The Doctor And Me

I like Doctor Who, I like it a lot. I'm not completely obsessed with it, I can't quote whole episodes verbatim, I haven't listened to all the audio stories or read all the books and there are plenty of episodes of the classic series that I've never seen. There were times I even gave up on it but it has stayed with me throughout the years.

 

My first memory of Doctor Who would have been the ending of the final episode of Planet Of The Spiders, notable for concluding with the Third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, regenerating into Tom Baker - my Doctor. This episode first aired in mid 1974 when I was almost four.

With only the one TV in the house I couldn't guarantee seeing every episode but I watched those I could. I saw it regularly throughout the rest of Tom Bakers reign and through most of Peter Davidsons run in the early 1980's but constantly switching days and twice weekly episodes meant I started to miss more episodes than I saw, and I became frustrated missing out on so much of the story.

I tried to get back into the series when Colin Baker arrived as the Sixth Doctor but I just didn't get on with his version of the Doctor, I found him much too arrogant. I was in my mid-teens by then and regularly getting my sci-fi fix from movies. Also videogames had started taking up increasingly bigger chunks of my free time. Frankly, I regarded Doctor Who more and more as a childrens tv show, and one that I had less time for.

I dipped into it again briefly in 1987 with the arrival of the Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy, who I thought at the time was a good choice for the role although I found the companion Ace annoying. I did enjoy some of the stories but I think the moment I decided to give up on it was during "The Happiness Patrol" series when the Kandy Man first put in an appearance; I just couldn't see beyond the Bassetts-allsorts-on-legs creation.

Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989 and while it had slipped away from me I was still sorry to see it go. I'd grown up with it and there was no doubt it had contributed in no small way to my love of all things science fiction. But it was almost the 90's; I had moved onto things like Star Trek The Next Generation and Quantum Leap on TV while a string of films such as Aliens, Predator and Robocop had proved so much more tempting to me. A tight budgeted homegrown BBC childrens show could just not compete.

The years passed by and every now and again a few stories would be repeated on BBC2 with "Genesis Of The Daleks" and "The Sea Devils" almost certain to appear as part of the limited run. And I'd watch them again and remember what it was I loved about the show and I started to miss it a little bit more.

There were almost constant rumours of it being brought back. Some spoke of another homegrown series, some of a joint venture with US television. Various ideas came and went until, in 1996, a television movie was created with the intention that a series could follow. I remember watching it with some trepidation but really quite enjoying it and being particularly pleased it started with the seventh Doctor; a proper continuation rather than a dreaded reboot. But, despite high ratings for the UK broadcast, it received much less interest in the US and no further episodes were filmed.

It was another nine years before the BBC tried again. I was unsure what to expect but the announcements of Russell T Davies as showrunner and Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor peaked my interest and, like millions of others, I sat down in front of the television on 26th March 2005 to see what they had come up with.

"Rose" was, I thought, a great opening episode. even though I thought it a shame that the seventh Doctor didn't get his regeneration scene. Belching wheelie bins aside, it was certainly enough to keep me coming back each week.

Like any series some episodes have been better than others but I appreciate the references to the classic series, the slow reintroduction of classic foes - I consider "Dalek" one of the standout episodes of the 2005 series - and the introduction of some worthy new ones such as the Weeping Angels, superbly introduced in "Blink".

Yes, there are plot holes and inconsistencies that may annoy the fanatical but that's perhaps to my benefit as someone who just watches and enjoys it without analysing each and every line. Anyway, you try writing a show about a time traveller while sticking with the continuity of 50 years worth of episodes. It's never going to be easy when the lead character can travel wherever and whenever in time they like.

While Davies must be given the credit for relaunching the show and guiding it through the first few years, one of the strengths has been the range of writers who have contributed scripts - Mark Gattis, Neil Gaiman, Toby Whitehouse to name but a few. There is always the danger of the tone of the show changing from week to week but I think the results have been largely impressive. And why shouldn't it be - it's now being written by fans of the show who, as kids, probably watched it from behind the sofa themselves.

Personally I was happy that Steven Moffat was handed the reigns when Davies left. He had contributed some interesting scripts and had shown himself to be unafraid to mess with the shows format. The one problem with this arrangement is that he's now got two successful shows to juggle - the other, of course, being Sherlock. As a result we seem to have been getting less of the Doctor with the latest run being only five episodes and now we have to wait almost three months for the Christmas special followed by the second half of series seven some time next year.

Despite this I think the last couple of series have been more successful in pandering to both children and adults than the first few. Also my reservations of such a young actor playing the time lord have been unfounded, Matt Smith proving himself more than up to the job.

And now we are on the verge of the shows 50th anniversary and I genuinely look forward to seeing what they come up with next year. It's also prompting me to dig into the back catalogue a bit more and work my way through the earlier series. Perhaps I'm now more able to see past the unconvincing monsters and pay more attention to the stories. Well, apart from the Kandy Man perhaps.

I'm quite tempted to watch every episode but attempting to do so is a challenge for which the Tardis would come in very handy. A large number of early episodes either deteriorated due to poor storage conditions or were wiped by the BBC in the 1970's. Fortunately audio recordings of all episodes do exist and there are fan reconstructions which attempt to rebuild episodes using any clips, off air recordings, behind the scenes footage or photographs that have been recovered in the years since. The BBC tolerate these as long as they are not sold for profit and they are very easy to find online. You could start at http://www.recons.com/ if you're interested.
 

I think I have finally come to accept that, as much as I wanted the show to grow up with me, Doctor Who is still a family show and that is what it should be. I have a six month old son and I like the idea of him having his own Doctor in the years to come, in the same way that I had mine, and I will be more than happy to make sure that there is plenty of room behind the sofa for both of us.

 

Ade