I wonder...

[hmpf]

if Sam and Gene ever argue about the relative merits of the various Doctors. Gene, of course, predates Doctor Who, he had a Wholess childhood (my god, he's prehistoric!), but if he did start to watch the show at some point, his allegiance probably lies with Hartnell or Troughton. For Sam, on the other hand, the One True Doctor must be either Pertwee (though he may be just a tad too young for that) or Tom Baker. Baker, probably, simply because that must have been the predominant Doctor of his childhood.

Hmm...

Comments

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Sam was born in 1969 (as he was four in 1973) - which puts him squarely as having Four as his predominant childhood Doctor - from the age of five to twelve.

Being born in 1975, I should look on Five as "my doctor", but I think I was rather too enamoured of Four. (And, I'm a pervy!Six-fancier as well. *hangs head in shame*)

[simplyjaye.livejournal.com]

I'd still disagree and hold with what I said above. I was born in 1967 and Five is definitely 'my' Doctor always has been, and from my friends who were born in the three years after, all who were casual viewers to fans, Five is also their favourite Doctor.

In going by that, seeing as this is all supposition anyway, as Sam falls into me and my friends' age range, I just went with personal experience for my theory. Not that I don't have a big soft spot for Four, I do (and yeah, I also have a guilty pleasure for Six *g*) but Five is the Doctor I'm drawn to/think of as the prominent Doctor of my childhood.

Or perhaps age has little to do with it, and it's purely a matter of different Doctors for different folks.

Does this go for non-fannish folks, too?

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Because I'm not sure how many people keep/kept watching Doctor Who beyond childhood, and Sam was very focused on his career from a fairly early age (I think he joined the police at 17), so I can see him as the kind of person who'd kind of 'leave behind' Doctor Who in his teens. Probably to watch more cop shows on TV. *g*

Re: Does this go for non-fannish folks, too?

[simplyjaye.livejournal.com]

One thing to remember is back then, even into the early 80s, most families only had one TV set, and there were only 3-4 channels, so people would watch as a family even out of childhood (and DW was not considered a children's show, but a family show). More people watched the same shows back then, and it was more of a family activity than it is now. Also it was broadcast early Saturday evening...so it would be about teatime, so people would watch together...and before teenagers would head out for the evening...to a pub, club, or just hang out.

There were the cop shows, but they would have been on later in the evening...The Sweeney and The Professionals, for example were definitely post-watershed shows...not so sure on the US cop shows (Starsky & Hutch, etc) but probably 8-9pm.

Re: Does this go for non-fannish folks, too?

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I come from a one-tv household myself (born 1976 - in Germany, multiple tv sets per home were not common even well into the eighties), but, with me not having younger siblings, we didn't watch programming that was mainly aimed at children anymore when I became a teenager.

Granted, Doctor Who is a 'family show', but was it really being watched by the whole family even in families where there are no children present? A lot of teenagers are very anxious to leave behind anything that seems like it's aimed at children... (Sam doesn't have siblings, and his family only consists of his mother and him, so he would have had some considerable influence on the choice of what to watch, I imagine.)

Another factor that just now occurred to me:

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

Sam has daddy issues. He may be more attached to older male characters than to younger ones, on TV. Though I'm not sure how good a father figure Tom Baker makes... possibly Sam's Doctor would be Three, after all.