But a little back story just to explain. As of writing this I'm a 19 year old student studying at University, my second year. I watched Doctor Who when it came back in 2005, when I was about ten or eleven years old. I was starting secondary school that year. I knew about the show obviously but I don't remember watching any classic Dr Who episodes before 2005. If I did I only watched bits and not enough to remember it. It's fair to say I loved Doctor Who and have ever since. The first classic episode I watched was actually An Unearthly Child, followed by The Daleks and The Edge of Destruction. My mum had bought me the Beginnings box set for Christmas. After that I watched The Five Doctors, borrowed from a friend. From then on I bought some where I could, I came across a CEX shop that had some great Tom Baker eps quite cheap, borrowed or watched a fair few at my frriend's house, who now has nearly all the stories on DVD, and even found Caves of Androzani on You Tube once. I've watched some stories only once, whilst the ones I own up to three or four times. I've seen stories for every Doctor, mostly Tom Baker and a fair amount of William Hartnell. I've also seen quite a few Pertwee stories recently. The others I've seen three or less of their stories (not including the Five Doctors), and obviously McGann's Movie and recent mini episode. But overall I've probably seen less than 10% of classic Who stories.
When I saw my friend's almost complete collection I thought about watching them from the start. But I knew he didn't have them all and I couldn't really do it. He doesn't live that near to me and I don't see him often, I couldn't just pop round every week for a new DVD to borrow. I also knew there are some missing episodes. I wasn't up for it really.
It's only recently that I've found that you can still watch the missing episodes in some form or another. And it's recently that I came across the 50 year diary I mentioned above. And then last week I found that EVERY episode is on Daily Motion! I'd heard of it before but thought it looked like a You Tube rip off. Apparently not. Boy was I amazed when I found not just a few full episodes but all of them, just waiting for me. And then yesterday I discover yet another blog of chronological watching in the form of Adventures With the Wife in Space! It's a sign. If they can can and have been doing it, so can I.
It's going to happen. And soon.
I'm not starting it just yet, but I might start is as early as next week. When I do I'll be writing about it in this blog.
Now first things first, I don't know how long this will take me. I don't have a strict structure to this. As I said I'm a university student so I get work to do and sometimes I'll be busier than others. I aim to watch at least one twenty-five minute episode a day. But ideally I'd like to watch a bit more than that. On a less busy day I can probably fit a four-part story. So it's going to be flexible really, but I do want to make sure I stagger the individual episodes.
If I can help it then I don't plan to watch one episode after another, I want a gap in between, even if it's only a few hours. It seems that a lot of people think watching the individual episodes separately is best. That way you get to appreciate each episode for what it is, and the cliffhangers are given change to actually work. I must say there are a lot of bad cliffhangers in the show from what I've seen. And a lot of the time they seem to be resolved by the action happening a little differently to how it was last shown. "Oh my God that Axon is going to get the oblivious Doctor, it's literally inches away from him!" Next episode: "Oh that Axon is nowhere near as close this time, and the Brig's on hand, now the Doctor has loads of space in which to turn round in!" I'm sorry, but come on! That's just bad drama and writing I think. Maybe it's growing up with the new show and/or in this much more TV literate age, maybe if I'd grown up with classic Who I'd appreciate them much more.
But anyway I've wittered on for a while now. Before I let you go, just a few words on what I'm going to do with the blog.
- It'll be updated by the end of each week realistically, I won't be able to do it every day.
- As I watch each episode I'll write notes about it on paper, which then I'll write up and probably expand upon on the blog
- For each story I'll be saying if I've seen it before (and how many times, and maybe my previous responses), if I haven't seen it before then a very brief word about what I know about the episode before hand if anything
- At the end of each episode I'll give it a score out of 10, in keeping with the scores I'll be giving it on IMDb (though unlike IMDb I might put points in, such as 8.5/10, rather than just 8 or 9) and include the list of pros and cons.
- Seen as I rambled on about them I'll probably talk about the cliffhanger, maybe even rate that out of 10. Maybe
So hopefully next time you read this blog I'll have started the marathon!
I hope you enjoy it and please feel free to leave any comments.
I'm excited for this (mostly) new experience.
Until next time.
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