Do You Remember The First Time?

[Pip Madeley]

The first time you saw Doctor Who. Can you remember it? How old were you? Which episode did you see? Did it turn you into a fan?

Let's talk about the time you lost your Who virginity.

[Martin Penny]

I believe the first thing I saw was the Peter Cushing movies! Funnily enough.

The first proper episode I saw was either 'Genesis of the Daleks' or 'Planet of the Daleks'.

Somehow when I was younger I had gotten the impression that the Daleks in the caverns in 'Planet' were having a party, it was not until many years later I discovered I had been mistaken.

[Jeff]

I remember when I was very young (still watching Sesame Street on PBS) knowing that DW was a show on PBS, and I remember being interested in it and wanting to watch it, but I don't think I did get to watch it regularly, and i don't remember anything specific about any of the episodes... I just remember Tom Baker as the Doctor, and I remember the scarf and the TARDIS. I think I may have seen ep. 1 of Androids of Tara or part of it once back then.

Later I remember seeing a Doctor Who movie on a different channel late one night, and watching the beginning of it, but I was disappointed when it wasn't real Doctor Who, but something else. The odd thing is, my memories don't quite fit either of the two Cushing movies, but then I was still pretty young, probably 10 or 11 I guess. I remember it opening with flying saucers and Daleks.. and I remember it being black and white which must be wrong I'm sure it was Invasion Earth and so I am just misremembering it.

It wasn't until summer 1990 when I was almost 15 that I started watching it properly though. I think Castrovalva was on when I rediscoved that show that I remembered from when I was a small kid and started watching the US PBS omnibus stories every Sunday night. They went through a whole story like that every Sunday always in chronolgical order, and when they reached Survival they started again at Spearhead, which was the earliest they had.. although later on I guess they got some earlier episodes cause I remember they showed An Unearthly Child, The War Machines, and then The War Games once before starting with Spearhead and running through again.

The station stopped showing Doctor Who around 1993 or 1994 I think, cause it was too expensive. But I got to see the stories at least a couple times each before they stopped, and now that I haven't seen them for years and can hardly remember them, it is often like seeing the stories for the first time when they come out on DVD, cause I can remember so few of the details.

[Pip Madeley]

My very first memory of watching Doctor Who was at a party at my uncle's house, in November 1993 (aged 8). Children In Need was on in the background, and I watched 'Dimensions In Time' wearing the 3-D glasses. A few months later, my sister remembers seeing an episode of 'The Green Death' (which was on BBC2 during early 1994) that I watched with her. Then May 1996 and the TV Movie, and the night I became a fan. A few days before I'd bought the Dr Who Movie Special magazine. A few weeks later I got my gran to tape some old Who on UKGold which was showing late at night, which turned out to be 'Death To The Daleks. I went out to buy it on video from HMV for my birthday so I could see the ending, and the rest is history...

[Wayne]

It was 'Spearhead From Space' for me.
To be honest, i can't remember exactly which episode it was, but i definitely remember Mrs Seeley confronting the Auton with the shotgun, & the off-screen squeal of the dog. And of course the shop dummies coming to life! I was 6, & i thought it was quite scary!
Dunno if i'd say it turned me into a fan as such. It was different back because everybody used to watch Dr.Who every Saturday anyway, but i definitely looked forward to it avidly each week!
I suppose you could say i became a fan in 1973, when i bought the 'Radio Times Tenth Anniversary Special', & the first Target books, & starting learning more about the previous 10yrs. But i don't think i barely missed an episode from S7 to the end of S15.

[SiHart]

Sort of. I don't know how much of what I remember is from the repeat in August 1980, but my first Doctor Who was Destiny of the Daleks in 1979. Watching Doctor Who was something that me and my Mum did on our own (for a while anyway), as my younger sister demanded so much attention at all other times. We used to sit together on the old orange settee (it was the late 70s!) and have a cuddle and watch the show.

I remember Destiny very well- the Movellan ship burying itself in the sand, Davros coming back to life... not the Daleks though oddly.

I do know that it caught my imagination very quickly. I recently got lots of stuff from the depths of Mum and Dad's loft. Stuff I hadn't seen for years. There was loads of stuff like this from when i was 4 & 5 (and onwards!)...



Aww!

