Having not been around for the original show, I would like to ask those who was around then how they felt when Doctor Who ended in 1989?
I would just like to know what the general feeling was with the fans during the time. Did some of you think that it might come back or did some think that was it forever?

I first saw it in 2005, but now I don't think I could imagine my life without it, really.
I mean, for example, if it was announced tomorrow that who had been axed (again), I think I would treat it as though a friend or family member had died. Some may think that's over dramatic but that's honestly how I think I would feel if it happened.

Bit of a relief the series ended at the time. The BBC had been trying to kill the show off for 4 years stuck on Monday nights against coronation street it had no chance. I had lost all interest in it. Star trek the next generation was the new big thing at the time for me. Looking back cancelling the series until 2005 was the best thing that could have happened to the show as if it had limped on there probably would have been no desire to bring Dr who back.

I wasn't born, but I know if they cancelled the show now, a big part of my life would be like how I felt after Harry Potter ended. A sort of 'what now?' kinda feeling.

Very disappointed.

I then started secondary school and was forced to get interested in Sport and mainly Football, kept me occupied for a few years. The team I ended up supporting basically never won the league since 1989 either, so it was quite a big bland period in life ....

Sad, but there was some inevitability about it. I'd just discovered girls and booze though, so it wasn't the end of the world...

I seem to have got some selective amnesia from the McCoy Era onwards. I remember watching the Davison and Colin Baker years quite well but though I know I definitely watched all his stories I remember very little about it and therefore very little about how I felt when it was axed though I guess it was disappointing that there was no more Who on.

Oddly enough it wasn't until they started showing all the repeats and the 30th anniversary in the early 90's that I started remembering things from that period. Maybe the McCoy era was that bad that I've shut it out of my mind!

I do remember feeling peeved a few years later when it looked as if it was never coming back and then delighted with the TV Movie to look forward to. Only for the show to then not be made anymore as a result. For me it was like being deprived of sweets, given one to try out and then told you still couldn't have anymore. It was most annoying.

Thankfully, though, we did have all the spin off series like P.R.O.B.E and the other shows with SJS in it, plus the stories like The Airzone Solution with some of the Doctors involved.

Plus there was the stories coming out on video for the first time and specialist videos like The Hartnell Years etc, so there was plenty of stuff to keep me occupied in the meantime, but it was no substitute for new stories.

For me and some fellow fans I knew at the time, after the 1985'suspension' it felt like the programme was on borrowed time, really. Actually thought Colin would probably be the last Doctor! Season 25 seemed to see an upswing in the shows fortunes as the ratings weren't bad and IMO the quality of stories improved after the previous couple of years, but when the ratings for 'Battlefield' were announced (under 4 million, I think?) I was "Uh-oh."

(Yes, we were concerned about ratings back then too! The more things change, etc.)

The BBC boxed clever this time and didn't actually go beyond saying the show was being rested, but a couple of years down the line, I'd resigned myself that it was always going to be 26 Seasons, 1963-1989. Pragmatically just thought "Not a bad run. I'll just buy the Videos and remember it fondly." It was so clear that the hierarchy at the time had no interest in it whatsoever.

The time of the TV Movie was exciting, but despite the excellent Paul McGann, I wasn't *that* bothered it was a one off as an Anglo-American series didn't really appeal to me. Of course I was older then and had got used to no new episodes for 7 years!

Wasn't into spin-off media so that was that really. Out of the loop as I'd stopped buying the Magazine too. So had no idea what was afoot in BBC Wales until I saw Christopher Eccleston's face in a newspaper in 2004 and it was a real moment. And also a and moment of course! It's a constant source of delight that it came back and was, IMO, so good...and so popular. My young nieces are big fans now. It's a delightful thing.

Sorry...bit of an essay there!

Yes I had also stopped watching and was relieved it ended. The show was a joke in the McCoy era and there was no point extending the agony into the indefinite future. There was of course a bit of sadness because the programme really meant a lot to me growing up. But the real break for me had been when I stopped tuning in during the middle of McCoy's run.

I also saw it first in 2005 and am too young to remember the classic series. It it finished tomorrow it would certainly leave a massive hole. Considering the situation today, where every year it's never even in question whether there will be another series and it has achieved mainstream prime time popularity, I wonder how those older people felt when it was circling the drain, getting worse and worse, the 18 month hiatus I've heard talk of and, did anyone who stopped watching as much feel responsible when it did get cancelled?

Relief. That they had finally put it out of our misery.

I'd watched since the mid-60s. Just caught the end of Hartnell. Loved Troughton and Pertwee and Baker (T). Even liked Davison, though not quite as much, and found Baker (C) interesting, if let down by poor writing. But from Trial Of A Time Lord onwards, I found the show embarrassingly bad. I thought McCoy was atrocious and the show practically unwatchable. I felt sorry - even angry - at what they had done to my favourite show. But it was time.

Mixed feelings. I'd mostly stopped watching - I thought McCoy and Sophie Aldred lacked any believabilty or gravitas and the show had an incredibly cheap feel to it too. Its awful to give up on your favourite show but time had not been kind to Who. Compare Earthshock (1982) to pretty much any story in season 26 (1989) and you can see how far the show had fallen.

Confused. I was only 7/8 and had just really begun liking it and understanding it. Then it vanished. I forget how I found out it wasn't coming back. Probably Mum or Dad explained it. So I jumped into the Classic series. My local library had a strangely massive selection of DW books (a fan on the staff perhaps) so I devoured all I could about the show. Which meant I often read all about episodes before seeing them which was sometimes odd. I would spend hours imagining what these episodes and serials would be like. When I eventually saw them it was usually either alot better than I thought or equally nowhere near as good.

