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Interesting story. Thanks for the link.

"Evil Annie?" Well, you've lost me there, Al.

Ah, never would have thought it was an anagram. I've never had a problem with Ian personally. I know many can't bear him, but he always seemed alright to me.

Sorry for leaving you speechless, Al. I wasn't trying to do so! We probably just come at it from different points of view. I know the show means everything to Ian and consequently his behavior reflects that and sure, he has an ego and can be very defensive. I've not met him in person. I've exchanged emails with him a couple times for specific reasons and found him to be calm and approachable and level-headed when you're dealing with him one-on-one. I suspect the problem he runs into is the amount of passion he has for the series and the utter seriousness with which he views it causes an undue amount of friction between him and a large percentage of other fans. He certainly has his devoted crowd, but many people can't seem to bear him. Honestly, I've found myself feeling bad for him from time to time whether he is culpable for the backlash or not. It frequently has become him against the world on various Doctor Who messageboards over the years. When someone provokes such animosity and is only looking for acceptance (and yes, to have his ego vindicated as a VIP in fandom), I find it sad more than anything else. Mutual friends who know him outside of DW circles seem to like him well enough so I try not to judge him harshly unless he does something to me personally.

Given the fragile ego and what I can tell of his temperament, I personally wouldn't attempt to intervene via email or in person because it would only cause the siege mentality to set in. I don't think he's unique in that respect. It happens to many people and inevitably turns unpleasant. I'm sure others have seen similar behavior in the fandom wars from AOL days. It's an unfortunate part of any fan community, sadly since it involves taking entertainment far too seriously. Among sports fans, the same behavior usually leads to physical violence and property damage.

As for my comment about judging him, I only meant myself. If you've had friends that were hurt or even if you read statements you found offensive, I didn't mean to imply you were wrong to judge him. Happily, my investment of time in Doctor Who messageboards is limited to finding news about the next season and what releases are coming on DVD next year. I subscribed to the monthly as a kid in the eighties as well as Doctor Who Bulletin (remember that?) and belonged to a fan club, but my interest fell off greatly during the McCoy years (discovering girls somehow made Doctor Who, Godzilla, and comic books seem far less important to me). I don't hate the McCoy era, I would actually say I enjoy about half of his shows, but it was the beginning of my feeling like I had either outgrown the show apart from nostalgia for the past or simply feeling that where the show went isn't what I was really a fan of. In that respect, I feel much the same about the revived series, albeit not always for the same reasons. So from that potted history of my fandom past and present, whenever I come across the latest Ian showstopper going on for pages, I tend to stay clear and just think what a terrible shame it is. No one who loves a TV show enough to qualify as religious fanaticism should be made so miserable, but the intensity of his passion and utter seriousness about it all is what dooms him. You can't correct that sort of behavior. You can only ignore it, avoid it, or work around it.