Days Like Crazy Paving - A Doctor Who Fan Blog

I'm unsure of the exact measurement, but if you were to add up all the time I have spent in my 50 years experiencing Doctor Who (whether it's watching or reading) it would be a high percentage (some would argue too much!) But now we add Podcasting to the mix. Even though I've not got my own podcast, I' ve been very fortunate to guest on other people's podcasts. The first being Joe Ford's A Hamster with a Blunt Penknife  Call it a case of "no sense, no feeling" but don't think I was as nervous as I thought I would be. And that was down to my host. The wonderful Joe Ford is, well, wonderful at putting people at ease and having a common interest in Doctor Who immediately gives you something to talk about. Joe has a gift for talking to complete strangers online and welcoming them to his podcast family, know as the Ham Fam. My first episode was looking at Destiny of the Daleks and listening to it, I have to pinch myself to remember that about half an ho...

A wise person once said, "The best thing to happen to Doctor Who was Tom Baker and the best thing to happen to Tom Baker was Doctor Who. It's the great man's 90th birthday and like many fans of my generation, I have happy memories of watching Tom on a Saturday night in the late 1970s and early 80s. Here's some of my favourite moments but possibly not the one's that immediately spring to mind  1. "There's no point in growing up if you can't be childish sometimes"  Terrance Dicks makes the fourth Doctor quite manic in his first story, certainly in comparison to his straight laced predecessor. But there's a wisdom behind the manicness and this line has gone on to be a quite I've often referred to.  2. "Homo sapiens, what an inventive invincible species..."  As much as I like actors like Faulton Mackay, Bernard Cribbins and Graham Crowden, I just can't imagine them giving this speech as much justice as Tom does. It's the Olym...

This blog was set up to review stories in a random order, so here's my thoughts about one of Big Finish's most celebrated stories   Somewhere in an alternate universe, the August Bank Holiday weekend of 2009 saw an extra special with David Tennant, leading into the Waters of Mars. The audience would have whooped with joy at the familiar sight of certain scarf and tall figure, waxing lyrical about Michaelangelo pilfering his ideas as he paints his fresco, talking to a character played by Katherine Drysdale, who played Bliss in Love & Monsters. It also had the Daleks back in their gun metal grey livery as seen in the 1970s along with the red and gold Dalek (Chicken!) Supreme...  OK, in reality, Out of Time is possibly the only benefit I can think of, that was a result of the 2020 pandemic lockdown (apart from an extended period of paternity leave after the birth of our third son!)  Suddenly available thanks to tv and film productions grinding to a halt, David Tennant qu...

NB: When I finished my 60 favourite Doctor Who stories strand back on the 23rd November, the plan was to continue with reviews and other stuff. Life however with Christmas, work courses and various bereavements took priority.  So here's my review of the 2023 Christmas special.  Christmas hasn't been the same without the Doctor. As much as I enjoyed the frankly wonderful New Year specials written by Chris Chibnall, it felt the series has slipped somewhat from being a high point of the Christmas Day offerings to propping up the New Year’s Day schedule because there was nothing else. So the restoration of the show's position on Christmas Day is seen as a positive by many fans. But given the uneven nature of the festive specials in the past, how does The Church on Ruby Road fare?  On a scale of Voyage of the Damned down to the Doctor, Widow and the Wardrobe, how does this hold up? In my opinion, it's upper mid table.  As a showcase for the new Doctor and companion, it's...

1. City of Death How to recognise a beautiful woman, probably... So, finally here we are at number one. OK, it's not the most original choice, everyone seems to love City of Death unless you're Gary Russell, whose review in DWM, back in the day, really took me by surprise. And fair play to him, he's entitled to his opinion and I doubt this waffly blog will persuade him otherwise. As much as I love City of Death, I'm struggling to find something original to say about it. I don't have a tale of youth to share with you on this story, although I do remember watching Part Two at my Grandparents house in Scotland. I once met Julian Glover at a convention in Swansea but at his interview he spoke more on playing Czech president Alexander Dubček than he did about playing Count Scarlioni. And anyway, we all know he was disappointed about not going to Paris... This is top of the list simply because I think it's exquisite, absolutely exquisite! (Told you I couldn't thi...

 2. The Five Doctors To lose is to win and he who wins shall lose!  How could I not have the twentieth anniversary special in this list? It was the biggest thing on TV at the time, certainly the biggest Doctor Who story ever with five doctors (or three doctors, clips of the fourth and a man in a wig!) several companions, monsters, the Master, Bessie, K9 and a new monster called the Raston Robot. The trailers looked exciting. ("Goodness me there are five of me now!") and we even had a magnificent Radio Times front cover. It was certainly an anniversary the BBC seemed happy to celebrate!  A special bonus was the special 20th anniversary magazine which I'd poured over in the newsagents down the road, until the newsagent told me to buy it if I was going to look at it that much! (Perhaps he was the belligerent newsagent DWM once mentioned in that advert?) there was the obligatory episode guide including a snide comment about the Gunfighters and its poorly drawn characters. Ah,...