surrounding “burbs”. I found some great fruit trees growing over fences but no derelict mansions sadly, perhaps because I was too old to be adventurous by then.

I really liked the last series. I find most of the episodes very re watchable. S.9 is shaping up well too.

Cheers

Janette

[Mirime @mirime]

@craig it was referenced by the tenth Doctor in The Christmas Invasion – though I can’t remember the details now. Must have been to do with the dressing gown.

And in Ghost Light now I come to think of it.

I do seem to have a soft spot for 80s BBC Sci fi as I must admit I loved the Hitchhikers tv series.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@mirime Indeed the dressing gown was very Arthur Dent whom I am quite sure the Doctor does mention. The cross referencing between the two shows goes waaay back. The fourth Doctor was reading a tome by Oolon Calluphid in The Creature of the Pit. (Don’t quote me as to the story. I may have that wrong.) The HItchhikers TV series is a favourite here too. The BBC produced some fine Sci fi back then as well as fine, well most things actually.

Cheers

Janette.

 

[janetteB @janetteb]

It was Destiny of the Daleks. That will teach me not to research before posting.

Cheers

Janette

[Anonymous @]

@janetteb Ah how exciting. Yes, I knew Goodwood very well. I thought there was a cinema there at one point where we saw Chitty Bang Bang  for a school party in Year 3 or 4.

I lived on Commercial Road in Hyde Park because my parents wanted to send me to the elite Walford Anglican Girls’ College -the teachers, in primary school were utterly marvellous and when they discovered I was hopeless at sewing buttons on scarves (a home Ec task) they taught me that easily and then some -including plaiting which I couldn’t, for the life of me, do properly. It was as far from Coal Hill and Courtney as possible!

And they were one of the first to have a decent 50 m swimming school: no doubt used and “drained” by the Fisher King had he demanded it 🙂

After Mum died, the amount of support my Dad received was unbelievable. Poor Dad: unable to look after his little girl. I’d arrive at school with my school shirt inside out and my hair a total mess. The teachers would make sure I’d be there early so they could dress me. One incident never leaves my mind. I was just over seven, and we were practising long jump – which I was pretty good at and as I flew thru the air so did my knickers: before me! The typical, over-sized, Bridget Jones ‘grey.’

Turns out, the elastic had stretched and this was something my dad (deeply depressed at the loss of his wife) hardly noticed. Without missing a beat, the teachers gave me new underwear too.

Boy, 1974; quite the year. But yes, pedalling to Glenelg would have been refreshing: beautifully planned, wide roads; a mirage of the sea in front of one during days when the air was oven-hot and the sky, a washed out pale blue. I loved the gulls in Glenelg, squawking and tattling all Summer long.

And bang on with the fruit trees everywhere: we had grapes but many people had nectarines and plums on which we’d make ourselves sick! Great summers 🙂

[Anonymous @]

@janetteb I guess what I was trying to say (and forgot!) was that during these times, Dr Who was consistent: I could rely on him to get us all out of immense crises. He gave me, and  others, an indelible sense of hope and optimism when there was precious little, at one point.

[janetteB @janetteb]

@purofilion excellent steering of conversation back from Adelaide memories to Who memories. Though not as tough as your childhood my teenage years were rather grim and I certainly also found hope and optimism in Dr Who. I must have been 15 or 16 when I started watching. It was when my brother was at Uni. He claimed that we watched it as children on my grandmother’s TV but the only recollection I have of it is something that gave me nightmares for several years that may or may have been Dr Who. I am still trying to find the episode but it is probably one of the deleted ones. I am certain it was Dr Who.

Cheers

Janette

 

[winston @winston]

@purofilion @janetteb   I so wish I could afford a trip to Australia. It seems so exotic and frankly warm compared to Canada. Especially winters here brrrr! As a lifelong birder I also envy you your beautiful tropical birds. And lets not get started on marsupials.

Anyway I think one of the reasons DW is so popular is because it means so many different things to people who watch. It has a way of connecting to your memories like no other show I’ve ever watched. For me it is escapism pure and simple. It is a fantasy that takes me away ,for a little while, from the cares of the world. It fires up my imagination and opens up a universe of possibilities.For others sheer entertainment and for some even a sense of ownership. I just wish that the Tardis would crashland on my shed.

