Still on a Doctor Who Buzz

[puppetmaker]

My love of Doctor Who really started in High School with an article in Starlog and the American versions of a couple of the books. Then I went to Science Fiction convention and there was a sign saying that a group was showing Doctor Who in their hotel room and all were invited to watch. My first show was "Sunmakers" followed by "The Invisible Enemy." The gentleman showing the videos was Bill Ritch who I have been friends with every since (Almost 30 years now Bill) and I have valued that friendship highly. He managed to get me pretty much caught up with all the episodes available at the time.

Eventually our local PBS channel started showing Doctor Who. I did a number of pledge drives with my fellow Whovians over the years. We would dress up in costume and answer phones. I can remember one year Fiona had a Leela costume on and all the guys who called wanted to talk to her. I joined the Terminus TARDIS and the Might Rassilon Art Players. I ended up playing Doctor 7 (or our interpretation of 7 which was female and a punk rocker while 6 was still around) and 5 when our 5 had to bow out of a convention we did some sketches at. When the TV movie came out, I went to a sports bar with the rest of the Terminus TARDIS and we took over a good third of the bar. That was the night that the PMEB was first formed.

Fast forward a number of years when the rumors of a New Who in the works at the BBC. I took it with a grain of salt since I had heard these sorts of rumors over the years including one, which I was involved in, that just showed how wacky fandom can be that ended with someone leaving the internet because of death threats and threats to her family because she found out the truth of the matter and fans being very jaded about any sort of sign that the Doctor was coming back.

Then I got a copy of the Doctor Who magazine (to show you how far back my fandom goes, I still have my Doctor Who Weeklies from 1 through well I lost count) that had an article that proved to me that this was really going to happen. "Rose" aired in England and I figured that I would be waiting forever to see it. In step a couple of good friends who are very Internet savvy who got my computer set up to see the show and then the show itself. Peter and I watched "Rose" and my love of Doctor Who that had been kind of dormant came to full bloom again. I was a Whovian again.

Since then I have managed to keep up with the good Doctor and all the spin-offs. I was asked to write for one of the Big Finish anthologies which was a thrill in itself. Then last night I saw "Utopia" and I found myself cackling like a maniac and just enjoying watching the last 5 minutes over and over again. I am a proud Whovian and I can't wait to see what happens next. The good thing is that my husband shares the love all things Who too. Caroline is the next generation of Doctor Who fan. She loves watching the episodes and she knows who the villains are and who our heroes are. Regeneration makes sense to her because it is something that the Doctor does. She even has her own sonic screwdriver. *Sniff* I'm so proud.

I am grateful for having Doctor Who in my life.

Comments

[budgie-uk.livejournal.com]

December 2005, I was invited to a fancy dress party up in Birmingham; I'd only fairly recently split from Laura and really, really didn't do fancy dress. (I still don't, to be honest.)

So, after advice from friends about "well, get a white coat and bingo, you're a doctor" and "just get a Superman T-shirt, wear your spectacles, go in a suit and tie and Bingo, you're Clark Kent", I realised that what I needed was a costume that wasn't a costume, something I'd feel comfortable wearing even if I wasn't at a fancy dress party.

I'd recently had my hair cut short and cropped... and was in the market for a new jacket anyway, so picked up a very soft leather jacket and a thin V-neck black cotton sweater... and a sonic screwdriver.

Turned up and those that didn't immediately say "You've come as The 9th Doctor" realised the moment I pulled out the sonic screwdriver.

Result.

These days, the sonic screwdriver sits in my office next to the Cyberman and various other toys.

(Be fair, how many CFOs do you know with a Cyberman, a batmobile, an Angel from Captain Scarlet and a conic screwdriver on their shelf, as well as original comic art up on the walls?)

And, of course, I get to buzz people with the sonic screwdriver in meetings. Which gets me very strange looks. RHIP, though...

[jeff-morris.livejournal.com]

I'm dying to find out how you explain "Captain Jack" to Caroline. :)

Those 1980 days in the St. Louis CIA remain one of my fondest memories. It got me writing, and I met my wife at one of the first meetings in 1983. We just celebrated #22.

I'm dying of laughter right now, because she swore up and down she wasn't going to watch Doctor Who, wasn't even going to listen to one single word until One Certain Adversary returned. Now she's stuck. :)

[booraven22.livejournal.com]

It's so funny you mention the American Doctor Who Novels. I started watching on PBS in 8th Grade (So circa 1980-My first episode was "Arc in Space!") and I snatched up all of those novelizations, with the added bonus of the foreword by Harlan Ellison. Then I discovered that a bookstore on the Purdue Campus sold the BRITISH novelizations. SO Every trip down to Purdue required a visit to that bookstore to purchase at least 5 of the books.
Yep, had a scarf, attended Doctor Who conventions in Chicago (Met Tom Baker and Anthony Ainley) and have been a die hard fanatic ever since. :)
Can't wait to introduce the good Doctor to my kids, whenever I get around to having them!

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

This is very cool! For whatever reason, I was not allowed to watch Doctor Whio whenI was a kid, and so I am trying to catch up now. :)
We found the show was a tiny bit too scary for our daughter, so we stopped showing it to her, but she still talks about how she loves it, and she was really fond of the pilot for Sarah Jane Adventures.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Sunmakers! Oh, that was such a favorite from back in the day!

My first fanfic was for Doctor Who, and my high school history teacher would let me write my essays as Who adventures as long as they were footnoted.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen "Utopia" yet and won't until early July, but I'm really looking forward to it. I've been more and more pleased as the season has progressed. The last three episodes were tremendous. Still not sure how I feel about Martha, but I'm digging the stories enough that I'm not really sure I care.

[billritch.livejournal.com]

OK. So yesterday we gathered at my house to watch the new episode of Doctor Who. Only Jack Mayfield had seen it before (I think he watches them at 2 am when he finished the download).

Needless to say we were all stunned as we started to figure out what was about to happen. Especially when Matha noticed the [censored]. An electric shock ran through the room. (( BTW -- its hard to write about this without spoilers!))

Then when THE MOMENT arrived there was a huge cheer and a round of applause. It scared Cole (my HUGE Ragdoll cat) so much he fled the room. The Luchyshyn children (8 years old) had no idea what was going on.

It was great.

I am so happy to have the Doctor back.

Now! How are we going to get Daniel Kiernan to look like Prime Minister Saxon for our Dragon*Con play: "From TARDIS with Love"?

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

darthsatyr and I just torrented the 8th Doctor movie, which neither of us had ever seen (and which we couldn't find through any other channels, hence the torrenting). This means we have now seen every Doctor at least once. It's a nice feeling of completion.