There’s a minor family dispute over the following history. But we’ll get to that.

The main facts are these: My Dad watched Doctor Who back in the Seventies and was not impressed. He did, however, tell My Mom about it and suggest that her monster loving eldest might like it.

Correction: According to Mom, Dad had only heard of Doctor Who when recommending me watching it. Would have sworn she had told me differently. Hey, it’s been over forty years, it’s a miracle I remember anything from back then. Or now.

Which was how I ended up having one of the most terrifying viewing experiences of my young life.

See, there’s this pretty lady in a room, and while she was watching something on a TV this metal snake monster attacks her. A guy in the scarf comes to rescue her, but he’s too late, she’s been Got. He and another guy take her away, leaving behind this old guy who stares at the snake monster.

Now I knew for a fact that another snake monster is in the room. Doesn’t matter that there was no reason to believe this, I just knew. And that monster was going to jump out any second and Get the old guy!

This scared me to death.

Now here’s where the dispute comes in. Mom says I ran out of the room. She also says the episode was about cannibalism, so her memory of the issue is suspect.

My memory of is of turning the TV off. I might have ran away after that. That is a possibility.

You can never be too certain with monsters.

There were other terrifying encounters with the show, which piqued my Dad’s interest. What could possibly be frightening about Doctor Who? He watched it and got hook.

It became a family favorite, more so than my other two heroes.

(Me? I finally watched an episode with the Doctor beating a monster. That helped.)

Any ways, as with the others, I collected, I had help collecting. And to a large degree, even now, I’m a fan.