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.
It was in the 80s for me that I watched the 3rd Doctor on PBS. But Star Trek:TNG aired in the same time slot, and the tv was my parents, so when it came out no more Doctor Who for me.
It was not until about a year or two before the 9th Doctor that i was able to start watching it again. My then 4/5 year old daughter loved it. She is still a huge fan, all my kids are.