vivdunstan

Another in this slow going series from me, and this time I'm going for the easiest fandom of all for me to tackle!

I first started watching Doctor Who in 1978, aged 5, very shortly to be 6, with "The Ribos Operation" and the Key to Time 16th series with Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor paired with the glorious Mary Tamm as the first Romana. I was vaguely aware of Doctor Who before, but don't think I'd ever properly watched it. Certainly when I got my first Doctor Who annual, which featured Louise Jameson's Leela, I was utterly baffled. Though happy to go with the flow.

From that moment on Doctor Who was a fixed viewing point in our house, with Dad and me both hugely enjoying it. I loved the first version of Romana, but was shocked by the second - my first experience of Time Lord regeneration. And then we got to Logopolis, and yes, that was a shock too. Though I recognised Peter Davison from All Creatures Great and Small, and quickly took to his version of the Doctor with no problems.

I continued as a fan throughout the 1980s. Dad was often exasperated by some of the 1980s Doctors, especially Sylvester McCoy, but I remained a fan throughout. Loved the often bonkers storytelling. It did feel very much of its time. I continued to get a Doctor Who annual most years, but never joined fan organisations then like DWAS. Though I was generally reading Doctor Who Magazine every month throughout the 1980s.

I do remember trying to see a Doctor Who exhibition at Burntisland. My parents and I travelled the long distance up from the Scottish Borders by car, then got a train near Edinburgh to go over to Fife for the day. And there was supposed to be a Doctor Who exhibition there. But it wasn't there when we got there. I was disappointed. Though I do remember enjoying a helter skelter!

And then we got to 1989, and the end of TV Who. And I fell away. I remember joining a Doctor Who fan club at St Andrews University in 1990, but had a really unpleasant experience as a female fan and immediately left. It's just possible that it was a more generic scifi fan club, though if so I think it was still heavily Who leaning. I never knew about the Virgin New Adventures novels at the time, and completely stopped reading Doctor Who Magazine.

Then, somehow, and I still don't know how it happened, I completely missed that there was going to be a new Doctor Who TV Movie in 1996. I didn't even know it was on. Martin also failed to notice that - he would have mentioned it if he'd seen it. So we completely missed it. I also had no idea for many years that Paul McGann had played the part.

And that was how things remained, until 26th September 2003, and the news that Doctor Who was going to return with a new series. I saw that news on Ceefax, and it was like a total bolt out of the blue. And prompted me to return to the series, check out some books that had come out, start reading Doctor Who Magazine regularly again, and try my first Big Finish audio: The Chimes of Midnight, with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor I'd never heard or seen before. Listened to on my own in our new home in 2004. Magic.

I’m a very lax reader of Doctor Who Magazine now, though I keep getting it in digital form on my iPad. I’m just too very ill now to read it exhaustively each month. However with today’s new issue I have dived in fast to read the previous of the upcoming episode numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. It’s fair to say that 4, 6 and 7 are the ones I’m most excited about, after last weekend’s “Boom”. I won’t go into detail of what these next episodes are about except to put brief summary words in spoiler space ( mild spoilers ).

Episodes 7 and 8 are airing together in some UK cinemas late on Friday 21st June, shortly before the 8th episode goes up on the iPlayer at midnight, and before the BBC1 broadcast on Saturday night. However screening coverage outside the central belt of Scotland is very limited. I’m in Dundee and the nearest to me is in Dunfermline, 50/60 miles away. Closest after that is Edinburgh, then places like Glasgow and Aberdeen. To be fair I’m too ill to go to the cinema now, and it’s also too risky for me infection wise. But this isn’t great coverage. Though we are getting it on the iPlayer and BBC1. So I can’t really complain.

Preordered the next Doctor Who Magazine issue in print form. Normally I just read them on my iPad, with a rolling digital subscription. But I'd like this issue to keep. The magazine has been in print since 1979.