via ebay
(We had this mug for most of my life; my parents report it finally broke just a few years ago.)
(We had this mug for most of my life; my parents report it finally broke just a few years ago.)
But mostly I remember a show we watched as a family, and characters we grew to love. Characters who made us laugh and sometimes cry, who inspired loyalty and justice and kindness to all creatures. (And who also fought some of the goofiest monsters this side of classic Star Trek.)
My
parents still watch all the new episodes, but I admit I haven't
followed the reboot very well. I have no doubt I'm going to brave the heartache and catch up eventually, though, because this is a show near and dear to my geeky little heart.
So today, when John and I go out with friends, I'm wearing this pin:
So today, when John and I go out with friends, I'm wearing this pin:
My
father kept it all these years, and then kindly let me steal it. :) It's a shame it's yellowed so much; I really like the old
logo's colors.
And if a fellow Whovian spots it, I know we're going to share a smile - and I might end up gushing about that time my favorite Doctor gave me a side hug again. (Nope. STILL NOT OVER IT.)
Happy Birthday, Doctor.
****
What's your favorite Doctor Who memory, guys? Tell me your stories in the comments!
I started watching Dr. Who about 3 years ago. My husband and I watched all the reboot episodes first and we have been going through and watching the classics that make us laugh so much. One of my favorite of the classics is the monsters - one of those monsters that made us laugh until we nearly peed ourselves was a monster that was so obviously a person in bubble wrap spray painted green
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I began dating right before the reboot. I had never seen Dr. Who before and he convinced me to watch it. I was in LOVE after the first episode...Hello Rose, I'm the Doctor..RUN! We have made it a part of our lives together. It was part of our wedding, it's been part of our celebrations together and has lifted us up in hard times. Today we're watching the 50th curled up on the couch and loving every bit!
ReplyDeleteJust finished watching it on ustream. NOT. The video stopped working five minutes before the episode ended. WE WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT HAPPENED!!
ReplyDeletemy daughter actually made me watch it over this last summer vacation. Shes 12 and all the girls in her class LOVE Dr.Who. So we sat down this summer and started the reboot and got hooked- Myself more than her i think. then my husband came home and we got him hooked. On the 7th of this month was her birthday ( my daughter) so we brught in fish fingers and custard for her school to celebrate her birthday, it was awesome!This show is fantastic and now im waiting till monday to go to the theater and watch the 50th in 3D! i am super excited and i cant wait!
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/bdTELokKfCk
I didn't even know Doctor Who existed until PBS started showing the reboot episodes a few years ago. The first episode I saw I hated. It was so cheesy. I ignored the show. A few years ago my teenage children got into the show and suddenly I found myself in love. It really picked up for me after the first half the the first season in the reboot. I loved David Tennant and really, really loved Amy and Rory.
ReplyDeleteFor me it's been awesome to share this with my kids. When I was a kid the geek show was Star Trek and Patrick Stewart is still my first love. ;) I am so happy my children have found a geek show for themselves. It's something they can share with friends and use to find new friends. All they have to do is wear their Doctor Who shirts I made for them and they find their people. I love it.
My nine year old girl spent time today on Scratch, the programming game put out by MIT, making a Doctor Who anniversary video. It's awesome.
On Monday I will take our oldest two kids to the movie theater to watch the special on the big screen. They are both excited. Sadly, the other three have to stay home. I can't wait until it's available on video or streaming so we can all watch it together.
Oh, and don't tell my oldest, but next month we're painting the front door to look like the TARDIS. It's a Christmas surprise for her. I can't wait to see her face when she comes home from college to find her house is the coolest house in town.
My eight year old son is obsessed with Scratch! We will have to look for the video. It has been such a Doctor Who weekend. I love it.
DeleteRemember watching dr who as a kid, from behind cushions usually, loved it. Started watching the reboot but not too avidly till the last couple of series, really got into it. Just watched the 50th anniversary in 3d, can recommend it, really enjoyed it and allowed my 5 and 8yr olds to stay up as a treat and watch it too. They were really into it too. Will just need to judge the new series before I allow them to watch them live -too scary for me at times?
