From Fan History Wiki

[edit] Introduction

Doctor Who first graced television screens in the United Kingdom in November of 1963. By the time it went off the air in December of 1989, there was a thriving and active fan fiction community based on the show. Things like professional novel tie ins, a 30th anniversary special in 1993, a made for television movie in 1996 and a new show airing in 2005 kept the fandom alive and moving.

[edit] The Show

Created in 1963 by The BBC, Doctor Who chronicles the life and adventures of a mysterious alien called "The Doctor", who belongs to a race of super-intellgent, humanoid beings called "Time Lords" from a planet called "Gallifrey" and his friends (usually referred to as 'assistants' or 'companions') he meets along the way as they travel through universe in his time machine/space ship called a TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space), which is permanently stuck with the exterior of a British police call box. The series is made as a serious Science Fiction/Drama, but it has captured the minds and hearts of millions around the world thanks to its quirkiness and limited budget. It was orignally created as a show for children, but it appeals to both children and adults.

[edit] Canon Related Timeline

[edit] The 1960s

On November 23, 1963, Doctor Who premiered on television in the United Kingdom. [1]
December 21-February 1 1964- a seven-part serial written by Terry Nation, now called The Daleks airs. The story becomes a UK ratings hit and kids all over the country can't get enough the title villains.
On January 15, 1965, Doctor Who premiered in Australia. [2]
Also in January 1965, Doctor Who premiered in Canada on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation but was not renewed after the initial 26 episode run of the BBC's Season 1.
On June 25, 1965 The first feature film based on the series, Dr. Who and the Daleks is released in theaters. ^{[citation needed]}
Patrick Troughton replaces William Hartnell in the lead role. ^{[citation needed]}
July 22, 1966, a second feature film Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD is released in theaters. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] The 1970s

In 1970, Jon Pertwee takes over as the Doctor and the show is broadcast for the first time in color. ^{[citation needed]}
On July 28, 1975, Doctor Who premiered on television in the Netherlands. [3]
On September 29, 1975, Doctor Who premiered on television in the United States. [4]
In the fall of 1976, Doctor Who began airing in the Canadian province of Ontario on TVOntario beginning with The Three Doctors. The show would remain on TVO until 1991 with the conclusion of Season 24, the final season of the original series.
On October 17, 1979, Doctor Who premiered on television in Denmark. [5]

[edit] The 1980s

In 1982, after 8 years, longer than any other actor in the history of the series, Tom Baker quits the series, Peter Davison takes his place as the Fifth Doctor. ^{[citation needed]}
In 1984, Colin Baker takes on the role of the Doctor. ^{[citation needed]}
In 1985, the BBC puts the series on hitaus for almost a year. ^{[citation needed]}
In 1987, Colin Baker is fired and replaced with Slyvester McCoy. ^{[citation needed]}
On March 12, 1989, Doctor Who premiered on television in France. [6]
December 6, 1989: The final new episode of Old Who airs.

[edit] The 1990s

On May 12, 1996, a new version of Doctor Who premiered in Canada. [7]
On May 14, 1996, a new version of Doctor Who premiered in the United States. [8]
On May 27, 1996, a new version of Doctor Who premiered in the United Kingdom. [9]
On July 7, 1996, a new version of Doctor Who premiered in Australia. [10]
On October 30, 1996, a new version of Doctor Who premiered in New Zealand. [11]

