'Doctor Who' fan sees his childhood dream come true — and you can watch Saturday in Clive

David Busch sat down in front of the TV shortly before 11 p.m. on July 4, 1982. The 10-year-old boy from Davenport and his family had just returned from watching fireworks.

He settled in to watch a British science fiction series about an alien with a magic box who traveled through space and time to fight the evils of the universe.

The show was "Doctor Who"; the story he watched, "Revenge of the Cybermen," starred the grinning, wild-eyed Tom Baker, with his trademark long scarf and mop of curly hair, as the series' enigmatic and perhaps most popular lead.

"I instantly became a devoted fan," said Busch, now 46. He was so devoted, in fact, he taught himself to sew and knit so he could create a replica of the Baker's scarf and a stuffed toy that resembled the Doctor's robot dog friend, K-9.

His family bought its first VCR just so Busch could record the show, which aired on his local PBS station at 11 p.m. Sunday nights, and his parents grew weary of trying to shuffle their obstinate Whovian off to bed when the Doctor's adventures were on.

The story of how Busch became a fan is commonplace for lovers of all sorts of genres.

What makes his moment special is that he held that childlike love for "Doctor Who" well into his adult years, through several careers, and eventually became an animator for a special BBC project involving Tom Baker and "Doctor Who."

Busch's efforts on the story, "Shada," makes its United States debut at a special event at the Clive Public Library at 1 p.m. Saturday. A course on knitting will precede the show and talk by Busch, who lives in Iowa City and works in video and graphics for Pearson Education.

"If I could actually travel back in time and tell my 10-year-old self that I would actually work on 'Doctor Who' on a Tom Baker story, my head would have exploded," Busch said.

From 'Clueless' extra to animator

Busch's journey was more straightforward than his time- and dimension-hopping hero.

He got into theater, chorus and show choir at Davenport North High School his sophomore year. He took his love of performance to the University of Iowa, where he graduated with a theater arts degree.

Busch moved to Los Angeles to try to make it as an actor. He found semi-regular gigs as an extra in movies and TV shows.

He's particularly prominent in a scene in the 1995 film "Clueless," starring Alicia Silverstone, a cult classic about a vapid Valley Girl who learns to value friendship and family over the trappings of popularity.

"Whenever that's on TV, I get texts and emails from people who say they just saw me," Busch said. "It's kind of nice to be recognized."

Acting work was sparse and L.A. rents were high. He took a job as a production assistant at Dreamworks Animation. His job involved running errands and assisting the animators and eventually managing accounting and time sheets for staff.

Busch used the time to learn the software and tricks of the trade from animators generous enough to share their knowledge.

Racking up IMDB credits

Busch eventually moved on to producing animated commercials and motion graphic projects for Klasky Csupo and then to Titmouse, a company known for animation such as "Metalocalypse," a cartoon for the Adult Swim network, Nestle's Nesquik animated TV spots and a "Black Panther" animated series for Marvel and BET.

While at Titmouse, Busch started experimenting with his side projects, including animating "Doctor Who" adventures from the 1960s for which the video footage was lost but full audio remained.

Busch and other animators used still photographs to create character animations for a story called "Mission to the Unknown." They eventually presented it to BBC executives, who said they weren't interested because it would be too costly.

Undeterred, Busch tried again with another test footage reel a few years later and got a meeting with some BBC executives, but again the suits turned him away.

"I figured that was my brush with creating 'Doctor Who' and that was that," Busch said.

But like any good "Doctor Who" story, there's always an unexpected twist.

Coming home, then into time and space

While still in Los Angeles, Busch married a fellow University of Iowa alum, Cadry Nelson, an actress from Des Moines. The couple eventually moved back to Iowa to be closer to family.

Busch worked on his solo animation and film projects and has worked at Pearson since 2012.

Then, in May 2017, Busch got an email from a BBC executive .

The BBC was creating a special edition DVD and Blu-ray of the incomplete "Doctor Who" serial "Shada."

"Shada" was a Tom Baker story from the end of the series' 17th season. A union strike halted production on the story and it was never completed.

The BBC put out several videos and DVDs over the years that made half-hearted efforts to complete the story through rehearsal photographs and narration by Baker. They were disappointing.

But the BBC recently had success with recreating a missing 1960s serial "Power of the Daleks" using audio from the original show and new animation.

They wanted to give the same treatment to "Shada" and they wanted Busch's help with the process.

And so 35 years later, the boy who fell in love with "Doctor Who" was now a man helping create it — and with his favorite Doctor.

"It was an incredible amount of work under a tight deadline and a low budget, but when I would be sitting up at night at my computer listening to new audio recorded by Tom Baker and working with animation of his Doctor, I would be smiling the whole time," Busch said.

Busch worked his regular job during the day and worked through the nights from June through September 2017 to help complete the "Shada" serial.

The finished project will be part live-action footage shot before a strike in 1979. The rest will be animated with the surviving actors recording the remainder of the script, written by famed British novelist Douglas Adams of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" fame.

The film will be available for purchase in the United States this September, but Whovians can get an exclusive preview at the Clive library Saturday.

'Never give up on your dreams'

The path from "Doctor Who" fan to creator was hardly a straight one for Busch, but it provides a valuable lesson for the artistically inclined.

He struggled as an actor but adapted. He took jobs that weren't his first choice, but he paid the bills.

But decades of hard work, creativity and drive paid off when he least expected it.

Busch said: "I know it sounds trite or cliché to say, but I think it's important for all artists: Never give up on your dreams."

Daniel P. Finney, Register Metro Voice columnist, is a Drake University graduate who grew up in Winterset and east Des Moines. Contact: dafinney@dmreg.com. More from Finney: DesMoinesRegister.com/Finney.