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Nov. 23rd, 2013 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariI began my Doctor Who fandom in 1982 at the age of eight. I was having a sleep over with a 3rd grade friend who told me about this TV show he liked to watch before bed. My first episode? State of Decay, Episode 1. Which ended on a cliffhanger. That wouldn't get resolved until Monday.
So I watched the next three episodes over the next few days, usually past my bed time (I had a tiny 3 inch portable B&W TV that easily fit under the covers. AND a headset). By the end of the serial I was...well...not completely hooked. It was science fiction. A touch of fantasy. A lot of weirdness from the Cosmic Curly Haired Bohemian Tom Baker. And everyone had weird accents.
I kept watching, though, over the course of a few serials. KLRN showed the episodes in episode format over the course of a week, instead of as movie-digest like most places did. So I missed a few episodes here and there...apparently, when Tom Baker's run ended, they reran it. I missed the regeneration, and began watching from Tom Baker's first serials.
Those early episodes had virtually no budget at all and it showed. Episodes looked bad, the transitions from film to video were jarring...but there was one thing that kept me watching: Imagination. The stories were incredibly imaginative. Robots of Death boils down to a standard issue Whodunnit horror...but add Robots and Aliens and Warrior Women and THAT'S what kept me going. And by the time Leela left in The Invasion of Time, I was completely hooked.
Eventually we made it back around to Season 18, the first episodes I'd ever seen, and I got through them all. My mother, who liked science fiction (she got me into Star Trek as a toddler), began watching as well and while not as hooked, enjoyed episodes here and there. Eventually we got to the Master Trilogy: The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis, and Castrovalva. And with that came Peter Davison.
I'd never thought of the main character changing before. And it helped that he was as disoriented as I was as his first few episodes went on. But while this Doctor was more vunerable and more down-to-earth, the stories were just as imaginative and in some cases much grittier (Script editor Eric Saward LOVED him some body counts).
Then came The Five Doctors...and there's a line in there that matched my astonishment that even MORE actors had played the lead. A LOT MORE. "Goodness, me, there are five of me now!" So, there were more episodes....
I wrote the BBC, and got an information packet from them with all the episodes, and even addresses where I could write the Doctors, assistants, companions and villains. From that, I wrote Colin Baker, who I found out would be our Next doctor. Years later, I would write Sylvester McCoy. Both gave me very nice handwritten letters back. And there were now twenty years of television to find out about.
I bought the books, my parents actually called up Dapol in the UK to find an action figure set for me, and in my later years my sister knitted my not one Tom Baker scarf, but THREE (with another ont he way). When we got a VCR, I didn't just start recording episodes, I bought what few I could get locally. I was sure, though, the older episodes were out of reach (especially once I found out many were wiped).
One night, Peter Davison regenerated into Colin Baker. I sat down the next night on my little 3 inch portable B&W to watch his first episode, and suddenly something felt wrong. The theme song was the old Tom Baker theme song...but wasn't. The opening was weird...and the next thing I know, I'm watching The Very First episode: An Unearthly Child. 1963...and we had twenty years of episodes to watch (and record!)
It didn't last, though. We made it through the first three doctors...not hard considering at the time, very few Pat Troughton episodes existed...but when we got to the end of Jon Petwee's run, KLRN ended the showings, but not without a celebration showing of The Five Doctors to end their run.
We're well into 1987 or so now, and I'd already begun tape trading to get episodes of Robotech that I hadn't managed to record. I added Dr Who to my bootleg list. Unfortuntely, while I managed to get the entire 85 episode run of Robotech quickly, Dr Who was much harder to get. In time, I joined the local Dr Who fan club. They had an ambitious two phase plan: Raise enough money to convince KLRN to show one more run of Dr Who. Apparently, we raised about half the cash...KLRN pitched in the other half and expected more through pledge drives. In the end, we bought an entire run of Dr Who from Jon Pertwee through the end of Colin Baker (although starting with Tom Baker). Airing once a week in movie format.
The second phase of the plan? Copy as many episodes off the air on VHS as we could, so we could all have a copy of the show we loved, and could trade with those who didn't (or had episodes we missed). I was at a few pledge drives myself (Anyone with a copy of Frontios from the last KLRN drive will find me and my Dapol toys there). Sadly, KLRN didn't get many pledges (we were all at the pledge drives!), and towards the end of the Colin Baker run, even the hosts were kind of annoyed sounding that more calls weren't coming in. The fan club, though, knew this would be the last run, and we had our tapes, so we would be good. In the end, KLRN didn't renew the series, but did do us a solid favor: They went ahead and bought the rights to Sylvester McCoy's 26th season. At the end of the run, with Dr Who cancelled by not just KLRN but the BBC, a long dry spell came on us.
