Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

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Americans/Canadians: What was your Doctor Who exposure pre-2000s?

I had neither heard of nor seen any Doctor Who before the series revival circa 2005.
2
4%
I had heard of the show but had not seen it.
11
19%
I knew of the show pre-2000s and had seen at least one episode.
24
42%
I am neither Canadian nor American and therefore should not be voting in this poll at all!
20
35%
 
Total votes: 57

erik_t
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Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by erik_t »

I've been geeking out this evening (morning) and appreciating some older Doctor Who via youtube. The classic series had ceased production before I was in primary school, and broadcast in the US was erratic regardless, but my father had taped at least half a dozen episodes and they were a rather formative part of my childhood. I cannot recall a time in my life before hiding from Daleks under the covers.

I'm curious to what degree my dad's science-y background influenced this. Board denizens of the New World: Had you seen any Doctor Who before the series was revived a few years back?
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by The Grim Squeaker »

I'd heard of it, but hadn't seen any of it.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba »

My dad has recorded tapes of pretty much every doctor since the first one. My bro and I grew up on a special tape set of all the Dalek episodes. And the Candyman episode, which we thought was hella rad. And the one with dinosaurs. That one was popular too.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Stark »

Isn't this pretty meaningless without people's ages? People who grew up in the commonwealth in the early 80s are way more likely to have seen Doctor Who before than people who grew up in central asia in the 90s.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by General Zod »

I vaguely remember seeing some old Doctor Who episodes on PBS years and years ago, I think it was the 4th Doctor. But otherwise I never started seriously watching the show until it was revived with Eccleston.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Havok »

Aged 32 years. American. Still have never seen an episode of Dr. Who. I may not have even seen more than commercials for it.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Grandmaster Jogurt »

As far as I can remember, the first time I saw any Doctor Who was in 2006, but it was the older series. I was visiting a friend's house and we found some old tapes of PBS broadcasts of the Third and Fourth Doctors. I later saw reruns of a few Eccleston episodes, but none of the latest Doctor. I'd been aware of the series as long as I can remember, but only in that it was a British show with a time-traveling phone booth or something.

I may have seen a few episodes as a kid, since my parents saw the show at least a few times when it was on PBS, but I have no memory of it. For the record, I was born in '86 and live in the US.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Patrick Degan »

Started watching the series on my local PBS station in 1981 and had a tape library which was lost to the New Orleans flood. And I knew of it years before that point.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Styphon »

Age 23, I was vaguely aware of the show but never actually saw it until I ran across an episode of Season 2 of the new series in the middle of a convention.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Darth Lucifer »

35 & American. I grew up seeing Doctor Who mostly on PBS reruns starting with Tom Baker, then Peter Davison, and so on. Every once in a while they'd also show docs 1, 2, and 3 which were before my time. The revival has made me get back into old school Doctor Who more than ever.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Lord of the Abyss »

Born in 1967. I saw a fair number of them before the revival. And I recall seeing some of the black and white episodes with the Daleks ( back when they had to roll on a special metal floor ) when I was a kid.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by loomer »

I'm pretty sure that, for a while, they showed the old Dr. Who at 6 PM on the ABC here in Australia. I was like, eighteen at the time, if memory serves.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Majin Gojira »

Age 27 living in America. My mother watched Who back in the day, I managed to catch at least 1 episode from "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" as well as a few episodes of "Seeds of Doom" and an the entirety of "Warriors of the Deep".

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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by FSTargetDrone »

My exposure to Doctor Who is limited to seeing bits and pieces of it on PBS. The only actor I ever saw on those shows playing The Doctor was Tom Baker. The shows always seemed to be on really late at night and I just never got into it. I never went out of my way to watch it and cannot recall a single episode or storyline. I know what a Dalek is, and I get the whole Police Box thing as an icon of sci-fi, but I just never really paid attention to it. Whatever I saw of the show was watching it because nothing else was on.
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Re: Pre-2000s-revival Doctor Who

Post by Ilya Muromets »

While I am neither American nor Canadian, I actually did see some classic Doctor Who serials years ago despite the series being virtually unheard off in the Philippines. There were a bunch of used CD box sets of a few 4th and 5th Doctor serials being sold in some used items bizarre and my parents somehow thought I'd find it interesting and got them all for me (there were marked very cheaply) either for one of my birthdays or Christmas. I have trouble remembering exactly which.

Sadly, those CDs are now long-gone.

Oh, and I also did manage to catch the Remembrance of the Daleks serial from an old neighbor who also somehow dug up a VHS from some bargain bin somewhere. And I vaguely recall seeing one of the 3rd Doc serials, but I forgot where and how.

EDIT: Given all that disjointed-ness in my pre-revival who experience, you can be sure I was confused why there were several varying Doctors until I learned how to use the 'Net in high school and managed to wiki up as much as I could about the series.
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