You never forget your first Doctor...


Television

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Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Many people have strong recollections of the first time they saw Doctor Who—who the Doctor was, who the companions were, hopefully even what the episode title was... but most folks probably don't remember exactly what date that was.

UK viewers have it relatively easy, as reruns were rare, so if you know the story title, you can figure out the date from the story page on Wikipedia or any number of other sources. But if you're outside of the UK, where do you go?

Try broaDWcast!

I know my first Doctor Who was Episode 1 of Face of Evil, which I saw on WETA in Washington, DC around 1980–1982; broaDWcast tells me the date must have been August 6, 1981.

If you don't know the title of your first story, tell us as much as you can remember, and we'll try to help you work it out!

Paizo Employee Developer

Mine was "Rose" sometime in the spring of 2010. I was unemployed and trying to find things to do cheaply. At my previous job, a coworker had given me homemade DVDs of his DVR'ed recordings of all of the Doctor Who episodes since the 2005 relaunch, but I'd never watched them. I decided to watch it one night and was interested enough to keep going. By the time I finished "The Empty Child" I was hooked. I have gone back through old Facebook posts from that time to see if I mentioned it, but can't find anything, so the specific date is likely lost. If I could check my NY Public Library rental history from then, I might find a closer range, since I immediately started renting Hartnell-era DVDs upon finishing "The Parting of the Ways," deciding I couldn't watch the series unless I started at the beginning.


Mine was the Third doctor- I remember watching one of the Peladon stories at my grandmothers.


I'll be the exception. I don't really remember.

Probably Pertwee, possibly Tom Baker. 80's reruns on PBS. I couldn't always watch them so it was broken up, individual episodes here and there.

Sovereign Court

Another 80's PBS child here. It was Tom Baker for me though. I remember being bummed whenever it wasn't Tom.


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Mine was the 4th Doctor on PBS (I remember K-9 and the TARDIS, but not much else.) According to that website it was 1982. I would have been 5 at the time. I didn't really watch a ton of Doctor Who until much, much later. Now I have seen (nearly) every episode possible. Still waiting on Moonbase's release to get access to the found Underwater Menace episode.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

deinol wrote:
Still waiting on Moonbase's release to get access to the found Underwater Menace episode.

I believe they're going to be doing animation to complete and release Underwater Menace on its own now.

Grand Lodge

I saw Rose shortly after it premiered in the US. It didn't catch me as well as I thought it would. Over a year later I watched S1 and S2 over the course of about 4 days. Fell in love ever since.

I would love to see animation as a way to redo the incomplete series from doctors 1 & 2.


I was very young when I started watching Dr Who... My earliest memories were hiding behind the couch.

My dad said he remembers me crawling under the coffee table... When he asked me what I was doing 3 year old me said "I'm f-f-f"......"frightened" he said and I nodded.

I remember Pertwee as my first but I am not sure what one.


My first was "The Ark in Space" episode 2 in Boston. The site gives several airdates, however. It could have been in 1980 or 1981.

Silver Crusade

....The Eleventh Hour?


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I'm British, and Dr Who started a couple of months before I was born. The first episode I remember (dimly) was the second doctor being exiled to earth and regenerating into the third doctor (who was 'my doctor'). That would have been 1970 when I was almost 6. I loved the Brigadier and the car, Betsy.


Mine was 9. I don't recall the show ever running on German TV before the BBC picked it up again, so I couldn't get into it earlier. Even so, the dubbing was atrocious and it didn't last long, so I had to get the DVDs.

Shadow Lodge

My first Doctor was Tennant and it was the episode that probably had the least amount of the Doctor in it. It was also probably the weirdest episode of that season. It was the one with L.I.N.D.A.


Another Eccleston inductee here, starting in 2011 sometime at the urging of several friends.


Daedalaman wrote:
My first Doctor was Tennant and it was the episode that probably had the least amount of the Doctor in it. <Goes on to describe "Love & Monsters">

One could argue that the "least amount" award goes to "Mission to the Unknown" in which the Doctor never appears at all.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Earliest memory was Sarah Jane climbing the rocket in Genesis of the Daleks. But if I'm reading WOSU's airing right, I might have been lucky enough to start with Robot.

That said, I do remember the 6PM glued in front of the TV. So, 1979 here.


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Vic Wertz wrote:
deinol wrote:
Still waiting on Moonbase's release to get access to the found Underwater Menace episode.
I believe they're going to be doing animation to complete and release Underwater Menace on its own now.

Sweet! Are they also doing the Crusades? It also only has 2 of 4 episodes.