[winston @winston]

I should say that I love Canada and I think it is the best country in the world. I am biased though ……cause I live here.It’s a great place to live, even in the winter. Looking out the window at a sparkling white world after the first big snow is a sight I never get tired of. And we always have a white Christmas, at least where I live. My summers are filled with birds and gardens, fields of corn and wildflowers. Come and visit any time.

[Arbutus @arbutus]

@whofangirl-73  @janetteb   When Four regenerated into Five, I was shocked and quite unaccepting. I eventually came to appreciate Five, but he was so much “kinder and gentler” than the Doctor I was used to, that I was actually a bit relieved when C. Baker came on the scene! Watching overseas, I had no idea for years that he was so disliked. He was certainly a more difficult Doctor in some ways, but I remember thinking that I was happy to see the Doctor a bit more alien again. (I was also influenced by the fact that my one and only trip to a fan convention took place right after he had been fired by the BBC, and I had not heard this news yet in Canada pre the internet. But Mr. Baker struck me as remarkably gracious, clearly unhappy about his treatment but unwilling to make that the focus of the event for the fans that had come to see him. I’ve never forgotten that.

[gamergirlavatar @gamergirlavatar]

@purofilion @craig Well, at first I didn’t know that I cared for The Doctor. I just saw myself as a companion and try to find out what was happening before The Doctor, which some times I did. Than I saw Eccleston leave. I was in shock. My friend, who was the person who showed me the show, was already at the door trying to leave. I asked what happen and she said ” he’s a timelord, he can regenerate”. Than she left the room. Now when ever we talk about the 9th Doctor I bring up the time that she left traumatize in my living room after losing my Doctor. That’s when I learned that Eccleston was a great Doctor and I wish he didn’t need to leave so soon.

[ichabod @ichabod]

@gamergirlavatar  That’s when I learned that Eccleston was a great Doctor and I wish he didn’t need to leave so soon.

Yes, I thought he had a refreshing and welcome grittiness about him and great potential in general  — probably one  reason I never took to Tennant.  I’d wanted more of Eccleston, and felt cheated out of that and so resentful of the new guy

[Anonymous @]

@winston @janetteb

the tropical birds shit everywhere (sorry, but it’s true)

As for marsupials, who is up for wombat for dinner? 🙂

kangaroo are plentiful too as they’re pretty much a pest.  Crocodile meat is very tender but I don’t cook it myself. Too tough in my experience; you need a hot hot BBQ. (The heat is hellish. It’s 32 today and apparently the Air Con is on. It’s only a month into spring and we have 7 months of heat ahead in Brisbane!)

I know: people get upset when I say this. But the  birds which go “whoo ooop” at 3 flippin am deserve the shot gun. The insects…..the spiders…..and the various toads the size of my head! Then there’s the snakes….they like to sit curled in the top of the toilet pan where it’s warm and damp! Eels are delicious though.

🙂

koalas are cute and unfortunately they are losing precious space which is a real problem: developers you see 🙁

[Anonymous @]

@winston What I mean is that I would love to swap with you anytime. A white Christmas? Sounds a real delight. Here, we just sit under the hose and play with our food as it’s too hot to eat it!

Most people will go to the beach with a picnic or, as kiddies, we’d sit in the pool all day and then peel off all the skin two weeks later!  Things have improved somewhat with hats, T-shirts, sunscreen and cold Christmas dinners. 🙂

[eric317 @eric317]

I was 12 on family vacation in summer 1981 (?) back to hometown to see family, etc. It was late Sunday night, Chicago PBS was playing Genesis Of The Daleks, and the Kaleds’ and Tom Baker’s costumes caught my eye while going through the channels. Thus my first and favorite Doctor is Tom Baker, but the other originals are growing on me still. David Tennant is my wife’s favorite Doctor.

[Anonymous @]

@eric317

Halloo and welcome! Thanks for sharing that: yes, I had a kind of similar memory insofar as it was an accidental, “caught my eye” kind of thing  – but I was considerably younger.

Tennant is well loved: after Eccleston’s possibly unhappy departure, Tennant came and ran with it: ‘running’ being the operative verb there because apparently Russell T. Davies would shout, “I want lots of running in this episode, hell, in the whole series: lots of action so run, run, run.”

