I Am A Who-A-Holic
Doctor Who by Steve Ray
Hi. My name’s Steven Ray and I’m a Who-a-holic.
Not just the TV series, oh no; my family and I only got our first small black and white TV when I was three or four, so my first Doctor Who adventures were on the written page. I read about William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee’s first, second and third incarnations as the Doctor almost two years before I ever got to see a single TV episode. I don’t know how now, but – according to my parents – I was reading these and later handfuls of the Target novels a week between the ages of six and sixteen?!? The Target Novels and the 1970 – 1973 Doctor Who and TV Comic Annuals my older cousins had; big A4 technicolour hardback pieces of wondrous imagination, and small paperback adaptations/novelisations of the TV show itself.
The adventures I read – being so young at the time – were mostly visual to me. The comic strips featured Doctor Who along with lots of vivid and colourful images of the Daleks, the Cybermen, wondrous planets, alien creatures, cosmic scenarios and the wonderful, wonderful TARDIS.
My elder cousins and my mum started reading the stories to me and I was fascinated. At first I thought Patrick Troughton was the first Doctor and that he aged into Jon Pertwee who aged into William Hartnell. (Young-black hair to older grey hair and cape, to oldest with white hair and cane ...). This was the only way I could logically tie three completely different looking people as all being the same person. I was, however, soon reading them on my own and learned the truth about regeneration – that’s when I was well and truly hooked.
After that the concept of reading about a man who could completely change his appearance – and personality – whenever he was mortally wounded completely fascinated me. I then apparently proceeded to get all the stories where the Doctor regenerated and every other Target book I could lay my grubby little hands on – no VHS or DVD in those days!
And thus began a love - which has wavered, but never died – that is still going strong 38 years later. It’s even weirder that I remember all this, but have completely forgotten what I ate for dinner last night!
I can clearly remember – aged only five – finally seeing Doctor Who on TV, watching the whole of the Planet Of The Spiders serial and the following Robot serial and being blown away by the Doctor regenerating. At last I knew the reason why all the Doctor Who books I had showed the Doctor with different faces on the covers and being described as looking completely different in every book!
I think that it was serendipity that I eventually started watching the actual show just as Jo Grant moved on, Sarah-Jane Smith came on-board and Jon Pertwee regenerated into Tom Baker ... The rest – as they say – is history.
Reading and watching the adventures of a character that can renew his face, his body and his entire personality when mortally wounded is still a subject that fascinates and inspires me. It truly is an amazing and original way for a TV show to go on, theoretically, forever! I don't even see the Doctor changing colour as much of a leap any more, after all he’s already been Scottish – Sylvester McCoy – and northern accented – Christopher Eccleston!
I personally believe that the companion he’s with, and his level of connection with that companion, will decide the outcome of his regeneration. There is some proof – the ninth Doctor spoke with a northern accent but fell for Rose and regenerated with a southern one.
I think that something similar happened/will happen (all this time travel stuff could make someone go cross-eyed!) with the eighth Doctor. In the last series of Paul McGann’s Big Finish audio adventures he was travelling with a northern girl and, story by story, they became closer and closer. I think this is part of the reason the ninth Doctor has/had a northern accent.
Taking this to its logical conclusion, would it be that much more of a stretch to think that if he developed a love/strong connection for a companion of a different skin colour he could regenerate in the same way? Or if he developed a love/powerful bond for another male companion he could regenerate as a female? (Though if Captain Jack became a full time companion again it wouldn’t matter either way.)
After all we are talking about a character that changes body, face and personality when mortally wounded and can travel through time and space! If it’s a talented actor in the lead role, then that’s all that really matters in my book.
I was born between Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee so the third Doctor was my first Doctor. I only saw/remember seeing sporadic episodes featuring the third Doctor until his final story. The fourth Doctor was the Doctor of my childhood.
Sadly I fell out of love with the show roughly when I fell in love with girls (shortly after Peter Davison left) and I came back to the show mid-way through Sylvester McCoy’s run. I adored Paul McGann as the Doctor, but wish he’d been given more of a chance on TV (his audio adventures are outstanding too).
Another of the reasons I love Doctor Who – as do many others – is because it can be scary. Is Doctor Who scary? Too scary? Or not scary enough? I grew up with the show during what was probably its most Gothic era; did it give me nightmares as a child?
