Experienced a Regeneration episode when it's new?

With End of Time Part II coming up soon, I thought I'd pose this question.

I've been a WHO fan since my late teens, but unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to get excited about an impending regeneration before. Closest for me was when Colin regenerated into Sylvester, but by the time my PBS station aired it, it was old news in the UK.

I was even late to the party when Christopher regenerated into David, I Wasn't really able to catch any new WHO until the 2nd season was well underway.

So to you fans who have been with it for years, who had the opportunity to anticipate and enjoy a regeneration episode when it was newly aired? Which Doctors did you get to witness regenerating into which firsthand?

Did they make as much of a fuss about a new Doctor then as they're doing now with David/Matt? I know Tom to Peter was a pretty big deal at the time. Any others?

Interesting topic, can't wait to read some replies!

I was around for the Tom-Peter regeneration. It wasn't quite "first-hand" as we got episodes here a while after UK (something I didn't know back then), but I did see the first airing in North America. I was about 10 and had quite a few Who-friends at school. There was a quite a buzz that week! Somehow we knew he was going to regenerate - I have no idea how we knew though! I can remember right after Peter sat up in Tom's clothes at the end of Logopolis, looking around the room at peoples faces. I was mad! I hated Peter, and so did everyone else. He wasn't Tom!

Wasn't til Earthshock that we started liking him. And shortly after that all my friends stopped watching. I dropped watching regularly right before Caves of Androzani, so I didn't see another regeneration "live" until McGann.

My first was Tom to Peter, and I saw it on PBS about 2 years after it aired on the BBC. In fact, I think Peter had already announced he was leaving! Peter to Colin was a bit closer to the original air date, but Colin's first show was a few months later, not the next week as was shown in the UK. To me, it is still a thrill to watch the episodes in order (like I just did) and experience the regeneration after watching a Doctor's episodes for a few weeks. In fact, I still get sad knowing Jon is about to collapse or Tom is about to fall. But, the next episode, I have a great thrill at discovering who the Doctor has become this time.

I never had a build-up to regeneration before 9th to 10th before. The first time I saw a regeneration was on PBS and it was the 4th Doctor into the 5th Doctor. I had NO idea what was going on! I was 7 years old and didn't know the Doctor COULD regenerate. The shock! Suddenly my hero's face had changed into another... and it was the end! My PBS station ran the 4th Doctor in a loop back then, so next week they aired Robot! I was so confused. It was quite a few years before I finally saw Davison's (and the other Doctor's) runs.

I'd sort of seen Tom Baker go into Peter Davison, but at that time, I was catching episodes whenever I could, and both Davison and Baker eps were running, and I'd read fan publications and wasn't shocked or anticipating...but I'd grown quite attached to Peter's Doctor, and had watched the last couple eps in order and saw him change into Colin Baker. I was dismayed, to put it mildly, and it even put me off the whole series for awhile, though I never really left entirely...seeing bits and pieces of Sylvester McCoy's run, and of course I did see the regeneration from McCoy to Paul McGann, who if the series had taken off then, I'd have very likely jumped right back on the bandwagon...[I never knew about the books, etc., till later]

Vicki wrote:

I'd sort of seen Tom Baker go into Peter Davison,

!!!!!!!!!!

Clavius wrote:

Vicki wrote:

I'd sort of seen Tom Baker go into Peter Davison,

!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for reminding me how important choice of words can be! [no, really, I have no shame!]

My first full episode of "Doctor Who" was "Planet of the Spiders" part six...but that was in 1980, so I knew the UK was already waiting on Peter Davison at that point...the most exciting regeneration I've experienced (and that actually happened, thank you "Stolen Earth") was "Parting of the Ways"...I knew the new actor's name was David Tennant, but in a first for me, I had absolutely no idea what the guy looked like! (I only accidentally found out Eccleston was leaving two weeks before I saw the episode...could you imagine what it would have been like to watch without knowing? I guess we'll never know, will we, "Stolen Earth"?)

Just "The Parting of the Ways". Well, it was new to the US when I watched it, anyway.

Mine was Logopolis. I had no idea what was going on, then on Monday Robot came on. The PBS station I watched WKPT Hutchinson/Wichita channel 8 Showed Who at 6pm M-F right after The Twilight Zone.

I was only about a day behind on the CE to DT regeneration, not quite a full 24hrs. Being in the US I download the episodes rather than wait for ages for them to be aired here. But I had cut myself off from all Who-news and was unaware the change was happening. Took me by surprise that it had happened so fast with CE. I thought he'd be the Doctor for at least a couple years. I thought it was brilliantly done though, quite a leap from the old days!

9 to 10 was the first I saw as it happened.

Logopolis was the very first doctor who episode I ever watched...it was the episode that has started my who addiction in the 80's. I fell in love immediately with this quirky show-and the regeneration was shocking and also a little hard for a 10 year old to grasp...but I was hooked. No show before or since has ever glued me to the tv. I was lucky at the time that they showed tom's fun run on saturday mornings and the new peter d's on sunday night...so for a brief while I got to see two doctors over a weekend. The early 80's was also a time when who was popular stateside- you did not have to go to far to find posters, tshirts and books at that time. The other added plus was that my grandmother lived in england and I got all of the fresh target books and specials hot off the presses and into my grubby hands...the first book I read from her was pat t's regeneration story...the war games- when I first read the novel I thought the doctor actually died and was pretty distraught- well I was wrong, but I remember being very upset.