But we had the VHS tapes. We had the fan clubs. We had the books. we were set.
And then we got a tV movie in 1996. It was VERY American, and VERY different. By this time I was on the internet, there was a lot of discussion about how the movie was Ruining Dr Who forever. Soemthing I'd hear a lot of later. But, you know, I'd seen most of the entirety of the series. Fromt he slower, more slow paced William Hartnell episodes, to the gothic horrors of Tom Baker's era, to the hyperviolent Colin Baker. The show was all about change. And this was the latest. As long as it had the one continuity I cared about, ever since that first episode: Imagination. And it had that. Abeit a very different imagination.
DVDs appeared, missing episodes were recovered, collections filled out...and then the new series appeared...or as I called it "Season 28." More change, a different Console Room, short haired angry Doctor. So much change...and still so much imagination. And that continued through the David Tennant and Matt Smith episodes. And here we are...fifty years later, thirty years myself along side the Good Doctor. Many of my friends have picked the series up with the newer shows and I delight in showing them the older episodes. Because the imagination, even after fifty years, is still there.
Earlier this year, I competed in the BBC's Trans comedy award, by submitting an episode of Closetspace. There were a few conceits I began working on before the contest was over. The first was reworking Closetspace, which was an American Webcomic taking place in Texas into a British TV Series that would take place...somewhere in Britain. I never decided exactly where. The second was...I wanted to pitch a serial (well, an episode in today's Who) to the Doctor Who office should CS be in any way shape or form successful. who knows...it could still happen. Brave heart, Jenn.
I've traveled along side the Doctor for thirty years, even if he never knew it. And he's not just guided me through some hard times, but shaped who I became. When I was living in Seattle, I often joked that I was "deliberately on the run from my own people, in a rackety old pickup." Slightly changed line from the Five Doctors. His love for adventure and discovery became my love for adventure and discovery. Personal philosophies have been created by ideas in the series ("What's the point of being grown up if you can't act be childish sometimes?") Even today, I've taken lines from the new series as personal mantras ("In 900 years, I've never met anyone who wasn't important"). And life events have their echoes. When my fiancee and I broke up, it echoed with me in how Tegan Jovanka left the Doctor. I know why the Doctor has companions, because I've seen amazing wonders alone...and it's not the same.
Doctor Who has meant a lot to me. Very much. And I'm hoping I'll be traveling with him for a long time, yet.
So I watched the next three episodes over the next few days, usually past my bed time (I had a tiny 3 inch portable B&W TV that easily fit under the covers. AND a headset). By the end of the serial I was...well...not completely hooked. It was science fiction. A touch of fantasy. A lot of weirdness from the Cosmic Curly Haired Bohemian Tom Baker. And everyone had weird accents.
I kept watching, though, over the course of a few serials. KLRN showed the episodes in episode format over the course of a week, instead of as movie-digest like most places did. So I missed a few episodes here and there...apparently, when Tom Baker's run ended, they reran it. I missed the regeneration, and began watching from Tom Baker's first serials.
Those early episodes had virtually no budget at all and it showed. Episodes looked bad, the transitions from film to video were jarring...but there was one thing that kept me watching: Imagination. The stories were incredibly imaginative. Robots of Death boils down to a standard issue Whodunnit horror...but add Robots and Aliens and Warrior Women and THAT'S what kept me going. And by the time Leela left in The Invasion of Time, I was completely hooked.
Eventually we made it back around to Season 18, the first episodes I'd ever seen, and I got through them all. My mother, who liked science fiction (she got me into Star Trek as a toddler), began watching as well and while not as hooked, enjoyed episodes here and there. Eventually we got to the Master Trilogy: The Keeper of Traken, Logopolis, and Castrovalva. And with that came Peter Davison.
I'd never thought of the main character changing before. And it helped that he was as disoriented as I was as his first few episodes went on. But while this Doctor was more vunerable and more down-to-earth, the stories were just as imaginative and in some cases much grittier (Script editor Eric Saward LOVED him some body counts).
Then came The Five Doctors...and there's a line in there that matched my astonishment that even MORE actors had played the lead. A LOT MORE. "Goodness, me, there are five of me now!" So, there were more episodes....
I wrote the BBC, and got an information packet from them with all the episodes, and even addresses where I could write the Doctors, assistants, companions and villains. From that, I wrote Colin Baker, who I found out would be our Next doctor. Years later, I would write Sylvester McCoy. Both gave me very nice handwritten letters back. And there were now twenty years of television to find out about.