More times than I can count!
Notably: The Brain of Morbius – the Morbius creature itself; The Talons of Weng-Chiang – the giant rats (hilarious now, terrifying as a seven-year-old child) and the enduringly macabre Mr. Sin; The Hand of Fear – creepy, crawly, living severed hand ... that one still gives me the creeps; The Deadly Assassin – the decrepit, decaying Master and the whole Matrix/dream sequence.
Aah yes, the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era. Those gentlemen probably damaged my psyche for life ... awesome!
Funnily enough The Hand of Fear was also the first story to make me cry, though not because of the scare factor, but because the Doctor left Sarah Jane behind! I was heartbroken and hated Leela for months! I was devastated when the Doctor didn’t go back for Sarah after The Deadly Assassin. Sarah-Jane Smith was with Jon Pertwee when I first started watching and stayed after he regenerated into Tom Baker, she was my anchor and my link from one Doctor to his successor. This must also be coupled with the fact that she was also probably my first childhood crush! I will admit I was one of the dads who leapt for joy when they made School Reunion. My son had nightmares for weeks after The Empty Child two-parter and my wife found the Weeping Angels of Blink deeply disturbing. (A desperate attempt to get back to the subject at hand!)
The post-2005 series – to me – is the show’s second “Golden Age”, with the first being the aforementioned 1970s Tom Baker/Philip Hinchcliffe/Robert Holmes era. I totally love the programme and don’t differentiate between the original 1963 – 1989 run and the 2005 – present series. I think that there is no old, “Classic” or new Doctor Who, there is just Doctor Who. As a result I will not be drawn into an argument between those saying “old” or “new” is better or worse. It’s Doctor Who, which when bad or good is usually still head and shoulders above just about anything else on TV. I remember some real stinkers of episodes during the original run, along with the amazing stories, and the same can also be said since the show’s return in 2005.
In my household my wife adored the David Tennant tenth Doctor and some of the Christopher Eccleston series. She is slowly starting to come around to Matt Smith and even quite likes the ’96 TV Movie but – try as I might – hates and will not watch anything from 1963 – 1989. I’ve even tried to put on some of the stories hailed as “classics” mentioned above. Having said that, she actually hates not just pre-2005 Doctor Who, but almost all British produced TV, even though she was born and raised here in the UK. She mainly just likes US-made programmes. She thinks British TV is “cheap, boring and poorly produced.” Her idea of great TV is Friends, Glee and Boardwalk Empire. The only UK produced programmes she actually likes are Doctor Who, its spin-off/sister series Torchwood and the new Sherlock.
My fifteen-year-old son, like me, adores all things Who. He has watched and continues to watch all the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s DVD releases and enjoys something in all of them. In fact he himself will tell you that his favourite Doctors are Patrick Troughton, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Paul McGann and Tom Baker, just don’t ask him in which order.
In short I’m just happy that Doctor Who is back in its second “Golden Age”, happy there’s a Doctor Who to watch again, books to read, toys to play with and people to talk to who share my love for the character and the show. Most of all I’m glad for a programme which brings my wife, my son and I together – and occasionally a whole gang of friends and family – on a Saturday evening. Doctor Who is back, hopefully for good this time, good reviews, good viewing figures and a prime-time slot in the USA these days too!
My darling wife is sometimes exasperated by my devotion to Doctor Who; after all there is devotion, and then there is obsession. It’s taken many of my family and friends much persuading from me to give the returned series a try – either because they disliked Doctor Who even in its original run so much, or – adversely - because of their love for the original version and their refusal to embrace its successor.
I never purchased any of the ’80s Doctor Who VHS Videos, but in hindsight wish I had. I buy some of the toys, some of the audios, most of the books and all of the DVDs and comics.
If I could afford to, if I had the space and if my “devotion” meant more to me than my wife and son, then I guess I’d have more Doctor Who stuff... My faith in the show has wavered, but I watched and waited through the years that it wasn’t on and am elated that it’s back now. I love the programme and the character, but not to the point that I think everything Who is beyond reproach. I have favourite eras, but there are also parts that make me cringe. All part of its charm as far as I’m concerned.
