By Si Hunt

And it all seems like such a long time ago now.

March, 2005. "Rose" is on. Memories of being so, so possibly excited that I can't actually enjoy new Doctor Who because I'm too busy thinking "I'm watching new Doctor Who!" over and over again. I don't even remember Graham Norton's cameo appearance during the most exciting bit. I'm in Clacton, and so are my oldest friends, but they arn't beside me. Even though they must know how much it means to me, even though it's only the second time in sixteen years that proper Doctor Who has been on the telly, they are down the pub. No viewing parties held in my honour. I feel distinctly wet behind the ears emerging into the Robin Hood as they all laugh and are merry; as if, yet again, I have to apologise for foregoing heavy drinking for just a TV programme. Even though it's the most exciting and unique premier of a TV programme ever. I tell them it's quite good, but they arn't that interested anyway. Watch "Rose" again the next day, with different friends. Then again with other half.

For some reason, Emma Laxton has invited me to her wedding reception. I've not seen her since High School, so the suspicion is she is short on friends/guests. The only problem is that "The End of the World" is on, and I don't see why I should miss only the third opportunity in sixteen years to see Who go out live for this damp squib of an occasion. I'm threatening to do one of my life-affirming "I'm going to do what I want" things, but friends (the same ones who sat in the pub during "Rose") say I must go. It's going to be three weeks before I get to watch Who live in my own home; don't forget how much of a novelty this was.

Not long after, Mr Eccleston hands in his notice. The feeling is very much "well, that's that then!". Whole comeback feels utterly derailed. Cries of "Why?", "How?" and "Why?" again. How one individual that isn't Michael Grade could stamp on our dreams when we had worked so hard for them. The rest of the season is viewed with a not-quite-so-optimistic tint. We survived though, somehow. We're all still here. Christopher who?

I've no memories of "The Unquiet Dead" but by the time "Dalek" rolls round, my living room is full of the like-minded. A few people are quietly anxious that people will talk all the way through it; you forget now, but we'd never enjoyed an unseen Doctor Who with friends before. Not ever. Everyone is completely silent all the way through, bar a few excited murmurings when the Cyberhead appears. It's completely brilliant of course, but it's like a once-in-a-lifetime airing of the Holy Grail; no-one wants to blink in case they miss anything.

"Boom Town" in June is the first episode to share with the parents. By now, everyone watches Doctor Who. Even Nan! Who ever thought that would happen? I can remember my Dad angrily rebuffing my attempts to lock him in a room with "Horror of Fang Rock" a short time before the whole revival thing. That was probably for the best, he'd only have slept through the good bits and laughed at the Rutan. But even so. Regret that now, do ya? Mum says Doctor Who is "quite good". I KNOW! All these years and, guess what, I WAS RIGHT! She even likes "Boom Town", although things sag in the middle a bit. "Boom Town", not Mum. Against all odds, she still likes it more than most Doctor Who fans though.

The series finishing in June feels wrong. Memories of the Dalek Emperor and then walking out into the sunshine to find a takeaway. It shouldn't be like that! Vow to watch every single opening and closing episode with Si and Steve. Well, it's a tradition isn't it? Every tradition has to start at some point.

By Christmas 2005, things are so different. People in the street know what regeneration is again, and Billie Piper is respected. The TARDIS is now one of my least favourite aspects of Doctor Who because it's orange inside and has weird windows. Camille Coduri is an icon. Kids in Toys R Us are fiddling with toy Slitheen and oddly I feel more embarrassed when buying tat because the people around me in the queue are waist-height.

But gone, suddenly, are the days when new Doctor Who was just a dream shared by a few; when DWM had staples and there wasn't new Who to tape on Christmas Day.

And it all seems like such a long time ago now.

"I think you need a Doctor" - The Doctor, The Parting of the Ways

We'd patiently waited a decade and a half for a regular series, so even when it was announced in autumn 2003, I still didn't quite dare to believe it. Well, after a while I believed it was coming back, but I just didn't know whether it could possibly live up to my heightened expectations. And we had a long wait throughout 2004 and then suddenly on the first day of 2005, there was that tantalising teaser trailer on BBC1 primetime and the heart started to beat a little faster. The promotional push given by the BBC was quite amazing - trailers galore and even billboards. The two issues of Radio Times prior to the series launch both contained small preview features to whet the appetite, Christopher Eccleston was interviewed by Jonathan Ross and we had that amazing montage of clips covering the first ten episodes (I wish I'd thought to tape it though!) and the two part primetime Radio 2 documentary Project Who which really raised the anticipation factor even higher. Doctor Who was everywhere you looked!