I bought the books, my parents actually called up Dapol in the UK to find an action figure set for me, and in my later years my sister knitted my not one Tom Baker scarf, but THREE (with another ont he way). When we got a VCR, I didn't just start recording episodes, I bought what few I could get locally. I was sure, though, the older episodes were out of reach (especially once I found out many were wiped).
One night, Peter Davison regenerated into Colin Baker. I sat down the next night on my little 3 inch portable B&W to watch his first episode, and suddenly something felt wrong. The theme song was the old Tom Baker theme song...but wasn't. The opening was weird...and the next thing I know, I'm watching The Very First episode: An Unearthly Child. 1963...and we had twenty years of episodes to watch (and record!)
It didn't last, though. We made it through the first three doctors...not hard considering at the time, very few Pat Troughton episodes existed...but when we got to the end of Jon Petwee's run, KLRN ended the showings, but not without a celebration showing of The Five Doctors to end their run.
We're well into 1987 or so now, and I'd already begun tape trading to get episodes of Robotech that I hadn't managed to record. I added Dr Who to my bootleg list. Unfortuntely, while I managed to get the entire 85 episode run of Robotech quickly, Dr Who was much harder to get. In time, I joined the local Dr Who fan club. They had an ambitious two phase plan: Raise enough money to convince KLRN to show one more run of Dr Who. Apparently, we raised about half the cash...KLRN pitched in the other half and expected more through pledge drives. In the end, we bought an entire run of Dr Who from Jon Pertwee through the end of Colin Baker (although starting with Tom Baker). Airing once a week in movie format.
The second phase of the plan? Copy as many episodes off the air on VHS as we could, so we could all have a copy of the show we loved, and could trade with those who didn't (or had episodes we missed). I was at a few pledge drives myself (Anyone with a copy of Frontios from the last KLRN drive will find me and my Dapol toys there). Sadly, KLRN didn't get many pledges (we were all at the pledge drives!), and towards the end of the Colin Baker run, even the hosts were kind of annoyed sounding that more calls weren't coming in. The fan club, though, knew this would be the last run, and we had our tapes, so we would be good. In the end, KLRN didn't renew the series, but did do us a solid favor: They went ahead and bought the rights to Sylvester McCoy's 26th season. At the end of the run, with Dr Who cancelled by not just KLRN but the BBC, a long dry spell came on us.
But we had the VHS tapes. We had the fan clubs. We had the books. we were set.
And then we got a tV movie in 1996. It was VERY American, and VERY different. By this time I was on the internet, there was a lot of discussion about how the movie was Ruining Dr Who forever. Soemthing I'd hear a lot of later. But, you know, I'd seen most of the entirety of the series. Fromt he slower, more slow paced William Hartnell episodes, to the gothic horrors of Tom Baker's era, to the hyperviolent Colin Baker. The show was all about change. And this was the latest. As long as it had the one continuity I cared about, ever since that first episode: Imagination. And it had that. Abeit a very different imagination.
DVDs appeared, missing episodes were recovered, collections filled out...and then the new series appeared...or as I called it "Season 28." More change, a different Console Room, short haired angry Doctor. So much change...and still so much imagination. And that continued through the David Tennant and Matt Smith episodes. And here we are...fifty years later, thirty years myself along side the Good Doctor. Many of my friends have picked the series up with the newer shows and I delight in showing them the older episodes. Because the imagination, even after fifty years, is still there.
Earlier this year, I competed in the BBC's Trans comedy award, by submitting an episode of Closetspace. There were a few conceits I began working on before the contest was over. The first was reworking Closetspace, which was an American Webcomic taking place in Texas into a British TV Series that would take place...somewhere in Britain. I never decided exactly where. The second was...I wanted to pitch a serial (well, an episode in today's Who) to the Doctor Who office should CS be in any way shape or form successful. who knows...it could still happen. Brave heart, Jenn.
I've traveled along side the Doctor for thirty years, even if he never knew it. And he's not just guided me through some hard times, but shaped who I became. When I was living in Seattle, I often joked that I was "deliberately on the run from my own people, in a rackety old pickup." Slightly changed line from the Five Doctors. His love for adventure and discovery became my love for adventure and discovery. Personal philosophies have been created by ideas in the series ("What's the point of being grown up if you can't act be childish sometimes?") Even today, I've taken lines from the new series as personal mantras ("In 900 years, I've never met anyone who wasn't important"). And life events have their echoes. When my fiancee and I broke up, it echoed with me in how Tegan Jovanka left the Doctor. I know why the Doctor has companions, because I've seen amazing wonders alone...and it's not the same.
Doctor Who has meant a lot to me. Very much. And I'm hoping I'll be traveling with him for a long time, yet.