No wonder Tennant became skinnier: but he was a bantam weight to begin with  🙂

Kindest, puro

[Anonymous @]

@arbutus

“fired by the BBC” Colin Baker. Really! Why? This wasn’t some regeneration thing….was it? Something else?

Puroperplexed

[PhaseShift @phaseshift Time Lord]

@purofilion

“fired by the BBC” Colin Baker. Really! Why? This wasn’t some regeneration thing….was it? Something else?

For more information on that one have a link to a discussion on the Faces strand on the sixth doctor. With a note of caution that this is the era of the show I had most problems with. To say the least.

[Anonymous @]

New here, but old school Whovian. Started watching back in the early 80s on PBS, and slowly lost interest during the Peter Davison era. Was in a Stateside DWAS chapter, and we would watch imported VHS tapes at meetings, so I got an early grounding in the Classics. Remember,  this is 1983-84 and satellite TV was a very expensive luxury.  After Hartnell, Troughton, Pertwee and MY Doctor, I simply couldn’t see Tristan from All Creatures Great And Small as the Doctor.  And Colin Baker was even worse.  But a couple years ago,  I saw the new shows on BBC America and was impressed.   David Tennant hooked me back,  his simple joy reminds me considerably of Four. And the theme recalls the pre-“Super Friends and neon” 80s garbage.  We got BBC America again,  and I am looking forward to seeing what Peter Capaldi brings to the show.

[Anonymous @]

@phaseshift

Thank you so much for those links: I spent over 2 hours reading the info and newspaper articles on Baker, JNT (who I never really knew about) and Eric Saward (I may have spelt that wrong!).

Goodness, that ES: his attitude to JNT, Baker, the companion at the time and just about everyone else was splattered in his blood all over every page. As you and others commented, in a different, modern era, Seward may have been given ‘help and support’ but he seemed too far gone for me: totally ‘over it’, as it were. And not working for the BBC as a script-writer ever again? How awful and morose a story for a talented person.

I was having adventures of my own around the time Davidson was playing the Doctor but tuned in once to see C. Baker and tuned right out, shaking my head and laughing , thinking ‘no wonder I loved this shit as a kid of seven, I’m so grown up now, it’s pure crap and it’s good that it’s obviously dying”.

Thank God I was being the pratty tween ‘with a life too important for telly’ because typically, when I saw Eccleston and RTD’s new efforts, I first missed the original series and then, realising the BBC was ‘onto something,’ I was completely hooked.

As others said, perhaps it was necessary that we had such a long hiatus -the show was welcomed back all the more because of it.

I have to add that here there’s awesome knowledge of BG Who -from every producer, script writer, editor, blended in with knowledge about comics and the Target novelizations as well as acceptance of its mixed history  -in other words a great love for the entire show from the very beginning until yesterday…

Still confused about the whole Cartmel Masterplan but will look into that directly… 🙂

Kindest and thanks, Puro

[Anonymous @]

btw  @plainolddave halloo and welcome. Good to read your memories.

I think Capaldi has already brought a lot to the show -he seems a real favourite around here, at any rate which is terrific. A seasoned actor and I hope he sticks around for a while.

But it’s an exhausting production/rehearsal and performance schedule.

[Anonymous @]

<span class=”useratname”>@purofilion</span> John Nathan-Turner (JNT) was VERY controversial back then, and the “Superfriends” later Tom Baker/Peter Davison theme was almost universally disliked Over Here. Watching “The Girl Who Dies” on BBC America and watched the one that was on here in the States just before (missed the intro) and Capaldi reminds me very much of Jon Pertwee. The opening credits very much pay homage to “the original show”, if you’ll pardon a Star Trek simile. See, Star Trek is to Americans what DW is to Brits. Only thing is we argue endlessly about the spinoffs versus The Old Show, but I digress.

 

Capaldi JUST said “Reversing the polarity of the Neutron Flow.”

 

WIN!

[AlexWho @alexwho]

First saw Doctor Who as re-runs on New Jersey pubilc television every Saturday night. Most of the memories are of Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.

As a big fan of the 3rd Doctor, I would love to see Capaldi’s Doctor return to Peladon.  Anything to get another Ice Warrior story in!

