Introduction
Eight years ago today I started a Doctor Who marathon. I did one episode a day, every day, over the course of about two-and-a-half years. It covered every episode from An Unearthly Child to Last Christmas, which was the most recently broadcast episode when I came to the end. There was only one episode which I didn’t make it through — The Highlanders Episode Four proved my downfall, and I resorted to the Target book for that one instead just to try and make it through.
I’ve been saying pretty much since the moment I finished that marathon that I’d love to do a new one. Watching Who in order gave me a whole new appreciation of it. It allowed me to connect with the characters in a way which the random releases on DVD, or now blu-ray, didn’t. And I loved it! Even Attack of the Cybermen had some good parts.
No, honestly, it did.
Thing is, there’s never been the time. Since finishing the marathon, I’ve gotten married, had a baby, and found myself busier with work. I’ve snatched time for the odd episode of Who here and there, but even though the blu-rays have all come through the door on release day, I’ve only actually put one of them into the player to watch. And even then I only made it through a single episode and half a bonus feature.
In the last few weeks, with a bit more time on my hands, I’ve found myself seriously thinking about doing the marathon again. Just before Christmas, I sat down to watch Paradise Towers for a work thing. I’d not seen it since my marathon reached it in 2014, and at the time I’d not been keen. Season 24 came out as my least-favourite of them all back then (Season 26 came out as the best of them all, though, so it was swings and roundabouts for McCoy). But watching Paradise Towers this time around was brilliant! I loved it!
I loved it so much that when I finished, I moved on to Delta and the Bannermen — loved that, too — and then Dragonfire. I’d have moved on to Remembrance of the Daleks if I wasn’t too tired to pull an all-nighter. It really got me thinking; how much have my opinions on Doctor Who changed since I last watched through it all? More than once I’ve said to a friend ‘I like [story name]’, only for them to remind me that when I did my marathon, I wasn’t a fan. Sometimes, it works in the other direction, and they remind me that I wasn’t so keen on whichever story I’m currently raving about.
So I figure January 1st is the perfect time to start it all over again. I’m doing things a bit differently this time around. For starters, I’m only going to do the run of Old Testament Who — so starting with An Unearthly Child and running through to The TV Movie. I’ve seen the New Testament stuff, 2005 onwards, loads of times, so I don’t need the refresher course on those. I’ll be doing, broadly speaking, two episodes a day. This’ll take me right through the year, so I can see off 2021 with The TV Movie on New Year’s Eve. It seems appropriate for that one. I’ll be rating every episode out of ten, and I’m going in with a positive outlook — I want to find something I love in every episode.
Yes, even Attack of the Cybermen.
I’ll be writing down my thoughts here on this blog every day, because it’s nice to have a record of what I’m thinking about the show. Also, I flatter myself that having already held a blog on the subject for two-and-a-half years, there are at least three people out there who care to read what I’ve written. I’ve not gone back to read my original blogs, so I’ve no idea how much my opinions are going to have changed across the board.
Who Am I?
Ooh, look at that, it’s Day One and I’m already doing the Paul McGann thing.
Hello. I’m Will. I’m a Norfolk-born freelance writer and designer based in South Wales.
Lots of my day-to-day work is Doctor Who related — between 2015 and 2019, I provided the photo covers for Titan Comics’ Doctor Who and Torchwood ranges (with the occasional dip into the world of Sherlock). I’ve also produced a number of covers for Big Finish, and have previously been responsible for exclusive products at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff Bay.
I’ve also written lots of nonsense about monsters and spaceships for the Doctor Who role playing game by Cubicle 7.
There’s examples of my work in my portfolio, and if you enjoy this blog, you may like my History of the 21st Century TARDIS Props, and my Breakdown of the Tenth Doctor’s costumes.
You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, where I promise I don’t just post about Doctor Who, but it does make up about 90% of the content.
