I remember that dad enjoyed watching doctor Who, and as it was on the ABC, it was OK to watch.
So like so many kids across Australia we had that routine of 6pm on goes the ABC for either The Goodies, Kenny Everette or Monkey, followed at 6.30 by Doctor who, then the ABC national news.
One of my early memories is of afterschool play one weekday, and somehow I realised that it was 6.30pm, so it was inside and asking ‘aunty Carol’ if I could put on the TV. The bit that made it stay in my memory was that I had forgotten that Jon Pertwee had ‘died’ at the end of the previous adventure.
So now we had a new doctor, this funny looking bloke – Tom Baker.
Since then I have invested a bit of cash into various doctor Who items. there is just so much out there that I try and restrict myself. One of the big ones early on was the Target paperbacks. Before VHS, if we wanted to revisit an adventure, it had to be via these novelisations of the series. I strongly remember reading an adaptation of the 2nd doctors Yeti story, and as I read the text, I was vividly able to recall vague memories of seeing the actual episode.
Since then I have been lucky enough to meet a few of the living doctors.
The first photo that I paid for at a convention was Paul McGann because, what? you have to ask?
When Peter Davison narrated the first Doctor Who symphony at The Plenary in Docklands, I was lucky enough to be the lovely Rob Jans sound man.
Even though she has not watched an episode, in fact none of the new series at all, just Tom Baker and John Pertwee episodes mainly, but the daughter had to meet the first female doctor – Jodie Whittaker.
Watch out McCoy, your time has come.