Mar 26, 2005. Saturday tea time. I’m sitting in front of the TV, full of anticipation. Finally, the episode that I had been looking forward to watching for months – no, years – finally begins. And that extremely familiar theme tune begins…
I’m not sure I can even begin to describe just how exciting that moment was. For me, this wasn’t just the beginning of a new take on an old sci-fi series. No, this was the return of one of the greatest TV series ever made. More than that, it was the beginning of something I had been waiting for – an era of Doctor Who that was my own.
My fandom began in two ways. The first was via repeats in 1993, when I was just five years old. I didn’t really understand the show, but there were two things that grabbed my attention. The first was Jon Pertwee’s iconic look. With his white curly hair, velvet jackets, and colorful capes, he looked like a strange combination of a wizard and a superhero.
The second was the theme tune. As a kid, the theme tune was both spooky and awesome to listen to. Over three decades later, listening to that theme tune still makes me feel like a kid.
Eventually, those repeats ended, and I got distracted by other shows. Doctor Who had been fun, but there were plenty of other series to enjoy, such as Quantum Leap, Sliders, and The New Adventures of Superman (the Lois & Clark part wasn’t included in the UK title).
Brief return
Cut to 1996. Now eight years old, I learned that Doctor Who was coming back. I was super excited to see what this new version would be like. I didn’t know that it was a UK/US production. I didn’t know that it would begin with a regeneration from the previous Doctor. I didn’t even know what regeneration was. I was just hopeful that it still had the same theme tune. (Thankfully, it did.)
Admittedly, the movie isn't exactly seen as one of the best Doctor Who stories. It’s not even seen as the best attempt to revive the show. But as a kid watching it for the first time, that didn’t matter. What really grabbed me were the core ideas, ideas that were almost magical. The magic box that was bigger on the inside than the outside. The central hero who could die and come back as a completely new person. Amazingly, I hadn’t found out about these essential parts of the show until watching the TV movie.
The 1996 TV movie made me a Doctor Who fan for life. However, as much as I enjoyed it, it was probably the worst time to become a fan. Despite millions of people watching in the UK, the movie wasn’t successful enough in the US for a series to be made. In retrospect, this might have been a good thing, but it still left this Whovian without a clear era of his own.
Fan without an era
On the plus side, there was plenty of history for me to enjoy. Admittedly, in the age before streaming was even remotely a thing, this mainly meant watching any stories I could find in completely random order. But even that came with its advantages. Experiencing the show in random order gave me clear snapshots of the show, and I got to discover which Doctors and eras I liked more than others very quickly.
But as great as watching these many classic stories was, it wasn’t an era of my own. I wasn't discussing the show with other fans or watching brand new adventures with the current Doctor. More stories were being told with the Eighth Doctor in other media, of course, especially novels. But unlike the TV series, these stories were generally aimed at an older audience. Many of these stories were enjoyable, but at the same time, it felt like a bad time to be a younger fan.
Over the following nine years, I grabbed anything and everything that came close to the new TV experience. In 1999, I stayed up late watching “Doctor Who Night”, a themed night of programming featuring a mix of new documentaries and classic stories, with Tom Baker himself presenting. The same year, we had Rowan Atkinson (and several others) play the Doctor in the excellent parody “The Curse of Fatal Death”. In 2001, Paul McGann joined Big Finish, and while I wasn’t able to catch every story, it was still great knowing that brand new stories were being made with the current Doctor himself. For a couple of years, this felt like the closest I’d get to experiencing new Doctor Who on television.
And then, on Sep 26, 2003, it was announced that they were finally bringing the show back.
The long wait
Seeing that announcement was incredibly exciting. Of course, at the same time, it also marked the beginning of an incredibly long wait. Before, I had only hoped that Doctor Who would come back. But now that I knew that it would be back, it made that 18-month gap feel excruciatingly long. I looked forward to each and every announcement. Finding out who was playing the new Doctor, the new companion, even seeing what the new logo looked like was so exciting.
Eventually, 2005 finally arrived. January became February. February became March. Doctor Who was featured in the news more and more, its return incredibly anticipated by not just fans, but by the whole of the UK.
Just a couple of weeks before the broadcast, the opening episode was leaked online. As tempting as it was to watch the episode early, I still wanted to wait for the broadcast date, for two reasons. The first was that the episode leaked was a preview copy, not the final version of the episode that was scheduled to be broadcast. I genuinely wanted to watch the best version of the new episode in the best possible quality. Secondly, I had waited this long. I knew I could wait just 3 weeks longer.
Finally, Mar 26, 2005 arrived. The first televised Doctor Who story in nine years was about to begin. Would it live up to the anticipation of a fan who always wanted an era of his own?
Worth the wait
I genuinely lost count how many times I watched “Rose” the first couple of days. It may not have been a perfect Doctor Who story. But it was a fantastic new beginning. There was so much that I loved about it. Christopher Eccleston’s fun performance that, at this point, had hints of something deeper. Rose Tyler was given an excellent introduction as a companion, one that had more depth than what we had seen before. And, very cleverly, the show brought back an old monster in a low-key way, broadly retelling a classic story for a new generation. Overall, it’s a great new beginning.
That goes for the rest of the season. After nine years of waiting, Series 1 didn’t just match my high expectations – it exceeded them. The season was filled with great stories, and even the weaker ones, such as “Aliens of London”/“World War Three”, were still entertaining to watch.
On top of that, the Ninth Doctor and Rose proved to be a brilliant pairing. Each character went through their share of major ups and downs and faced personal traumas. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper were amazing to watch, both individually and as a distinctive pairing with clear chemistry. 20 years later, Series 1 is still one of the best seasons of the New Series.
But what was just as brilliant as the show itself was the impact it made. During my final two years of high school, people were finally talking about Doctor Who. People my own age were genuinely enjoying it. It still wasn't the coolest thing to talk about, of course. But as someone who had grown up as one of the only fan in school, it was a massive step up. Even better, people who knew how much I loved the older stuff were asking me questions about it. They wanted to know more about the show's long history, and they knew I was the best person to ask about it. Honestly, that still gives me a good feeling.
Growing up during Doctor Who’s “Wilderness Years”, hoping the show would eventually come back, was a long and difficult wait. But Series 1 – and so much more of the New Series – made it worth the wait.