My relationship with Doctor Who started, perhaps; in slightly different place than many North Americans of my age and fighting weight. I often read of Canadians and Americans who first discovered the good Doctor via PBS; usually beginning with Tom Baker and working their way forwards and backwards as the addiction set in.

The first episode of Doctor Who that I ever saw; thanks to a television station called YTV, was “An Unearthly Child”. I’d heard of the show; being a science fiction fan and having the benefit of British parents, but this was my first real exposure. Every day, after school, a new episode. I was hooked. Before long, I was haunting every bookstore I could locate, looking for Target novelisations, New Adventures and Missing Adventures; everything, in fact, I could find that was even slightly related to the show. The logo began to festoon every school binder and scrap of paper within reach of my fevered hands.

Having started at the beginning, unlike many younger fans, the Hartnell and Troughton eras hold a particular nostalgia for me,although without the benefit of an Internet, the jumping around that set in as the series progressed was a trifle confusing. (Not to mention the sudden disappearance of the show from the air once we’d finally reached Survival.)

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