ReplyDeleteI grew up watching the original show on VHS. My parents recorded from the first Tom Baker through the end of the show. I vaguely remember going to, I guess it was a convention of sorts. I think it was the same mobile truck with the control room in it. I was terrified to push the buttons because I thought it was the real TARDIS and that I'd be whisked away all by myself. LOL! I do like the reboot but will always be a classic Who fan. My husband laughs because he just doesn't understand. It's my comfort show, it really is. :o)
ReplyDeleteEvery Saturday night I'd babysit and watch Dr Who on PBS. It was followed by DeGrassi Junior High, and every Monday morning a select group if us would geek out over both. 25 years later I'm still sending Who-themed links to those friends via FB. I love the reboot, and watch it with my daughter, but Tom Baker will always be my Doctor. Long live the scarf and the jelly babies!
ReplyDeleteI feel you are the most qualified person to answer this question. If I wanted to become a legitimate Doctor Who fan, going all the way back to the real beginning, what is it that I would need to look for? I'm a bit fastidious about starting at the beginning so I don't miss a single thing. Also, to pull out my rusty SAT analogies, would you say the original Doctor Who is to the Reboot as Star Trek is to Next Gen? (If so, that's dandy with me!)
ReplyDeleteThe BBC had a stupid policy that resulted in many of the early episodes being lost. As a newbie to the Whovian Revolution, I find that I've been able to watch older episodes out of order and still enjoyed them. The newer series (ninth Doctor onwards) tend to have more multi-episode stories, so those would definitely be better watched in sequence.
DeleteIf it helps, I don't think the whole concept/mythos was really thought through and set out right from the start. Through the 1960s I think it was still kind of being made up and added to as they went along. I'm a Classic Who newbie who's just watched The War Games and I feel that the backstory of the show is only just starting to be filled in at that point (1969).
DeleteIf it wasn't for the BBC having wiped so many of the episodes I'd have started at the very beginning because that's what I prefer too, but I'm impatient to get to my HD copy of Pertwee's first episode (in colour! I'm a sucker for colour) and The War Games seemed to be well-regarded so I thought it was as good a place as any. I loved Troughton though so I'll probably go back to his earlier stories at some point. It really annoys me not having everything available though, I'm a bit obsessive about watching things in order!
My tips for anyone taking the plunge would be:
1. Find out which stories fans love and er... love a bit less, so that you run less risk of putting yourself off the whole thing by picking a dud first time.
2. The show tends to reflect the era in which it was made, so pick an era you connect to the best generally re. music/aesthetic; I love anything late-'60s early-'70s but find it harder to like anything '80s so I'm aiming to ease myself into what was made then rather than starting with it.
I usually suggest starting with the Tom Baker years (4th Doctor), since he's one of the most beloved Doctors of all time, and I consider him the first of the "modern" Doctors. Then moving onwards with the rest (you can give the movie with Paul McGann a miss, though. He's super dreamy, and I don't doubt he'd be a good Doctor, but that movie was terrible) The earlier 3 are a bit harder to swallow for our generation, though if you really wanted to go classic, Patrick Troughton (2nd Doctor) is the one Matt Smith modeled his character after.
DeleteThat movie was horrible, but the audio adventures with Paul McGann are excellent. He never got the screen time of the other Doctors, but he's proven his quality in the audios. Try them out if you get a chance! Colin Baker is another one to listen to. If you find he's a bit abrasive in the TV show and you don't like him that much (a common complaint), try the audios that he's in. He was the victim of a lot of executive meddling during the TV years, and the audios have given him a chance to be the Doctor he always should have been.
DeleteI wouldn't start at the beginning - the First Doctor is actually a tough introduction to the program, and there's currently 97 First and Second Doctor episodes missing because the BBC erased a lot of tapes in the 70s. There are several classic serials available on Netflix or Amazon Instant Video, which I used to get a taste of the show before I started viewing in chronological order. I'd start with either the 2005 reboot, the 3rd series (reboot) episode Blink, or the Fourth Doctor's story City of Death (1979).