Talking of the Radio Times, I'm still staggered even now to think how they supported the show in 2005. With a pull-out section and front cover for the first episode, they then had a mini-feature for every single episode and a larger one for Dalek, which was also graced with the front cover - in General Election week, no less. I can't think of any other series of anything that's had two RT covers in the space of 5 weeks! We thought we had it good in the 70s when each of the Pertwee seasons was heralded with a front cover.

The series proved to be so much better than I had expected, but best of all was to see a consistent run of excellent ratings. The show is no longer a cult oddity, it's a mainstream smash and quite simply one of the most popular shows on TV other than the two big soaps. And not just was it popular with the public, but it was getting critical acclaim too, and the awards have just kept on coming, and at the time of writing we await the BAFTAs with bated breath.

We got so much more than 13 largely excellent episodes though. The BBC gave us a half hour warm up on the day of Rose, which served as a useful bit of back story for newcomers too. Straight after each episode, digital viewers got a fascinating 30 minute look behind the scenes and plenty of clips from the original series with Doctor Who Confidential. And on the day of the last episode, we had another 45 minute guide to the whole series on BBC1, although for viewers of Confidential the contents had largely been seen before.

The whole viewing pattern had changed beyond recognition for me. In the 70s and early 80s I'd have one chance to watch an episode, and if you missed it due to other commitments that was it and you'd have to rely on asking a friend, DWM or the Target novelisation to find out what happened. Out on a Saturday night now? No problem - catch the repeat the following night on BBC3. Buy the DVD within months. Or catch umpteen subsequent repeats on BBC3 and UK Gold. Barely a week has gone by on digital TV since the series ended without an episode on one of those two channels well into 2006.

Even without digital TV, you could still watch Confidential online courtesy of BBCi, and of course the internet is the other main difference now regarding the new series. I loved participating in the anticipation of each new episode on Planet Skaro, and on most Saturday nights would log in straight after Confidential to read what fellow fans thought of each episode. Rather different than waiting a day or two to discuss it at school in my youth!

I've written elsewhere how my whole family watched the show in the 70s. My parents watched Rose and let me know that they really enjoyed it. We watched the second episode together while they were visiting, which I didn't think was one of the stronger episodes. However, they carried on watching, particularly enjoying the political satire in Aliens of London/WWIII, and would even tape it if they were out for the night! They really enjoyed Confidential too, and it's been a real joy for me to know that they're enjoying the show again. I also managed to watch Dalek in the company of half a dozen fellow fans and friends, which was a very enjoyable experience indeed.

Needless to say, there has been an explosion in associated merchandise, with the likes of remote control Daleks, action figures, an interactive board game and I was particularly pleased to see the return of the Annual, which I just had to get for Christmas to resume a tradition that stretched back exactly 30 years. Although I know they have sold well, I have personally been disappointed with the DVD releases of the 2005 series - the vanilla releases had absolutely no interest for me and I haven't to date bought the boxed set either. The extras look somewhat lacklustre, including the worthless cut down Confidentials, having taped all of the full length versions. I'm not in a hurry to watch the episodes any time soon either, having seen them all at least three times so far. I'll be patient and hope to see the kind of online sale that tends to cut boxsets down by 50-60%.

May 2005 marked the 25th anniversary of my buying DWM and the start of the year also saw the biggest revamp for it, losing the staples, gaining 16 more pages and hardbound covers. Many fans have complained that it is covering the new series far too much, with hardly any emphasis on the old series, but what do they expect? After an admirable 15 years or so writing about the same old stories, they are naturally rejoicing in the fact (like me) that we have new stories to marvel at. They've also kept strong links with their own past by resurrecting Matrix Data Bank, Off The Shelf and After Image.

I haven't mentioned the stories themselves as it wasn't my intention for this article to review them. Having said that, I think it's the strongest, most consistent season ever and even the weakest ones aren't that bad. However, what I've aimed to get across is that in the 21st century, the enjoyment is more than just sitting passively watching the TV once a week as it used to be. And I simply don't recall the show being as universally loved, by the audience and critics, as it is now. Perhaps in a TV landscape that was starting to be dominated by the cult of celebrity and reality TV, we all needed a Doctor...