[edit] The 2000s

On September 26, 2003, BBC confirmed "Doctor Who is returning to TV, 14 years after it was axed." [12]
March 26th, 2005: The first episode of "New Who" ('Rose') airs in the United Kingdom.
April 5th, 2005: The first episode of "New Who" ('Rose') airs in the Canada. CBC is a co-producer and was looking to fill in the spot usually taken up by NHL playoffs but NHL was pre-emptied by labour action. All Doctor Who episodes were introduced by Christopher Eccleston.
On December 22, 2005, the new Doctor Who premiered on television in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and United Arab Emirates. [13]
December 25th, 2005, Christmas Episode The Christmas Invasion airs on BBC1. ^{[citation needed]}
December 26th, 2005, Christmas Episode The Christmas Invasion airs on CBC with Billie Piper does the introduction. ^{[citation needed]}
March 17, 2006: New Who makes it's US television debut on the Sci-Fi Channel
July 4th, 2006: Despite a BBC press embargo effective until midnight, news breaks on the internet that Billie Piper's replacement will be Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman. ^{[citation needed]}
July 5th, 2006: BBC announce Freema Agyeman's casting.
September 2006 to February 2008 sees CBC airs the 2nd New Who series with a December to mid-January break. ^{[citation needed]}
Mid-June 2007 to September 2007 sees CBC airs the 3rd series of New Who. This is not shown in order though as Smith and Joes was first then the Runaway Bride.
On January 18, 2008, the second season of Torchwood began airing in the United Kingdom on BBC Two. [14]

[edit] Terminology

Below is a list of terms and their definitions that are used in this fan community.

This section needs more information.

[edit] Timeline

Below is a partial timeline of events that took place in the Doctor Who fandom.

[edit] 1964

Daleks are the hot must-have toy for Christmas in the UK. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1974

Tom Baker becomes the Doctor, and the show's popularity reaches an all-time high. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1975

"The Doctor Who Club of Australia was founded in the mid-1970s to galvanise resistance to the decision of the Australian Broadcasting Commission to cease broadcasting the programme (and was ultimately successful in having the decision overturned). " [15]

[edit] 1977

"The first Panopticon was held in 1977" [16]. For many years, this was one of the largest Doctor Who conventions held worldwide. [17]

[edit] 1980

The Doctor Who Information Network formed in Canada, serving fans in Canada, the United States and around the world. [18]

[edit] 1983

The fanzine Eye Of Horus was in print from 1983 to 1985. [19][20]

[edit] 1983 to 1985

The "DWIN fanzine Enlightenment which has been published six times a year since 1983". [21]

[edit] 1984

The St. Louis Celestial Intervention Agency debuted their fanzine, Gateway to Time. It would run for six issues over the next ten years. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1985

"The mid 1980s has been described by some fans as "the golden age of A5 fanzines", as this period saw an explosion of activity, particularly in the UK." [22]

[edit] 1987

New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club zine Time-Space Visualiser (TSV) began its existence in 1987. [23]

[edit] 1987 to 1993

Bryn Mawr College had an active fan fiction community using the campus's VAX network. Fandoms represented include Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Star Trek and Transformers. [24] [25]- group fiction.txt

[edit] 1988

"The earliest known use of 'Whovian', outside of the 'Whovian Times', is from Flaming Carrot Comics issue number 19 (circa 1988), when Flaming Carrot leads a combined group of Trekkies and Dr. Whovians into rebellion - note the now deprecated usage of 'Dr.'." [26]

[edit] 1989

In 1989, the Brisbane Doctor Who Fan Club, based out of Brisbane, Australia, was founded. [27]
In September in the Midlands of England, a Doctor Who fan club was formed. It was called SRS. It produced a fanzine which had examples of fan fiction. The fanzine was called Think Tank. (Matthew Newton)

[edit] 1991

The first issue of Myth Makers published. [28]
The first issue of Trenchcoat published. [29]
World Wide Internet Clubs' Listing created. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1993

In 1993, the Chronicles of Who!, a Chicago based Doctor Who fan club, was founded. [30]

[edit] 1995

Outpost Gallifrey website opens.
May 1995 edition of Strange Matter (# 13) quote by Andrew McKinna in the article "When the Shit Hits the Fans Part II: Dweebdom" says: "you cannot be a truly certified fan unless you are homosexual. ... I don't have a problem with that at all, but it's always going to be something the media is very interested in. They view fandom as being odd enough in itself, but for it to be odd and queer? They'll have the proverbial field day. What I do have a problem with is paedophilia" (source)

