Saving Up For a Doctor Who Christmas (1979)

My son isn't very good at saving up. There are always Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards to buy. 

He's 12. I've told him he's old enough to be picking presents for his family and friends, but Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh don't take a break for Christmas. 

I even told him that I started buying Christmas presents when I was six! He didn't believe me, but it's true. 

In November 1979, I found a Doctor Who book in Newton Aycliffe. It was only a small town centre and there was no WHSmith or Waterstones. We were lucky to have a Woolworths and a Fine Fare as our 'big' shops. The only places that sold books were newsagents and their stocks were always a bit random. They'd have the latest big blockbuster Jackie Collins or Catherine Cookson books and a few old Faraway Tree hardbacks for the kids, but they didn't exactly have a wide range of titles. Finding a Doctor Who book was possibly the most amazing thing ever. And there it was: Doctor Who and The Destiny Of The Daleks by Terrance Dicks.

Destiny Of The Daleks was the adventure that had only just finished on the telly. It was so recent and so exciting that I was still pretending to be The Doctor getting chased around the school playground by Daleks. 

This was long before we had a video so apart from playing in the school yard there wasn't any other way to re-live Doctor Who stories. 

But then I found the book. 

It was 75p. 

I only had 50 pence pocket money. 

With the few other coppers in my pocket I had a total of 59p.

I desperately wanted to buy the book as a Christmas Present for my brother. I always watched Doctor Who with my brother. It was something we used to do at our Grandparents house in South Shields. After our parents split up we used to spend weekends with our Dad and he usually left us with our Grandparents on a Saturday evening - and that's when I first remember watching Doctor Who. 

My brother and I didn't have many other interests in common. I liked Star Wars figures and playing out, but he was four years older and preferred books. Quite often he'd have to look after me or take me out with his friends. He got lumbered with me. He'd get short tempered or make me the butt of his jokes - I suppose he must've really resented me hanging around 'like a fart in a lift' (his words, not mine). The whole time we were growing up he'd tell his friends and our Mam that he wished he was an only child. 

I can see how difficult it must have been for him - he was still just a kid but he was forced into being more of a grown-up after our parents got divorced. Maybe I sensed that. Maybe that's why I was determined to do something nice for him. A Doctor Who book would be the perfect gift from me to him. And I might get to read it, too! 

Somehow I managed to get the 16p I needed from him without saying exactly what it was for so I spent every penny I had (and some of his) on his Christmas present. I had to go without the Beano and a ten pence mixture that week. 

It was totally worth it. 

 

After that Christmas Doctor Who books became an obsession for both of us. We'd always be hunting for them in Stevens and Fourbouys in Aycliffe and combining our pocket money so we could go 'halfers'. On rare trips to bigger towns - towns that actually had proper book shops - we'd be spoilt for choice. It felt great to have something in common with my brother.

We went for Dalek stories first - and then anything with the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) in them. The books were short and even my 6 year old brain could cope with them - they were just as exciting as the TV shows and the monsters came to life in my imagination rather than foam rubber.

The library also became a fantastic source of older adventures - hardback books with yellowy pages and plastic coated covers. It's not like we had an episode guide or a website we could look at - so we didn't even know how many Doctor Who stories there were at that point.

 

My brother became even more of an expert on Doctor Who and started writing his own stories. He turned Destiny Of The Daleks into a play for some of the kids in our street. Leighton (who lived next door) used to join in as I went waddling around the play park, screaming 'EXTERMINATE!' 

We kept watching Doctor Who - even after I pretended I was all grown up and didn't like it any more. When my brother went to University I used to record the soundtracks of the latest episodes onto cassette and post them to him every week. My brother started writing Doctor Who stories, books and audio plays* - he's never quite managed to write for the TV show, but I guess he's still got time. 

I told my 12 year old son all about this, and tried to make some profound point about how important choosing the right present can be. My son pulled a face, put his headphones on, and went back to watching a youtube video about some kid opening a box of Pokemon cards.

*Years later my brother would recount the story of getting his first Doctor Who book in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. He didn't mention me.