Forums » Smalltalk » Doctor Who 50th Anniversary!

Tomorrow is going to be the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who and I know there are quite a few fans here so I thought I'd start this thread so we can share how we got into the show.

For me, it was back in the early 90s when the BBC started repeats of old episodes, the first one I saw was Spearhead from Space, which introduced the third Doctor, just after he regenerated. A few of his stories followed that before they jumped ahead to a fourth Doctor story which remains one of my favourites, Genesis of the Daleks. It goes back to show how the Daleks came to be on their homeworld Skaro.

So those were my first two Doctors, it was at a time when I had a hard time convincing any of my friends to watch the show as well. When they revived Doctor Who in 2005, I was very excited and have been following it ever since.

I'm very interested to hear how all the other fans here got into the show as well. When did you start watching, who was your first Doctor and who is your favourite?

I got started with the revival, and was hooked ever since. I have since seen some of the original episodes (Including the first four doctor Who episodes after that drama-documentary about the show's creation) the most recent except for the four just mentioned was the one about the crypt of the Cybermen which... well... just look at those costumes! How was anyone ever scared of those things?

Still, despite some of the...eh... peculiarities of the original series I quite enjoyed them, whether it was to laugh at some of the now-heavily dated special effects and costumes and whatnot or watching to see how the Doctor escapes cavemen and survives his first trip to Skaro.

I think the first ever doctor who I saw though was the movie where the Daleks invaded Earth... Daleks still scare me a bit even now.

MY Doctor is David Tennant - I liked Eccleston and Matt Smith is a pretty brilliant Doctor, but Tennant is just... THE Doctor for me. Ask my dad and he'd say Pertwee was the best... but what does he know? Back then the set fell over!

AND now Tennant's reprising his roe and we'll see some of the Time War and maybe we get to see John Hurt's War Doctor blow up Gallifrey and Skaro and... Well, I'm just excited!

I have a problem in the fact that I watch dr. Who like a timelord. Completely sporadic and out of order. I think my first dr was the shaved head one, but I didn't see toi many with him. Alltime favorite is by far David Tennant. He is the best of all doctors ever

Doctor Who was really formative for me. I started watching them in the late 90s/early 00s when they aired the old series every Saturday at midnight. My dad watched it every week and one day I started watching it with him, and I was hooked. My first Doctor was 4, but I really got into the series with 5. I watched all the way to the end, then they started over! I IMMEDIATELY fell in love with 3. He is absolutely the best Doctor. Sophisticated, witty, brainy, and well-dressed. And no stupid romantic BS, which I find completely out of character for the Doctor and is one of the reasons I don't like the new series that much. I also like 7, and actually I think Matt Smith did a really bang-up job as 11. I loved old Who... I got teased for it too, or at best got weird looks when I tried to explain it. The same sorts of people who gave me weird looks are the ones who love it now but only because "ZOMG DAVIE TANNANT IS SZOOOO HAWWWTTT DOCTORXROSE 5EVERRRR"

Then the channel (which was a public TV station) lost the rights to air most of the episodes. So I was stuck watching 2 and 3 endlessly. I think it was... the last episode with 2, with all of the warzones from various points in time? Then all of 3 pretty much. Spearhead From Space is probably my favorite episode. 8D I searched far and wide across the internet for Doctor Who fanart and merch... I never found a whole lot available to the USA. Though I do have some excellent t-shirts, including "The T-shirt of Rassilon." And the popularity of the new series does make the old one a little more accessible! I buy an episode or two every year. I'll probably spring for the Key to Time DVD at some point too. Classic!

Then in 2007 they stopped airing them, which was tragic. The last thing they aired was the first season of the new series. I liked a lot of the individual stories! But I HATED the romantic tension between Rose and the Doctor, and I also wasn't really fond of the whole Time War plot... I'm not a fan of those kinds of tragic backstories... especially when they bring back Daleks and Time Lords all the time even though he's supposed to be the only survivor.

So yeah... I'm a huge hipster about it. 8| I'll probably eventually watch this 50th anniversary special but it makes me so bitter. The show was so insanely important to me (I wore a scarf and a long coat and a fedora to school) that I can't help but be super critical of the new episodes, even though I just want to shut up and enjoy them. They just have... a different feel to them and it's really disappointing.

