Proud Whovian
Posted By Kathleen David on January 7, 2006
Peter and I saw “Christmas Invasion” last night. I can see David Tennent as the Doctor. I really enjoyed it. Thanks to our kind benefactor, we also saw the short for “Children in Need” before we watched the episode which gave us some additional information. We are now waiting for March I believe and the beginning of the next set of episodes. I can wait. I have a lot to get done before March.
Dr. Who is special for me. I found it through Starlog of all places. They were not showing it in Atlanta but I read the American version of the novels and hoped I would see it eventually. I believe it was a DixieTrek that I met Bill Ritch who had bunches of Dr. Who episodes on tape. He was showing them in his hotel room and there were quite a group of people there someone of which I am still friends with. My first Dr. Who episode was “Sunmakers”. Strange one to start with I know, but it hooked me in for the next one which was “Deadly Assasin”. Bill and I became friends and I watched my way through his Dr.Who collection. He was also the one to introduce me to “Blake’s 7” and “Sapphire & Steel” among other programs. Bill is still my friend. I tend to see him once a year at DragonCon but like Jeff & Angelo we fall back into our banter easily.
I can’t tell you how many friends I have made through my passion for Dr. Who but the list is pretty long. I was an original member of the “Might Rassilon Art Players” and played the 7th Doctor in one of their infamous sketches before there was a 7th Doctor. I was totally punked out with a ripped t-shirt that said “Trust me I’m a Doctor”, leather pants and motorcycle jacket, green spiked hair and extreme punk make-up. I was a card carrying member of the Terminus Tardis which was the Atlanta branch of the Dr. Who Appreciation society. I was there when the PMEB was founded. Yes even with all the silliness in it, I did like Paul McGann as the Doctor. Dr.Who was really my first fandom that I embraced whole heartedly and said that yes I am a Whovian.
I am grateful for everyone who has worked on Dr. Who.
Kathleen, I’m glad you got to see The Christmas Invasion so soon after watching season one. I know purists will insist it’s season twenty-whatever but since the new production has gone back to the beginning in terms of numbering, I’ll go along with them on that.
I’ve already posted on Peter’s thread a few days ago about the new Who, but I was interested in your comments regarding DW fandom. The very first interview I ever did was in March of 1986, with actor Nick Courtney who was in New York for a convention appearance. Looking back, I must have acted like a real dork, sitting there over breakfast at a Manhattan diner, with page after page of neatly typed questions, but to his credit, Nick was tremendously kind and encouraging, even getting into trouble with his then-girlfriend for staying out much longer than he had promised her. That was almost two decades ago. Since then, I’ve done over two thousand interviews, written six books and more magazine articles than I can possibly count, but it all started with one interview for a New Jersey Doctor Who club.
While I was in London for the holidays, my wife and I had a hours-long discussion about why people, notably adults could be such devoted fans of the series. Sheelagh had worked on the original series back in the eighties when the BBC basically considered it a kid’s series, and now that she’s working on the current incarnation, she just can’t understand that attraction. For her, Doctor Who is a job, and as a former (and to some degree, current) fan of the series, it’s a bit difficult to explain.
But having said that, we still curled up on the couch with a glass of wine on Christmas Eve to watch the special, and Sheelagh got a big hug when her name came up in the credits, so that was fun too. Not to mention playing with the radio-controlled Dalek that she bought her nephews for Christmas.
No kidding, I first heard of the good Doctor through Starlog as well (#23 if I’m not mistaken), got the 3 in 1 HC collection of stories by Terrance Ðìçkš via the Science Fiction book club before I got to see an episode.
I saw and enjoyed the Eccleston series and looking forward to seeing the new ones.
If you folks don’t mind a totally self-serving plug, make sure you pick up a copy of the next Starlog (#243) which I think comes out this coming week. It has my profile/interview with Christopher Eccleston, which of course had to be rewritten to accomodate his departure from the series. And we’re also doing a giveaway for the first season of DVD as well, which comes out in mid-February. End of totally self-serving plug.
On your 7th Doctor costume, Kathleen, would you believe that, around the time he started working on the new series, David Tennant was spotted wearing a “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor” t-shirt as an in-jokey celebration of getting the role?
Oh, and I’d check out the official BBC site if I were you — there’s a podcast commentary for the Christmas Invasion that you might like to hear.
Just to let you know, Sci-Fi Channel will be airing the 2005 season of the new show starting in March. It will be on at 9 PM Friday nights. In July, the boxed set of that season will be released in the States on DVD.
Joe, I may be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here but the spooky hold that Doctor Who has over the adult population in the UK is entirely due to the fact that the BBC did originally put it out as a children’s show. If you’re roughly between 30 and 45 years old in the UK, then Doctor Who was an integral part of your childhood. The show was burned into your psyche at an early age and you never forgot it’s appeal. When naughty Michael Grade cancelled the show in 1989, he was fighting a losing battle against simple demographics. All the children for whom Doctor Who was a huge part of their childhood have now grown up to become not only the people with their hands on the levers of power at the BBC but also some of the best writing talent in the land. Long may it continue. A nation run by childhood Doctor Who fans cannot but prosper.