It's not exactly an original thing. I've started it, with varying degrees of success, myself, and Doctor Who Magazine has a regular feature, Time Team, dedicated to it - watch all of Doctor Who, in order, from the very first episode right up until...well, whatever is the latest one to have been broadcast when I finish my quest. Watch an episode a day (or in the case of the missing episodes, listen to the CD). And blog about it afterwards. Not necessarily a review, just thoughts, musings, what went right, what went wrong. There probably won't be much of the latter, as I tend to have a fairly positive outlook on all things Who. There are only two serials I really really don't like, and heck, one of those (Time and the Rani) has some things in its favour.
What I won't be doing is the Time Team conceit of imagining that this is the first time I've seen this episode; although there are going to be a handful of serials, from the Troughton and Pertwee eras, where this will indeed be the first time I've seen/heard the episode, and some from the Tom Baker period that I've not seen since they were first shown. I will, 'cos it's interesting to try to do, be trying to think how some of this must have seemed to the original audience, and certainly I won't be doing too much of the, "oh, it's black and white! And that's a ludicrous special effect that doesn't stand up to CGI," 'cos I think it's important to judge old programmes (in so much as I judge them at all) by the standards of their time, not by the standards of nearly 50 years later.
I won't be solely watching Doctor Who, though, because I've a shedload of DVDs which I've not watched, and so between Doctor Who seasons I'll be breaking out a DVD of something else - for the time being, The X Files. So it'll be series one of Doctor Who, followed by season one of The X Files, then series two of Doctor Who, etc...But anyway, if anyone would like to comment and contribute to my little episode blogs, feel free to do so - and indeed to point anyone else who you think might be interested in this direction. They'll all have the tag: whowatch 2011
Anyway, no time like the present, so let's crack on with it. I'm thinking of this as a New Year's Resolution, and - in common with many of my New Year's Resolutions - I'm late. I was meant to start on New Year's Day with An Unearthly Child... Typical.
