Whovians like me are delighted that the Doctor is back on TV

When this article is published, on November 23, 2023, Dr Who will be turning 60, just like I did back in August.
The fact we share the same birth year makes me feel like we’ve grown up together, like the programme is in my blood in the same way that Dartmoor is.
Obviously I wasn’t aware of the early years. However, I do have some recollections of black and white clips from Patrick Troughton's time as the Doctor, with Yeti in the London Underground, and a seaweed creature rising up from a mass of foam in a control room.
When the series returned in 1970, in full colour, and Jon Pertwee tumbled out of the Tardis, his space and time machine for those not up on their TV science fiction, I was hooked and I’ve been a massive fan ever since.
Clad in his frilly white shirt and black cape, he looked the part of a dashing hero and with the stories now set on earth, the Doctor having been exiled here as a punishment for his interference in the affairs of other races and civilisations by his fellow Time Lords, as a young viewer you felt you needed his protection all the more.
With the addition of the UNIT family, a secret branch of army intelligence tasked with protecting the Earth from alien invasion, which included the ever dependable Brigadier Leighbridge-Stewart, Sergeant Benton and Captain Mike Yates, always on hand to provide military support whenever the Doctor and his various assistants got into trouble.
You felt you were in safe hands every Saturday teatime for your 25 minutes fix of monsters and adventure, before the inevitable cliff-hanger that kept you waiting a week before the next exciting instalment.
The Doctor’s best-known foes are the Daleks, of course, but I prefer the Cybermen myself as they’ve always seemed the more credible threat and a more frightening form of the human race.
However, my favourite monsters have to be the plastic Auton’s, expressionless and relentless mannequins, best utilised as shop window dummies, that provide one of my most memorable and terrifying scenes ever as they smash their way through the glass frontages and shoot up a high street with the deadly weapons concealed in their, drop down, plastic hands. To this day I still glance twice, and feel a certain frisson, whenever I see one in a shop.
With Jon Pertwee being my favourite Doctor, I was a bit upset when he was replaced by the curly hair and beaming smile of Tom Baker, but I soon grew to love him too. When I first started exploring Dartmoor, I was reminded that one of his adventures was actually filmed on Hound Tor where, unfortunately, Tom took a tumble on the rocks and broke his collarbone. However, he survived the ordeal and the episodes were completed satisfactorily.
As part of the anniversary celebrations all existing episodes, apart from the first ever story that has been withheld for legal reasons, are available to watch on BBC iPlayer and I recently took the time to re-watch this two- part story to familiarise myself with the locations used.
I’m glad I did for although the villain of the piece, the potato headed Sontaren, Field Major Styre, has set up his base of operations amongst the rocks of Hound Tor. I had forgotten that the majority of the action takes place on the open moor, with a fine backdrop of Birch Tor and The Ace Fields, from the Jan Reynolds and the Devil legend, as well as amongst the old tin mining outcrops of Chaw Gully. An area of great folklore and mystery, lying just below the Warren House Inn.
When the show was cancelled in 1989, I was devastated. The format of the show, being able to go anywhere in space and time, the main character regenerating into another actor, just lends itself to longevity. I couldn’t understand why anyone at the BBC would want to end it.
I was just getting used to life without my favourite programme when we were briefly introduced to Paul McGann’s version in the 1996 TV Movie. He has subsequently gone on to play the character longer than any other actor, thanks to the marvellous work of the Big Finish production company and their Dr Who adventures on audio. I’m a huge fan of their continued output and am grateful to them for seeing us through those wilderness years.
Then, in 2005, Russell T Davies made every Whovian’s dream come true by persuading the BBC to put the Doctor back on the telly where he belongs. We celebrated the 50th anniversary in fine style, and now RTD is back in charge, having let a couple of other showrunners have a go over recent years. And he is bringing with him the best birthday present ever, regenerating David Tennant, in my opinion the best Doctor from the new era, from the 10th to the 14th incarnation, in three brand new episodes, alongside his old companion Donna, as played by Catherine Tate. These will be shown from Saturday November 25, and over the next two Saturday evenings, putting Dr Who back where he belongs, on TV at Saturday teatime. I for one, can’t wait!
If that wasn’t all, we have the introduction of the 15th Dr, in the shape of Ncuti Gatwa, whose acting roles to date have been ones to watch, especially in the Netflix series, Sex Education, in a Christmas Day special, if not before...
We have so much to look forward to in Dr Who land, and may he be around for many more years to come...it’s a great time to be a Whovian!