Whovians celebrate UK TV sci fi favourite

ATTENTION science fiction fans, did you know there is a Doctor Who group in town?

The Bendigo Whovian Society is a community that started almost eight years ago and now has close to 900 members.

Greg King, who has been heavily involved in the group for many years, said they meet up on the third Sunday of every second month, and the next gathering is on 18 June at the scout hall on 5 Vine Street.

“We’re fairly small in the scheme of things, the Facebook group was just about local Doctor Who fans wanting to connect and get together,” he said.

“The get togethers are an actual opportunity to get away from our computer screens and Facebook and actually meet face-to-face which is a good thing.

“We’ll often have a talk about something that we’d like, like a piece of Doctor Who merchandise that we particularly like. We’ll bring it along and it will be like a show and tell.

“We’ll usually watch an episode or something like that and have a bit of a chat about it.”

As well as the regular catch ups, Mr King said one of the group’s highlights of the year is attending Bendicon, usually held in late-August or September.

Anyone is welcome to join to Bendigo Whovian Society.

“It’s for all ages, so people from my year-ish, shall we say, who grew up with Dr Who back in the 60s and 70s, right down to people who are much more into the new Doctor Who,” he said.

“Doctor Who got refreshed in the mid-2000s and there are lot of people who grew up with that, not even necessarily being aware of the fact that Doctor Who started back in the 60s.

“That new era is where we have a lot of younger people who enjoy that. So we have quite a range of ages basically from teens to us oldies.”

Mr King said his favourite doctor was the third, played by John Pertwee from 1970 to 1974.

“He was pretty much the first doctor that I remember seeing when I started watching, so of course he’s basically become my favourite doctor. He’s just simply the first one I got to know,” he said.

“Tom Baker’s generally the most popular of the classic-era doctors, and indeed he’d be my second favourite.

“I’ve always been interested in science fiction and Doctor Who kind of encompasses all that sort of stuff.

“In one show you have just about anything you want: time travel and space, monsters; and particularly as a kid growing up, of course, all that is just so appealing if you’re into that.”

The original series started in Britain in 1963 and ran until 1989, was brought back to life in 2005 and is still going today.

There have been 14 doctors to date, and the current iteration is played by Ncuti Gatwa who grew famous for his role as Eric Effiong in Sex Education.