ReplyDeleteI'm a relative newbie to Doctor Who--I used to watch Star Trek with my mom as a tyke (DS9 and Voyager) but didn't discover Doctor Who until a friend at work recommended it to me in 2010. I started with the Tennant episodes and absolutely fell in love with the show. I started watching it during a pretty stressful time in my life, and the show was my escape, but it was something I mostly watched alone. Attempts to get my dad and brother interested in the show didn't get very far.
ReplyDeleteThen I introduced my (then) boyfriend (now hubby) to the show and got him hooked as well. Now Doctor Who is something that I can share with the most important person in my life. ^_^ We've gone back and watched a lot of the classic episodes. We found a whole set of Third Doctor episodes on VHS for 50 cents, so I've seen a lot of John Pertwee. He's probably my favorite of the classic Doctors.
There's a new docudrama called "Adventures in Space and Time" about the origin of the show. Highly recommended! It's a good way for new fans to get acquainted with the First Doctor and learn some behind-the-scenes stuff as well. Very well written and acted.
I used to watch with my dad when I was very little - I used to beg to watch it. And apparently one of my first set of words was doctor who ;)
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm showing my age when I say I grew up with tom baker as my first doctor (latter half of his run), and peter davidson.
I love the show - new and old episodes - and *loved* the 50th special (so many little easter eggs!)
~erin kristine
I used to watch the originals on PBS late on Sunday nights, while avoiding my homework. Then, in college, I joined the Dr. Who Appreciation Society, and we would meet up on Sunday afternoons and watch an episode together. It was incredibly fun!! I was sad when the BBC cancelled it and love the reboot. I have watched shows with so many people I love, either by my side on the couch or over a phone (during commercials) from a distance.
ReplyDeleteMy dad is English (born in London during the war) and he remembers being able to know what time it was based on when the streets cleared out - when everyone stopped playing and suddenly disappeared into their homes that meant it was time for Doctor Who. We never watched it together, but I remember one of those Sunday nights when he came in to my room and saw what I was watching, he stopped for a minute and said "Is that Dr. Who?! Is that still on?!?!" and it was kind of a cool thing to share.
Love Tennant, loved Eccleston, but Davison will always be my Doctor. :)
Noticed at the preshow at the theater we watched the special at today...apparently there is a background character in MLP:FIM known as Doctor Hooves with an hourglass symbol? That, and your and John's hearty recommendation might just be enough to get me to check it out!
ReplyDeleteYes! As a brony, it is my pleasure to tell you about Doctor Hooves! He is/was a background pony that was just randomly assigned a butt symbol ("Cutie Mark") of an hourglass. He also had a brown coat and spiky brown hair. The Doctor Who bronies instantly thought he looked like David Tennant and thus, Doctor Hooves was born! There are a few other ponies that have the same Cutie Mark (Colgate for instance) who some folks have taken to also be time lords (There's one that folks call the Master). Once fans claimed Doctor Hooves as their own, the animators started slipping in little references. There is a scene where he is the official time keeper for an event and what not. However, due to copyright, Hasbro/DHX were unable to give him the name of Doctor Hooves. According to his trading card he is called 'Time Turner' and is "responsible for keeping all of Ponyville's clocks in sync, setting the hourglass for Cider competitions and pretty much all times timey-wimey." He also was featured on the cover of one of the Comics - complete with a pocket watch, the 4th Doctors SCARF, a Weeping Angel, AND hidden TARDIS. http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121205044311/mlp/images/1/1e/Comic_issue_2_Midtown_Comics_cover.jpg
DeleteHave you seen the David Tennant pixelated quilt that some lady made? I don't remember her name, but if you google it, plenty of images pop up. It's really quite impressive :)
ReplyDeleteYou guys should TOTALLY come back to Salt Lake City! I've lived here for the past three years and am from Northern Utah originally and it pleases me to say that SLC was just recently rated the most creative Mid-sized city in the US! (is that a silly thing to brag about? Do I sound like someone from our tourism department yet? .....yeah....) I haven't seen the guys from the video, but they are delightful! I will go try to check them out live one of these days for sure. I don't know if you heard about it at all, but SLC just had our first Comic Con in September and it was insanity...but had such an amazing turn out that they are not only having another one next year, but a sort of celebrity fan extravaganza special event in the spring with special guests from the Walking Dead and Star Trek: The Next Generation (!!!) Kind of wild for little ol' SLC amirite?
