Watching Doctor Who

(Hi all. Thank you so much for your well wishes. I’m using a flakey dial-up connection on the one phone line here at slightly after midnight to bring you this guest post written by the wonderful JM of Fiction Scribe and The Book Stacks. I hate to leave this blog stagnant, so I bow to you, JM. I hope to get back to normal posting soon, but the way things are going up here it might be a couple more days still. Enjoy!)

Finding Doctor Who

I watched my first episode of Dr. Who when I came here to Australia last October. Admittedly, I watched the first episode where the Doctor meets Rose…and then didn’t watch any more.

My husband told me about the new season coming, though, and he and I began a tradition of sitting down in front of the television every Saturday night with our Chinese food to enjoy the latest episode.

I got to know the characters and, like Martha, slowly learned who Rose was. I got to know the Tardis and the Doctor, and before I realized it, I was completely addicted. Every Saturday afternoon I would grin at my husband and say, “Dr. Who is on tonight!�? Then, at 7.30, we’d turn up the surround sound and enjoy another instalment.

As I watched the final episode and sat with my mouth gaping open about the Face of Bo reveal, I truly appreciated what it must be like to be a writer for Dr. Who. The pure and absolute genius behind all the plot connections, twists, turns, meanings… I was left asking a million questions not about the show, but about the writer.

Did s/he start with an ending, a middle, or a beginning? Was there a rough plot outline first and all the little details then later thrown in, or was it like a gigantic knitting process in which you have a bunch of yarn, two needles, and a lot of hope that it will turn out something similar to the picture you have in your mind?

I can honestly say seeing the most recent season of Dr. Who renewed a part of my passion for writing that I didn’t know had gone to sleep.

As a viewer, I love the show. As a writer, I admire the genius.

(MKEJenkins has been kind enough to tell us about her First Doctor, and her first encounter with Doctor Who. It looks like she and I also share some favorite Doctors. Thanks for telling us your story!)

My First Doctor: by MKEJenkins

Ah, the memories, Where to begin? Let’s see…a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….ooops, sorry wrong fandom. Anywho.

In the mid 1980s I was in college. One Saturday night I was with a group of friends at someone’s home. We had dinner and our usual D & D game and everyone was talking about the new show that the local PBS station was going to start showing that night. Some sort of British science fiction. Well, we were all sci-fi fantasy geeks so we decided what the hay. Right before 9:00 rolls around we adjourned to the living room and start setting up chairs, snacks, etc.

Strangely, one thing I clearly remember at the time was that someone had the TV on MTV and they were playing the music video for Weird Al Yankovic’s ‘Eat It’. Three puppet mice dancing around like Michael Jackson. And THIS is what I was watching before Dr. Who came on. Don’t know why that has stuck with me…Oh well…

Nine pm rolled around and we were treated to our first Dr. Who story. The incomparable Tom Baker in ‘The Ark in Space’. Now admittedly, all of us had grown up with Star Trek, Star Wars, some of us could quote Trek dialog verbatim. But with that opening story, as campy as the production values were, we were hooked! From then on, every Saturday it became a ritual to hog the TV from Mom and Dad so that we could spend the next 2 1/2 hours watching the Doctor defeat evil across the galaxy.

I will always have a special place in my heart for Tom Baker’s Doctor. I just love the exuberance he brought to the role. My favorite has to be Christopher Eccleston though. He brought such depth and pathos to the role that had not been seen before. I only wish he had stayed with the role longer. Let’s just hope David Tennant sticks around for many years. The Doctor’s running out of regenerations….*bites fingernails*

(Do you have a My First Doctor story that you would like to share? Comment here or e-mail me today!)

My First Doctor, Dr. Who, Tom Baker, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant

(Michael was kind enough to let me know about his First Doctor, and In the process I have discovered that he used to watch the PBS channel that I watch now. Thanks, Michael!)

My First Doctor: (by Michael of Big Orange Michael)

Many years ago, I lived in San Jose, California. This was in the mid 80s when local PBS station KTEH was one of the great supporters of Dr Who–to the tune of it aired six days a week. One episode an evening at 7:30 p.m. (it moved to 7 p.m. when they got East Enders) and then a complete story in episode format Saturday nights at 11:15 p.m. (Called the Saturday Night Late Night Dr Who feature).

I should preface this by saying I’m also a huge Star Trek fan and this was the time before TNG, so we only had the original 79 that I’d seen–well, a few times. My dad was sitting there with me one hot summer evening and asked me if I’d ever heard of Dr Who. I said I had but it was odd in that it had multiple part stories and I never seemed to see part one.

So, my dad said, “Why don’t we give it a try?” and flipped over to KTEH. The starfield opening swirled into view and lo and behold, it was part one of “Time-Flight.” I sat and watched, fascinating. Having nothing else Who related to compare it to, I thought it was quite good and tuned in the next night…and the next night…and the next night. I soon was figuring out how to program the VCR to record the late night features on Saturday–and they were running Tom Baker. My first T. Baker was “Terror of the Zygons.”

So, my first Doctor was Davison, which is odd since while I like him, he’s not my favorite. My favorite is McCoy, but part of that may be I met him once at the WhoMobile in San Jose and he answered my question about the Daleks. It was after his first season (which we’d not seen yet) and he said he’d go back and tell them the American fans wanted a Dalek story. A few weeks later, I found out the lead story to season 25 was “Remembrance of the Daleks.” Now, I know deep down McCoy didn’t run back to JN-T and say that a young American fan wanted the Daleks back, but I still like to imagine that is exactly what happened.

(Do you have a My First Doctor story that you would like to share? Comment here or e-mail me today!)

My First Doctor, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy, KTEH

(I’m on vacation this week, so I bring you an edition of “My First Doctor” written by my friend Eideann. Doctor Who fandom is something that we have shared since we first met, lo those many moons ago. Enjoy!)

My First Doctor by Eideann

Easter Break, 1983

I was helping clean the house in preparation for a family gathering while my father cleaned out the fireplace in our family room. He had the TV on our local public television station, and he called me in to see what he was watching. He said it was a fun, very silly science fiction show that I would love.

I fell to watching, mightily puzzled by the tall man with his insanely long scarf running around a futuristic city with a scantily clad woman who responded to people with laser guns by threatening them with her sharp knife – and nevertheless succeeded in intimidating them. As the afternoon wore on, I grew to know the man as the Doctor and the woman as Leela, his companion.

Thus began a family tradition that continued for several years. Between theater, scouting, church and school, the only time all four of us were consistently at home together was on Sunday afternoons. At that point in time, KVIE, our PBS station, played the serial segments of Doctor Who on weekday nights, then played the whole week’s worth on Sunday afternoons. We watched it weekly as a family till I was in late high school, growing to know each Doctor in his turn, and each companion.

Last year, at just about this time, my father was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, an immune deficiency disorder that depletes the blood of just about everything. He couldn’t go out without risking infection, and his body wasn’t getting enough oxygen, so anything more active than sitting was out. I had just purchased the DVD set of the Christopher Eccleston Doctor Who, so I took it to him. It was something we could share again, something he could enjoy at his own pace and that wouldn’t tire him out.

I know he enjoyed the ones he got to watch. He died on June 30th, 2006, so Doctor Who was some of the last TV we shared together.

My First Doctor, Doctor Who