So, it's fair to say that I'm a bit of a Doctor Who fan.
You know, just a bit. It's not like it's my favourite thing in the universe or anything like that. Of course not. That'd be weird.
It's my fourth favourite thing in the universe.
As I type this, it's 1.17am on the 24th of November, 2013. Yesterday - technically still today for me, as I have yet to go to bed and I pay homage to no time zones - was the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. It was celebrated with a fantastic 90 (well, 86) minute special, simultaneously broadcast in over 80 countries and screened as a movie in more than 1,400 cinemas worldwide. I've watched it twice already - once on broadcast, in my living room with the light off (the way Doctor Who is supposed to be watched, in my opinion) and a second time in the cinema. In 3D.
And it made me realise that there's something I want to do. It gave me an idea. A mad idea. A very mad idea.
There's a lot of Doctor Who, you see. Did I mention that it's fifty years old?
At the moment, there are nearly 700 Doctor Who stories available across televised episodes and audio dramas by Big Finish Productions, across eleven Doctors.
Nearly 700.
These range from 25-minute single episodes (such as Mission to the Unknown) to the sprawling twelve-part, 5 or so hours long drama that is The Daleks' Masterplan. These episodes, both visual and audio, form my personal Doctor Who canon.
And I'm going to watch and listen to them all. In order.
I did say it was a mad idea.
It's going to take a long time. In fact, my fervent hope is that it's a project that can never be completed. Doctor Who, I believe, is eternal. I think it can, and will, go on for as long as stories are being told, because it is the best story ever told, and built right into its DNA is the ability to go on for ever. And, of course, it's being added to at a tremendous rate - with more than a dozen TV episodes each year, along with several times that in Big Finish audio dramas, it will keep me busy. And I have a life. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to sit and watch a serial - or even a single episode - every day.
But I'm going to try and do this anyway. Updates may be infrequent, and they'll almost certainly sometimes be borderline insane. But hopefully - just maybe - they'll be fun.
So... would you like to join me in the TARDIS?
