How important is Doctor Who to you?

I'd be much worse off without the classic series. I've lost count of how many times Who has gotten me out of a difficult place and provided me with happiness, inspiration and comfort. I'm a far more imaginative person as a result of watching the show.

It was important to me in phases.

When I was 11 and first discovered the show during the 1993 anniversary repeats, it became majorly important to me. I devoured a lot of novelizations and videos for the best part of a year. Until gradually my concerned mum gravitated me more toward Red Dwarf, and that took over as my major obsession during my teens. I remember by 13 not bothering much with Doctor Who.

Then When I was 14 the TV Movie came out and that made me curious to get back into the show suddenly for the rest of that year, although BBC Enterprises had stupidly decided to delete many of the old video releases from stock, so I had very rum options of what to explore or treasure. So in the end that interest faded again. The hype leading up to Star Trek: First Contact saw Star Trek become my new big obsession.

Then aged 17 I finally discovered a second hand copy of Genesis of the Daleks, and from there got majorly back into the show again, plus I'd discovered a local Who fan club who were initially generous enough to lend or pirate me the stories I hadn't seen yet. I think the more I did, the more I formed the impression that actually there was a Hinchcliffe golden age, but the stuff surrounding it wasn't quite as good or hadn't quite stood the test of time, aside from highlights like Evil of the Daleks, Inferno, Revelation of the Daleks.

I even attended my first convention at 18.

And I think that lasted until I was 19. I think that year I was getting more heavily into music (I think the last new experience of Doctor who I'd had was listening to The Mutant Phase, and I think maybe I was left not caring as much after that).

Then when I was 22 (by which point I was far more of a J-horror fan) I heard someone at my group (which I only attended once in a blue moon now) recommend Jubilee to me, and it seemed to chime with my politics back then, so that sparked my interest again. But still, just like at 18 I didn't get majorly into the audios on the back of it because it seemed much like the Videos, that it was pot-luck whether I was going to get an exceptional great one or a Leisure Hive, Resurrection of the Daleks or Warriors of the Deep that left me wondering why I was bothering being a fan. However I was lucky enough to discover Talons on DVD finally, and instantly fell in love with it.

The following year the New Series happened, and it became majorly important to me from then on. I realized there was still a lot of catch-up viewing I needed to do. My relationship with New Who was complicated of course and full of frustrating kicks to the face like Aliens of London, The Idiot's Lantern, Love & Monsters.

And unfortunately it was around this time I first really encountered the kind of bullying in online fandom that was going on toward those voicing any complaints with the new show. It's like a sinister witch hunt was going on in fandom for the "too fannish" that I didn't even understand. That left me a bit scarred to this day. And maybe is one reason I've never been quite at peace with the show since.

By 2007 I'd largely written off the New Series, and the post-Tom Baker era in general, and instead got majorly into the audios. I spent the next five years essentially endeavoring to listen to an audio a day. To my mind nothing else could compare to that immersive experience. I thought next to Japanese cinema and some of the better anime shows (Evangelion, Dirty Pair), it was the pinnacle of intelligent storytelling.

Then come 2013, I think I just found myself struggling for the time to keep up with the audios. Quite frankly I think Rings of Akhaten and Name of the Doctor were the last times I remember being really, genuinely blown away by the show. Then the following year, by the time Death in Heaven happened, I think that was the death of my interest, and I was left looking for something new to care about.

So I'd say it's been majorly important to me in phases. But it depends whether I've been exposed to the great stuff or the grot. I still think as a TV show it was only really important up until City of Death,  but it's given birth to a lot of rich audio material since then. It's gotten me through some dark times, but sadly it's gotten me into some painful experiences with fans too.

Doctor Who got me through some tough times as a kid and an adult but this past year, I've felt my interest zigzag quite a bit.

Watching it as a kid in the 70s though helped inspire my writing and art.

I go up and down with it, and it's certainly not as important as it was in the late 80s through to the mid 90s, but yeah, it still matters to me. It's been in my life for over 30 years, since I was 11 years old. It's just part of who I am now.
I try to avoid fandom outside of here and PM, mind.

Been a fan since literally before I can remember. Some of my earliest memores are playing with Dalek toys. It helped to shape my love of sci fi and fantasy.

burrunjor wrote:Some of my earliest memores are playing with Dalek toys.

Oh? Tell us more...

