• Association Européene des Jeunes Entrepreneurs, by @JonWorth
  
  Strasbourg astrorturf!!!
  (tags: eu )
• ▶ Doctor Who Animation – 50 Years in Time and Space
  
  Nice.
  (tags: doctorwho videos )
• Does pursuing investment protection in TTIP signal more transatlantic mistrust?
  
  A corrective to Monbiot.
  (tags: eu )
• Spain’s foreign policy
  
  Interesting piece by @YoungsRichard.
  (tags: eu )

• British author Doris Lessing reacts to Nobel win
  
  “Oh, Christ!”
  (tags: literature death )
• Did McDonald’s change their coffee stirrers because they were being used for cocaine?
  
  Yes.
  (tags: snopes )
• Lee Harvey’s Oldest
  
  1995 interview with June Oswald.
  (tags: jfk )
• Welcome to Dinovember
  
  I just hope this is for real – seems a little too good to be true.
  (tags: children )
• The best examples of street art in 2012
  
  Excellent.
  (tags: photos )
• Jeb Bush Says He’s Too Poor to Run for President
  
  America! Where anyone can run for the highest office in the land, provided they are richer than Jeb Bush.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• Ursula K. Le Guin: A Rejection Letter
  
  Heh!
  (tags: sf )

A New Adventure novel featuring the Seventh Doctor with Roz, Chris and Benny as companions, landing on a planet where there are various human colonists in distress and conflicting AIs trying to restore the status quo, of which the key AI is called SLEEPY. Unfortunately the AI characters, though not physically anthropomorphic, rather pushed my “I hate cute robots” button and I couldn’t really get to grips with it.

For me as teenage reader, the Foundation trilogy was one of my gateways to science fiction, and I later read various of Asimov’s other works (some written up here and here, but also including some of his non-fiction and detective stories); I don’t think he produced much sf of note after his initial burst of creativity, and particularly dislike The Gods Themselves. I vaguely hoped that this would provide me with a decent glimpse into Asimov’s mind, but it’s basically a pretty pedestrian biography, not probing very deeply into what Asimov thought he was doing, why he was doing it, or why it worked; he wrote this book, married these women, had affairs with these other women, got lots of money and hated flying. It’s not quite as disappointing in terms of wasted effort as that Heinlein biog from a couple of years ago (did its second volume ever appear?), but this is really not the way to do it. I gave the book away to the TAFF fund auction at Novacon, and I hope the person who bought it enjoys it more than I did.

The author claims to have been a member of the Thompson Twins, though this is not easy to verify from websites actually about the Thompson Twins. (On further examination, he and his girlfriend did play with them for a few months in 1982; she lasted longer, but fell harder when they gave her the push.)

More reading for me in my slowly progressing Tudor history project, this is a study of how the leadership of the English government maintained an intelligence service to protect the realm, in particular the Cecils and Sir Francis Walsingham. I’ll say up front that I had a couple of disappointments – there is very little about Ireland, and I’d hoped for at least a passing mention of John Bossy’s Giordano Bruno theory and didn’t get one. But I was very satisfied with the overall detailed picture of the Queen’s advisors, determined to preserve her rule at all costs, much more ruthless than she would have been (as witness her dithering over the execution of Mary Queen of Scots) and also somewhat more anti-Catholic.

It’s easy to overlook two very important facts about the historical situation: first, that nobody knew that Elizabeth would live to 1603, and the uncertainty about her succession, which she deliberately fostered to some extent, was profoundly destabilising to those who wanted to think ahead to the next reign; and second, that information just did not really flow between countries – there were no newspapers, statesmen did not give interviews, official communications between rulers and magnates had to be supplemented by intelligence gathered by agents in important centres abroad. One of the tools of statecraft therefore was to have a widespread network of contacts, who would demand regular payment in return for information; this still happens today, of course, but unlike today there was almost no OSINT to check the HUMINT against. Another important point is that most of the information was channeled to the principals directly, and never shown to anyone else except, if really necessary, the Queen.

Given these two factors, Alford makes it almost uncontroversial, though of course potentially very dangerous, that Walsingham essentially framed Mary Queen of Scots for execution through the Babington Plot; although Babington himself, who was only 24, was clearly a rather slender reed for the restoration of Catholicism, Mary was an ever present temptation for someone more competent while she lived. Walsingham and Cecil were ruthless, but they had seen the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, and indeed had perpetrated plenty of sectarian violence themselves; they knew perfectly well what awaited them in the event of a further change of official ideology. Elizabethan England, providing security at home for economic stability and some encouragement of culture, at the cost of repression of the surviving loyalists to the former regime and paranoia about their foreign allies, seems not so very different from Pinochet’s Chile, or the less corrupt Eastern European countries under Communism.

