Any Doctor Who fans out there? Give a holler. We can chat, email, whatever. Scott

Our editor ArleneRimmer is a big Doctor Who fan... maybe she can be convinced to post.

I've never heard of Doctor Who. What kind of show is it?

Dr. Who is a long-running (over 40 years) British science fiction television show. "The Doctor" is an alien Timelord from the planet Gallifrey and he has a Tardis (time machine - it's an acronym for, I think, Time And Relative Dimension In Space) shaped like a British police call box. He uses it to travel around the universe and through time. He visits Earth an awful lot.

When The Doctor is mortally wounded he regenerates instead of dying. (Although he is supposed to have a limited number of regenerations.) This has allowed 10 different actors to play The Doctor. William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy starred in the original run of the show, Paul McGann in a movie, and Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant in the new series currently in production.

The production value of the series for the first seven Doctors was poor compared to standards of the time like Star Wars but that was part of it's charm to a large cult following. That, and the many aliens with British accents. Today's episodes have bigger budgets and are very well done in comparison.

I watched the original shows on public television in the 70s and 80s as they liscensed with the BBC. The Sci-Fi channel has been showing the new series on Friday nights. They finished up the second season a couple months ago and will likely air the third season in the Fall. There are also a couple of spinoffs that Sci-Fi may pick up - Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

I almost forgot... Sarah Jane is one of The Doctor's companions. The companions are a way of keeping additional characters for the audience to follow. Most of them have been from Earth and he has even had two or three at a time.

That's probably more than you wanted to know, but if you have more questions let me know. (Or check out wikipedia.com for lots of Who information.)

I used to watch it all the time with my children.
They even had a joke at the time.

Knock, knock! "Who's there?" "Doctor".
"Doctor, who?" "Thats right, Doctor Who".

Love it, watch every episode. David Tennant is really growing on me in that role. We were all falling off our chairs laughing at the 'Expelliarmus' in the Shakespeare episode'. The repeaeted theme of mindless armies with heads of pigs/robots/dolls/oods marching on you is getting a bit tedious but apart from that it's entertaining. We also watched Torchwood.

I liked it when I was a kid, but it's nostalgia for me. I'm not all that interested in seeing new episodes.

Stu, I watched the first few series but lost interest in my teens and only started watching again when it was restarted a couple of years ago. It's a bit of a must see now.

I do wish they'd stop messing about with the Daleks though. As far as I'm concerned Daleks are scary animated dustbins and that's it, no octopus-like creatures living inside them, no gene splicing and they definitely never feel emotion.

Yaarbiriah, I found Torchwood a bit disappointing. Captain Jack turned into a bit of a bore, whereas in Dr Who he was quite fun.

Oh I don't know, Supersal, I think they're getting quite creative with the daleks for a change:) The whole point of the experiments in the Empire state building was to incorporate some of that human emotion so that they could evolve, though in the end they chose to reject it instead and stay as they were. Allegorical when you think about it.

Jack's character and mysteries were developed much more in Torchwood (whereas in Dr. Who he seemed rather shallow) It was getting really quite tantalizing actually though one wonders where on earth it was all going especially in a philosophical sense. I'll be watching the next series.

Yes, but shallow is perfect for early evening viewing on a Saturday.
Mind you, I was bemused to find myself having to explain Jack's rather broad sexual preferences to my 10 year old daughter - I'm sure my Mum didn't have to do that when I watched Dr Who as a child.

I can remember watching Doctor Who as a small child and hiding behind the sofa whenever the daleks came out. I was terrified of them, especially the leader. What a wolly lol

My father introduced me to the Doctor when I was around 12. Loved it ever since. Tom Baker is my favorite doctor. I have recently introduced my boyfriend to the Doctor as a part of my campain to 'educate' him and introduce him to 'culture' (read: get him hooked on Doctor Who, Red Dwarf and the original Star Trek). He has since become addicted to the new Doctor Who series, which I don't watch because I don't have cable. I have also made a marvelous Whovian discovery. The internet audio drama site that my boyfriend writes and acts for has a rockin' Doctor Who fanseries. My boyfriend even got a bit part in their (currently) latest episode. If any of you want to check the series out, PM me for the url.

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Hi Dragonkin. I am not a Doctor Who fanatic but I have a 28 year old son who is and who has built a virtual shrine in a very large attic of memorabilia, DVDs, tapes, books, videos etc. You name it and he probably has it.

I would be interested in the internet audio drama site -well, to be more correct, he would! Wouldn't suprise me if he already knows of it! Thanking you in advance if you read and reply to thiss

Am I the only one disappointed with the new Doctor Who? I preferred the old shaky sets and when the aliens were made out of tin foil and old bits of cardboard. The new Doctor Who looks good but the story lines are very weak imho. Despite the shoestring budgets of the 1960's/70's the stories were much better written then and you always had the famous cliffhanger at the end of each episode. Sorry but I'm from the over 40's section and this new batch just doesn't cut the mustard.

perhaps you would have had another opinion if at 1st you'd watched new Doctor Who...

My older sister loves Dr. Who! She always watched it when we were kids. I never got into it much, but she was almost a Dr. Who fanatic!

I'm another of the over 40s Dr Who fans. I started off hiding behind the sofa in the late '60s watching Patrick Troughton, the 'second' Doctor. Then I enjoyed the Jon Pertwee and most of the Tom Baker era before my interest waned as the story quality dipped (or maybe I was just growing up!).

Personally, I think the 'new' Dr Who series is great entertainment and I think it's been true to the original premise of the series. It's not aimed primarily at my generation so I wouldn't expect to judge it on those terms. I think they've been clever to not make too many references to the original series. There are occasional references in the script there which make an old fan smile, and of course the episode with Sarah Jane was great last year but they could easily have gone too far with in-jokes.

The key to the success this time probably lies in the fact that the Producer, Russell T Davies, was a big fan of the original series, as was the current Doctor, David Tennant. Good an actor as Christopher Eccleston is, I think David Tennant has been better in the role.

I watched a couple of the Torchwood episodes, but I had misgivings. They seemed to be trying too hard to add an 'adult' element to the stories which jarred a little.

Mark

I've only just started watching Dr Who, I saw the last episode with Rose, and the first 2 of a new series with David Tennant which has only just started in Australia.

David Tennant is an excellent doctor though, perfectly suited to the role.

I absolutely love Doctor Who because its creative and original. I really loved the series 3 finale and I've heard that Kylie Minogue is lined up to star in it.

Kylie Minogue? That could be interesting.

For UK viewers, apparently the tenth Doctor (David Tennant) will meet the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) in a short special to be shown during Children In Need on 16 November.

Oooh. I hope that shows in Australia.

It probably wont though.

You never know, the ABC might just surprise us and show it.

Looks like Kylie is going to be in the next Christmas special. I've heard that Catherine Tate will be returning as the new companion...I may be horribly wrong, but what does everyone else think about that? I can't say I don't have misgivings...I got so attached to Rose, and then to Martha

I only really got addicted to Dr Who because of my friends when Martha became companion, and a few episodes with Rose. (My family doesn't really like dr who)

But Martha and what I saw of Rose was pretty good. I like the idea of them both being doctors. (not Rose, Martha)

I had never even heard of Doctor Who until last year when my grandmother gave me a copy of a few episodes of the 2005 season. I wasn't even going to watch them, but then one day I had nothing else to do, so I gave them a try. I was so surprised, they were really good! I've only seen a few seasons, but have loved what I have seen. I get the feeling they are more popular in England, because most of the people I know here (Canada) either haven't heard of it, or haven't watched it. I love the historical episodes, though, going back in time is so cool.