50 Years...

Earlier last month, a poetry competition was announced for fans of Doctor Who - All they had to do was write a poem based on the greatest television series in the world. I am overjoyed and still a bit surprised to say that I actually won the competition. But there were some excellent entries, not least from some very close friends of mine!

Neil Baird was one of the entrants, and here is the poem he submitted, along with an introduction by Neil himself. Neil has also supplied with some other excellent pieces that I will share over the coming weeks. Here's Neil...

November 23rd, 1963 saw a new program appear on the BBC Saturday teatime schedule. Its name? Doctor Who. 2013 is its 50th year.

 



While on, and sadly for a while, off TV, its fans have loved and remained loyal to the show. Eleven great and talented actors have played the Doctor, with number 12 arriving Christmas 2013. God bless them all.

 

This poem is my tribute to 50 years of my favourite series.

50 Years

 

November 1963 and Kennedy was killed. At 5.15 the very next day, British children were really thrilled.

 For they had something different. Something that was new. A children's TV show called Doctor Who.

 The story of an alien who travels through Time and Space.
Entertaining but educational. That should be its case.

 Showing science in the future and history in the past.
But the arrival of the Daleks changed its genre fast.

 It became a sci-fi show with monsters at every turn and being really scared is all kids would ever learn.

 Through the 1960's it was shown in black and white, but that didn't stop the Daleks who scared every child on site.

 William Hartnell was the first Doctor, the original you might say. He started off the character that's still on TV today.

 Then the Doctor, he went and changed. Pat Troughton took the role. A very different Doctor with a much more kinder soul.

 Through the 1970's the show was strongly run. Now it was made in colour, it couldn't be outdone.

 Jon Pertwee was the Doctor and he really was tip-top,
With the Brigadier and UNIT by his side there was no invasion they couldn't stop.

 Then three became four and Tom Baker took the part. With his long scarf and floppy hat, he was a hit right from the start.

 Tom was the most remembered Doctor, one of the best we ever had, and when he left in eighty-one fans were really sad.

 At the end of the 1980's the show sadly came to a stop, after three more and seven great Doctors, the TARDIS got the chop.

 The 1990's and things for the Doctor looked bleak. No series for him to be in, no cliff-hanger every week.

 The series became ridiculed, many saw it as childish pap, with really wobbly sets and monsters made from bubble-wrap.

 The companions were seen as wimpy, full of screams and squeals, who'd run away from monsters while in two inch pink high heels.

 Eventually a movie was made and though in the UK it went down well, though sadly not in America where it just refused to sell.

 Finally in the millennium the Doctor finally came back onto the air. Now a new generation love it, once again kids really care.

 There was a fine actor at that TARDIS door. Chris Ecceleston was the Doctor. Then he wasn't anymore.

 The Daleks have returned as well and so have the Cybermen. For five years they battled David Tennant, playing Doctor number Ten.

 Then Ten became Eleven and Eleven was old school. He wore a tweedy jacket and said bow ties were cool.

 

River Song was a huge part of this Doctors life. Some say they are lovers, others say she's his wife.

 Matt Smith was only 26 but his performance mirrored Pats. The eleventh Doctor wore a bow tie and an array of different hats.

 Now the 50th anniversary approaches, with a new Doctor about to start. Peter Capaldi has been cast and fans can't wait to see him in the part.

 We have had 50 years of episodes, with many more to do, so come November all the fans will shout... Happy Birthday Doctor Who.

 

 

By Neil Baird, 2013

 



A New Discovery of Old - Guest Post -

The new discovery of an old era by Neil Baird

 

When Doctor Who was only on TV via UK Gold, I watched the series constantly and barring certain stories such as the Dalek serials, saw from Tom Baker's first to Sylvester McCoy's last several times. This was the time when I became a true fan of the series.

Then after many, many months, Jon Pertwee's era was added to the run. I was delighted. Another part of Who's long history was opened up to me. But I always knew there was an era of this wonderful show that was denied to me and that was the black and white era of Doctor Who.

 

Those years of William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton were, to me, never to be seen. Due to the sadly many missing episodes/stories, and the haphazard continuity showing the surviving stories would cause, the Hartnell and Troughton stories were rarely, if ever, to my knowledge, shown on UK Gold or mainstream BBC.

I had enjoyed the glimpses of this era in the later stories such as 'Mawdryn Undead' and Patrick Troughton in the Multi Doctor Adventures he appeared in always enthralled me, but I really wanted to see him and William in their own times as it were.

As the audio releases of 'lost stories' came out I snapped them up. Then I finally saw a Hartnell story. 'The Time Meddler'. What a wonderful two hours of TV it was. I adored it. and wanted more!

When my mum went on a trip to London, I begged her to buy me a black and white Doctor Who video and she did. She brought back 'An Unearthly Child'.

I watched it that night and that first episode just transfixed me, as I know it did to viewers in 1963. I had fallen in love with this era.

 

The DVD releases have steadily come out over the last few years and I have always been keener to get one if it is an unseen (to me) black and white story.

Across the special features of the DVDs I already had there were often clips of the Hartnell/Troughton era, and to sit and watch a full, never seen before story (to me) is always a pleasure and a joy. Even in 2013 I'm still discovering these black and white Doctor Who adventures.