I read the books and magazines throughout this time but never audios. Was pretty disappointed with the TV movie- again I hyped it up too much as this was the first time I could really experience brand new Who with a knowledge and appreciation of the show.

When that didn't go anywhere being a teenager got in the way and while I never stopped watching or liking it my interest waned a bit and funnily enough my attitude towards the new show was almost one of apathy when I heard it was coming back. I assumed another short lived failure. How wrong was I!

Unsurprised.

I was only 8 at the time, but that was the general feeling in our family when it happened. I think we were disappointed as well, but we knew it wasn't as popular any more and that the BBC were trying to get rid of it. That series did have an 'end of an era' feel to it I seem to remember.

I didn't feel anything. The show had fallen so far of my radar it had become irrelevant. I was in my mid/late teens and the show was naff, cheap and amateurish to the extent that whenever I did catch a few moments of it whilst getting ready to go out it looked like a pantomime. Not cool.

I'd mainly stopped watching after T Baker, lured in by Star Wars and the resurgence of big screen SF (I was about 10 or 11 at the time that Han Solo et al swaggered in).

I dipped in periodically through the 5th, 6th, and 7th docs, but didn't really mourn it's passing.

The 1996 movie piqued my interest, then the 2005 revival made it kick in with renewed vigour.

Of course, as a child/teen, I couldn't have told you anything about the writers, actors, politics, production and so on. It's interesting reading and watching about it now.

And these days I'm not much of a Star Wars or Star Trek fan, but Dr Who is without doubt my #1 fandom (to use current parlance ).

I stopped watching when Sylvester McCoy became the Doctor. The Doctor may be eccentric in many incarnations but his portrayal as a bumbling nerd with no sense of danger, really got on my nerves. Couldn't stand him or Bonnie Langford for that matter. Didn't surprise me when the series got cancelled.

I was very upset. I was only 7 at the time, and had only started watching the year before, and Doctor Who was my favourite show. I loved it so much and went on loving it for years after it went away, keeping myself entertained with any repeats, videos or books I could find.

Strangely, even though everybody else says that the BBC never officially cancelled it, I have a clear memory of an announcement saying "this was the final episode of Doctor Who" and being really shocked. At the time, I was aware that not many other people liked it, but wasn't aware that this could mean it would go away.

To those who didn't care about the cancellation because they had stopped watching: have you gone back to watch any of McCoy's later episodes? He improved immeasurably after his first year, and Ace was a much better companion than Mel.

I honestly can't remember - weird.

I think it was running out of steam and I just lost interest which is a shame cos actually the 'last season' was actually going somewhere pretty interesting. I like the idea of the Cartmel Masterplan, although I know a lot don't. Ah well.

It came back bigger and stronger but at the time it kind of limped out like an old dog that the master didn't care too much about.

I'm not sure I was aware until later. For me the most shocking thing to happen on TV in 1989 was the death of Danny Kendall.

EDIT: oh! And didn't that guy crash his car at the end of the first series of Byker Grove? My memory extends no further in detail other than that at the time I thought the character was probably about 26, which means that he was probably about 15.

Basically, as a child watching children's TV, 1989 was an emotional roller coaster.

EDIT 2: I also vaguely recall Newsround's coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall. i guess they managed to find some time between reporting on pandas that week. Probably Blue Peter even found some time to mention it after that year's 483rd in-studio performance by the cast of Stomp.

No. I was an undergrad by then and I was too busy trying to get young women to sleep with me.

Even when I bought an armful of Dr Who novels from a 2nd hand book shop, I must admit it was only so I would look strange and cool, and would therefore get young women to sleep with me.

It would have been easier to play Duran Duran records and ply them with vodka.

Having to listen to a Duran Duran record sounds like more work than the outcome is worth.

It's a bit hazy, as I was still a kid really, I think somewhat confused because at the time the concept of TV ratings etc was all a bit over my head and it's not like I read the papers or anything like that either. No one at school really watched the show and I never really talked about it much with people other than my friends, so it's not like there was any instant feedback about the show being less popular. So yeah, I guess at the time I didn't really understand why it wasn't going to be on any more.

Yes, I found them just as bad. I agree Mcoy became a much better Doctor but that is the norm rather than the exception. Yet beyond that the cheapness of it at the time is magnified with age.

As a teen, attending collage, partying and doing the usual teen stuff ACE was about as 'street' as a sloan ranger.


But I fully understand fans who were kids at the time or fans for whom the Colin Baker/Mcoy eras would have had more importance and relevance than for someone that had been watching since late Pertwee onwards and had outgrown the show it has become.

I wasn't surprised. It was pretty obvious that what they were making in 1988 and 1989 couldn't survive long on BBC1. I know there are fans who like to say it was starting to hit its stride again, but I really don't think so.

I didn't feel anything. Cos' it didn't end in 1989.

OK, obviously it did. What I mean is, it didn't at the time. The BBC were well aware of the outcry that had occurred the previous time they had tried to axe the show, so in '89 there never really was a formal announcement that the show wasn't coming back. It was just kept very vague and non-committal about precisely when it was coming back.

I remember reading DMW from month to month as various rumours surfaced and sank, but there was never really a specific moment when it felt like the show had been axed. Essentially, the BBC had realised that in the case of Doctor Who, it actually was better to fade away than to burn out.