[darbycrash @darbycrash]

I didn’t realize how attached I was to K9 until he came back with Sara Jane in that 10 episode and then (I thought) died. I was crying real tears. His own show from a few years back saw him get a re-design that got rid of the radar dish ears which were my favorite part. Now he’s going to have his own movie. I know he looked old fashioned and adults who liked Who back in the day thought he was cheesy but…I LOVED HIM! I wasn’t allowed a pet as a child because of my brother’s allergies but K9 didn’t have dander, he could be my pet. Ah memories. All alone in the moonlight.

[hurbleduh @hurbleduh]

Hi, I have a memory from about 10+ years ago. I was travelling with a friend, and we stopped at their parents’ home for the night, and they brought out their Doctor Who VHS tapes for us to watch, and there was one particular episode that has stuck in my memory for a while, and I’m hoping some of you here can help me remember it.

I don’t actually remember the plot of the episode, or which actor was portraying the doctor, but I can clearly remember the following sequence: there was a person, ostensibly the villain, pursuing the doctor, but the gag was that he would continually fall down a hole off camera and then reappear stage left, and he would become progressively older each time he fell down the hole.

It was silly and fun. But I can’t remember much more than that. Does this sound familiar to anyone else?

[janetteB @janetteb]

@hurbleduh You watched a comedy fundraiser “Curse of Fatal Death” made in 1999 written by Stephen Moffat, Produced by Sue Vertue and starring none other than Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor, as well as Richard E Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant and Joanna Lumley. He regenerates rather a lot in a short time. It is well worth a watch. In the extras Moffat expressed his love for the show and when asked if he would be interested in writing for the series should it ever be revived his eyes shone at the prospect.

Cheers

Janette

[bendubz11 @bendubz11]

Bloody hell! 2 months and I’ve only just stumbled on this thread. This website doesn’t cease to amaze me! Anyhoo, my first memory of Dr Who was 10 years ago, when the reboot happened. my parents remembered it from their youth, wanted to see what the reboot would be like, and I simply wanted to watch TV whilst having my dinner. I remember when it first came back I was attracted to the child friendly monsters: a burping wheelie bin, alien wearing disguises that fart a lot, the kinda stuff kids find amusing. Being only just turned 9 at the time and knowing from for some reason having seen Tom Baker’s regeneration before (don’t ask me why, I’ve no idea, I think it might have been on SyFy and my mum had it on whilst cooking). Going off on a tangent now. What I’m trying to say is that I was unaffected by Eccleston’s regeneration, which may also have been partially because I hadn’t grown attached to him. That didn’t happen until a few years when watch started showing AG Who repeats.

I feel like Tennant was definitely the first Doctor I fell in love with. Everything about him was just cool personified, and it was midway through his first series that my father died, so he kind of became my role model. My stand out memories of the Tennant era are cliche, but they’re cliche because those episodes are so well known. The beach scene in Doomsday, the entirety of Blink, his exit. actually I say that but I also vividly remember his conversation with Martha at the end of Gridlock about Gallifrey and Rose, and THAT scene in Fires Of Pompeii. Also Tennant had the only DW story to ever scare me. even now I get anxious watching the Vashta Nerada episodes and I just cannot watch the cliffhanger at the end of Silence In The Library, seeing Donna’s face on that information node gave nightmares for weeks! And yet it’s quite possibly my favourite story because it’s so well written.

Smith was brilliant, but he took me a few episodes to warm to. When he did I loved him, but never to the same extent as his predecessors. And when you contrast him with Capaldi there’s no contest.  Capaldi is most definitely going to be “My Doctor”. A more mature Doctor was exactly what I needed to snap me out of puberty and Capaldi has most definitely delivered, whilst still being able to bring out his youthful side. I think the best way for me to show how he is different is this: Eccleston, Tennant and Smith were brilliant interpretations of The Doctor. Capaldi IS The Doctor, and that speech in The Zygon Inversion is what confirmed it for me.

[nerys @nerys]

It’s funny. I loved Eccleston and Tennant as the Doctor, and really couldn’t imagine anyone topping Tennant. So I stayed away from Matt Smith’s Doctor for his first entire season. Then, at some point I started watching again, and was kicking myself for missing out because I really enjoyed his uniquely manic take on the Doctor every bit as much as his predecessors. As others have noted, he had an amazing ability to convey ancient wisdom in a young face. And then his relationship with Amy and Rory was extraordinary. On top of that, he was our Doctor during the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, and of course we got all kinds of goodies associated with that.