Like most, it has waxed and waned over the years.
I watched the series every week from 1970 to '77. Then when I was about 14, Iet it go and only saw the occasional episode.
Sometime around 1987 I rediscovered it through the BBC videos, and thereby discovered 60s Who through that as well. But I didn't bother with anything after 1977.
I was never defined by having this collection of videos, it was just side-interest and an indulgence in nostalgia. Much as it is now.
It was only when first went online in 2002 that I became aware of 'fandom'. I joined the old Beeb boards and found it was fun to share memories and talk about Who. When people talked about post '77 stories that I'd never seen I became curious and wanted to be able to join in the discussions, so I resolved to see every story and give it a fair go.
It was through online fandom that I discovered Big Finish, and other spin-offs. I gradually fell out of love with Big Finish some time around No.50, which is ages ago now, but I kept up with some of the spin-offs, as I found I enjoyed many of them more than the main range.
More recently I've enjoyed the Target audio books, but I tend to just cherry pick the ones l'm interested in.
I've told my New Who story on other threads so no need to go into that again, but it's kind of ironic that it's online fandom that makes me curious about carrying on from where I gave up on it, which I may yet do, but it's a pretty low priority.
These days I have my dvd/Blu-Ray collection, but it's just basically all the ones I like. So most of the 60s, then everything from 70 to 77, after which it's just cherry picking. I have saved downloads of the rest, including NuWho.
Aside from that I have an iPod full of Big Finish and Target audio books. I have my prized Radio Times 10th Anniversary Special, which I bought from Paddington Station in 1973, and I have the Doctor Who: The Seventies book.
And that is the full extent of everything these days.
Is it important to me? Of course. I've followed the series since I was 6, on and off. And I wouldn't have all dvds and Blu-Rays were it not important to me. But it's just a part of who I am. I don't define myself by it, but I'm not ashamed of it either and will freely talk about it with anyone in my real life.

Ronnie wrote:Like most, it has waxed and waned over the years.
I watched the series every week from 1970 to '77. Then when I was about 14, Iet it go and only saw the occasional episode.

I have to say I know a lot of fans felt the same way you did about the post-1977 period (many tend to see Invasion of Time as their cut-off point). But I think if I'd grown up on the Hinchcliffe era of the show, I'd have felt some compulsion to stick with it for some time after, if for no other reason than just to see some kind of resolution to the loose threads and unresolved doomsday implications of Genesis. That'd always been the hook for me, so I think I probably would've been a die-hard until at least City of Death.

The one story I could've seen making me give up on the show was The Leisure Hive.

True, but i was already 12 by the time the Hinchcliffe era started and I think a lot of it was just about getting to the age of 14 going on 15 and just starting to find it a bit too childish at that age. As I've rambled about on other threads, there was a gradual change in tone that started at S15 and grew more pronounced over S16 and 17, and if you're hitting your mid teens at that point and starting get interested in other things as you move towards adulthood, then I think the two things working simultaneously was enough for me to feel that I'd grown away from the programme at that point.

For what it's worth, I've read that a lot of first generation fans who grew up with it from 1963 to '70 didn't like the Pertwee era and so forth. Verity Lambert included. Lol

Ronnie wrote:For what it's worth, I've read that a lot of first generation fans who grew up with it from 1963 to '70 didn't like the Pertwee era and so forth. Verity Lambert included. Lol

Didn’t she describe Pertwee and his era as being “too establishment”? As much as I respect Lambert (and she was brilliant by all accounts), I don’t buy the argument that Pertwee’s Doctor, nor his era, was establishment. Pertwee is frequently seen butting heads with figures of authoritarianism and establishment throughout many of his stories (The Silurians, The Ambassadors Of Death, Inferno, Terror of the Autons, The Mind Of Evil, The Claws Of Axos, Colony In Space, The Sea Devils, The Mutants, The Green Death etc), more so than any other incarnation. He might have worked with Earth authorities, and trusted the Brigadier as a loyal friend to the end (even after blowing up the Silurian base, The Doctor never perceives the Brigadier as a bad person due to his militaristic tendencies- he was just someone capable of seeing the bigger picture), but never truly adhered to the mundane mechanisms of the establishment at any stage.

Absolutely agree, but I can see why people who grew up on Hartnell and Troughton, or indeed Verity herself might feel that way.
From their point of view, they've suddenly got a more energetic, James Bond-Ish Doctor who's now banished to Earth, and to all intents and purposes being employed by UNIT, who however begrudgingly, often had to answer to someone from Whitehall. It definitely changed the dynamic of the show in some ways, and I can see why some people wouldn't take to it.
But yes, when you scratch beneath how things might, obviously the Doctor is clearly not an establishment man.

I felt myself drifting away from it for a few months, but now I'm REALLY into it again. I've finished my uni assignment so I'm going to spend the majority of the week relaxing on the sofa and watching classic who. The Aztecs is first on my list.