Of course, I'd love it if they did all of the missing episodes, but I don't know if its cost effective to animate 9 lost episodes for Daleks Master Plan.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

My first experience of Doctor Who was watching it on PBS. So for me it was Tom Baker. I do remember however, Troughton putting in an appearance at a New Jersey Network broadcast of a Colin Baker episode. He was always very engaging and fun to see.


My first was Tom Baker in Deadly Assassin on pbs and I was 7ish. My dad and I would watch Doctor Who together after that which is the only sci fi show I think he has ever watched. It may just have been something he was willing to watch because I liked it so much.

I have watched pretty much every episode from the 4th doctor on, and some of the third. This year after watching the BBC America specials I have decided to try and watch as much of the first three doctors as I can and have watched 3 full stories of the first doctor and 2 of the second.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

deinol wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:
deinol wrote:
Still waiting on Moonbase's release to get access to the found Underwater Menace episode.
I believe they're going to be doing animation to complete and release Underwater Menace on its own now.
Sweet! Are they also doing the Crusades? It also only has 2 of 4 episodes.

A while back, they announced that any story which was at least half complete would be a candidate for animation. At the time, there were 7 such stories, but the recovery of 4 missing episodes of Web of Fear has expanded that list to 8 stories. However, after the 6th animated release was anounced, they said they weren't planning any more.

Released:
The Invasion (missing 2 of 8 episodes)
The Reign of Terror (missing 2 of 6)
The Ice Warriors (missing 2 of 6)
The Tenth Planet (missing 1 of 4)

Due in early 2014:
The Moonbase (missing 2 of 4)
The Underwater Menace (missing 2 of 4)

Not scheduled for animation:
The Crusade (missing 2 of 4)
Web of Fear (missing 1 of 6)

Web of Fear will be released on DVD in early 2014, but it's going to have a telesnap reconstruction of the missing episode instead of animation. The Crusade isn't currently scheduled for a standalone release—the 2 surviving episodes, as well as the audio from the 2 missing episodes, can be found in the Lost in Time set.


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Vic Wertz wrote:
Web of Fear will be released on DVD in early 2014, but it's going to have a telesnap reconstruction of the missing episode instead of animation. The Crusade isn't currently scheduled for a standalone release—the 2 surviving episodes, as well as the audio from the 2 missing episodes, can be found in the Lost in Time set.

I have the Lost in Time set, and Web of Fear via iTunes (I couldn't wait), but I would buy either again with animation. Hopefully they change their mind later.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

My very first was "the Green Death" although what I remembered from the first viewing was largely the giant maggots. I was about 4 at the time (it was 1980, PBS was still showing episodes a couple years old).

The episode that got me hooked to Doctor Who, however, was "Kinda," which I saw around the age of 12. The Mara was the first monster who ever frightened me--not because of its looks (papier mache snake not really terrifying), but because of its "seduction" of Tegan and the general headtrippyness of the situation.


For me, it was defintely Tom Baker, on PBS. They syndicated it nightly on weeknights from 5:00 to 5:30. I was probably 10 or 11 when I happened to come across an episode while flipping channels on the living room TV (while my mom was making dinner). This would have been circa 1980. I distinctly remember stopping and watching when I found a show where soldiers were fighting some kind of giant robot with laser guns. At first, I thought I was catching a Japanese giant monster movie, like they showed on the Saturday afternoon "Creature Double Feature" on one of the UHF channels.

But I quickly realized that this was something different: 1) the special effects were WORSE; 2) The dialogue wasn't dubbed-- and all the characters had English accents; and 3) This was a PBS channel, where they show a lot of British TV.

I'd been used to flipping channels (we didn't call it "channel surfing") to find interesting stuff, and was already a science fiction fan. I found reruns of TV shows like Star Trek, Space: 1999, Lost In Space, U.F.O., The Twilight Zone, and The Invaders. These were espcecially common on the UHF channels that didn't offer much (if any) original programming.

Anyway, I digress. The episode, of course, was from the 4-episode serial "I, Robot" starring Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor. I'd luckily happened to catch a new cycle of the Tom Baker Doctor Who serials, as "I, Robot" was the first serial of the Tom Baker run. I watched a 25-minute episode of Doctor Who at 5:00 just about every night for years.

Wow, that really brought me back for a while!


My first (that I remember) is The Three Doctors putting Jon Pertwee on the 'My Doctor' list. Although I was born 1 hour and 10 minutes after the broadcast of episode 6 of The Ice Warriors so in a sense Pat Troughton was my first Doctor.