Si xx

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I actually once made a list of my earliest Doctor Who memories and then dated them to work out how old I was at the time

The winner seems to be a memory of Scarlioni pulling off his mask to reveal his true, green, maggoty self, but I was only eleven months old when it was first shown. It was apparently repeated in August 1980, but even then I will only have been about 1 year and 9 months old. Perhaps it was shown on some clips show or something a while later and I am remembering that?

Apart from that my earliest memories are of the Visitation and Earthshock, but both of these stories were also shown as summer repeats.

So my earliest Doctor Who memory comes from somewhere between September 1979 and August 1982, which is a rather large uncertainty

[Andrew Curnow]

My very first memory of Doctor Who is the TARDIS dematerialising from Kastria right near the end of "The Hand of Fear"; my second memory is of it materialising (allegedly in South Croydon...) a few minutes later. I can't imagine that suddenly my parents decided to let me watch Doctor Who with the final episode of a story, so I have to assume that I'd watched it before - but those brief snatches I clearly remember. Although HST, for years I thought my first memory was the materialisation in South Croydon - it was only when I rewatched the story about five years ago that I realised that the 'TARDIS in snowy landscape' image I remembered from my youth was in fact from the same episode!

I do have a memory of the sense of excitement engendered by 'a Gallifrey story' back in 1976 (ie, The Deadly Assassin) and can vividly remember its 2nd and 3rd cliffhangers from that time, so I obviously knew something about Doctor Who before the finale of "The Hand of Fear" - but that was definitely the first memory of it that I have.

When did I become a fan, as opposed to just a viewer? During season 17, most definitely; I fell out of love briefly early in season 18, but was brought back by "Full Circle" and haven't ever really fallen out of love with it since then.

[Milky Tears]

'Underworld' Part One cliffhanger from 7th January 1978.

It's my third earliest TV memory... behind the news coverage of Elvis dying (August 1977) and Wings doing Mullet Kintyre all over Christmas 1977. Just ahead of Kate Bush freaking me out with 'Wuthering Heights' on TOTP in February 1978!!

I was an anal little gimp (just turned 3 years old) way back then.

[Pip Madeley]

I was an anal little gimp way back then

Who wants to say it?

[Wayne]

I was an anal little gimp way (just turned 3) back then.

And then you just got taller?

[Larry]

Ah there is some thing very nostalgic for those of us who started watching Doctor Who back in the 1970's Saturday tea time cold winters nights, the news, followed by Grandstand's Final score and then Basil Brush or some other childrens program and then Doctor Who.

I have to be honest and say I really have no idea exactly when I started to regularly watch Doctor Who, or even the the first story I watched in it's entirety all I do have is vague memories of snippets from season 12. Things like the Whirren falling out of the cupboard, the Sontaron, deflating and Tom, emerging from the incubator room with a Kaled mutant around his neck plus Davros getting exterminated. These are certainly the stand out moments that I can remember and it's pretty much like that for most of Tom's era right up untill at least season 17 .

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Well I have many memories of the original Tom Baker title sequence - to me it felt like Doctor Who was on every Saturday (with Tom Baker and that title sequence) for about 15 years!!! I clearly remember shining a torch against the wall and then moving further away from the wall, thinking that the expanding circular pattern was similar to that title sequence. I remember running about the house with my two younger brothers pretending to be Daleks. I also remember pretending to be K9 - and my brother pretending to be like a baby K9 called HP (don't ask - I've no idea where that came from - let alone the thought of how do you get a baby K9)!!!
As far as actual memories of the show I can't recall specifically anything before Romana and K9 (I do have a memory of Tom Baker being electricuted but I think was from a repeat of 'Genesis of the Daleks', rather than me remembering it from first time round).
My earliest actual memory of sitting down and watching a story was 'Stones of Blood' - and the stones smashing into the house. Stangely enough even though that was a Mary Tamm story I can only ever remember Lalla Ward as Romana.
So I guess that's Season 16 as my proper earliest memory then.
My favourite memory is how excited I was at seeing the trailer to the Leisure Hive a couple of years later - even though I don't have a copy of it I still remember that trailer really well. I never knew back then that it would become my favourite ever season of Doctor Who. It was also at that point that my Mum bought me the Doctor Who annual which was my first bit of merchadice from the show (she bought it because I had a good review at parent's evening) and that was when I officially became a fan - I'm sure my Mum has always regretted buying me that annual

[SiHart]

My favourite memory is how excited I was at seeing the trailer to the Leisure Hive a couple of years later - even though I don't have a copy of it I still remember that trailer really well. I never knew back then that it would become my favourite ever season of Doctor Who.