ReplyDeleteOh, by the way, any Classic Doctors fans might like to keep a lookout for the 30-minute-ish film "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot", made by Peter Davison and featuring some familiar faces, it's very funny! I've seen none of Davison's episodes, but I adore his commitment to the show and its fans.
ReplyDeleteI remember catching episodes on PBS when I was a tyke, but I didn't get to watch regularly. Sylvester McCoy and Tom Baker were my favorites before the reboot. I've been addicted to the reboot since the end of Chris Eccleston's Dr. (my favorite of the new Dr.s , although, I'm just in love with the Doctor, whatever face he's wearing.) Right now I'm watching the 50th anniversary again with my daughter, who I'm hoping to bring up as a right proper little Whovian. :)
ReplyDeleteI would like to share my "Day of the Doctor" festivities from yesterday:
ReplyDeleteOn my way to a friend's apartment for a viewing party, I was passing by a boy, maybe 9 or 10 years old, dressed as the 11th Doctor, complete with sonic screwdriver. I said, "Hi, nice outfit!" He stopped walking for a second and proudly said, "I'm dressed as the Doctor in honor of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary!" then kept walking. I said, "I'm dressed as the TARDIS under this coat," and winked, and kept walking. I overheard his mother say, "You just met the TARDIS!"
From there I went to my friend's and watched the special live with a bunch of people, which was awesome! I had made adipose marshmallows (picture can be found on my instagram/twitter, lifeisbroadway) for the occasion. We laughed, we cried, we reveled in the geekery.
After the episode one of the other attendees and I were going to head over to another friend's house for an evening viewing, but we still had some time to kill and decided to hang out in our friend's neighborhood. When we got out of the subway, I stopped and said, "Wait. We're really close to The Way Station! WE NEED TO GO THERE!" (For anyone who doesn't know, The Way Station is a bar in Brooklyn whose bathroom is a TARDIS) When we got there, we found some other friends who had Dalek and Cyberman cupcakes, and a band was getting ready to play with a guiTARDIS (A guitar in the shape of the TARDIS).
Alas, we couldn't stay for the music and walked to our second viewing party. This friend had made her bedroom doors into TARDIS doors, and had a lifesize cardboard cutout of David Tennant! She also made TARDIS poundcakes and TARDIS and Dalek chocolates. Seeing the episode a second with was still fantastic!
BEST. WHOVIAN. DAY. EVER. The best part was being able to share it with so many friends!
-Kate M. (The one who sent you a picture of a brick dressed up in a tie and bowler from work about 5 or 6 months ago.)
I've been obsessed with Doctor Who since the mid 1980's. In the early 1990's I attended a local sci-fi/fact/fantasy convention that Sylvester McCoy was a guest at.
ReplyDeleteFast forward 20 years to earlier this month, there was a local Doctor Who convention. Sylvester McCoy was a guest there, so I brought along the photo of the 2 of us to show him. And we took a photo of us holding/reenacting the earlier photo. (Upon seeing the photo he said "I think I still have that shirt!") Even though he was suffering from the flu he was still very gracious and funny, and I'll forever adore him. Maybe in another 20 years I can show him the photo inception and get a third photo! ;)
http://purpleallison.tumblr.com/image/67973814657
I just began watching New Who last year, and was immediately hooked! Eccleston will forever be "my" Doctor, my son loves Matt and my husband is partial to Tennant. My son happened to catch an episode while I was watching sometime last year, and asked what it was. I let him watch it, filling in the little details of what the TARDIS is, who the Doctor is, etc...and that was it, he was hooked! My husband and I watched the first three episodes of New Who and then my son caught up with us, and we just watched "The Name of the Doctor" on Friday night. We have tickets to see "The Day of the Doctor" in 3D on Monday and we each have toy sonic screwdrivers to bring. Plus....I've put together a River Song outfit (from "The Impossible Astronaut") which I will proudly wear as my very first ever Cosplay outfit!! I'm quite the nerd at heart, and love knowing I'm now a part of something so big, yet still somewhat unknown. When I come across Who fans it's like immediate kindred spirits!