@Haladir: Issac Asimov would be the first to mention that the actual title of that adventure was Robot. The Action Man tank was the low point (alright, so was the 'giant robot' bit and the Liz Sladen doll) but otherwise represented a step up for effects (ie K-1 was actually made of metal). for a masterclass of a letdown watch Invasion of the Dinosaurs!

Cheers
Mark


It was either a late Pertwee or early Tom Baker episode - either way Sarah Jane was his companion. Not sure what years those were first being run near Philadelphia but I saw them on WHYY Channel 12. This must have been the late 70s/early 80s when I was about 9-11.


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Tom Baker on PBS in the 80's.

I do remember that I'd read about Doctor Who in Starlog magazine long before I'd seen it, so when I caught the last part of an episode (don't remember which one it was) I remember thinking, "so this is what they were talking about".

And Leela is still my favorite companion, followed by Ace.


Tom Baker, Destiny of the Daleks....1979ish? I remember the companion was...Romana?...something like that. Too long ago for my memory to effectively remember correctly.


After thinking about it a bit I've got no idea. I know that in the early 80's tv here in NZ regularly replayed Doctor Who episodes in the morning and the first episode that I remember was a Jon Pertwee episode with Daleks. But I'd been watching the episodes earlier without really understanding them since I was too young, so not sure if the 3rd doctor was actually the first I saw.

I do recall being dimly aware that the Doctor I was watching in the mornings wasn't the current Doctor and the current one was the funny fellow in the cricket jumper. But the new episodes were on a bit late so I wasn't watching those very much.

Sovereign Court Contributor

The first Doctor I saw was Tom Baker. I'm pretty sure it was Masque of Mandragora, which puts it about 1984 (I saw it in New Jersey). I still have a soft spot for the episode.

Liberty's Edge

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Definitely The Ark in Space was my first. I watched it on PBS. I was hooked (and deeply smitten with Elisabeth Sladen).


Adric died, man. Adric died!

My local CBS station showed Tom Baker as The Doctor on saturday afternoon. OMG, that junk was terrifying. Two or three years later, the BBC licensed Dr Who to PBS, and I would watch it on weekday afternoons, if I got home from school in time.

Years later I saw the Christopher Eccleston reboot, and was all, "Wow, production values have increased a lot."


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Hitdice wrote:

Adric died, man. Adric died!

"And there was much rejoicing."


The 10th Doctor as he explored the "forest of the dead" (silence in the library), I think, some years ago.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Hitdice wrote:

Adric died, man. Adric died!

My local CBS station showed Tom Baker as The Doctor on saturday afternoon. OMG, that junk was terrifying. Two or three years later, the BBC licensed Dr Who to PBS, and I would watch it on weekday afternoons, if I got home from school in time.

Years later I saw the Christopher Eccleston reboot, and was all, "Wow, production values have increased a lot."

I remember that too. It was a shock, because for those of us starting with Tom Baker, we'd never lost a companion before.

Shadow Lodge

Curse of Fenric with Slyvester Mccoy on PBS. I fell in love with Sophie Aldred (and still love her). I grew up in the mountains near Denver and the TV reception was horrible so we didn't get good reception. I didn't catch it til the very end watching it in college.


I haven't seen Doctor Who before. Is there a particular season to start watching it?


Andru Watkins wrote:
I haven't seen Doctor Who before. Is there a particular season to start watching it?

Now there's a tough question! Doctor Who is so vast. It's gone through format change after format change while still remaining the same show. continutity is more of a guideline than a rule - if only because the production team changes every few years. I guess if you're not from the UK (to be British and not having seen, or know about Doctor Who is like saying you've never had a cup of tea) and you're looking for a 'Season box set' then I'd start with the 2005/Christopher Eccleston series - the one that relaunched the series for the 21st century. And then dip into the huge universe that is pre-2005 Doctor Who with some reccomended stories. Pre-2005 Doctor Who DVDs are sold as 4 or 6 part adventures, each one a mini-serial in it's own right, several of which are strung together to make a 'season'. They're not normally packaged as a whole set. I could reel off some favourites but I don't want to swamp you with stuff.

Cheers
Mark


Mark Norfolk wrote:
I guess if you're not from the UK (to be British and not having seen, or know about Doctor Who is like saying you've never had a cup of tea) and you're looking for a 'Season box set' then I'd start with the 2005/Christopher Eccleston series - the one that relaunched the series for the 21st century.

Just to throw it out there (more to the existing fans than people wanting to look into it, I guess) - Amazon UK have the Season 1-4 DVD boxed set (23 discs, all the Nine and Ten episodes other than the specials) at a very nice price right now. Got a feeling they're clearing them because of the 1-7 Blu-ray set that just came out.


