With Doctor Who now at home in the mainstream, you’d have to have been living under a rock not to know that it celebrates its fiftieth anniversary on 23rd November, cementing its legacy as the world’s longest-running science fiction series (whatever Stargate SG•1 fans say).
Despite The History of the Doctor having closed its doors to new stories, I will continue to update it over the anniversary year as I replace the last few of my classic series reviews with reviews of their 2|entertain DVDs (including Paradise Towers, The Legacy Collection, The Reign of Terror, and The Ark in Space and The Aztecs special editions, which I’ve fallen behind with).
I’m also planning to pinch (a slightly-altered version of) former History boy Daniel Tessier’s fantastic idea and, between now and November, review a story from each Doctor’s era that I’ve not reviewed before for this blog. To that end, I’ve already capitalised on Big Finish’s Chocolate Weekend sale, purchasing UNIT: Dominion (Sylvester McCoy) and and Dark Eyes (Paul McGann). Watch this space for reviews of those over the coming weeks.
And of course, the television series returns to our screens tonight with Steven Moffat’s promising episode The Bells of Saint John, which will see the Doctor and his new companion investigating a threat lurking in London’s Wi-Fi networks. I’m making no promises about ongoing new series reviews, as my little girl seems intent on waking me up at 5am daily at the moment, but I suspect that it won’t be too long before I have to succumb to gravity’s pull. For now, I’ll just wish a very happy birthday to Who.
Doctor Who returns to BBC One and BBC One HD tonight at 6.15pm. Check out its prequel here.