ReplyDeleteI started watching dr. who on pbs when I was a kid. Technically I wasn't supposed to watch it because my mom didn't want me to have nightmares, so I'd sneak out of bed after she was asleep and watch it in the dark with the volume turned low. The worst part about those old episodes is that most of them had 3 or 4 parts and I often didn't get to see the last episode because I'd be caught being out of bed. I've loved the reboot and all of the new doctors (and companions) but Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen will always be my first and favorite!
ReplyDeleteTom Baker was my first doctor, I remember the confusion of trying to figure out what was going on when he regenerated and suddenly he was gone and there was this other guy, and he didn't have the scarf or the jelly babies. I kind of felt cheated, and I didn't watch as closely anymore (I was a 10 year old kid... forgive me)
ReplyDeleteWhen the re-boot happend I was kind of excited but skeptical, Somewhere around The Doctor Dances episode I got hooked again. When Eccelston regenerated I was NOT happy, but then Tennent won me over. I was in full Doctor love once more. When he left I cried, I never really got into Matt Smith, but I still watched faithfully.
The 50th special was really good, I was sad that more of the past doctors were not used... but when the curator showed up I knew that all was good in the Whoniverse. I look forward to the new doctor, he looks like he will have the edge that I miss in Matt's doctor, fingers crossed that I fall once more.
Tom Baker is my Doctor. As gangly 10 yr old wandering around Madame Tussauds in London I had a fan girl moment. The memory of the room is vague, but I remember seeing the wax Tom Baker. Then the lights flickered and I hear Exterminate Exterminate and a Dalek is rolling towards me. I think I wet myself that day, just like I did Saturday night 30 yrs later.
ReplyDeleteI remember the 25th Dr. Who anniversary (and honestly, I haven't really watched it much since Peter Davison was The Doctor). However, I did embroider the Dr. Who logo onto a pillow case. So there's that: http://averagejane.blogs.com/average_jane/2008/05/just-how-nerdy.html
ReplyDeleteI was only 3 when Who ended in '89, and/so I loved the Peter Cushing ones too, though my crush on Ray Brooks may have had something to do with that... They were atmospheric though and look great for the time. I don't understand the dislike either.
ReplyDeleteDoctor Who was a real outlet and escape for me growing up. I had a tough childhood in a lot of ways, and part of me deep down was always on alert for the sound of the TARDIS, in case the Doctor showed up and I could leave with him. I actually waited a year or two after New Who started to watch it because I was afraid that it was going to spoil something that had meant so much to me. (HA!) I've been so delighted with the reboot overall, and this evening my husband and I are going with friends to see "The Day of the Doctor" in 3D at a movie theater.
ReplyDeleteAbout to head out to see the Day of the Doctor in the theater, very excited. Being part of an online community is such an amazing thing, I often wish it were my real life community. When I got my tickets two weeks ago (which were not at my first choice theater, everywhere was already sold out!) I was so excited I posted of FB. I have a wide range of FB friends - people from high school and college, people from different jobs I've worked, some girls from a local mom group, family, etc. I didn't get one single comment or like, and it hit me. Nobody I know likes the same stuff as me. I'm so excited to go out and meet (watch shyly from the corner) a bunch of other people that share the same interests as me :)
ReplyDeleteGood afternoon from England. We had tickets to the 50th Anniversary celebrations in London at the weekend, which was uber cool. Panels with Davison, McCoy and Colin Baker...then a panel with Moffat, Smith, Jenna Coleman, and the director of the 50th Anniversary episode...followed by a show by the special effects team. Had a photo taken in the tardis, and with Peter Davison when we got his autograph. Also got an autograph from Dan Starkey, who plays Strax.
ReplyDeleteIt was an awesome day, but it is a toss up between that and my Doctor Who wedding. :). Tardis, converse, screwdriver et all.
