DOCTOR WHO RANDOMISED
Hello! Welcome to Doctor Who Randomised. This is my attempt to blog my thoughts as I rewatch the entirety of televised Doctor Who.
To keep it interesting (and, of course, to avoid detection by the Black Guardian) I'm watching the stories in an order chosen by a random number selector, and in pairs of Classic (1963 to 1996) and New (2005 to present) stories. I'll write up my thoughts on each story, then look for connections between the two.
About me, and about this blog
My name is David Moloney. I was born in 1970, I’m a book publisher and editor, and currently my partner and I live in London. We both have children (now young adults), and serve and obey two young cats. Beyond family and work, I spend a lot of time reading, watching, blogging and thinking about a few of the other things that make me happy: Doctor Who, comics (mainly the British comics of the 1970s and 1980s, which I collect, and write about at www.greatnewsforallreaders.com), and football (Arsenal).
There’s comfort to be found in nostalgia, but also lessons to be learned: about what we learned from the formative influences on our lives, and what they can teach us for living well in the present and the future. I’m writing this blog because sharing my thoughts on randomly paired Doctor Who stories seems to be a good incentive to stick with the challenge of trying to rewatch the entirety of the series, old and new. The idea of watching them all in broadcast order doesn’t really appeal to me – I don’t think I’d have the patience to sit through all those older episodes without a mix of the new. The pairing of stories from different eras is a bit of a challenge to myself, to draw lines between two halves of a television programme which are the same thing, while almost entirely different in style and content. I suppose it’s similar to a wish to make connections between my child and adult selves; I’ve completely regenerated since I watched Doctor Who as a young boy, and I live in a very different world, but I’m still the same person. I think. Maybe I’ll have a better idea in 305 (or so) stories’ time.
I started out writing my reviews in sequences of short paragraphs of no more than 140 characters. That’s because I thought it would be interesting to micro-blog the same thoughts on Twitter (@DWrandomised). It created an interesting discipline for the writing process, but I gave up after week seven and adopted a longer-form style - ultimately this is less restrictive and more satisfying. I hope it reads more comfortably too!