this post was submitted on 02 May 2026
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My parents were (and still are) fans of British TV. Back in the 80s, PBS aired many shows from across the pond, including Doctor Who. My parents taped quite a few episodes, and I grew up watching them in the 90s. It was like this weird secret show that only my family knew about.

I remember pretending to be a dalek at recess. Who knows what the other kids thought of me. We watched the American TV movie that aired in (I think) 1998. Of course we taped it as well.

Honestly I can't say I was a fan per se, but the fact nobody else seemed to know about it made it special to me in a way Star Trek and Babylon 5 weren't.

The 2005 reboot aired a year earlier on CBC before coming to the US in 2006. I was able to watch it thanks to being somewhere that had CBC as a cable channel. I ended up bouncing off the series pretty hard early on. Like I said, I was never a big fan, but the show has a weird nostalgia for me for the reasons stated above.

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[–] STUNT_GRANNY@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I've always loved it, or at least liked it as a kid. My dad was a huge fan of the show when he was a kid, having amassed a huge collection of serials on VHS, and he'd used them to get me hooked just in time for the reboot. We'd watch every Saturday night like clockwork. I remember being distraught when The Empty Child aired, ended on a cliffhanger, and my local PBS affiliate waited four months to air the followup episode.

I lost active interest in the show sometime during Matt Smith's run as The Doctor; something about the show's writing around then didn't quite sit right. Everything was becoming about The Doctor, always revolving around him, pulling focus away from whatever a given episode was meant to be about, and all these hints were being dropped, presenting questions to the audience that would ultimately go unanswered.

Also, I thought bringing back the Weeping Angels was stupid, before they were made more powerful upon their return.

[–] glimse@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I loved Monty Python as a kid but couldn't get into Dr. Who at all. It was too cheesy and I felt too old for it even at 10.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 1 day ago

Rarely, but yes. It would play on PBS so it was never airing consistently. But I remember a lotta episodes with Baker(? the one with the scarf) and loving it until the movie that revived the series in 1999/2000. I didn't much care for what it became after, tho it seems at some point it went back to the absolutely batshit insane way it was like as a kid (like with the Moisturize Me lady).

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 13 points 3 days ago

Tom Baker is the version of The Doctor I'm most familiar with. It was a weird show that I had to watch on PBS and no one else watched it. It was obviously a very British show with a low budget but it had heart and told interesting stories like the classic science fiction I grew up reading.

I've never gotten into any of the reboots. I'm sure they were fine but my family doesn't want to watch them. Too different.

Grew up in the 80’s and didn’t have cable tv, so I watched a lot of PBS at home after school. I remember being really invested in the Tom Baker and Peter Davison episodes but no one else I knew at school watched any of that stuff. The last story line I remember is Castrovalva. I should probably try to rewatch a few someday

[–] Beacon@fedia.io 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I never got into the show but i LOVED the theme song. Whenever i randomly stumbled across the show opening I'd listen to it every single time

[–] prex@aussie.zone 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

FYI there is a site of fan made remixes

I think aphex twin or someone else did one too.

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The theme has changed over the years too. I thought it was different with each Doctor, but the changes do not line up exactly with that.

[–] prex@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

TIL thanks.

It was orbital I was thinking of

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Honestly same. Love the theme song even if the show is kinda meh for me.

[–] franzbroetchen@feddit.org 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

European and not the original series, but I really love the 2005 (?) reboot an watched it up to season twelve I think. The Doctor Who universe is truly one of a kind, I really enjoy the mix of classic science fiction and the subtle British humor. It's one of my absolute favorite shows

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago
[–] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 points 3 days ago

I turned on PBS at midnight and this came on and I felt like I was in a different dimension where time had no meaning. And that was because of the pacing <3 I loved it, I was hooked.

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Yes, but started in the late 70s. My best friend's sister turned me on to it. I watched it on KQED.

I'm probably about the same age as your parents.

[–] Pyrixas@piefed.social 0 points 2 days ago

I hadn't even heard of Doctor Who until like the 2000s and vaguely remember mentions of the 90s movie that didn't do well in translation. I guess Doctor Who was in hiatus for like 10-ish years or something, had a movie released, retreated then got a proper continuing series by like 2005 and been going since.

I have the 9th to 11th Doctor series on DVD I've yet to watch.

[–] Davel23@fedia.io 1 points 3 days ago

I watched Doctor Who in the early '80s, but not on PBS. An independent TV station out of New Jersey, WWOR showed four episodes on Saturday mornings starting at 9 or 10. I don't think our local PBS station (channel 13) ever showed it, but channel 21 out of Long Island eventually did.

Edit: The American TV movie was 1996.

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

One other tidbit I forgot to add, I would often call port-o-johns TURDISes

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 1 points 3 days ago

sorry. more 80's than 90's and even 70's a bit. wttw. monty python then dave allen at large then docotor who. I think sometimes it was benny hill instead of dave allen.

[–] nocturne@slrpnk.net 1 points 3 days ago

It was in the 80s for me that I watched the 3rd Doctor on PBS. But Star Trek:TNG aired in the same time slot, and the tv was my parents, so when it came out no more Doctor Who for me.

It was not until about a year or two before the 9th Doctor that i was able to start watching it again. My then 4/5 year old daughter loved it. She is still a huge fan, all my kids are.

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

The couple years leading up to the release of the 2000s Dr Who reboot the Australian Broadcasting Corporation did an episode each week night starting from the original black and white episodes. Took a few years to get through the previous 9ish Drs.