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I can remember sitting down to watch The Leisure Hive in 1980. I really didn't know what to expect. The story came at an interesting time - previously I had known very little about what was coming up in Doctor Who. For the first time I knew story titles in advance, but that was as much as I knew. I didn't see any of the trailers for this story although my sister insisted that she had seen them (thanks for telling me they were on). The first hint that I had that things were about to change was the announcement of the Saturday night line-up on BBC1. There was a short glimpse of the title sequence - so straight away I knew that the vortex sequence had gone.

I was prepared for the changed titles, but as the new version of the theme rolled I found myself reeling with this change. The first episode unfolded at breakneck speed and I can still remember the rush of the cliffhanger ending of episode one. It might not seem much to anyone watching The Leisure Hive now but back in 1980 I was amazed at what I had just seen. Doctor Who had changed and, to my mind, had blasted into the 1980s with amazing energy. The pace and style of that first episode astonished me and for the first time in ages I found myself on the edge of my seat. If I thought the cliffhanger ending of episode 1 was shocking, nothing prepared me for the ending of episode 2. I really cannot express how different the series seemed back then. The energy, the wonder of that first story. Perhaps it was the constant pounding of Peter Howell's synthesiser score? Perhaps it was Lovett Bickord's direction? Perhaps it was the shortened episodes - all just about scraping past twenty minutes rather than falling just below the 25 minute mark? Or a combination of all 3 factors. For some, The Leisure Hive was a new beginning, for others it was the beginning of the end. While I would agree that the theme lacked the emotion of its predecessor and the new starfield title sequence was quite bland, the series itself had taken on a new and better direction.

There are those who detest the 80s era of the programme and while I would concede that the show dipped in 1985 and remained at low ebb for a few years, season 25 (in 1988) saw the show begin to regain some its former lustre. I sometimes wonder what season 27 would have been like - would it have continued the upward trend?

I came across an anthology edited by science fiction author Isaac Asimov, entitled Before the Golden Age. I can't remember exactly how Asimov described the golden age but he remarked that it was a time between childhood and adulthood, a time when everything seems perfect. It doesn't matter how flawed it may look years later, but at that moment everything is just right. Season 18 was part of my golden age and no-one can take that away from me.