I think I first got into the show when Darth_Angelus discovered that I had never seen it, and immediately shipped me a box full of DVDs some years ago.

To this day Darth seems to be in charge of my Who-diet, as he periodically checks to see if I'm up to date (I'm usually not ) and finds a way to get me to the latest episodes.

Thanks for keeping me cool, Darth!

Hee hee! I'd be happy to lend you my DVDs, Kim! I got the good stuff!

I was a bit skeptical at first with the series however once I started to actually watch it, I loved it! My favorite memories with the show is probably all the catch phrases that they've created (i.e Allons-y!, Bow ties are cool, etc.). The show has come a long ways and I'm happy to see that Doctor Who is going strong.

I was introduced by a Friend..that was when I was skeptical but then my boyfriend constantly watched it on our television (netflix of course) so I decided to give it a shot. Happy that I did. c:

I tried to re-watch the first Weeping Angels episode recently.


I got five minutes in and closed my browser.
I'm a wuss.

You are in good company though.

I am! I just wish I had been while watching this. I attempted to watch a Dr. Who episode alone and it didn't work.

The first weeping angels episode was amazing. And the silence is an awesome villain, though I wasn't a huge fan of the episode(s) overall. Dang, so creepy though. Exciting!

I only started watching DW last year. I had some severe prompting from other people to watch it and I'm one of those people who the more you push her to do something, the less she wants to do it So it took me a while to come around. I watched the very first episode with Nine about 4 months before continuing the series and getting utterly hooked. I found that I had actually seen pieces of the revival episodes before, the longest of which was Love & Monsters. So that episode was my first real taste of the show and it didn't give much insight to anything

But now I am hopelessly in love with the show and really need to see things before the revival. Tennant is still my favorite but he is closely followed by Eccleston. We didn't get enough of Nine and he was 'Fantastic.' I'm not a huge fan of Smith, but I don't hate him. I'm excited to see Capaldi pick it up, though I was really opposed to him at first

I started watching the series four years ago - with One as my first doctor. My husband has all of the episodes stashed somewheres in his pile of electronic media, and had brought them along on a road trip we took back then. We got as far as the first regeneration, actually, before I watched any of the new episodes. I saw a few with Ten - I think the first new one I saw was Silence in the Library, actually - but have watched all of Eleven since. I haven't really seen any of the others, though; we ended up failing to keep up with the old Doctors after the trip ended.

We are going to the theatre to see the 50th anniversary special, though, but not until Monday. Tickets all sold out for tonight's showing before I found out that they were on sale, hah. No spoilers until then, sweeties! :p

I'm not really sure when I actually started. Somewhere in 2005 or later, because I do remember that Tennant was my first. It was S2E12, Army of ghosts.
Suffice to say I was immediately hooked and promptly made my way to the internet to watch every single episode. Of the new series at least, I've only seen a handful of the old ones.
I sort of stopped fangasming once Moffat took over, though. I loved how most DW stories were oneshots or two-parters with an occasional overarcing plot every now and then. With Moffat it all starts to become one big jumble of timey-wimey plotholes and retcons filled to the brim with McGuffins (even more so than the already obvious plotdevices like the TARDIS and sonic). That being said, I still love the show. (Found the 50th a bit disappointing, but shhhh), and Moffat did have a few really awesome episodes. Not to mention his invention of the Angels was pure gold.

It's good to see all your stories of getting into the show and that people are still watching the old episodes.

I rather enjoyed Day of the Doctor. I'm not going to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet but for a celebration of 50 years, it was excellent.

I started...mostly out of peer pressure. I surf funnyjunk a lot, and other sites like that. And there are always doctor who content. So I thought, instead of letting them ruin it for me, I'd give it a try. I almost stopped with the first episode (2005, not 1963) when micky was replaced with the gaint Ken doll thing, thinking it was so stupid, but so many people liked it, so I kept up with it. And half way through the first season, I couldn't stop. IT taught me things, made me think. A show, that can last through 50 years (though it did stop once) is just amazing.

As for the 50th year episode, I loved how funny it was, but...to be honest, I think it could have been better. I thought it was going to be more like a movie, so a bit longer, and have a few of the other characters come back. I mean, the ones you meet each episode. I know Chirs (the ninth doctor) didn't want to be in it, so I don't blame BBC for not having him in there, but there are things I would do differently. Maybe later, after most have watched it, we could talk about how we would change things.