Let me take you back to 2002. Here’s something I wrote back then, presented, to my shame, with all my grammar and spelling mistakes:

“It has been quite interesting to look at certain views being expressed regarding different eras and stories. The main interest for me is the difference between the long term fans – who watched Doctor Who when it was originally on – and the new fans who are watching retrospectivley.

I always grit my teeth when I see a comment like “dated” when reading a review of older stories.

For us more mature (a fine choice of words if I may say so!) fans who watched the show twenty/thirty years ago, it would have been very different to someone watching it for the first time now; purely for the fact that with production standards, everything was like that at the time, the Soaps, the Sit coms…..

I watched Quatermass and the Pit from the fifties a few years ago, and what was presented (being nearly fifty years old) was breathtaking. I had the same view for Daleks Invasion of Earth when I saw it. The Web Planet was a very ambitious production in the sixties too.

It is the same with the Acting and presentation. Someone recently (no names!) dismissed the Pertwee era as having no ideas, and another that the Tom Baker era was a complete waste. That just isn’t fair comment if you take into account the entire television output at the times of these episodes. I don’t think that for either of these times, that there was much else to compete with it on television (except maybe Gerry Anderson) and thus had a bigger impact. Not being to your personal taste is a completley different matter….

The different eras are still a product of their time, and that really has to be remembered when a new viewer watches a story in retrospect and on its own without the rest of the season with it. An example of this is Earthshock, where this fast(er) moving story was placed near the end of a rather “chatty” season. As a result it won the DWM season poll that year hand over fist.

I realise that watching individual stories is watching in the manner of the VHS/DVD releases, but in essence this way takes away some of the shine from some of the stories (and in turn makes some look better!).”

I wrote the above on the BBC Cult Message Boards in 2002. It’s quite funny to note that even then, at the tender age of 37, I considered myself a mature fan.

Clearly, this was written before the triumphant return of Doctor Who in 2005 and what I was referring to was the difference between the fans who watched Doctor Who during the original broadcasts and those who have found the programme through VHS releases (still happening in 2002) and the (then) newer sparkling DVDs.

But the subject matter is kind of irrelevant to the point I wish to make: finding this message board post (during a recent data back-up) got me thinking…

Internet message boards, or the forum discussions that took over from them, have been running for nearly 25 years now, and in that time, a regular contributor could have easily written their own reference book of some considerable thickness.

I racked up over a thousand postings and comments to the BBC Cult message boards and, apart from one or two saved pages, they have all disappeared into the ether: the boards long since withdrawn by the BBC with the shutting down of the BBC Cult site around the mid 2000s (by Russell T Davies, I understand).

Similarly, I was a semi-regular contributor to a forum called The Mausoleum Club over a similar number of years. This wasn’t exclusively Doctor Who, but that subject did make up a significant part of my contributions. Again, after years of decline in contributors, it has now closed, citing a bot invasion.

I made a small attempt at Roobarb’s Forum some time ago, but decided to walk away after a regular obnoxious contributor gave lessons on shop-lifting magazines from supermarkets; at no point did any moderators call him out. Roobarb’s is still around, but imagine how many messages one would have to wade through to find out what you may (or may not) have said about The Waters of Mars or The Next Doctor 15 years ago.

Even on the Doctor Who Companion (our favourite), Disqus only allows a user to track back a certain number of discussion contributions; despite having racked up over a thousand postings here, I’m only able to view approximately the last 12 months’ worth. In addition, many of us would also have been using Disqus on sites like Den of Geek. It’s a personal archive where the history of our own content has a very limited access!

However, as an occasional writer for the DWC, I can direct some of that energy into writing essays and articles for publication on our favourite site which won’t disappear if the site vanishes (Heaven forbid) as I’d still have my originals. But it gives me a sense of achievement and pride that I am considered good enough to grace the pages of a wonderful site and it is surprising how many subjects that Doctor Who can encompass… I mean, I’ve managed to crowbar in another of my passions – physical media – into many of my essays and get away with it (just don’t tell Philip).

Thus, dear reader, I make a call to arms: become one of the team; write something about Doctor Who – anything – as you never know what the DWC audience would find interesting.

As for my 22-year-old opinion? My view hasn’t changed at all.

Want to write for the DWC? Send us an email! Please be patient: we aim to get back to everyone asap, but we do get busy and sometimes forget to check the inbox. Just email us on doctorwhocompanion@outlook.com — tell us a little about yourself, your love for Who, and if you’ve any ideas on what you’d like to write about (it doesn’t matter if not; we can always chat and come up with ideas!).