March 19, 2021 by Maggie McNeill
The venerable British science-fantasy series Doctor Who has been one of my favorites since it first appeared on our local PBS station (WYES in New Orleans) in the summer of 1981; like many Americans of my generation, the first episodes I saw were those starring Tom Baker as The Doctor, which originally ran from 1974-81. But as most of you probably know now, he was only one of many actors to play the part, because when a Time Lord (that's the alien race to which the Doctor belongs) dies, he regenerates into a new form, with a new face and a new personality. When WYES realized how much pledge money the series brought in, the station naturally did its best to acquire as many seasons as possible; at one point they were playing the Fourth Doctor episodes (starring Baker) on Saturday night, the Third Doctor episodes (1970-74, starring Jon Pertwee) on Friday night, and the then-new Fifth Doctor episodes (1982-84, starring Peter Davison) on Sunday morning. Eventually they even got ahold of as many of the 1960s episodes featuring the first two doctors as were then available; it was then I discovered that many of these early shows were missing, casualties of lean times at the BBC which caused many of them to be taped over because videotape was expensive and newer shows had to be recorded on them. In the decades since, some of the missing episodes have been discovered in various places; others have been reconstructed with animation or stills from the original soundtracks (which all managed to survive). What that means is, with some effort and ingenuity it's now possible to watch the entire show from 1963 to the present, and last month Grace and I decided to do just that. Lorelei Rivers is a Who superfan, and graciously allowed me to borrow her complete classic collection; we've already watched the first two seasons and soon we'll move on to the Second Doctor, the one I've seen the least of. Back in the '80s, I loved watching the series with people who were dear to me, and prior to the pandemic Lorelei and I regularly enjoyed our Who nights; it's great fun to see them again now with Grace. And I've even started a running Twitter thread on my impressions of the old shows, which despite being less sophisticated than their modern counterparts are still a helluva lot of fun.