[edit] 1996

Inspired by the news of the forthcoming Doctor Who TV Movie, members of the alt.drwho.creative newsgroup teamed up to write the round robin fanfic DeathRace!. This became the first of the Internet Adventures (IAs) a series of round robins pitting the eighth Doctor against old foes from the TV series [31]. They inspired further round robin projects including the Missing Internet Adventures (MIAs) featuring previous Doctors, and the Companion Internet Adventures (CIAs) for Doctorless stories[32].
The Eye Spiders of Pergross, a fanclub based out of Poole/Bournemouth was formed in 1996. [33]

[edit] 1997

The Doctor Who Club of Victoria Melbourne fans published a fanzine which the Sydney members tried to ban from being distributed in Sydney. (Kate Orman)
Licence Denied was published. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1999

On March 11, 1999, the mailing list UNIT-1 was created for The Universal Network of Iowan Time Lords (UNIT), an Iowa based Doctor Who fanclub. [34]
On August 30, 1999, Advice by ALC Punk became the first Doctor Who story published on FanFiction.Net. [35][36]

[edit] 2000

On April 11, 2000, the Doctor Who fanvid mailing list whofanvid was created. [37]
The Brisbane Doctor Who Fan Club was decommissioned on May 28, 2000. [38]
On July 9, 2000, the Elizabeth Sladen mailing list elisabeth-sladen was created. [39]
On July 10, 2000, the chicagotardis mailing list was created in order to discuss and pass on information related to the Doctor Who convention Chicago Tardis. [40]

[edit] 2001

On July 23, 2001, the role playing mailing list who-rpg was created. [41]
On July 31, 2001, the mailing list DoctorWhoContinuity was created to discuss "continuity issues relating to the massive expansion of the DOctor Who 'universe'.". [42]
On August 6, 2001, the mailing list dalekempire was created in order to discuss all things related to Daleks. [43]

[edit] 2002

On January 22, 2002, the episode download information mailing list doctor_who_downloads was created. [44]
On March 21, 2002, another Chicago Tardis convention mailing list chitardisnews was created. [45]

[edit] 2003

In 2003, the last Panopticon was held. [46]

[edit] 2004

The fanzine Eye Of Horus, not printed since 1985, moved on-line. [47][48]
In 2004, The Eye Spiders of Pergross, a fanclub based out of Poole/Bournemouth wound up. [49]
On October 19, 2004, Glasgow Who, a Glasgow based fanclub, created a mailing list for their club. [50][51]

[edit] 2005

In February 2005, the fanclub Edinburgh Who, based out of Edinburgh, Scotland, met David Tennant for a drink. [52]
In March 2005, the New York City based Doctor Who fanclub Doctor Who New York was founded. [53]
April 14th: time_and_chips (Doctor/Rose) livejournal community created.
May 20th: dwcanon_fodder livejournal community created, to help new fans writing fic that used canon details from outside the 2005 series.
June 9th: dwfanvids livejournal community created.
On July 24, 2005, Doctor Who New York had their first house meet on the Upper West Side. [54]
August 10th: who_otp livejournal community created, for shipfic other than "the Ninth or Tenth Doctor with either Rose or Jack."
On September 1, 2005, dw_recs [55], a Doctor Who LiveJournal community, was created.
On October 3, 2003, Regeneration by melata became the first Doctor Who story published on FicWad. [56][57]
On October 7, 2005, tennant_love [58] David Tennant livejournal community was created.