Yes, I’m addicted to Doctor Who.
Nowadays I’m not alone.
Not just the TV series, oh no; my family and I only got our first small black and white TV when I was three or four, so my first Doctor Who adventures were on the written page. I read about William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee’s first, second and third incarnations as the Doctor almost two years before I ever got to see a single TV episode. I don’t know how now, but – according to my parents – I was reading these and later handfuls of the Target novels a week between the ages of six and sixteen?!? The Target Novels and the 1970 – 1973 Doctor Who and TV Comic Annuals my older cousins had; big A4 technicolour hardback pieces of wondrous imagination, and small paperback adaptations/novelisations of the TV show itself.
The adventures I read – being so young at the time – were mostly visual to me. The comic strips featured Doctor Who along with lots of vivid and colourful images of the Daleks, the Cybermen, wondrous planets, alien creatures, cosmic scenarios and the wonderful, wonderful TARDIS.
My elder cousins and my mum started reading the stories to me and I was fascinated. At first I thought Patrick Troughton was the first Doctor and that he aged into Jon Pertwee who aged into William Hartnell. (Young-black hair to older grey hair and cape, to oldest with white hair and cane ...). This was the only way I could logically tie three completely different looking people as all being the same person. I was, however, soon reading them on my own and learned the truth about regeneration – that’s when I was well and truly hooked.
After that the concept of reading about a man who could completely change his appearance – and personality – whenever he was mortally wounded completely fascinated me. I then apparently proceeded to get all the stories where the Doctor regenerated and every other Target book I could lay my grubby little hands on – no VHS or DVD in those days!
And thus began a love - which has wavered, but never died – that is still going strong 38 years later. It’s even weirder that I remember all this, but have completely forgotten what I ate for dinner last night!
I can clearly remember – aged only five – finally seeing Doctor Who on TV, watching the whole of the Planet Of The Spiders serial and the following Robot serial and being blown away by the Doctor regenerating. At last I knew the reason why all the Doctor Who books I had showed the Doctor with different faces on the covers and being described as looking completely different in every book!
I think that it was serendipity that I eventually started watching the actual show just as Jo Grant moved on, Sarah-Jane Smith came on-board and Jon Pertwee regenerated into Tom Baker ... The rest – as they say – is history.
Reading and watching the adventures of a character that can renew his face, his body and his entire personality when mortally wounded is still a subject that fascinates and inspires me. It truly is an amazing and original way for a TV show to go on, theoretically, forever! I don't even see the Doctor changing colour as much of a leap any more, after all he’s already been Scottish – Sylvester McCoy – and northern accented – Christopher Eccleston!
I personally believe that the companion he’s with, and his level of connection with that companion, will decide the outcome of his regeneration. There is some proof – the ninth Doctor spoke with a northern accent but fell for Rose and regenerated with a southern one.
I think that something similar happened/will happen (all this time travel stuff could make someone go cross-eyed!) with the eighth Doctor. In the last series of Paul McGann’s Big Finish audio adventures he was travelling with a northern girl and, story by story, they became closer and closer. I think this is part of the reason the ninth Doctor has/had a northern accent.
Taking this to its logical conclusion, would it be that much more of a stretch to think that if he developed a love/strong connection for a companion of a different skin colour he could regenerate in the same way? Or if he developed a love/powerful bond for another male companion he could regenerate as a female? (Though if Captain Jack became a full time companion again it wouldn’t matter either way.)
After all we are talking about a character that changes body, face and personality when mortally wounded and can travel through time and space! If it’s a talented actor in the lead role, then that’s all that really matters in my book.
I was born between Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee so the third Doctor was my first Doctor. I only saw/remember seeing sporadic episodes featuring the third Doctor until his final story. The fourth Doctor was the Doctor of my childhood.
Sadly I fell out of love with the show roughly when I fell in love with girls (shortly after Peter Davison left) and I came back to the show mid-way through Sylvester McCoy’s run. I adored Paul McGann as the Doctor, but wish he’d been given more of a chance on TV (his audio adventures are outstanding too).
Another of the reasons I love Doctor Who – as do many others – is because it can be scary. Is Doctor Who scary? Too scary? Or not scary enough? I grew up with the show during what was probably its most Gothic era; did it give me nightmares as a child?
