A current whimsy among those of us who love Doctor Who and are of a certain age (early thirties - cough - ooh what’s that over there?) is to start watching Doctor Who from the beginning. No, not Christopher Eccleston, the real beginning, yonks ago, in 1963. William Hartnell and black and white.I’ve been meaning to start for ages, you know how it is, but lately the urge has got stronger and so with more options for watching old episodes than ever before now I thought I would.
Nothing rigid you understand. No quota of episodes a day or anything silly like that. Just a gentle meander through time and space in the company of my life’s most constant companion.
I thought I’d share my thoughts as I go for any of you who may be interested or tempted to join me on the odyssey. It’s easy enough to follow along nowadays with so many DVDs and most of it on YouTube. And don’t worry if you fall behind or get ahead, we’ll wait for each other.
Let’s prepare ourselves by powering up our plasma TVs, our PCs and laptops, our trusty old black and white sets and even our phones and iPod Touches. And of course, stalwarts that we are, will we falter when we quickly encounter episodes that no longer exist on film or tape? No, we shall resort to photographs and books and telesnaps and memories and audio recordings that exist in full and long periods, literally, of staring into space.
So join me my friends on (cliche alert) the trip of a lifetime!
Ian
First episode: An Unearthly Child
