by Ron Vitale

I mentioned this in yesterday's blog, but I'll talk about it again: I had listened to the Podshock Doctor Who podcast and I started thinking about all the Doctor Who memorabilia I've collected over the years. I decided to go through my books, pictures, and autographs, posting some of the materials here. What really started me down this path is a picture of Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor) that I saw. I couldn't believe that the picture was from a Creation convention in Philadelphia back around 1985. What made the picture more interesting is that I was at that convention (I don't know if the picture was taken Saturday or Sunday, but still I have reason to believe that I was in the audience when the picture was taken). I went through my pictures (that had been stuffed in a bag from just moving) and dug my picture out. As I started going through the pictures, I found my picture of Peter Davison and laughed: I recalled how the convention staff had misspelled Peter's name and how the audience sang "Happy Birthday" to him (he had just turned 34 years old). Ah, what great memories!

So listening to the Doctor Who podcasts and watching the new show just got me thinking about all my memories from 20 years old when I was really into watching the program. I must admit that I've never lost my interest in Doctor Who--it's just that American TV stations stopped showing it. And the release of episodes on DVD has been extremely show. The good thing is that I just added a bunch of shows to my Netflix queue. My wife will hate me (she's not a big fan of Doctor Who because of how bad the specials are and of the cheesy acting), but I really liked those shows.

I put together a quick Doctor Who memory page, scanning in some of the pictures I have from conventions, autographs from some of the actresses, and some other goodies. Be sure to check this page out. Seeing those old pictures really got me to smiling and on remembering when I was 15 years old, watching hours of Doctor Who on a Saturday afternoon on PBS. I'd love to see some of those old episodes (Invasion of Time, Castrovalva and a whole list of the older shows).

I'd rent them on Netflix in a heartbeat. Heck, I'd even purchase them on iTunes for $1.99 so I could watch them again. It's been nearly 15-20 years since I last saw these shows. And that gets me to my current point of today: There isn't (that I'm aware of) a legal way for me to watch the new Doctor Who episodes (BBC America doesn't view them). I know that they're coming out on DVD in February but they aired last year. And industries wonder why people turn to Bit Torrent--it must tell you something about what customers want.

But I have faith that the technology of today will catch up with the TV stations. Being able to buy episodes of Battlestar Galactica on iTunes (or Lost, Desperate Housewives, etc.) is extremely nice. Maybe you missed one episode and want to catch up on it. Heck, I had heard how funny the Christmas episode was of the American version of "The Office" was and I purchased that on iTunes a few days ago. (I still love the British version much better, but the Christmas episode for here in America was damn funny.)

With Doctor Who podcasts, websites, and much more out there, I’m encouraged that Doctor Who will be around for a long time to come. Happy birthday, Doctor. It's been one heck of a ride!