Caves of Androzani

I used to be convinced that Doctor Who "had" something that you couldn't shake off. There had to be some reason why so many kids had clung onto the series beyond childhood, into and throughout their adult lives. Hell, there are fans today that weren't even born much before "Survival" went out. That's got to indicate something a bit special, some kind of 'attraction' that Doctor Who uniquely has.

Sadly not. I fear that surrounding myself with Doctor Who fans has given me an unrepresentative statistical sample; were the net to be cast wider, there would probably be yet more still that had grown out of the series. The fact that many millions less buy Big Finish and DWM than tuned in for even "Battlefield" backs this up. I even know of several friends that outgrew the series; getting my cousin Grant into the show during the McCoy era (and even shamelessly arranging for Mum to buy him the "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" video for a birthday after the show had finished) wasn't enough to add him to our ranks. If you asked him now about Doctor Who, he probably wouldn't even remember what it was, let alone make time for "Zagreus" amid his wedding plans and sales job. My friend Christopher too bowed out, you will remember, probably inexcusably giving in to pressure from his Mum to leave it all behind. Then there's Matt, my oldest friend, who still shares so much with me. In fact he likes nothing better than to reminisce, but not too much alas about "Doctor Who".

Matt's favourite Doctor was always Peter Davison, because that was the era in which he was a fan. I can recall walking to school and trying to explain the concept of regeneration to him - it was 1984 and his fair-haired favourite was about to undergo a drastic change of personality that would sadly switch him off and away from Doctor Who forever.

"So then he turns into a different Doctor..." I was saying as we rounded the corner.

"What, like a vet?" he replied. It's actually possible that this was sometime during early Season 21 and he hadn't been a viewer for that long, or possibly my memory is cheating me. We certainly watched "The Caves of Androzani" together on his Betamax, as I can recall hiding my eyes when the horrid bit with the burned face came on.

And Matt had some great Doctor Who stickers as I recall, one with an android from "Caves" on, and possibly Alpha Centurai as well. I'm not sure where he got them, as Panini never cast their sticker-book wand over Doctor Who, to my life-long regret. And his Mum typed out pages from the Radio Times Twentieth Anniversary special, under which he drew a six-year olds interpretation of Peter Davison and the TARDIS. I still have that - on a landmark day many years later he gave me his small collection of Who stuff, sadly minus the stickers which had been lost. Yes, Matt must have been a fan for the twentieth anniversary because he still loves "The Five Doctors" - along with the Peter Cushing Dalek films it's part of his childhood, like The Flumps and Star Wars. And that's kind of nice too, the fact that even though he left Who behind, he still loves "The Five Doctors".

We had to go through the "mockery" years of course, when he decided that Doctor Who was crap and you could see the actor playing Davros' eyes through his mask during "Revelation" (apparently). To be honest, I don't think he ever really got over losing Peter, certainly not after the brash and unlikable Sixth Doctor took over. I remember the Radio Times featuring a listings picture of a Cyberman, which was sitting in his kitchen in anticipation of "Attack", so the omens of "The Twin Dilemma" must have passed us by. The chances of him becoming a life-long fan were doomed, however, and we shared no real memories of Season 22. The show changed, scorn took over, and he decided to grow up without it.

Years later, we sat and watched "Earthshock" together in my University bedroom. I didn't tell him the Cybermen were going to be in it, and so he encountered the end of Episode 1 unawares. He said he really liked it, but I didn't push for us to watch any more. That said, I bet he'd be thrilled if one day I put "The Five Doctors" on again. We'll see. I suppose I should feel lucky that I was around in the days when people at school loved Doctor Who too, and your best friend had a favourite Doctor. Perhaps that's more important than the fact he eventually discarded it in favour of music, girls and football. Like most people did really.