Mountains of Who

How about an update on the massive Doctor Who binge watch?

The new series is proceeding nicely. I started season four (of 13, so far) over the weekend. Each season is 13 episodes plus an extra special episode or two (or three), usually a bonus episode around Christmas time. The show changed actors playing The Doctor after the first season. From there it’s three seasons per actor. The next season that airs (I don’t know when that will be) is going to bring back a prior actor for the first time. I don’t know if that is going to be confusing or not. We’ll see. I have a long, long way to go before I have to worry about that.

As for the original series… holy shit is there a lot of stuff there. Not only are there 25 seasons (I think) but the first batch of seasons have over 40 episodes! FORTY! They are only about 25 minutes each, and at some point the seasons drop to 20-something episodes each, and eventually 13-14 (for the couple of later seasons I spot checked) each.

I think I am 22 episodes into season one, so about half way. There isn’t a lot of similarities between the first season of the original show and the current show. There’s a guy named The Doctor who travels through time and space in a police box, but as far as the character himself, they are pretty different. I read somewhere that they will change direction at some point, possibly as early as season two. That will bring things more into line, I think.

There is also the small matter of some episodes are missing. I believe it is down to something silly like the BBC taping over some of the video. Someone somewhere has tried to recreate the missing pieces. Either using audio tracks that still exist, combined with still photos taken from set, or maybe some animation? I have seen one audio-only story arch so far but I think there are animations coming in the near future. I should also mention that the show (in season one, at least) operates like a serial. There are 42 episodes but there are longer stories made up of multiple episodes. It’s actually kinda cool.

The main point of what I am getting at with this discussion is that it is going to take a long time to plow through the original show. I mean a long time. We could be talking years here. It’s beyond crazy how much there is to watch. I did find a podcast that appears to cover every episode of both series so I have someone to follow along with. Still… it’s going to take a very long time.

A very long time, indeed.