With apologies to Billy Joel's We Didn't Start The Fire (and those not fond of a tortuous lyric)...
The Cave Of Skulls, Planet's dead, Beyond the Sun, Kublai Khan
Voord swimming, Aztecs killing, Exploit the Sense-Sphere
Reign of Terror, Crew is shrinking, Daleks winning, Vicki's joining
Rome is burning, Zarbi bumping, Saladin is here
Space Museum, Chase is on, Meddling Monk, Four Hundred Dawns
Bret Vyon, Roman goodbye, and the Masterplan is nigh
Bell of Doom, Steel Sky, Toymaker make Dodo scream
Johnny Ringo, Steven's staying, WOTAN in a high rise.
You can make up the chorus yourself......
Smallbeer and Gurney , Tenth Planet, Bragan and MacCrimmon's dirk...
That's quite enough of that. This is just getting silly. Get on with it!
Okay, okay - so it was a bad idea to start with.
The truth of the matter is, I just wanted to acknowledge that I made it this far. A whole year of watching Doctor Who one episode a day. No skipping. No audio only. Either official DVD's or reconstructions with the soundtrack and tele-snaps.
I even kept going during my two week holiday in Greece.
It's become part of my daily routine. Waking up in the morning and thinking "Today it's Fury from The Deep episode 5". More importantly, having made through a whole year, there is no way I am going to stop now. 369 days down, 431 to go.
I said in my last post about having the wholly unoriginal idea for this project that I am not going to comment on every story - and that's still true. The enthusiasm for having a regular blog wasn't there back in January 2014. I personally don't think I have enough original thoughts about each story to make interesting reading anyway. I've promised myself now that I will post something here at least once a week - but this blog isn't *just* about Doctor Who (well it won't be eventually).
Even so, I would be a poor fan indeed if I didn't at least offer up some (very) edited highlights / lowlights of the last year of watching:
Highlights:
Marco Polo - A story so good I ended up watching two different reconstructions (nothing in the rules about watching a story more than once!) As the first historical I can imagine it was comforting after the craziness of The Daleks and Edge of Destruction.
The Crusade - The masterful Julian Glover. The dialogue is just wonderful but then I'm a sucker for a bit of cod-Shakespeare.
Galaxy 4 - There's a bit of a theme here. Perhaps it's because I have never watched a lot of the recons before (well not fully). The design of the Rill is fantastic. The Face of Boe 40-odd years early.
Enemy Of The World - How could I bypass this? Troughton is just mesmerising. I was lucky enough to see this for the first time in a cinema in London with a Q&A afterwards. Poor Fariah...
Web Of Fear - Again I saw this first on a big screen. Not quite as good as it was in my head though. I particularly like Jack Woolgar as Staff Sgt. Arnold.
The Dominators - Just for Ronald Allen.
The War Games - Just riveting all the way through. By now I am really playing spot the recurring actor. Look - Bernard Horsfall ! Philip Madoc! Plus added David Troughton. Wonderful.
The Ambassadors of Death - Has the distinction of being the first Pertwee that I'd never seen before (there are others I'm ashamed to say).
Claws Of Axos - I just love this for some reason. Maybe it's Bernard Holley. Maybe it's the technicolour sets. Or maybe it's because I've written about it before here.
Day Of The Daleks - "No Complications"...
The Mutants - I've been to Chislehurst Caves you know ! A great monster and worth it for Rick James's acting alone. Another one I'd never seen before (I know shoot me now).
Carnival Of Monsters - Rightly hailed as a classic. The Drashigs. Vorgs hat. Shirna's outfit. The Five Faces Of Doctor Who. I felt warm and fuzzy all the way through. "Our purpose is to amuse, simply to amuse. Nothing serious, nothing political". Where have I seen that since?
The Time Warrior - Sarah Jane. 'Nuff said.
Lowlights:
The Dalek Masterplan - I'm sorry it's a great story, but even with the excellent recon I have, Feast Of Steven is almost unwatchable.
Well that was a short second list. I tried to pick other stories but found that there was something I liked in all of them.I actually quite enjoyed The Sensorites. Despite it's obvious flaws The Celestial Toymaker has Billy Bunter. The Krotons was the first Troughton I ever saw so has a special place in my heart. Colony in Space has the fabulous Bernard Kay (and what a loss that was recently).
I just can't bring myself to poor scorn on a whole story. Maybe I'm just a glass half-full kind of a guy. Or maybe I just enjoying this journey too damn much.
Onwards and upwards and all that positive stuff. Here's to the next 14 and a bit months.
Oh and for anyone wondering why I marked 369 days rather than 365, that's because Day 370 is a very important one - as we'll see in my next post...
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