Sometimes in life, you start a project.  You plan it out, set your aims and objectives, bring it to a conclusion and move on.  That’s not what has happened here.

I’ve always been a Dr Who fan.  When people say they hid behind the sofa when the Daleks first appeared, they are not lying.  I know because I was one of them.  For me though, the scariest early Dr Who recollection was the grainy black and white sight of a deadly Cyberman jerkily crawling out of a manhole cover.  This is an image that has seared itself on my memory and has remained there for the five decades that have passed since their first appearance in 1966.

The Doctor first graced our television screens in 1963 and although I just about existed then, I don’t have any recollection of the Hartnell era but vaguely remember watching Troughton stagger around in the snow.  Jon Pertwee was the one who captured my attention before the arrival of the fabulously flamboyant Tom Baker, and it was his Genesis of the Daleks battle with Davros that made me a fan for life.

On a dark evening, in the cold, wintry depths of December 2019, I decided to do a sequential re-watch of all the episodes that have aired since the show was relaunched in 2005.  I did have a serious debate about starting from 1963’s Unearthly Child but, for a change, common sense prevailed.  My plan was then to create a ‘Best 10 episodes’ listing, but that’s not how it turned out.  In fact, it was nothing like that.

By the time I had stopped sobbing after Face the Raven and held my breath through Blink I found that my ‘would I sit down and watch the episode again’ criteria had yielded a Top 47 which isn’t quite what I had in mind.  I thought I was being strict but it just goes to show how much I love the show.  However, now I will have to watch these episodes again and muster the resolve to ruthlessly cross 37 of them off the list.  It isn’t going to be easy but “I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.”

So, once again I need to step onboard the TARDIS and follow the Doctor through time and space.  After all, ‘it’s so much bigger on the inside’.