It's an important disc. Not only is it a fantastic story, but more personally, my Classic Doctor Who DVD collection is finally complete. All those years of purchases. Searching out the reconstructions for missing episodes and burning them to DVD. Printing my own covers so the spines all match (yes I know....). It was wonderful. As satisfying as having a complete collection of 2000 AD, or reading the final book in a much loved series.
(By the way, I am aware that The Moonbase and The Web of Fear were not officially released until 2014, but at the time I had a reconstruction of the first and a digital copy of the second. Let me have my moment).
So what now? Sure they all look great lined up on the shelves. I can dip in and out of eras and Doctors whenever I want. Great for rainy days and those early hours at weekends when the cats insist on getting me up to feed them. But surely this deserves something... more?
I know ! Why don't I watch all the serials in order from the beginning? An Unearthly Child all the way through to The TV Movie and even beyond. What an original idea - not.
"It won't work" the devil on my left shoulder starts up, "You tried that once before remember? You got as far as Edge of Destruction and gave up, or work got in the way, or you were on holiday or something. You can't keep the pace."
"This time it will be different" says the angel on my right shoulder.
"Nope, still don't think you can do it".
I'm all prepared to let the two of them bicker it out, when somewhere on the Interweb I spot a curious fact. "Time Of The Doctor", Matt Smith's last episode will be the 800th episode of Doctor Who.
Eight hundred. A nice big round number. It hangs there.
I've always had a thing about numbers and collections - sets of things: book trilogies, complete runs of comics, TV series box sets. To be honest my day job is really all about numbers.
That settles it. I'm doing it. Eight hundred episodes.
But how to keep the momentum? If I try and do a serial a day at weekends I'll soon run into the same problems as before - lack of time.
And then it hits me. The majority of Classic Who episodes are 25-30 minutes. Everyone can find 30 minutes in a day can't they? What about that time before work when I eat my breakfast and watch the news or surf the 'Net?
So - one episode a day maximum. Every day without fail. For 800 days. Don't even think about blogging it. Others like Wife In Space and No Complications have done it far better than me. Not to mention the number of books out there. It would just be covering old ground. Just watch the episodes. Enjoy them. Come on. I can do this!
To make it even more "numerical" I'll start on 1st January 2014. Perfect. I'm excited now. Even if no one else ever knows, even if it's not the most original idea in the world, this will mean something to me. I will know I did it. I will know I have watched every single one.
And thus The 800 Day Project was born.
Next time, I'll tell you how I got on during the first year...
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