Welcome - What It's All About

With all that’s been written over the last few years about classic Doctor Who, it would be a brave person who claimed that they had anything new to say about it.

I’m not that brave.

If you’re not a fan, and are confused by any of the terminology, don’t worry. By ‘classic’ Doctor Who I’m referring to the original BBC TV series that ran from 1963 until 1989. During this time the Doctor (note, I don’t want to anal about it – but the character is The Doctor, right, and not Doctor Who) was played by 7 different actors. Well, 7 different main actors – let’s not get into the number of different actors who were seen on screen as the first Doctor for the time being. Now, my figures may be a little suspect, but when I counted up I made it that there were in this time 684 episodes in 157 stories.

The Doctor and Me

For a TV drama series which is not a soap opera, and more than that, could even be described as a genre show, to last for 26 years, then be revived 16 years later and become a huge success all over again, it has to have something going for it. I’ve never been a member of organized fandom myself,  but I was a big fan from as early as I can remember, which is watching Patrick Troughton’s Doctor in “The Mind Robber”, right through until about 1986. It’s a long story, but basically, becoming a Dad and husband that year had something to do with it.

That might have been that for me with the Doctor. The show itself ended in 1989 as I mentioned earlier. I did cast an eye over Doctor Who: The Movie when it was broadcast in 1996, and didn’t take more pleasure in the fact that my prediction that it wasn’t going to work came true than was absolutely necessary.

Then the BBC did something rather wonderful. They revamped the show completely and brought it back in 2005, and even more than that, they did a really good job with it too. My two youngest daughters were 10 years old when it returned, and they adored it, which meant that Doctor Who became family viewing for my family, the same as it had been when I was a kid. Over the next few years my youngest daughter, Jessie, never lost her interest, and through the magazines and what have you I found myself being drawn back in.

I was bought my first Kindle a few years ago, and was delighted to discover that there’s quite a number of fans  of a similar vintage to myself out there, some of whom kept the faith throughout the dark days of the 80s and 90s, and some who are born again fans like me. I’ve read some terrific books by fans like these, including “Dalek, I loved You” and “Who Goes There?” by Nick Griffiths – “The Discontinuity Guide” by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping, “Running Through Corridors” by Rob Shearman and Toby Hadoke, and “Adventures with the wife in space: Living with Doctor Who” by Neil Perryman. These last two are particularly important. Both of them are about the writers’ Marathon watch of the whole of classic Doctor Who, consecutively from the first episode of the first story,”An Unearthly Child” , to the last episode of the last story in 1989, “Survival”.

Now, the fact is that, along with my younger brother Rob, a bigger fan than ever I was, back in the late 70s we had often speculated about being able to do just that, to watch every episode from first to last. Now, with the proliferation of Doctor Who stories released on DVD, the dream could become a reality. Could I find an excuse for committing myself to such a time consuming project though? Put it another way – could there be any excuse for NOT committing myself to it?

I could feel a blog coming on.

I should probably explain that I’m not totally new to the blogosphere. About the same time that I stopped watching Doctor Who in the mid 80s, I started attending pub quizzes, and playing in pub quiz leagues. In 2004 I made my first appearance in a TV quiz, and went on to make well over a dozen TV quiz appearances in the next few years. In 2008 I started writing my blog, “Life After Mastermind”. to write about my TV experiences, my other quiz experiences, and to regularly review some of the more serious TV quizzes.

I’ve never been able to keep a diary or journal for more than a few weeks, but finding that some people were actually reading LAM, and getting a little feedback was tremendously encouraging, and six and a half years and nearly 2000 later it’s still going strong. Just occasionally I’ve said things I’ve regretted which have upset people, but for the most part writing the blog has brought me a lot of joy, and helped me make some wonderful friends. So when I decided to try this challenge, writing about it in a blog seemed like an obvious way to go. Hence this – Nothing New to Say About Doctor Who.

The Blog

This then is the big idea. I can’t watch and write with the technical knowledge and appreciation of Rob Shearman and Toby Hadoke in “Running Through Corridors”. Neither can I watch and write with the innocence and total lack of preconception of Sue Perryman in “Adventures With the Wife in Space”. All I can do is watch and write from the viewpoint of a born again fan, which I am, coming back to stories I either haven’t seen for years, or never saw in the first place, and trying to see what I make of them now. The title of the blog isn’t deliberate self-deprivation – it’s more to do with self preservation. I will definitely not be reading any other books about Doctor Who while the challenge is ongoing, but I realise that there is every good chance that nothing I say won’t already have been said by its far more illustrious predecessors. In which case, at least I can say , well you were warned.

Bearing in mind I still have the day job to worry about, and LAM to write, I’m not intending to write about each individual episode, just each individual story as and when I finish it.

Well, that’s about it then. We’ll get cracking, and work out any other rules as we go along. 

BTW - all the illustrations accompanying any of the posts I drew myself, better or worse.