Losing Out

[meddow]

I was telling my mother today about my mission to watch the entire Classic series of Doctor Who (which has faltered in recent months, but I'll get back on track).

Mum: I used to love those ones with the military.
Me: UNIT?...The Brigadier?
Mum: Yes. The Brigadier!
Me: I love the Brigadier.
Mum: You can't have him. He's mine.
Me: Fine, I'll have Sergeant Benton
Mum: Oh, Sergeant Benton!

Which of course led to a rather long conversation discussing how the Brigadier needs to be brought back, the Cybermen, Daleks, my mother's fear of some blob monster that came from the ocean (I've no idea what she's talking about with that one) and hiding behind the sofa.

Anyway, this has me thinking. Doctor Who was cancelled before I was old enough to take notice (if I watched it as an little, I don't remember), and besides catching one episode each of An Unearthly Child and The Green Death (if I recall correctly) at some point in my teens, I didn't discover the show until I was twenty, which I find to be really sad. This wouldn't be such a big deal if Who was just a TV show, but in my family it really is an institution. Both my parents grew up on the show and my younger cousins are growing up on the New Series. I feel like I'm missing out. I'm part of a generation that didn't hide behind the sofa as a child because there were no Daleks on telly. My generation was ripped off.

Damn you 1989 cancellation *shakes fist*

I suppose at least I got Captain Planet. I can still sing the theme song.

Comments

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

You think you lost out? I'm in the US! I've made up for it quite nicely, though. I've been desperately lagging lately, but I think I've got 102 classic serials under my belt. =D ...I really gotta get on finishing The Space Museum. VICKI! <3

[meddow.livejournal.com]

True, I suppose it could be worse. And you're kicking my butt. I've only seen 41 so far.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I feel kind of blessed because I did have DW as a teenager, even if I was a bit too old to hide behind the sofa. I was 15 when I first saw it by accident in the UK, and then a month or two later, it started being shown on a commercial station in NY. When I went to university, I wound up in Chicago which probably had one of the biggest fanbases in the US. The public broadcasting station there was so big a champion of the show that they got things before anyone else in the US and I actually think they got "The Five Doctors" BEFORE it was aired in the UK.

My friends and I used to watch the show in the tv lounge of my dormitory or at someone's apartment every Sunday night. The cliff hangers were cut down to 'movies' which was always odd, esp when in NY we got episodes. I saw all of Tom Baker's run and the first year of Peter Davison that way. Then I moved around a lot and seemed to always be somewhere that was showing the Jon Pertwee era. I've still only seen more of the Colin Baker years and Sylvester McCoy years once, if that.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

They showed it on one of the TV channels when I was a teenager, but they started from the very beginning. I tuned in for one of the episodes of An Unearthly Child when I was about 13, not the best serial for a beginner, and it was also when I was going through that phase of hating everything that had anything to do with my parents, so never watched again. The only reason I watched Rose was because I was staying at my parents' place at the time and they wanted to watch it. I think it would have been very different if I had seen the show as a child.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

I got to see some of the early episodes at a Dr Who day at a local school when I lived in Chicago -- I know we watched "An Unearthly Child" and "The Krotons" for a start. The US PBS stations didn't start showing the earlier episodes until the late 80s, but I only got to see them sporadically because I had been moving around, and once I was back in NY for good, they were shown at times when I was working or going out. I know they only showed the Sylvester McCoy episodes once through,and in the case of "Resurrection of the Daleks", they screwed up the order of the episodes and never bothered to correct them. I have it on DVD but haven't seen it yet.

My mom actually watched it with me back in the day. My dad never cared for it much, but now he loves the new series to bits.

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

I can still sing the Captain Planet song too. I worry myself, but at least I'm not alone.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Captain Planet. He's our hero. Gonna take pollution down to zero....:)

[artic-fox.livejournal.com]

gonna help him put us under, bad guys who like to loot and plunder...

Although loot and plunder always sounded more pirate-like than environmental terrorists.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I could never make out those words as a kid. But then, it was only a couple of years ago I figured out the words to that Live Aid song.

[nfwbls.livejournal.com]

The Horror of Fang Rock!!! (blob monster from the sea) I am possibly completely alone on the planet in this, but Leela is my favorite companion evah. She is the knife-wielding savage I wanted to grow up to be ;-)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Didn't think of that. And Leela is wonderful and so incredibly kick-ass. It's such a shame she's overshadowed by Sarah and Romana.

[snorkackcatcher]

'Blob monster from the ocean' sounds a bit like 'Fury from the Deep' in the Troughton era. Supposedly one of the high points of his tenure, but also one of the lost ones so it's hard to be sure.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

It could well be. It'd be about the right time frame.