Growing-Up With The Doctor, Part 1: The Seventies

One abiding childhood memory I

have is of corned-beef butties and

Horlicks. This was my bedtime treat

on Hazel Ward. I had several ENT

operations at St. Helens Hospital,

where one physician in particular

aided my recovery, the Doctor.

Now demolished, the children's

 ward was famous locally for it's

rocking horse, but for me its

biggest draw was the book trolley.

Amongst the battered kids classics

and old annuals, were the well-

thumbed paperback versions of

 fabled Doctor Who stories.

The first Target books I read were
Day of the Daleks and The Cave 
Monsters. I also discovered a copy
 of the wondrous first edition of The 
Making of Doctor Who, where I first
 learnt about the Doctor's adventures. As soon as I joined my local

library, I sought out their Target collection, and quickly devoured

every title. I even recall finding a hardback copy of The Zarbi with

Tom Baker on the cover!

My early favourites were such exotic, distant wonders like The

Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Crusaders and The

Daleks, with it's bizarre alternative premise to the series (set on

Barnes Common, and bypassing the events of that first monu-

mental television story. I'd finally get to watch An Unearthly Child

in 1981).

I bought my first Target novel, The Visitation in 1982, and this marks

the beginning of my obsession with this TV legend. This library of 156

 titles was my introduction to the worlds of Doctor Who, and for me,

was one  of the most important aspects of growing-up in the 1970's.