To see again a black and white story broadcast all those years ago. There is always something so magical about them. It saddens me to see modern day Doctor Who fans ignore these classics despite clips and images used in the current series. William Hartnell was in the first Matt Smith series four times! So I say embrace them. These stories are the groundwork for the modern episodes we see today. I understand to some used to the fast paced, over in 45 minutes series, that these black and white stories are slower and can take up to three hours to tell.

But don't ignore them. Some of the best stories and most remembered cliffhangers of Who history are there. It is no less shocking to see the Doctor or a companion in danger, or the reveal of a monster in simple black and white. The Dalek rising from the Thames or the Cybermen breaking out from their tombs would not be half as scary in colour.

 

So the next time you get the chance to watch a Doctor Who, give a classic black and white story another chance. The magic of the police box with the most beautiful, timeless and iconic inside is no less wonderful in monochrome.

Join the journey from a junkyard in London 1963 to our hero forced by his own people into changing. You never know. You might find yourself a gem or two. I did.

Neil Baird, 2012

 

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For more stories on how Doctor Who can change lives, check out these links:

 

- Thank You Doctor Who!

 

- How I Became a Doctor Who Fan

 

Everything I Learned In life, I Got From Doctor Who:

- #1 Talk To Strangers

- #2 Tea Is The Best

- #3 Be Yourself

- #4 Eat Jelly Babies

 

 

GUEST POST - Thank You, Doctor Who! -

Over the course of the next few weeks/months/years/centuries (delete as applicable), I will be letting people guest-blog and be interviewed on this very site. Maybe. Or maybe not. And to start this brand new series that may or may not actually become a series is Mrs Evil herself, Tricia Hayes, who has written a rather sweet little piece about how Doctor Who led her to love. It isn't for the cold-hearted, as there is romance involved. It also highlights just how much Doctor Who can mean totally different things to different people. Everybody has their own unique relationship with the show, which is why there are such a diverse range of fans out there, and a massive variety of opinions and theories on the show. And that is brilliant.

But anyway, without further ado, here is my amazing girlfriend, talking about stuff. Enjoy!

The first episode of Doctor Who I saw was 'Rise of the Cybermen'. I didn't see it on its' original broadcast, but a few years later when BBC 3 started showing repeats of the television show that would change my life, in a way I never could have imagined.

I had seen the Paul McGann TV movie a few years before and had enjoyed that, so I'm not sure why I didn't watch the series when it returned in 2005. Then again, I guess everybody discovers Doctor Who in their own way! Anyhow, I started watching regularly from the repeats of 'Rise of the Cybermen and 'The Age of Steel' onwards, and it had me right from the opening credits. I started watching whenever I could, and the DVD Files helped me build up my knowledge of the earlier episodes I had missed, and fill in the gaps. I have been a fan ever since.

By now, I had seen four actors in the role of the Time Lord known only as the Doctor. McGann, Eccleston, Tennant, and Smith, but what about the other seven before them? Soon enough, I would get to experience stories from Doctor Who's past, as my life changed unexpectedly. Here is how it happened....

I joined Facebook in February 2012. I had never bothered or thought about it before, but it was the curiosity of signing up to the site that led me to a Doctor Who Page, and caused a series of events that would spiral out of control. I can't remember the name of the page I liked, but on it were lots of people moaning and complaining about various aspects of the show. And then, amongst all that, there was a lovely, positive comment from this chap called Cory John Eadson. It was so nice to see somebody with such an optimistic attitude, and I decided, rather nervously, to send him a friend request.

We became friends on Facebook in March, and if you are wondering how my life has changed since then, well, in just under four weeks time we will be celebrating our 10-month anniversary together as boyfriend and girlfriend. I live in Ireland at the moment, but I am writing this in a notepad in England, sat on Cory's bed surrounded by his amazing Doctor Who collection.

Doctor Who has changed my life in a way that I could never have imagined. It introduced me to my very own Time Lord, Cory John Eadson. I would never have thought, sitting down to watch 'Rise of the Cybermen', that a few years later I would be sitting in a different country with the love of my life. In fact, the very first time we met physically was when Matt Smith returned in 'Asylum of the Daleks', the first episode we watched together.

It is through Cory that I have a fondness for 'classic' Doctor Who. I was inspired to watch 'Remembrance of the Daleks' at home by Cory, and afterwards we had a little chat about it. He also had a star letter printed in Doctor Who Magazine, an article on Season 6B published in a fanzine (and HERE), and had done a great many short stories based on the Doctor, all of which deepened my interest for the old series. One of Cory's stories involved Eight regenerating into Nine in a different and original way to what actually is believed to have happened, and it was a beautiful piece that really fired up my imagination.

Cory has taken me on a great adventure through time and space, introducing me to every Doctor I hadn't seen before, many amazing episodes, and telling me things about the making of the show that I never knew.

Me and Cory have also had a great many adventures of our own, away from the escapades of the TARDIS, and I know we will continue to have them for Evermore. We might have met through Doctor Who, but it is because of us that our relationship is so strong, because of us that we are in love.

I am fond of Doctor Who, but I am in love with my Cory John Eadson. And I will be, forevermore.

Tricia Hayes, January 2012