Same here! I can vividly remember that trailer, and just how excited I was that Doctor Who was going to be back on TV! I was really disappointed that they didn't put it on the DVD. I think that was the moment I really and truly fell in love with the show!
And of course, Andrew will have more memories of the show than I do, since he is slightly older than I am!

Si xx

[Thasc]

I can very vaguely remember the last episode of Planet Of The Spiders. The first story I can really remember in it's entirety is Robot which was originally transmitted on my 6th birthday, so for that reason it holds a special place in my heart and is wonderfully nostalgic

[Jon Masters]

Well, the memory probably cheats, but my first bits of DW that I can remember are
- the Gel guards from Three Doctors
- the Drashigs bursting through the marsh and the Miniscope in Carnival
- nothing from Frontier in Space
- the Dalek being pushed into the ice pool in Planet
- the 'maggot punting' scene from Green Death
The first story I can recall clearly in detail is Time Warrior, which would make me just under 6. Strangely I can't recall anything about Monster of Peladon (if only that were true now )
Like Wayne, it was the Radio Times special that turned me into a fan - I remember spending hours pouring over it and dreaming of building my own Dalek.

[Wayne]

I can very vaguely remember the last episode of Planet Of The Spiders. The first story I can really remember in it's entirety is Robot which was originally transmitted on my 6th birthday, so for that reason it holds a special place in my heart and is wonderfully nostalgic

I can remember feeling rather sad when Jon faded into Tom at the end 'Planet of the Spiders'.
But it didn't take me long to accept Tom. I think it was by the 2nd ep of 'Robot'.

Like Wayne, it was the Radio Times special that turned me into a fan - I remember spending hours pouring over it and dreaming of building my own Dalek.

I never did build that Dalek!

[Milky Tears]

I can remember feeling rather sad when Jon faded into Tom at the end 'Planet of the Spiders'.

My mum claims that I was "dancing in the womb" at the end of 'Planet of the Spiders'...

[Perry Vale]

It was 'Spearhead From Space' for me.

Me too, although it must have been the 1971 repeat I think. Then I remember watching S9 onwards.

[Wayne]

@James

[Thasc]

Me too, although it must have been the 1971 repeat I think. Then I remember watching S9 onwards.

Gosh you lucky thing I wish I could have remembered seeing any of the Delgado Master stories when they were originally broadcast

[Antony Cox]

Si are you sure you didnt do that drawing on your 30th birthday after a few too many beers?

I cant remember when I actually first sat down and watched Doctor Who, but I vividly remember watching the Tom Baker time tunnel sequence in the late seventies and my sister frightening me by telling me that the Doctor lived in the tunnel. (Ironically she would very definitely not frighten me years later when playing the Rani in our fan-video story!).

My first memory of watching a story on its original transmission that I can actually name is the opening sequence of The Leisure Hive. I cant honestly say that was the precise moment that I became a fan, but Season 18 certainly increased my interest in the series, though my memories of watching the series after that are patchy up until TOATL. Really I ought to thank my very good long-time friend Andrew for turning me into a real Doctor Who fan when we watched some of his BBC videos together at his house around 1987. The rest is history, and there has been so, so much of it since then.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

Really I ought to thank my very good long-time friend Andrew for turning me into a real Doctor Who fan when we watched some of his BBC videos together at his house around 1987. The rest is history, and there has been so, so much of it since then.

That's it, blame me!!!
Can I help it if I influence what TV you like???

As for Mr Hart, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the comment about me being slightly older than you - I only just resisted making a comment about your age in my last post on this thread.
Now how could you remember that Season 18 trailer if, as you told me recently, you were born in 1984????
1984? can you believe the cheek of the man??

[SiHart]

As for Mr Hart, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist the comment about me being slightly older than you - I only just resisted making a comment about your age in my last post on this thread.
Now how could you remember that Season 18 trailer if, as you told me recently, you were born in 1984????
1984? can you believe the cheek of the man??

I really meant 1985

Well it was worth a try!

Si xx

[Thasc]

I really meant 1985

Well it was worth a try!

Si xx

You whippersnapper you