Once we got Netflix, I made sure I got caught up with all of Smith’s episodes. I did feel a bit of trepidation prior to Capaldi’s Doctor, but then he and Jenna Coleman’s Clara clicked in a way that just didn’t quite happen with Smith’s Doctor (other than “The Day of the Doctor”). So gradually he too grew on me.

My biggest reaction to regeneration, going from Tennant to Smith, was denial.

[swordwhale @swordwhale]

Enjoying the comments from the Aussies and Canadians…

Been to Canada (to the bottom of the St. Lawrence River, in fact: shipwrecks, really big crayfish, and cute dive boat guys)(and to the World’s Fair back in the…eh…. 60s somewhere)(also, my favorite Iditarod/Yukon Quest teams seem to be Canadian… also the only ones gutsy enough to run Siberians).

Would love to go to the Land of Marsupials and Everything Venomous… then, off to Middle Earth.

I live in Pennsylvania where the most venomous thing is the odd copperhead snake.

I grew up on sci fi books, Star Trek (the Original), discovered Star Wars and fandom about the same time (1977), got a vast amount of verbiage called Lord of the Rings dumped into my hands, went to my first D&D game, my first sci fi convention…

…and someone made me this ridiculous scarf. Something about a time lord and a blue box.

I had exactly three channels on the TV, maybe four if PBS would come in (if you shouted at the antenna enough).

I was vaguely aware of the blue box dude for the next several decades as other sci fi and fantasy came and went, waxed and waned. Occasionally I’d get a chance to see an episode a friend had recorded.

Some friends shared bits of TENnant and Ma11 Smith (easy to remember what numbers they are!) episodes. They popped up continually on tumblr to the point I felt like I’d seen the whole series (cute, appealing, funny, wish I could watch it).

Finally, I discovered I could watch the series on Amazon…

I CAN WATCH IT ON AMAZON!!!!!!!! For a paltry $1.99 an episode.

WHHOOOOT!

Let’s just say, now that there is finally a Doctor my age, that I see what the decades of hooplah are about.

Brilliant, funny, deep, intelligent… and that’s just the stories.

Also loving Capaldi. But then, I have a thing for Scots.

Must now catch up on the past Doctors.

[TheDentistOfDavros @thedentistofdavros]

My first memory of Doctor who was of the cyber controller falling of the zeplin and into a great explosion, my dad tried to change the channel but I wouldn’t let him. He said that Doctor who had been on since he was a child and this amazed me. Unfortunately I forgot about it until I happened to spot a dalek on the cover of a dvd. After watching doomsday about a hundred times I decided to never miss an episode and so started watching At series 3.

During my time watching series 3 I also bought some classic episodes and was pleased to say that I loved Destiny of the Daleks. So if I had not been impressed with destiny I would probably have never bothered with the classic stuff and now I prefer watching the old episodes thanks to poor old Destiny of the Daleks. Does anyone else have a soft spot for Destiny ?

[whofangirl73 @whofangirl-73]

Yes, whilst not a favourite story I do like this story. Loved Romanas pink jacket. Loved the line Tom Baker says about Daleks being supreme beings but cant climb stairs! Loved the stalemate with the Movellans and I remember Romana trapped and the Dr getting her out. Didnt like Romanas multiple regens. Overdone. Have you watched the first 2 or 3 seasons of Tom Baker? Try ‘Seeds of Doom’, ‘Ark in Space’, ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ (my fav), Masque of Mandragora’ or Pyramids of Mars’.

[TheDentistOfDavros @thedentistofdavros]

Yes I agree with you on destiny of the Daleks even though I have a soft spot for it I can see its faults. Yes I have watched a lot of his earlier seasons and my personal favourites have to be seeds of doom, talons of weng-chiang, terror of the zygons, genesis, deadly assassin but to be fair I love almost all of the early tom baker stories.

You mentioned ark in space and I’m afraid I never really liked it although the sets were simply amazing, I haven’t seen masque of mandragora yet but will let you know my thoughts once I’ve seen it.

[whofangirl73 @whofangirl-73]

• Oh and add Brain of Morbius to the list! (P.s I love how the new Who have revisited the planet Karn from time to time.

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