What was the first Doctor Who episode you ever watched?

[Bramandin]

Was present in the room for... probably something from the Baker or Pertwee time. Actually sought out watching it... still no idea if the 8th doctor movie doesn't count. I had seen a lot of new Who before it stopped being an accident.

 

[Margaret Note Spelling]

In the interests of avoiding confusion, note: I wasn't even born by the time DW went off the air.

That being said, the earliest episodes I remember seeing were from The Dominators and The Wheel in Space (Second Doctor), although I was much too young to follow any of it; I only remember things like the unicorn, or a particular funny costume. I was essentially just in the room while my older sister was watching it. It fell under the same effect as watching the Lord of the Rings, for me--my family had been watching and re-watching it since before I was old enough to notice (the big spider was my first main impression of it) and it was only upon the second or third full viewing that I remember actively paying attention.

Technically, then, I only started paying attention to Doctor Who by the second episode of the Jon Pertwee era--Ambassadors of Death. (We actually skipped over Spearhead From Space at the time, not sure why; probably an accident.)

All of which means that, as a result, I probably couldn't even pin down for you which Doctor really counts as my first one, Troughton or Pertwee.

 

[FoundYouForever010]

The Ark in Space, with Tom Baker as The Doctor. I was too young to fully understand it at the time, so I got really freaked out.

 

[Astro Pen]

There from the start, with An unearthly child I have to admit.
I am sad that the Marco Polo episode (and some others I believe) were destroyed by the then cavalier BBC.
There has been a brave attempt to animate it to the sound track from studio shots but...

I heard, recently, that the Daleks were nearly rejected by the producers. I was reminded of the guy at Decca who turned down the Beatles

ps. Worse than I thought

Doctor Who missing episodes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[THX1138]

Many years ago, out local PBS (Public Educational TV) showed "The Keys to Time" miniseries with Tom Baker. I got hooked on Dr. Who during the following weeks and so did the rest of the State. Very soon we were enjoying our weekly Dr Who fix for many years to come.

 

[Matteo]

 Robot, the first Tom Baker episode.

 

[Dave]

I was the winner of a children's drawing competition, to draw a panda for the launch of the Fiat Panda

I don't want to take this off-topic, but reading this now just reminded me of another Dr. Who competition, which may have been via the Blue Peter TV programme, or it may not, to draw a new monster for Dr. Who. My brother, sister and myself were very industrial and posted off many entries. I remember that we won two minor prizes, though I cannot remember what the prize actually was now, or which one of us won. It was certainly the quality of the name of the drawing that won the prizes rather than the quality of the drawing that won, although I can no longer remember the names we came up with either. If anyone else can shed some light on that competition please? This would be late 1960's or early 1970's in the UK.

 

[BAYLOR]

 Robot, the first Tom Baker episode.

That's the episode that drew me back to the series.

 

[Dave]

I don't want to take this off-topic, but reading this now just reminded me of another Dr. Who competition, which may have been via the Blue Peter TV programme, or it may not, to draw a new monster for Dr. Who. My brother, sister and myself were very industrial and posted off many entries. I remember that we won two minor prizes, though I cannot remember what the prize actually was now, or which one of us won. It was certainly the quality of the name of the drawing that won the prizes rather than the quality of the drawing that won, although I can no longer remember the names we came up with either. If anyone else can shed some light on that competition please? This would be late 1960's or early 1970's in the UK.

An internet search tells me that it was in 1967, and Patrick Troughton chose the overall winner in the monster design competition run by BBC show Blue Peter. They did again in 2006, which resulted in the "Love and Monsters" story, and they have just done it a third time in 2023.

 

[Ursa major]

I believe** -- this was all a long time ago -- the first episode I saw was either the last minute or so of the concluding episode of An Unearthly Child or its repeat at the beginning of The Daleks. I certainly can't recall anything else about that first story...

...but I also don't know how or why I would have started seeing Doctor Who from the first episode of The Daleks. Being six years old at the time, I doubt I had much if any say over the TV being on (or not) and which channel (out of the vast selection of two that were on air back then) I would get to see.

As an aside, I'm really pleased that the settee/sofa had been invented back then....


** - I say "believe", because my memory has been "augmented" or "corrupted" by, for example, seeing the film, Dr. Who and the Daleks in the cinema when it came out, which would have included the introduction of the TARDIS to the companions (something that was presumably shown in TV's An Unearthly Child) so the idea that I saw that introduction on the TV is floating around in my head. And, of course, there have been various repeats (partial or complete) of some or other of the early years' episodes.