Season 11 - Remember The First Time?

[Rob McCow]

So where were you when you first saw the Season 11 stories? Indeed, have you seen them all? Did you catch them at the time of broadcast, or were you not even born yet?

Here's some reminders of when the videos and DVDs were released:

The Time Warrior
VHS - 5 June 1989
DVD - 3 September 2007

The Invasion of The Dinosaurs
VHS - 20 October 2003
DVD - 2012?

Death To The Daleks
VHS - ? July 1987
DVD - 2012?

The Monster of Peladon
VHS - 27 December 1995
DVD - 18 January 2010

Planet of The Spiders
VHS - 2 April 1991
DVD - 18 April 2011

Incidentally, Death To The Daleks is doing well, having first been released on VHS twenty-four years ago, but still awaiting a DVD release!

Of course, you might have caught these stories on UK Gold, BSB or by other means.

So where were you when you first caught a slice of Season 11 action?

[Andrew Curnow]

Ah, the heady buzz of nostalgia...

First up for me was Death to the Daleks, which was the first video I got on release - I think at the time it was the biggest selling Who by a long chalk, wasn't Pertwee at a Forbidden Planet launch or something? It came in the post (from John Fitton of course) the same day as Pyramids of Mars, during the Summer hols - I watched Death first, and then Pyramids, and definitely preferred the former. It was also, of course, the first time I'd seen the season 11 title sequence, which I really liked.

Then The Time Warrior, which I bought with some birthday money in the summer of 1989 - other than the surprise of finding that Ed Stewpot Stewart isn't actually in it, I really enjoyed it. My memory at the time is that it was a sort of 'overlooked' story - not quite a famous classic, but just a gorgeous little tale.

Then Planet of the Spiders, which I bought with my first dole cheque in 1991 - I planned to eke it out at an episode a day, but was so gripped by part 1 that I polished the whole thing off in a day.

Then it was Monster of Peladon - I bought that from Truro's Menzies in, I think, 1996. Mainly because it was there, rather than from a huge rush of excitement at the chance to watch it. Mind you, I was staying at Mum & Dad's at the time, and Mum really enjoyed it (there's no accounting for taste)!

And finally Invasion of the Dinosaurs, which I recorded off UK Gold in... maybe 2000, or 2001? Having always enjoyed the book, I was pleased to find that T-Rex aside, the TV version is darned good too!

So there we go!

[Dino]

The Time Warrior
VHS - 5 June 1989

There was another video released at the time. I remember looking at the advert for ages. Was it the Dead Planet double pack or Ark In Space? Ark In Space wasn't it. I remember staring at the paper in a caravan. being told they wouldn't come out of the magazine if I stared hard enough!

The Invasion of The Dinosaurs
VHS - 20 October 2003
DVD - 2012?

UK Gold Omnibus late 90's I'm afraid. I was out of the Who loop in 2003.*ahem Yeah. Moving on...

Death To The Daleks
VHS - ? July 1987

This was one of the first Dr Who videos I got. It was a birthday present I discovered and then watched in fast forward one night.
Roll on 2012 just for this!

The Monster of Peladon

It just seemed to bring stuff back to square one. I had got out of the habit of by Dr Who videos around 1995.

Planet of The Spiders
VHS - 2 April 1991

I associate this with leaving school. My friend had it. I've no excuse not to get it on DVD. I can see the points it's detractors might say of it, but everything is weighed by a charm.

[J.R. Southall]

I first saw all of these in my front room in Hollinsend Road in Sheffield. I was five. Death to the Daleks is the one that sticks out clearest in my memory, closely followed by Planet of the Spiders - and an explanation from my Dad regarding what was about to happen to the Doctor.

[Stuart Wallis]

Very vague memories of seeing Spiders on first broadcast; didn't get the Peladon video, the DVD for that story still sitting on my to-see pile; the rest, I don't recall until the video releases.

[SiHart]

I do remember where I saw Season 11 for the first time....

In order of watching...

Death to the Daleks- just after Christmas 1987. For some reason I'd spent a week of the holidays going to work with my dad, and his boss had very kindly given me £20 for doing so (which at 12 was a bit of a fortune!), and so i spent some of it buying this video. I was astounded to see the title sequence for the first time. Although i knew it had a different one to the standard Pertwee titles, I was expecting the shafts of light at the start and loved it instantly!

The Time Warrior- would have been the Saturday after it came out in 1989. Bought with my hard earned paper round money in Our Price Video in Bracknell I suspect. I remember rushing home from town to watch it on a boring Saturday afternoon and rather liking it.

Planet of the Spiders- early 1990. One of the huge batch of stories we got from a friend with nth generation copies on betamax. The quality was rubbish and this coloured my reaction to the story for many years I think. Bit hard to watch because of the poor quality, but i did it anyway!

Invasion of the Dinosaurs- July 1993, original UK Gold airing. I remember this vividly. It was the week Jurrasic Park was released and there were fabulous trailers on UK Gold proclaiming Jurassic Park's dinos to be inferior to the ones in this story. Part 2 was on on my 18th birthday and i sat to watch it, at just before midnight. happy days!

Monster of Peladon- Aug 1993, UK Gold. Not nearly as exciting as the Dinos broadcast, I nonetheless was pleased to see this one, as it was the last Pertwee story I had to see. Thanks to UK Gold's strange transmission order, this one was shown sometime after Dinos after some stories with Jo!

[Anthony Williams]

In order that I saw them:

The Time Warrior - This was actually the first Doctor Who story that I ever saw. It must've been around 1992, when my father brought home three Doctor Who videos (The Time Warrior, The Ark in Space and The Mind Robber, IIRC). I loved it instantly, and it was enough to imprint on 4/5 year old Anthony my longest love (Doctor Who, that is... not June Brown!)

Death to the Daleks - Again, another video early on in my Who-watching. I can't remember when exactly this one got bought for me, but I think it must've been around 1993/1994. I know that I eventually re-bought it in around 2003 so that I could have the unedited version. However, this one I certainly loved, for reasons that I'll post when we get around to it.

The Monster of Peladon - This I first saw on UK Gold in 1995, as a Sunday omnibus. It's not one of my favourites, so it clearly didn't make a huge impact on me in the way that Time Warrior/Death to the Daleks did! Still, I do enjoy this one, but it's just not my favourite of the season.

Planet of the Spiders - It was another four years before I got round to seeing this one. UK Gold repeat in 1999. I'd missed out on getting the video (I eventually tracked it down on eBay in 2005, when I was completing my collection), so it was great to finally see this. And how I enjoyed it, aged 12! After this, I shunned Doctor Who in favour of Star Trek for a couple of years.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - This was one that I continually missed on UK Gold. It wasn't until the video release in 2003 that I finally saw the last story (for me, anyway) of Season 11. And boy was I underwhelmed! I haven't actually watched it since, so it'll be like new when Whitney and I get to it in our marathon...

Ant x

[Larry]

not old enough to have watched season 11, so my first memories of it are all from video I'm pretty sure Death to the Daleks, w as the first one I got as by the time of it's release I'd started working. Time Warrior, stands out because I remember my brother buying it for me for my birthday, in 1989 not knowing that I'd already bought it my self. All the rest I pretty much watched them all for the first time in their order of release.

[duncan]

I saw them all on their first transmission. Bit's a pieces stuck in my memory such as Lynx removing his helmet for then first time, the T-Rex, the chequred floor, Alpha Centuri, the spiders and of course the regen.