[edit] 2006

Google Trends information from January 2006

Google Trends information from 2006

January 5th: multi_who [59] livejournal community created, after discussions about the perceived divide between "New School" and "Old School" fans.
January 19th: otp_probably [60] Doctor/Romana livejournal community created.
On January 19, 2006, an article about the Doctor Who fandom was created on Wikipedia. [61]
May 25th: fireplace_man [62] Doctor/Reinette livejournal community created.
June - July: little_bit_foxy livejournal community created for the "First Annual DW Kinkathon," responding to a perceived lack of "non-vanilla" adult Doctor Who fic.
June 15th: two_love [63] Second Doctor livejournal community created.
June 22nd: 9thDoctor_and_RoseTyler [64] a group mailing listed created. It is dedicated to the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler fan fiction and more.
July 4th: lifeonmartha livejournal community created.
In September, dw_anon appeared on Livejournal and hit the maximum of 5000 comments within five days. Issues raised included shipwars, BNFs and low-quality fic.
On October 18, 2006, the FanFiction.Net forum American Doctor Who was created. The community advertises itself as "Tired of British Doctor Who viewers ruining upcoming episodes? Come to this forum to talk about the show as it airs in America." [65][66]
December 10th: dw_ficsearch [67] livejournal community created, to help fans search for specific fics.

[edit] 2007

March: The smith_n_jones community is created as a specifically Doctor/Martha community after lifeonmartha opts to remain open to multishipping, though as of April 2007 lifeonmartha has remained the primary community used for Doctor/Martha content.
On March 22, 2007, Stasis by louiseifer became the first Doctor Who story published on FanLib. [68][69]
April: dw_anon self-deletes after accusations that ljtoys was used to log IP addresses of visitors to the journal.
On April 26, 2007, the Brisbane Doctor Who Fan Club was back up and running. [70]
"On June 14, 2007, jagwriter78 [71] reported that Ptftulsa (profile here) had created two different videos that used clips from jagwriter78's video as well as from humansrsuperior [72], and posted it on YouTube. The detailed original report is here. As Jagwriter indicated, the videos in question not only had many of the same sequences, but also had the watermarks. I contacted Ptftulsa, who did not reply. However, both videos have since been removed. And currently, at least, it does not appear that the videos s/he has on YouTube have watermarked clips. I will add Prftulsa to the list of known plagiarists." [73]

Doctor Who: Blog references for the past six months as of December 30, 2007

On July 9, 2007, a Doctor Who wiki was created by Alexsau on Wikia. [74][75]

[edit] 2008

Chart showing frequency of people searching for Doctor Who in the United States in January 2008.

On January 18, 2008, the second season of Torchwood began airing in the United Kingdom on BBC Two. [76]
On January 20, 2008, the The Brisbane Doctor Who Fan Club, based out of Brisbane, Australia, held their January Lunch Meetup. [77]
Wired ran an article in February 2008 which mentioned the Doctor Who fandom. It said:

The long-running campy BBC TV series Doctor Who is back on the airwaves after a 15-year absence, and the U.S. fan base is growing rapidly. This weekend, hundreds of fans will gather in Los Angeles for Gallifrey One, the biggest Doctor Who convention in the country.

"The Time Meddlers [fan club] has gotten a lot of new fans coming to our doors since the new show came on," says Aaron Cistrelli, president of the 20-year-old Los Angeles-based Time Meddlers. [78][79]

On February 10, 2008, the The Brisbane Doctor Who Fan Club, based out of Brisbane, Australia, held their February Lunch Meetup. [80]
From February 15 to February 17, the Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One's Nineteenth Symphony was held. [81][82]
Celebrate Terry Nation in 2008 will be helped at the Holiday Inn in Ipswich in April 2008, with Special Guests Paul Darrow and Kate Nation. [83][84]
The Three Doctors convention will be held in Gloucester in April 2008. [85][86]
Chicago TARDIS 2008 will be held from November 28 to 30, 2008 at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center. [87]

[edit] Kerfluffles

This section needs more information.

[edit] Conventions

This section needs more information.

[edit] Fan Art

This section needs more information.

[edit] Avatars and Icons

The icon community in the Doctor Who largely evolved from LiveJournal giving users the ability to have multiple icons to express themselves when they post. Prior to that, icon making had mostly been confined to AOL Instant Messenger. The size of AIM icons was prohibitive in terms of creating a large art based icon community around them. Icon making had caught on in the Doctor Who fandom by 2004, when, on April 5, 2004, dwicons was created. [88]

[edit] Macros

This section needs more information.