I was at Wizard World in Austin this weekend and watched the 50th Anniversary Special live in a gigantic ballroom with hundreds, if not thousands, of other Doctor Who fans. I haven't seen any of the pre-reboot episodes, so I feel like a lot of the Special went over my head, but I still enjoyed it greatly. And it was so much fun to watch it with so many other people who were cheering throughout it! I also had my picture taken with a TARDIS in my first ever steampunk cosplay outfit. Too fun!
ReplyDeleteMy former neighbor introduced me to Doctor Who, and I went back to get caught up on the reboot. (I'm a 10th Doctor fan.) My husband and I were in the U.K. over the weekend, and we got to see the Special in a sold-out theatre in Edinburgh. It was so much fun, and there were two kids there in costume - one was the cutest Dalek I've ever seen. The next day, in London, we actually spotted a Police Call Box! I went totally fangirl over it.
ReplyDeleteI started with the reboot. While I adore 9, 10 is my Doctor as 11 is my boys. They love his antics and cannot wait from one episode to the next. My favorite memories of Doctor Who are with them. I adore watching them light up at little things or when a plot set up clicks. I was heartbroken when we were not going to be able to go see the 50th in theaters, more for them than for me. They have dressed up as both 10 and 11 and gone to a local convention (where this year they had a Tardis that we took pictures with.) They got to watch the 50th just tonight and went to bed abuzz with excitement. Now to make sure they are ready for the regeneration at Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to Doctor Who because it followed my beloved Red Dwarf when i was a teen. I stayed up into the wee hours of the night watching Tom Baker saving the galaxy. About two years ago, my husband and I discovered that the reboot is on Netflix instant streaming. I watched about 2 seasons then had to quit. It gave me nightmares. Not much gives me nightmares. So, just a small warning. Maybe watch it weekly, not daily. Go slow, maybe that would have helped me not get so worked up about cybermen and angels and whatnot chasing after me. Not daleks, though. I never understood how daleks were so frightening. The don't even have articulated limbs!
ReplyDeleteI'm showing my age here, but I grew up with Jon Pertwee as my Doctor and the episode with the Sea Monsters coming out of a weirdly foamy sea onto a bleak beach gave me the screaming ab-dabs and still does. Now my daughter who has Down's is a mega Who fan, so we watch every episode over and over again, and I can't complain. I took her to the Doctor Who Experience in London for her birthday a couple of years ago and saw all the costumes (Kylie Minogue must be so tiny!) and various props, including the interior of the original tardis. She also got to 'fly' the tardis and walk through a cave full of Weeping Angels. But her best memory is going to a tiny Who event in Portsmouth early this year where there was an incredible Matt Smith lookalike who posed for a photo with her, so to her, she HAS met the Doctor!
ReplyDeleteI don't know if you've seen the Five(ish) Doctors Reboot yet, but it's an absolutely adorable Classic Doctors reunion where they try to sneak in and infiltrate the filming of the 50th anniversary special. I'm not as familiar with the classic Doctors as I wish I was, but I still couldn't stop smiling when I watched it!
ReplyDeleteI just started watching the reboot 4 days ago. Doctor Who isn't exactly new to me, having read articles in UK entertainment magazines and caught episodes flipping through channels over the years. Yet I was interested in other things at the time. Then I bought a MINI Cooper this spring and joined a local club. As I started making friends, I noticed they were referencing Doctor Who a lot. A popular one is MINIs being more spacious on the inside than they look get compared to the TARDIS a lot. LOL So I began thinking I should finally check it out and I'm glad that I did. No matter how silly the plot gets, the characters and their relationships are what keep me enthralled. Better yet I have another interest that I can share with my friends. A blue & white MINI that bears a slight resemblance to a certain sentient time traveling police box doesn't hurt either. :D
ReplyDeleteWe were at the circus this summer and I spotted a young girl wearing a t-shirt dress in Tardis blue that said "Bow Ties are Cool". I went up to her & said "Yes, bow ties are very cool, especially when paired with a fez." She just beamed and her grandma exclaimed "You watch our show! Nobody watches our show!" We then had a wonderful chat about "our" wonderful show and which stores had the best selection of Whovian collectibles and T-shirts. (She had searched for ages to find that t-shirt dress for her granddaughter!)
ReplyDelete