Discovering Who

For me it all started with some people ascending an air vent with a parachute. Then while I was struck with the horrible disease chicken pox, the Doctor was hypnotizing various people with the aid of a blue crystal and green maggots were trying to take over the world (or so I thought!). I remember a silly reporter stowing away on the TARDIS, and having to stir vegetables when she got captured and the famous line 'Look, a spider!' and a shriek from the dull-witted cook. But what really got me was when Linx took off his helmet; yuck! I had accidentally videotaped the last episode of The Time Warrior and watched it over and over again. When the castle blew up, me and my friends would put our hands on the TV and they would get blown up as well! (I was only nine).

It was at this point that I bought my first Doctor Who books - five to be exact; I remember that two of them were The Tenth Planet and The Second Doctor Who Quiz Book. I realised I was hooked and so did my family. They bought me more books for Christmas and for my birthday and slowly my collection increased.

Two years later after having been through Jon and Tom and now on to Peter, my heart skipped a beat when I read in the newspaper an article about the Doctor Who 25th Silver Jubilee and what's more they were going to show a selection of the best Doctor Who stories and some with completely new Doctors! I was so excited I couldn't sleep for days (the Jubilee was actually two months away so I had plenty of time to wait). I made my own model TARDIS out of cardboard and a console that would fit inside but this only lasted a few weeks as my friends always touched it and it had an annoying habit of falling apart when looked at.

From then on I watched every single episode I could. I had already known about the club but for some reason I didn't join until September 1993. I'm kicking myself now, as I realise that I should have joined much earlier. Thanks NZDWFC, you've renewed and increased my interest beyond what it ever was before.