HAPPY DOCTOR DAY!
54 YEARS
Hello!
It's been quite a while since I've done a Doctor Who post. But today marks a very special day for Doctor Who fans because today is Doctor Who's 54th anniversary since the first episode aired on BBC One on Saturday 23rd November 1963.
Since then the show has evolved, changed and grown from strength to strength in terms of popularity, variety, and storytelling.
I thought it might be interesting to give those of you who don't know, a little insight into how I first became a fan, how I discovered the show and perhaps the reasons why this British science fiction series has such a special place in my heart.
I suppose the best way to start is to go back to when Doctor Who first came back on our screens with Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in 2005, that was when everything first became apparent to me and I was made aware of the shows existence.
The first episode I remember watching was "Aliens of London" on the 16th April 2005. I remember watching it and quite enjoying it but didn't become fully enticed with the whole series until I watched
"The Empty Child" a few weeks later, I knew that my cousin was a fan and that he used to watch it each week and it was when he was staying with us one weekend that we just happened to be watching the telly and he wanted to watch the episode, we were all sat around the sofa, my cousin, my sister and myself all watching it and remember being creeped out by the little boy with the gas mask, I was so captivated with that story that I had to know what was going to happen, especially as that was the first part of a two parter, so the story would continue next week, after that I started watching it each week, right up until the first series ended.
Then in the summer of 2005, we went out and bought some of the DVD's that were on offer and caught up with the rest of the series and watched all the earlier episodes that we missed. By that point I had fallen in love with this show and had become completely obsessed with it, I just wanted more and it was a very special treat for us when Christmas came about because that was when "The Christmas Invasion" was first broadcast.
After that I think I had gone out and bought some books on Doctor Who and was reading up on some of the monsters that had become well known during the series history and I remember being fascinated by the Cybermen, and thought that they were very scary and not only that but a truly compelling design and I just liked the look of them so I remember being incredibly excited to hear the news that they were going to be in the next series with David Tennant. Those were my earliest memories of Doctor Who and how I started to get properly involved with the show.
And I think the more episodes I watched, the more I enjoyed it and the more exciting it was for me to go away from watching an episode eagerly hungry for more. No show has had such an effect on me ever, before or since.
Then around 2008 I was watching Doctor Who confidential and Russell T Davies was talking about The Cybermen, and they were showing clips from the classic Doctor Who, that's what got me interested in exploring the whole worlds of Doctor Who and wanting to start going back in time and watching the classic series. The first classic series story that I watched fully was "The Tomb of the Cybermen" that was around early 2009. I had seen bit of "Ark in Space" prior to that because I just happened to catch it one night on BBC Four. But "Tomb of the Cybermen" was the first story I watched fully and I remember watching it in its entirety and just loving the bit where all the Cybermen came out of their tombs and then woke up the Cyber Controller. That was a very iconic moment which has stuck in my mind and has never left me.
Then I started going round collecting DVD's, I was watching them on YouTube, I was watching as many stories as I could get my hands on. I ate, breathed and slept Doctor Who. The next story I watched was "Genesis of the Daleks" and it took off from there, I collected all the DVD's and was watching story after story, seeing all the different doctors in action. "Time Warrior" was also a story I was eagerly fond of, that was when my love for Jon Pertwee started. And you have to remember, 2009 was a time where there was no proper series of Doctor Who on the telly, we only had the specials that would crop up every now and again, so to fill the gap of having no Doctor Who, the classic series filled that spot nicely.
It was nice to have a show to seek comfort in and confide in, whenever times got tough for me at school, I'd always used to chill out and watch Doctor Who, that's when the show became a part of me and was a friend to me if you like, Doctor Who was my way of shutting off the world and just being in my own bubble, caught up in adventures in time and space with the doctor and his companion in the TARDIS.
As my interest for the show grew, I used to watch documentaries on the DVD's on how stories were made as cast and crew look back at the making of the story in question, it was insightful to hear how certain things were done and hear about them talk about the production values and experiences the actors had whilst making the stories. It also gave me an insight into the way television was made and how my interested aroused to work in the world of Film and Television. I have Doctor Who to thank for that.
I'm still watching it and loving it now, and I think the reason why the show is such a success with me and why I love it so much is because it's not like any ordinary thing that you can watch. There really is no other show like it, it's a show that can evolve and fit into multiple genres, it can be a soap opera or a romantic novel or dwell into key moments in history or indeed go into history or a famous book and put a science fiction twist on it. Doctor Who can make its mark and put a stamp on things which audiences can relate or respond to.
I also love the quality of the stories, and the acting and our hero, the doctor. There's always faith in the story that no matter how bad the situation is the doctor will find a solution and sort it out.
There are millions of fans out there who are like me who have obtained rediculous and copious amounts of knowledge about the show and have used their love for this show and expanded upon it with fan films or made audio dramas on it, Big Finish who is run by Nick Briggs, massive Doctor Who and voice of the daleks, he's worked on the show he loves many times and does his own spin on it with Big Finish, he gets to work with the actors he grew up watching as a child, dream come true in my opinion.
I've had the pleasure of meeting all of the surviving classic doctors from Tom Baker to Paul McGann and the War Doctor John Hurt. I have yet to meet all the new doctors though, I nearly met David Tennant, maybe one day it'll happen.
So on this day, Doctor Who day, all fans come together to express their love for this madly inventive, British, brilliant and in some cases bonkers show. Doctor Who will always be my friend and will always be a part of me.
