So when did YOU first encounter Doctor Who?

[shada pavlova]

So when did YOU first encounter Doctor Who?

That's what I was wondering about today. Because the thing is, once you're hooked on doctor who, you just don't ever look back. At least, I didn't.

Anyway, I'll start the ball rolling.

It must have been at least ten years ago now, my father had taken me to London for a day out, and we got back home and I saw my mother watching the television, and a clip from doctor who came on. I didn't know it at the time, but it was the end of part three from Resurrection of the Daleks.

That was my only exposure to Doctor Who until the start of the 2005 series.

So when was your "first contact"?

[Si Hunt]

I can't remember a time when I didn't watch Doctor Who - from 2 or 3 years old, I used to watch it with my Dad, and I collected books and models from the age of 6 or 7. I quite clearly remember "Logopolis", and I can only have been 3 or 4 when that was on.

Si.

[SiHart]

1979- 4 years old, Destiny of the Daleks.

Si xx

[Antony Cox]

Late 70's for me, but the earliest identifiable story I can remember was The Leisure Hive in 1980 (when I was 8).

[Wayne]

Spearhead From Space - 1970, aged 6.

So many things that scared me & yet i never looked back until the end of S15.

Channing! Channing's cold stare was frightening at age 6. Everything about him wa scary!
The offscreen death yelp of the Seeley's dog.
Mrs Seeley contfronting the Auton: 'I'll blow 'ole in you!"
The Auton's breaking out of the shop windows.
The weird 'breathing' of the Nestene.
The Nestene's tentacles 'smothering' the Doctor. (Hard to believe now, i know)

I can still picture those particular bits in Black & White, as we didn't get a colour telly until Curse of Peladon in 1972.

[Dirk Gently]

I've always watched it. So I'd guess about 1974...ish!

[Anthony Williams]

1992 - aged 4 or 5, with The Time Warrior on VHS!

Ant x

[Si Hunt]

So young!

Si.

[Pip Madeley]

(sort of) 1993 - Dimensions In Time

(properly) 1996 - The TV Movie

[Paul Clement]

1978 with Power of Kroll. I remember the cliffhanger when Kroll's tentacles are breaking into the refinery, mainly. The first story I properly remember was Destiny of the Daleks though.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I've tried to work this out before. My earliest confirmed specific memory was from Snakedance in January 1983 when I was 4. I also quite clearly remember bits of Earthshock and The Visitation, but they were both repeated in the summer of 1983 so I COULD be remembering those. Having said that, my earliest general memory of Doctor Who is of Season 19 - I remember the TARDIS crew from that year even if not any specific stories, so it's possible that I remember The Visitation from the original showing.

Aside from that I also remember seeing the image of Scaroth removing his human mask to reveal his alien face when I was quite young. But that was originally shown when I was only about 10 months old, and even when it was repeated I wasn't quite 2 yet, so I have no idea where that memory comes from

[Andrew Curnow]

The first bit of Who I can ever remember watching is the very end of "The Hand of Fear" - the model shot of the TARDIS leaving Kastria, and the brief film sequence of the TARDIS appearing in (allegedly) Croydon. However, I feel sure I must have been allowed to watch it before then, as I know that the idea of a Gallifrey story next week got me excited, so I must have known what Gallifrey was!!

I would have been 5 at the time, so I guess the answer is that we always watched it - Mum especially watched the show from the very start, so with hindsight I suppose me & bruv were allowed to watch it, because Mum & Dad wanted to!!

[shada pavlova]

I just remembered-I watched The Story of Doctor Who on the 40th anniversary night, as well.

[Carol Baynes]

"Horror of Fang rock" in 1977 or "The Hand of fear" in 1976- I'm still not sure. My memories of "The Hand of fear" could be from a Dr. Who documentary from around the same time. Either way I haven't seen it since then.
Season 15 was the first full season I remember watching as I recall most of the stories from the first time around.

[shada pavlova]

I've got the DVD of BOTH those episodes.

[Stephen Morgan]

1964, the first episode of Dalek Invasion of Earth, when I was just a nine year old. Now, at fifty two years of age, the magic is still with me.

[Larry]

I really don't know when I became a regular watcher but I cetainly have vague memories of watching stories from Tom Bakers first season and only really Pyramids of Mars from his 2nd. I also watched stories from the next few seasons but If I had to put a guess on when I started to regularly watch Doctor Who then I'd say it was the start of season 17.

How ever how and why I started to watch Doctor Who I really couldn't say.

[Ralph]

To be honest I really don't know the answer to this question because it's always been there though like Wayne my first memorable story was Spearhead - at age 6 I was old enough to recognise a quality Doctor

My brother who's older than me watched the Troughton era so clearly the TV was tuned in to the series, maybe I was hiding behind the sofa?

Ah....those were the days when I watched with unbounding enthusiasm and never missed an episode

[Kaybee Bailey]

In 1989 I watched Survival, loved it, and then didn't see any Doctor Who again until Planet of the Daleks came on in the 1993 repeats. Then mum got all the dalek videos she could find (probably about 3 of them) and I watched the TV Movie when it was first broadcast, but it wasn't until we got Sky (1997/98 maybe) that I properly got into it and watched everything.

[Ian Lethbridge-Stewart]

I recall 'Stones of Blood' clearly, but I was well into it by then so sometime before that I suppose - don't know exactly when though!

[Captain Tancredi]

The first clear memory I have is Count Grendel and Madame Lamia being about to decapitate Romana in 'The Androids of Tara', so I would have been 6 at the time, although I can remember Sarah and Leela but not in any specific stories.

[Jonno]

My clear memories kick in from the Christmas 1974 omnibus of Planet of the Spiders, followed one day later by the first part of Robot. I was quite unfazed by the concept of regeneration at the tender age of 5 and a half!

[Chanson]

Allegedly at the age of a few days in 1975. (Genesis of the Daleks) but the first story I clearly remember was the Keeper of Traken.

[Pip Madeley]

Hi Chanson, welcome to PS So you grew up with the Davison era?

[Lissa]

Destiny of the Daleks for me too - specifically Davros's hand moving at the end of episode two. I've been pondering this question a lot recently as the thing I'm still not sure about gets longer and longer.