[edit] Fan Clubs

Motor City TARDIS was a Detroit area Doctor Who fan club which existed from the late 1980s through 2002.

TARDAA (Time and Relative Dimensions in Ann Arbor) was a Doctor Who fan club based in University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. The club existed in the 1980s through the early 1990s. The club met on campus every Tuesday night and the occasional Saturday for video marathons. Tuesday meetings alternated between watching Doctor Who and other British series like Red Dwarf, Blake's 7, The Prisoner and Robin of Sherwood. The club also published the fanzine "The Console Room," a multi-media gen zine that focused primarily on Doctor Who fan fiction.

Time Lords of the Great Lakes was a Detroit area Doctor Who fan club which preceded Motor City TARDIS. Formed in 1983, the club had monthly meetings in the Detroit suburbs and the Ypsilanti-Ann Arbor area. The group existed through most of the 1980s.

[edit] Fan Fiction

Fans, like Nikki White, had begun to write fan fiction based on the show during its first season on television. (White) The stories these early writers created remained in their drawers or were privately distributed by hand. It would be a number of years before they would be published in fanzines. One of the influences in getting them out of the drawers was the influence of Star Trek fans. By the 1970s, they were clearly a force in the community.

By the early 1980s, Star Trek fen had migrated to the Doctor Who. In doing so, they brought with them publishing traditions, critique habits and their terminology. This included use of the term Mary Sue, the concept of slash, etc.

Graeme Burk offered a synopsis of the 1990s Doctor Who fan fiction community in the article Doctor Who Fandom: An A to Z dated July 20, 2000:

During the 1990s, the authors of the various forms of Doctor Who fiction alone are responsible for Doctor Who as we know it these days. As it's a form of Doctor Who without actors, directors, set designers, etc., the authors alone get to be in the limelight for making the series continue to happen in some form. At US conventions, in fact, they were treated like rock stars by fans, which can explain the yearly migration from Heathrow Airport to a hotel in Van Nuys, California every February. Online and off, fans are enchanted by the authorial community's seeming foreignness, their charm and the fact that one of their own (more or less their own age) has managed to directly influence the ongoing story of "official" Doctor Who. Fans collect their books, defer the balances of power on newsgroups over to them, and follow them on-line as virtual groupies. More than all this, though, fans want to be them, and they keep sending their scribblings chock full of angst and continuity to the last Lawrence Miles book to the slush pile in Wood Lane in the hope that they too can receive adulation via e-mail and a hospitality suite at the Airtel Plaza Hotel.

See also Doctor Who fan fiction for additional information.

[edit] Fanzines

During the 1980s, multi-fandom zines were circulating. If a fan wanted to read a story from their particular fandom, they may well have to read the story in a zine that contained stories outside their fandom. According to Langley, this would often gateway fans into other communities, creating in them an interest that would lead them to seek out the source material. This would help a number of fandoms including Battlestar Galactica, Blake's 7, Dark Shadows, Doctor Who, Man from UNCLE, Star Trek, Star Wars and others.

By 1993, this fandom was represented in the saffic zine community when Sappho was a published. There was a follow up, Sappho 2, published 1995. The zines were published by Melissa Mastoris. Fandoms includes in this saffic fanzine included Blake's 7, Doctor Who, Cagney and Lacey, Star Trek, Fried Green Tomatos, Carmen San Diego, Batman: The Animated Series, Wonder Woman, X-men and others. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fca-l/message/3246)

Graeme Burk offered summed up the 35th anniversary of Doctor Who fanzines in the article Doctor Who Fandom: An A to Z dated July 20, 2000:

This year, 2000 will mark the 35th Anniversary of Doctor Who fanzines. Generations have gotten high on gestetner fumes, dirty with photocopy toner, lost thumbs from exacto-knifing artwork and developed carpal tunnel syndrome from desktop publishing. And 35 years on, whether as a print or online publication, it's still the best place to read what fans are thinking and still the best forum to organize fans. And as long as we're producing zines, there is still things to talk about this beloved television series of ours. And as long as there's still things to talk about, there will still be fandom.

