But back to the beginning...

The year is 1971. Episode 5 of The Daemons. My earliest memory of Doctor Who and watching Azal tower over
the Doctor and Jo Grant in the cavern at Devil’s End absolutely enthralled me. From that point on, I would watch
religiously week after week. Daleks, Sontarans, Sea Devils, 'the one with the maggots’ as casual viewers would
remember it and although I was too young to work out exactly who the new fella was at the end of Planet of
the Spiders, I still loved these thrilling adventures in Time and Space.
I would look forward to the omnibus repeats that the BBC would air over the summer holidays. I would draw very
crude and crappy Doctor Who pictures, pretend my garden shed was the Tardis and play loudly the edited LP
recording of Genesis of the Daleks. Happy days.

But in 1977, another cultural behemoth appeared to challenge my love of Who. It was called Star Wars and it
changed my life. Not in any spiritual way but in what I wanted to. At school, kids wanted to be footballers and
the like but I wanted to work in films, especially special effects. Well, I didn’t become a special effects technician
but it did ignite a spark in me. For three years, it was Star Wars and Doctor Who merchandise fighting for shelf
space with the Star Wars action figures clearly in the lead. Well, that film had a hellava lot more on sale than Who
did so it was inevitable. I still love Star Wars today but in a more nostalgic way whereas Doctor Who is still a
constant companion after all these years. 

In 1979, Marvel UK launched Doctor Who Weekly and I bought two copies, one for me and one for my friend Barry.
As I left the newsagent, I accidentally dropped one of them in a puddle and ruined not only the cover but also the
free transfers attached. OK, I was in dilemma. Do I give my friend the good copy or the wet one with the soggy
transfers? Sod it, he can have the wet one with the soggy transfers…I said to him that they both got drenched
and he was none the wiser. What the hell, he preferred Star Trek anyway!

When the BBC aired their Five Faces of Doctor Who retrospective in 1981, this was my first proper glimpse of what
had gone on before. Watching An Unearthly Child and The Krotons for the first time in all their monochrome glory
fascinated me. I had tailed off watching Who during season eighteen and for reasons best known to me at the time,
preferred to watch Buck Rogers in the 25th Century on ITV (raise your hands who did the same, I wasn’t the only one!). 
But it was the beginning of Peter Davison’s time in the Tardis when I became a true fan. I’d considered myself one
before but now I was a little older and would collect articles, magazines and anything that mentioned Who.
In 1981, we bought a VCR and for the first time, had the opportunity to re-watch Doctor Who. The amount of times
I watched Castrovalva episode one is anyone’s guess.

I didn’t attend the Longleat Celebrations in 1983 but did try to visit around this time. We got lost though and 
came home. Oh well…

Now, I was never part of the fan community par se but I joined the Doctor Who Appreciation Society for a
couple of years and attended conventions in the eighties and early nineties. My first was Panoptican in Brighton
in 1985 and (along with everyone else) was lucky enough to see the great Patrick Throughton on a very rare
UK convention appearance. I didn’t know anyone there accept my old school friend Mark Stammers (who would
go on to co-write and design many books on Doctor Who) and I would wander about listening to guests and
browsing the merchandise hall. It was great; there were other people as mad about this show as I was.

Although Doctor Who was still part of my teens and early twenties, I found other avenues that occupied my
time (apart from the obvious). Most apparent was music (The Wonder Stuff and The Mission were as much a
part of my early adult life as The Caves of Androzani and The Curse of Fenric!). I would go to gigs and festivals
aplenty but still found time for the good Doctor.

Like every other fan, I was shocked and saddened when Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989. People have argued
that the quality of the show had declined by this time but that last season really had kicked into gear and it
would have been interesting to see what could have evolved. But there was no more Doctor Who, after
twenty-six years it was off the air.

But the fans striked back. And striked back they did. During the nineties, Virgin Publishing produced their New
Adventures range employing many new writers, Independent filmmakers BBV and Reeltime Pictures were shooting
exciting spin-off dramas with actors from the programme and the Internet became the new way of communicating
information. We even had Doctor Who back briefly as a US TV Movie with the excellent Paul McGann playing the
Doctor. Unfortunately, although it performed well in the UK, the US market didn’t pick it up. Bugger…good try but
it’s back to the fans to keep the torch alight.
In 1999, Big Finish Productions acquired the rights from the BBC to produce original Doctor Who Audio Adventures
featuring past Doctors and companions. Doctor Who works beautifully on audio and the company is still going
strong producing quality dramas. I even appeared in one of the plays but I’ll let you work out which one, answers
on a postcard please and…oh, never mind.

Flash forward to 2003. The Fortieth Anniversary and a lot of back patting and congratulations before the the
announcement that we thought fans would never hear. New Doctor Who. On telly. On BBC1. On Saturday
evenings. Doctor Who was returning.

And what a return it was. Exciting, emotional, slick, inventive and for the first time, a new generation of
children had their own Doctor. Friends who had never given the old show a second glance were raving about
this wonderful series and would text their thoughts on the latest episodes.

I love the new show and as it heads into its third series, I salute Russell T Davies and his team for working
the magic for a new audience whilst keeping us ‘oldies’ in the loop as well. Many of the series writers
(including Mr Davies), had started out writing for fanzines and the New Adventure book range and there
they are writing for Who proper.

Doctor Who used to be called the children’s programme that adults adored, well thanks to the dedicated
fans and the success of the new series; it’s now the programme that everyone can enjoy.

Its cool to like Doctor Who but as us fans already knew…it was damn cool in the first place.

Marq English
Director