The Great Pilgrimage - One Year On

And so, from Christmas Day 2014, when I received the first box set of missing adventures, to Christmas 2015, this completes the first year of my pilgrimage to watch every episode of Doctor Who sequentially.

In the past 365 days, I have successfully manage to watch eight full seasons of the show, that's eight years of Doctor Who crammed into just one.  Given that the early seasons had significantly more stories to a season, if we take a standard to be five shows per season, that's more like twelve years of Doctor Who crammed into a single year.  No wonder I feel exhausted!

So, in this time, what have I learned?

Reflections

Well, the most important lesson is not to walk into a strangers Police Box.

Beyond that, I noticed that for the first month or so, I was engrossed in this new crusade.  Everything was exciting and new.  I'd seen the first three stories before, many times, but by truly analyzing them, they opened up new ways of watching them and I found myself captivated.

This feeling was heightened as I worked my way onto the missing episodes, many of which I hadn't seen or heard before.  It was like I was privileged to be getting a look into the past, hearing things long forgotten.  In other words, it was great!

It wasn't long before I'd burned my way through the first season and began working my way into the second.  My interests started to wane by the time I reached The Web Planet, mainly because I knew I'd have to use some endurance to get through it, but no matter, I was going to get to see an all new story next: the Crusade!

Imagine my surprise then when things started to go seriously downhill.  The production team spearheaded by Verity Lambert had lost some impetus and had gotten a little bit complacent, dragging back the Daleks time and again just to keep the ratings up.  I knew I could get out of the slump but I had no idea how long I would have to endure it.  Lucky for me, Season three brought back a new gritty edge for me to enjoy and become captivated in again.

That lasted until Innes Lloyd took over and everything went safe for a long, long time.  Indeed, the stories did get to feel like a sausage factory and with the odd exception, never really recovered for me until the show got a significant reboot with the War Games.  That show taught me how I could watch ten episodes and make me feel that no time had past.

During the first run of Jon Pertwee's incarnation, the formulaic nature of the show returned, but it wasn't entirely without merit and it wasn't entirely the fault of Barry Letts.  They were stranded with the shows premise and had to make the best of what they were given, and you know, they bloody well did a good job of it.

Favourite so far

The Web of Fear

There are more than one Doctor Who stories in the first eight seasons that have one or two outstanding episodes such as: the Aztecs, Marco Polo, the Faceless Ones, Spearhead from Space, The Daleks' Master Plan, and the Daemons to name just a few.  But, the Web of Fear more than any other to date has a level of consistency absent from the others.  There are downsides to the story, of course there is, but the scenery, the acting, the premise....it all adds up to something special and in 1967, something very real and close and terrifying for the young audience.

Memorable moments

• First appearance of the Daleks
• The Doctor outwitting the prison guard in the Reign of Terror
• The Dalek emerging from the Thames
• The death of Katarina and Sara Kingdom
• The Cybermen walking across the moon
• Jamie, Ben and the Doctor pulling faces in the photobooth at Gatwick
• The Yeti in the underground
• Mr Quill and his terrifying gas
• The Cybermen on the steps of St Paul's 
• The arrival of the Time Lords
• Shop window dummies coming to life
• A plague spreading across Marlybone Station
• Tiny troll dolls strangulating people

Things best forgotten

• Susan messing around with scissors for no apparent reason
• The squeezy bottle submarines of the Voord
• The Zarbi and all their mates
• The entirety of the Crusade
• The Chumblies
• Messing about on a silent film studio for no apparent reason
• Anything the Meddling Monk does in Egypt
• The entirety of the Celestial Toymaker
• The voices of the Mondasian Cybermen
• The silly silly Daleks who give the Doctor a ride on their "train"
• Tobermans fight with the Cyber Controller
• The Quarks and the Dulcians
• The Primords
• Killer daffodils
• The scene where the Master shrinks someone to death and then puts them in a lunchbox
• The bit where the Keller Machine teleports
• Pigbin Josh
• The IMC mining robot and its attack on the colonists
• Bok
• Most of the Daemons past episode 2

Most looking forward to

If I aim to watch at least another eight years worth of Doctor Who in 2016, then I'm most looking forward to seeing:

• The Sea Devils
• Planet of the Daleks
• Invasion of the Dinosaurs
• The Ark in Space
• Genesis of the Daleks
• Pyramids of Mars
• The Seeds of Doom
• The Robots of Death
• The Talons of Weng Chiang
• The Horror of Fang Rock
• Image of the Fendahl
• The Ribos Operation
• The Stones of Blood