See also Doctor Who fanzines for a list of Doctor Who fanzines published by year.

[edit] The Internet

Graeme Burk explained Doctor Who's move to the Internet in the article Doctor Who Fandom: An A to Z dated July 20, 2000:

Here's another joke: "Why was the Internet invented? So computer lab geeks could discuss Star Trek when the original series was on the air the first time". Okay, it's a bit lame, but the links between Doctor Who and the net date back as far as when the original networks came to full bloom 15 years ago. Internet fandom is perhaps the most powerful voice fandom has right now. With the TV series still Missing in Action, they have ways of influencing the series as it exists right now as never before. 15 years ago, you could write BBC Worldwide all you like, you weren't going to get the episodes you wanted on video any sooner. Last year, Worldwide pulled a big-ticket box set of remastered early Hartnell episodes in part due to fan complaints on rec.arts.drwho. Robert Holmes wrote to entertain a faceless mass equaling near 12 million people. Today's novelists and audio writers can receive direct response to their work before during and after its publications by fans through e-mail, newsgroups and mailing lists. Whole novels in 1999 were seemingly produced primarily to answer debates on the r.a.dw newsgroup. And yet, in spite of the Internet being a powerful tool to influence the series, it seems to also propagate divisions and factions within fandom faster than anything else.

[edit] LiveJournal

There is a sizable Doctor Who community on LiveJournal. The existence of the community predate September 16, 2002, when one of the first Doctor Who LiveJournal communities, doctorwho [89], was created. Since that time, the size of the population has exploded. A contributing factor was that some people on mailing list migrated away from them and to LiveJournal.

By 2005, the community began to organize more cohesively on LiveJournal with a number of ship specific, character specific and general communities. Some of this was tied together through newsletters like who_daily which was created on December 28, 2005. [90]

[edit] Mailing Lists

Mailing lists began to appear in the Doctor Who fandom prior to 1998, often run on private, university run servers. Mailing lists served to bring together fans from different parts of the world and to cater to specific needs in the Doctor Who fandom.

The creation of such services as Coollists, Topica, egroups, Yahoo!Groups and Google groups meant that anyone could easily create mailing lists for their specific niche interest, for when they got annoyed at other lists or people in the fandom, or as a way to communicate with their circle of acquaintances in fandom. These services began to get popular in fandom in 1998.

[edit] Influential fanworks

This section needs more information.

See also Influential Stories for a list of influential Doctor Who fan fiction.

[edit] Fandom Members

[edit] Professionals

The following is a partial list of Doctor Who fanzine contributors who later went on to be involved professionally with Doctor Who.

[edit] Fandom Size

This section needs more information.

See also Historical Community Size for information regarding the size of the Doctor Who fan fiction community.

[edit] External Links

[edit] See also

[edit] Sources

Below is a partial list of articles and academic sources to help you continue to learn about this community.

Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth By Camille Bacon-Smith. [99]
Dadds, Kimberley. "Harry Potter Fan Fiction Phenomenon." Digital Spy 9 July 2007. 10 July 2007 <http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/a63822/harry-potter-fan-fiction-phenomenon.html?rss>.
Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans & Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. 1992.
Jenkins, Henry & Tulloch, John (1995). Chapter 6 - ‘But why is Doctor Who so attractive?’. Science Fiction Audiences, 1 (3), 108-124. Retrieved February 14, 2008, from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a737108509
Jenkins, Henry & Tulloch, John (1995). Chapter 4 - Throwing a little bit of poison into future generations’. Science Fiction Audiences, 1 (3), 67-85. Retrieved February 14, 2008, from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a737108546
McKee, A. (2004) ‘How to tell the difference between production and consumption: A case study in Doctor Who Fandom’, Cult Television, S. Gwenllian-Jones and R.E. Pearson, eds., Minneapolis:University of Minnesota Press, 167-185