Where were you when Tom regenerated?

[Tush]

Hello Everyone.

I thought it might be a nice idea for everyone to talk about their reactions to Tom leaving the show and his final episode and re-generation.

Here is mine.

I was 10 years old at the time of the last episode of Logopolis and when Tom regenerated into Peter Davison it was a total and complete shock for me.

As a ten year old I had only grown up with Tom in the role of the Doctor and wasn't really aware of the whole re-generation process so never knew about the previous actors that played the Doctor.

Also, as a ten year old I wasn't remotely interested in reading the newspapers or watching news bulletins so consequently didn't see all the interviews Tom did announcing his departure from the show.

So there I sat, ardently watching the final scene with Tom dangling from the radio telescope gangtry blissfully unaware of what was about to happen.

And then he fell to the ground, merged with that wierd watcher fellow and suddenly sat up looking like Triston Farnon from All Creatures Great and Small.

I was puzzled, and then I thought 'ah well, this won't last, something will happen and he'll change back into the doctor again'

Of course I had to wait a whole year to find out the horrible truth that Tom really wasn't going to play the Doctor again and I was gutted.

From that day of the first episode of Castrovalva I decided never to watch the show again . . . and I didn't, well at least not until the DVD's came out many years later and I gained a whole new appreciation for Peter Davison and all the following doctors. (but that's another story)

Nothing quite like the magic of Tom though, he was the best

I'm sure it's been said by so many people so many times before but that's just a testament to it's truth so I'll say it again 'Thanks Tom for being such a magical part of my childhood'

[jaybee]

I was in my 30's when I saw Doctor Who. Being in North America, I wasn't exactly privy to the comings and goings of the actors and their shows; so I had no idea that Tom was leaving (had left by the time I saw it, but you know what I mean).

I cried for half an hour after those fateful words: "It's the end.... but the moment has been prepared for." Got over it, though. And I didn't abandon Doctor Who because of it, although it was a bit difficult to wrap my head around Tristan Farnan being the new Doctor.

Oddly enough, in 2005, I was in Blackpool for the day and visited the Doctor Who exhibit there. I came down a dark hallway and around a corner and there high on the wall in front of me was a TV monitor. And there was Tom in the regeneration scene. Luckily there was a bench right there, because I burst into tears again and had to sit down and compose myself before continuing the tour. That was a good 25 - 30 years after the first time I saw it and the impact was the same. Strange....

[madgoth]

Me too Jaybee! I cried and cried! One of the worst episodes (at least I have always felt it was), and then Tom died off and some stranger appears. I was outraged!

I did come to appreciate Peter and Colin, but I lost my heart to Tom. sigh*

[John]

I was a mere six years of age in 1981, so my recollections of Doctor Who during Tom's era are fairly sketchy, but I can recall certain parts of Logopolis, namely the Watcher lurking mysteriously on the far side of the Barnet By-Pass and the regeneration scene.

I think this may well be my earliest memory of Doctor Who and quite possibly where my love of the show began, rather ironic as I can't stand this story!

[milo1164]

I am in the USA, so I didn't see Logopolis until the early 1990's. A friend of mine in another state had audio taped it for me by holding his tape recorder up to the TV. So I did hear it long before I saw it. Unfortunately the batteries died with about 10 minutes of the final episode to go and I never heard from the arrival on earth to the end. I was absolutley shocked when I read that Tom was leaving and that the BBC did not try to talk him out of it. He had made Doctor Who such a huge hit internationally I thought they would have literally thrown money at him to stay. However, that may just be the Hollywood way and not the BBC way. Of course, the show had a long history of changing Doctors too. For me, the show ended in a way when Tom left. He was THE Doctor (and still is to me) and the show was never the same. Tom made that part his own. No other actor since has had the gravitas and screen presence to bring the Doctor to life as Tom did. I do think that Tom left at the best time, though. JNT changed it so much it actually became less magical and bit dull. I don't think seasons 19 and on worked as well. I love Doctor Who and always watch it, but it's never been as good without Tom.

[Marcello Cristiano]

Although I first saw TOM's Doctor Who adventures when I was five(1983), I didn't see "Logopolis" which transmitted in 1981, til about 1987. I cried when the 4th Doctor remembered with fondness and sadness all his companions. I too said "Doctor" along with all his companions. Trust me, I was crying. Blubbing in fact. That scene got to me so much. The regeneration is still the coolest one, as I loved The Watcher(The future Doctor in secret) merging with TOM's doc. That is still one of my most precious memories of TOM's time on Doctor Who.

[Ronald]

I was still living in Illinois and attending the University of Illinois, where I had first heard of Doctor Who. It was a bit of a false regeneration, as the PBS channel, WILL did not have the Peter Davison episodes yet. So the next episode I saw was Jon Pertwee regenerating into Tom in Robot! It took another year of waiting until we saw Peter's first show, and not even thru his first season when it was announced he was leaving! After Peter's run, we wnet to Jon's, and then finally all the way back to Bill's. I have always been a believer in the problem of the Doctor's timeline not being linear!

[tracy]

i was sitting at home watching toms last story id be 17 then as i was 10 when tom came in to dr who i was upset at the end the way it ended but i had 7 great years of seeing tom as dr who thank you tom

[zeppelinuk]

I was about 6 and a half years old when I saw Tom's regeneration scene at the end of 'Logopolis' in 1981, and although my Mum told a little while before that he'd no longer be Doctor Who, seeing him change into Peter Davison was a bit of a shock at the time, and I'll admit I did cry, as it marked the end of the best years of my childhood (staying at home, playing with my toys, going to playgroup and watching Tom as the Doctor, especially 'Destiny Of The Daleks' and 'City Of Death' when they were first broadcast in 1979, when I would've been 5 years old!), as after that I started going to primary school and then later secondary school (both of which I utterly hated!), and although I still watched Doctor Who, the other actors since Tom to play the role were entertaining enough, but none of them since ever quite got it as well as Tom in my eyes, so yes I can remember that moment, sitting on the table back in '81...

Doctor Who would never again quite have that sparkle as when Tom was the Doctor, the definitive portayal in my book!...

[pattie anne]

I had been watching TOM as the good doctor for about a year when REGENERATION was so rudely thrust upon me. And that would have been for me in the early 1980s. I remember it coming as a great shock to me, and to our two sons as well, WHO by then were just as in love with the program as I. And even though the adult part of me understood that The Actor was ready to leave the series, my inner-child was not in any way ready to give up The Doctor! THE definite article, so to speak. And even though, by "Logopolis," I knew the Doctor had been played by several actors before TOM, and there was this NEW KID on the block, in England; it was just all so very hard to accept. And though I have continued to enjoy Dr Who as it goes on and on though the other incarnations; giving up the TOM/doc was so very, very hard. So as a personal consolation, like so many other fans did, and continue to do so, I went and wrote my own Dr Who fan novel wherein the Doctor didn't really die at all: and with Rassilon's wisdom, he was able to secure for Doctor Four, a future TIME and a future purpose. Yup, "Logopolis," wasn't THE END ... rather it was only a doorway to a new beginning. Yes, THAT theory I can accept and live with.