Doctor Who has been a favorite of mine since pre-school for me. I remember when I was a little kid, Doctor Who was shown during the day on PBS, and my first experience with the show was the episode "The Robot" first of the Tom Baker episodes. I was too young to really pick up on the nuances and really science fiction aspects to the program but I knew I liked it. I remember the first time I heard that theme music I thought it was scary and mysterious, it gave the show that much more appeal. 
Over the years I grew to really love the show and around 7th or 8th grade I considered myself a Wholigan (I know it's Whovian but it sounds better). It was around this time that I discovered the other actors who played The Doctor, and have grown to really like all of the actors who played him. To this day Jon Pertwee is my absolute favorite! I've always liked his cool and collected approach to solving problems. He was kind of the James Bond of the Doctors with his Venusian Aikido, his ties to U.N.I.T. (spy organization) and the various gadgets and vehicles that he had at his disposal. I found my love for the show wasn't really shared with a lot of American kids my age, most of my peers hadn't heard of it and when I would lend them a VHS tape they just didn't get it or thought the special effects were too terrible. It was very much a niche market back then rather than being the hipster icon that the character is today.
I've gone to a few of the conventions and have met quite a few of the classic actors like Peter Davidson (5th Doctor) and Sylvester McCoy (7th Doctor), Sophie Aldred (Ace), Deborah Watling (Victoria), Nicola Bryant (Peri), and Gabriel Woolf (Sutekh from "The Pyramids Of Mars"). My brother even directed and produced a fan made film "Time And Again", which I helped a bit with and also had a bit part (I'm not an actor and never really had aspirations to). It was fun and we had some good feedback on it over the years. I've watched the newer program and feel that it's lost a lot of the feel of the original show. In a lot of ways I think it's been dumbed down a bit (Doctor Who was never really serious minded sci-fi in the first place). Every once in a while I'll come across an episode that hits the mark but mostly it's a miss in my opinion. I still enjoy the original show and will remain a fan of the series.
Massive Who fan here too! For me it was the target novels that I first experienced the Doctor's adventures through. That and good old Sylvester McCoy being on BBC1 or 2 on a Saturday evening in the late 80's - some of those Seventh Doctor stories were truly terrifying at the time - Ghostlight, Survival and Curse of Fenric in particular.
ReplyDeleteI struggle to pick a favourite Doctor though - I have a real affection for the 1st and 2nd Doctors, love Unit and the Pertwee stories, think Tom Baker is amazing - 5th Doctor left me a little cold and I didn't get on with the 6th I'm afraid. I quite liked Christopher Ecclestone's Ninth Doctor but some of the later stuff definitely lost that magic ingredient Classic Who had.
Yep, I had a lot of the target novels too, "Monster of Peladon" was my first one. I remember looking through all of the Doctor Who novels at a local bookstore once as a kid and had a guy who reached for a book right next to me. I was startled because he was dressed up like Tom Baker's doctor and was the spitting image of him. Being the young impressionable child that I was, I thought it was really him! But I was disappointed to find out he was dressed up for a convention.
ReplyDeleteThat would have been a great tale had it been the real McCoy!
DeleteI think Peladon was one of the earlier ones I got hold of too - Invasion was the first I think. I still mull over the idea of building a model sewer to play some Invasion style games as I have many a painted cybermen, Unit Trooper and even some International Electromatics guards...