By Steph Ferns
John Smith* was visiting friends when an episode of Doctor Who came on. He saw The Stones of Blood part four and was hooked. It didn’t matter to him that it was the last episode of a story.
Smith was first introduced to Doctor Who back in 1982-83, when he was living in South Florida and made friends with Laura and Cindy at a summer program.
They introduced him to Doctor Who through fan fiction, to characters such as Sarah Jane, the Brigadier, and the ever-delightful fourth Doctor.
Now he moderates the Doctor Who subreddit in his spare time, a temporary role as one day he hopes to be able to avoid spoilers for new episodes.
“The Doctor was unlike any hero I had ever seen before. He was creative; he was eccentric; he got things wrong. He had the broad smile and the wild mop of curly hair,” Smith said.
Smith is gay, something widely looked down upon at the time.
“Not having love stories was kind of helpful: I didn’t want to think about it, I just wanted to escape,” he said. For him, Doctor Who was a perfect escape for 24 minutes.
Smith’s life took a difficult turn, he said: “…Doctor Who was part of the old me”. The situation was thankfully sorted out in college, though in a bad way.
He went back to being a regular fan, though not as intense as before.
He managed to watch all the episodes he’d missed and by the 90s he’d caught up with everything. He even had suitcases filled with VHS tapes, though he didn’t watch them often.
The FOX movie came out and it was a struggle for him to get into.
“It looked like they were trying to meet the American audiences halfway and ended up halfway between the UK and the US— in the ocean,” he said.
Smith did come back to the fandom with the revived modern run that is still ongoing, but not immediately.
It took a high school friend who wasn’t even a fan of the original run to tell him to watch it.
He saw an episode from the 10th Doctor, The Girl in the Fireplace, a truly beautiful, action-packed, heart-wrenching episode, and he was back.
* Name has been changed.
Featured image: John Smith was captivated by the adventures of Dr Who and his companions. Photo: John Smith
