The Tomfiles: #20 - My Doctor Who Marathon

Back on May 16, I embarked on a journey to watch and listen to every Doctor Who episode from An Unearthly Child until whatever the current episode is when I reach the end. In all I think that it will take just over two years to do this. I was partly inspired by a chap called Will Brooks who on Doctor Who Online who is doing exactly the same thing. He's about six months ahead of me as he is just starting on the Troughton era.  I did do this before but it was back in 2010 and then I didnt stick to it and watched sometimes several episodes in a day. The whole marathon became a bit of a struggle and so I was a bit unsure whether I wanted to do this but I started as was seeing how long I could keep it going.

The beauty of this marathon is that I do a review of each episode and this means that I re-evaluate the stories and certain characters. At this moment in time I am of episode two of The Aztecs and one thing that I have noticed is that I can see why Carole Ann Ford has had mixed feelings about her role over the years and why she only lasted a year. Sometimes the character is really well written for and strong and then other times you just wish that she would just shut up and its an early indication of why three's company and fours a crowd because most of the time Ian and Barbara  are the grown ups and are given the mature things to do. Ian is the action hero and has to several times save the group and there are moments where Barbara is quite strong too and my opinion of the characters has been strengthed since the marathon started.

Another thing that I have been impressed with is how in the space of 20 odd episodes the crew have gone from being a reluctant team to best friends who would die for each other. The directing has been something I have appreciated more because I think that Waris Hussein has been very impressive and so has Christopher Barry. The writing has been noticeable because Terry Nation and John Lucarotti have written two stories each so far and Nation has done well with 'The Daleks' and 'The Keys of Marinus' and Lucarotti did an ok job with 'Marco Polo' and much better with 'The Aztecs'.

I will keep you updated on how my opinions of stories and people have changed over the future episodes but you can follow me @tomstardis on twitter to see my progress.