Why do we love Doctor Who so much?

[SiHart]

What is it about Doctor Who that we love so much? I mean, here we all grown adults talking about this silly old show still, all these years since we first started watching it.

What do you love most about Doctor Who?

[Dirk Gently]

As a child it was the escapism & the thought that one day he might come & take me away from all the crud I was going through (I never enjoyed school). As an adult there is a strong nostalgia for simpler days being at home with my family watching this on a Saturday evening.
Today...mainly habit I suppose.

[Nyder]

When something grabs your imagination so strongly as a child, it tends to stay with you, particularly if that something is still around and is just as good now.

The inventiveness, the stories, the sights, the sounds.

Happy Birthday Doctor Who :-)

[Rob McCow]

There are many, many reasons. The main one for me is probably that I've built a fantastic life off the back of it. I've met loads of wonderful people, I've had the chance to do things I wouldn't have done otherwise and of course there's Mr Hart.

As for the show itself? It continues to be a delight after 50 years, whether as TV, book or audio. We've even created our own adventures, of which we can all be immensely proud.

It's the perfect story-telling device, lead by a character whom we can all aspire to be. Wouldn't you want to be a bit more like the Doctor? Wouldn't it be fabulous to roam the Universe, winning battles and putting everything to right?

'He's never cruel, and he's never cowardly.'
'I suppose what sums up the Doctor, really, is an essential belief in the ‘rightness’ of things. And if things aren't right he feels compelled to do something about it. And right doesn't always necessarily mean beautiful, or happy or pretty, but RIGHT — it's got to be right.'

[Andrew Curnow]

For all this 'the companion is our identification figure' I think the answer is the Doctor - in childhood days when it would never occur to me to criticise the plot, or assess the direction, my focus I'm sure was the Doctor, who he was, what he did, what he said. A funny, eccentric, unthreatening, warm, unique man; unpredictable, kind, brilliant, heroic, full of surprises. I guess that is what I would have liked to be, as a kid watching Tom Baker - it's why we used to dress up in the very early 80s, me and bruv, as imaginary 9th & 10th Doctors (as it turns out, neither of us got it right); why Gran knitted us great long scarves; why my brother always wanted Dad's old tyre pressure gauge to 'use' as a sonic screwdriver.

And maybe, more than that it's "First Love" territory too - I can't hold a marker pen, or see the numbers '953' together, or see the Eiffel Tower, or hear the names of certain Underground Tube Stations, or hear the lathe at work that screams into action just like the scream into the Baker end titles, or a hundred other 'irrelevancies' without instantly thinking of Who & of a happy time. Even yesterday when we ran out of teabags at work ("No tea, Harry") or when my bill at Waitrose was 1979, it made me smile.

Maybe if we'd never watched Doctor Who as kids, I'd be now posting something similar about Casualty in 2016 when it reaches 30 years - but it was Who, and somehow I don't think any other show could have that same effect, because it's "far more than just another TV show". As a kid it was the TV show and the books; later 'and the comic' was added to the mix; then 'and the videos/DVDs'; and then the wave of original novels in the 90s (not all of them great, but just like the TV show when they were good they were extraordinary); and then the audio explosion of Big Finish; and then perhaps most importantly of all nowadays 'and the online community' - not nutters, but genuinely warm friendly interesting people who share, amongst other things, a particular passion for an extraordinary 'TV show and...'

Though maybe, however much I try to analyse it, maybe it's just... because I just love it, you know?

[SiHart]

I think because it captures your imagination when you're young and sends it spinning off into other worlds and times, constantly expanding your horizons.

For me, Doctor Who was something that was full of the most amazing images. Things i couldn't see anywhere else- men who's faces could be pulled off to see a monster beneath, cobwebbed figures coming back to life, a man who's head could detach from his body and still keep on talking. Things that were frightening and wonderful, but it was all OK because the Doctor was there and my Mum was beside me on the sofa.

Then as I grew up, it led to making friends, sharing our love of the show together. There are so many people who are very good friends of mine that I've made simply through our mutual love of Doctor Who. I met Steve who is the love of my life just because we had this very forum to bring us together. There aren't many shows that can inspire that kind of thing- people coming together just because of their fear of the Daleks... no hang on that's not right...

We might argue about it, we might disagree, but ultimately we all love this silly old show to bits and isn't that the wonderful thing- what started out as a mild curiosity in a junkyard 50 years ago has become something magical to us all.

Doctor Who got into my head at a young age and never left. That's what it does.

[dalekkiller]

I love it because it can do what no other show can do. I haven't actually got many friends who are Doctor Who fans have only been to a few conventions don't own all the Big Finish audios may disagree with fandom at times. But I still love it