More times than I can count!
Notably: The Brain of Morbius – the Morbius creature itself; The Talons of Weng-Chiang – the giant rats (hilarious now, terrifying as a seven-year-old child) and the enduringly macabre Mr. Sin; The Hand of Fear – creepy, crawly, living severed hand ... that one still gives me the creeps; The Deadly Assassin – the decrepit, decaying Master and the whole Matrix/dream sequence.
Aah yes, the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era. Those gentlemen probably damaged my psyche for life ... awesome!
Funnily enough The Hand of Fear was also the first story to make me cry, though not because of the scare factor, but because the Doctor left Sarah Jane behind! I was heartbroken and hated Leela for months! I was devastated when the Doctor didn’t go back for Sarah after The Deadly Assassin. Sarah-Jane Smith was with Jon Pertwee when I first started watching and stayed after he regenerated into Tom Baker, she was my anchor and my link from one Doctor to his successor. This must also be coupled with the fact that she was also probably my first childhood crush! I will admit I was one of the dads who leapt for joy when they made School Reunion. My son had nightmares for weeks after The Empty Child two-parter and my wife found the Weeping Angels of Blink deeply disturbing. (A desperate attempt to get back to the subject at hand!)
The post-2005 series – to me – is the show’s second “Golden Age”, with the first being the aforementioned 1970s Tom Baker/Philip Hinchcliffe/Robert Holmes era. I totally love the programme and don’t differentiate between the original 1963 – 1989 run and the 2005 – present series. I think that there is no old, “Classic” or new Doctor Who, there is just Doctor Who. As a result I will not be drawn into an argument between those saying “old” or “new” is better or worse. It’s Doctor Who, which when bad or good is usually still head and shoulders above just about anything else on TV. I remember some real stinkers of episodes during the original run, along with the amazing stories, and the same can also be said since the show’s return in 2005.
In my household my wife adored the David Tennant tenth Doctor and some of the Christopher Eccleston series. She is slowly starting to come around to Matt Smith and even quite likes the ’96 TV Movie but – try as I might – hates and will not watch anything from 1963 – 1989. I’ve even tried to put on some of the stories hailed as “classics” mentioned above. Having said that, she actually hates not just pre-2005 Doctor Who, but almost all British produced TV, even though she was born and raised here in the UK. She mainly just likes US-made programmes. She thinks British TV is “cheap, boring and poorly produced.” Her idea of great TV is Friends, Glee and Boardwalk Empire. The only UK produced programmes she actually likes are Doctor Who, its spin-off/sister series Torchwood and the new Sherlock.
My fifteen-year-old son, like me, adores all things Who. He has watched and continues to watch all the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s DVD releases and enjoys something in all of them. In fact he himself will tell you that his favourite Doctors are Patrick Troughton, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Paul McGann and Tom Baker, just don’t ask him in which order.
In short I’m just happy that Doctor Who is back in its second “Golden Age”, happy there’s a Doctor Who to watch again, books to read, toys to play with and people to talk to who share my love for the character and the show. Most of all I’m glad for a programme which brings my wife, my son and I together – and occasionally a whole gang of friends and family – on a Saturday evening. Doctor Who is back, hopefully for good this time, good reviews, good viewing figures and a prime-time slot in the USA these days too!
My darling wife is sometimes exasperated by my devotion to Doctor Who; after all there is devotion, and then there is obsession. It’s taken many of my family and friends much persuading from me to give the returned series a try – either because they disliked Doctor Who even in its original run so much, or – adversely - because of their love for the original version and their refusal to embrace its successor.
I never purchased any of the ’80s Doctor Who VHS Videos, but in hindsight wish I had. I buy some of the toys, some of the audios, most of the books and all of the DVDs and comics.
If I could afford to, if I had the space and if my “devotion” meant more to me than my wife and son, then I guess I’d have more Doctor Who stuff... My faith in the show has wavered, but I watched and waited through the years that it wasn’t on and am elated that it’s back now. I love the programme and the character, but not to the point that I think everything Who is beyond reproach. I have favourite eras, but there are also parts that make me cringe. All part of its charm as far as I’m concerned.
Yes, I’m addicted to Doctor Who.
Nowadays I’m not alone.