How it all started....

Jon Pertwee was my first Doctor. 

My earliest (possibly unreliable) memory of actually watching Doctor Who was of  Death to the Daleks, or, as my family knew it, 'the one with the hearthrugs.' (I'll explain later). I know I saw The Dinosaur Invasion, as I can remember talking about it, but my memories of Doctor Who from that time are all very muddled with power cuts, the Three Day Week (ask your grandparents), football results and sausage sandwiches for tea.  I know I watched it and enjoyed it, even if the Daleks were viewed from behind the family sofa - cream vinyl, later covered with green nylon stretch covers, if you are interested.  We lived in a bungalow, so the Daleks were particularly scary.

I missed some of Tom Baker.  My mother didn't like his eyes.  She didn't like Marty Feldman's eyes either, and we weren't allowed to watch anything with him in it. Even things like Monty Python that he wasn't actually in. I know I saw some Tom Baker stories. I was terrified by Pyramids of Mars, and I definitely remember being scared of Davros in Genesis of the Daleks.  But there were gaps.  I started watching The Stones of Blood about half way through, and remember having no idea what this Key to Time thingy was supposed to be for. I think this was around the time that I decided I preferred the TV version of Logan's Run and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

When Peter Davison took over, I watched fairly regularly, even if it did clash with Coronation Street. I had a bit of a crush on the Fifth Doctor, or possibly even Adric.  (Definitely not Turlough, though).

I stopped watching regularly after the Fifth Doctor regenerated.  I watched if I happened to be around when it was on, but I could take it or leave it. 

I think this pattern of Doctor Who watching is probably fairly common for someone of my vintage. When I went off to university I had no idea that the children's programme of my youth was going to return to haunt the rest of my life. 

But then I fell in love with a Doctor Who fan. As he didn't have a VCR at the time, I recorded Sylvester's final season for him off-air, lovingly typing the labels.

...to be continued.