You can also get most of them from Netflix and other rental/streaming sources if you just want to watch some to try them out.


Andru Watkins wrote:
I haven't seen Doctor Who before. Is there a particular season to start watching it?

If you start with "New Who" (Christopher Eccleston) and can stream individual episodes, start with the pilot. It is really goofy, but introduces the main characters very well. Then skip to episode 6, 'Dalek' as well as the two-parter 'The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances'. Those three are the best of the season. Episodes 3-5 are quite bad; you can always watch them later.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

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Elder moment.

Saturday we're sitting around talking about Dr. Who before the game. Ask one of the players (who's a Matt Smith fan) if she liked any of the older doctors.

"Well, yeah, my husband is a big David Tennant fan, and I liked Eccleston..."

Violence at PFS games is frowned on, right? ;-)


2005 "Rose" was my first real episode of Dr Who. And it cemented Rose as one of my favorite companions.

Before that I had seen a random disjointed episode or more of the older ones... But since those were often part of a multi part that I was only seeing one fragment of then they meant little to me.

Liberty's Edge

Starfinder Superscriber

My first Doctor was kind of weird. I never saw the old series (i.e. pre-Eccleston reboot). However, a couple of British fiends of my parents gave me a novelization when I was age 9 or 10; this would have been 1977-1978. (I don't remember the title, but it had a big T-rex on the cover.) After reading that, I found a bunch of novelizations at the library, and read a lot of them too. Most of the novels I read had the Tom Baker doctor, although I did read at least one that had Pewtree. Most of the novels I read had Sarah Jane Smith as the companion.

Only once or twice -- one time when visiting my grandmother, who had cable -- did I actually see an episode, and even then it wasn't the whole episode. So, to me, Doctor Who was for a long time a reading experience, not a watching experience.

As far as actually watching it, though, I started with Christopher Eccleston and Rose-- just a year or two ago. (We were working our way through the DVDs, and are now caught up.)


rknop wrote:

My first Doctor was kind of weird. I never saw the old series (i.e. pre-Eccleston reboot). However, a couple of British fiends of my parents gave me a novelization when I was age 9 or 10; this would have been 1977-1978. (I don't remember the title, but it had a big T-rex on the cover.) After reading that, I found a bunch of novelizations at the library, and read a lot of them too. Most of the novels I read had the Tom Baker doctor, although I did read at least one that had Pewtree. Most of the novels I read had Sarah Jane Smith as the companion.

Only once or twice -- one time when visiting my grandmother, who had cable -- did I actually see an episode, and even then it wasn't the whole episode. So, to me, Doctor Who was for a long time a reading experience, not a watching experience.

As far as actually watching it, though, I started with Christopher Eccleston and Rose-- just a year or two ago. (We were working our way through the DVDs, and are now caught up.)

You're not caught up. You've got 30+ years of catching up still to do. :)

Sure, some of it's missing and a lot of it's pretty dated or just plain bad, but there are gems throughout and things to love about all the Doctors.


My first episode was Eccleston's Aliens of London in 2005.

My partner's first was Smith's The Eleventh Hour this year. I wanted her to watch the Amy & Rory story with me and it worked. She's devoured the rest of the series muliple times since.

Our Christmas plans now include watching the Christmas special on Boxing Day

Liberty's Edge

Starfinder Superscriber
thejeff wrote:
Sure, some of it's missing and a lot of it's pretty dated or just plain bad, but there are gems throughout and things to love about all the Doctors.

Can you recommend a good guide out there that points to which of the old stories are the good ones to look for, if one wants to sample but not be completist?


Mine was Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman!


As others have said, my first encounter with the show was with the Tom Baker episodes on PBS in the 80s. But for some reason, Peter Davison became my Doctor (also via PBS). Used to have a small poster of him standing in front of the Tardis, celery and all. Must've gotten it at a comic book convention or something.

The Baker episodes must have had some effect on me, though. Davison was my favorite Doctor, but Sarah Jane Smith was my favorite companion.


My first ever Doctor Who memory is of Tom Baker clinging to the side of a pit (or a well?) of some kind, with various alien monsters up above. Or possibly down below. Or maybe both. I keep meaning to find out which episode that was. It would have been during the original BBC run, most likely between 1978 and 1980.

I'm not ashamed to say that at that point the six-or-seven year old me ran and hid. I didn't watch again until his regeneration scene.

Of course, a few years later it was all kinda funny, seeing the obvious rubber costumes that used to freak me out so much, and I was able to start watching reruns. From the originals, I have a particular liking for the Third Doctor's UNIT-era stories.

EDIT: Pretty sure it must have been The Creature From The Pit!

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