My parents were (and still are) fans of British TV. Back in the 80s, PBS aired many shows from across the pond, including Doctor Who. My parents taped quite a few episodes, and I grew up watching them in the 90s. It was like this weird secret show that only my family knew about.
I remember pretending to be a dalek at recess. Who knows what the other kids thought of me. We watched the American TV movie that aired in (I think) 1998. Of course we taped it as well.
Honestly I can’t say I was a fan per se, but the fact nobody else seemed to know about it made it special to me in a way Star Trek and Babylon 5 weren’t.
The 2005 reboot aired a year earlier on CBC before coming to the US in 2006. I was able to watch it thanks to being somewhere that had CBC as a cable channel. I ended up bouncing off the series pretty hard early on. Like I said, I was never a big fan, but the show has a weird nostalgia for me for the reasons stated above.
Rarely, but yes. It would play on PBS so it was never airing consistently. But I remember a lotta episodes with Baker(? the one with the scarf) and loving it until the movie that revived the series in 1999/2000. I didn’t much care for what it became after, tho it seems at some point it went back to the absolutely batshit insane way it was like as a kid (like with the Moisturize Me lady).