I guess that most of the Irish records of the period were destroyed in 1922 (there’s an sf story to be written about some future archivist time-travelling back to rescue documents from the explosives) but I can speculate that it was more difficult for Irish viceroys to set up such a system. They tended to serve only a few years, and had much less time to build networks of personal contacts – indeed, Cecil back in London had his own sources, and Irish chieftains often used their own personal channels to communicate with the Queen over the head of the Dublin administration. Part of the English problem in Ireland was simply not understanding what was going on. Of course, whether that has really improved in the last four centuries is a different matter…

Catching up now with my November bookblogging. I won’t waste too much time on this one; a Third Doctor / Jo story from the rather variable Telos novella range, which attempts to retell A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Whovian terms. Neil Gaiman has tackled this better, and the original is of course better yet.

It's the end – but the moment has been prepared for!

2013

TV
The Bells of Saint John
The Rings of Akhaten
Cold War
Hide
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
The Crimson Horror
Nightmare in Silver
The Name of the Doctor
The Night of the Doctor

Books and original audiobooks
Plague of the Cybermen (11)
The Dalek Generation (11)
Shroud of Sorrow (11)
The Silurian Gift (11)
Summer Falls (11)
The Devil in the Smoke (Madam Vastra & co)
Harvest of Time (3)
A Big Hand for the Doctor (1)
The Nameless City (2)
The Spear of Destiny (3)
The Roots of Evil (4)
Tip of the Tongue (5)
Something Borrowed (6)
The Ripple Effect (7)
Spore (8)
The Beast of Babylon (9)
The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage (10)
Exodus Code (Torchwood)
Filthy Lucre (Benny)
Adorable Illusion (Benny)

Audios
The Wrong Doctors
Spaceport Fear
The Seeds of War
Eldrad Must Die!
The Lady of Mercia
Prisoners of Fate
Persuasion
Starlight Robbery
Daleks Among Us
1963: Fanfare for the Common Men
1963: Space Race
1963: The Assassination Games
The Dark Planet
The Queen of Time
Lords of the Red Planet
The Auntie Matter
The Sands of Life Part 1
War Against The Laan Part 2
The Justice of Jalxar
Phantoms of the Deep
The Dalek Contract Part 1
The Final Phase Part 2
The Flames of Cadiz
House of Cards
The Scorchies
The Library of Alexandria
The Apocalypse Mirror
Council of War
Mastermind
The Alchemists
Upstairs
Ghost in the Machine
The Beginning
The Light at the End
Hunters of Earth
Shadow of Death
Vengeance of the Stones
Babblesphere
Smoke and Mirrors
Trouble in Paradise
Shockwave
Enemy Aliens
Night of the Whisper
Death's Deal
The Time Machine
Bernice Summerfield, New Frontiers: A Handful of Dust
Bernice Summerfield, New Frontiers: HMS Surprise
Bernice Summerfield, New Frontiers: The Curse of Fenman
Bernice Summerfield, Missing Persons: Big Dig
Bernice Summerfield, Missing Persons: The Revenant's Carnival
Bernice Summerfield, Missing Persons: The Brimstone Kid
Bernice Summerfield, Missing Persons: The Winning Side
Bernice Summerfield, Missing Persons: In Living Memory
Jago & Litefoot: The Age of Revolution
Jago & Litefoot: The Case of the Gluttonous Guru
Jago & Litefoot: The Bloodchild Codex
Jago & Litefoot: The Final Act
Jago & Litefoot: The Skeleton Quay
Jago & Litefoot: Return of the Repressed
Jago & Litefoot: Military Intelligence
Jago & Litefoot: The Trial of George Litefoot
Gallifrey: Emancipation
Gallifrey: Evolution
Gallifrey: Arbitration
Gallifrey: Extermination
Gallifrey: Renaissance
Gallifrey: Ascension
Iris Wildthyme: Whatever Happened to Iris Wildthyme?
Iris Wildthyme: Iris at the Oche
Iris Wildthyme: A Lift in Time
Counter-Measures: Manhunt
Counter-Measures: The Fifth Citadel
Counter-Measures: Peshka
Counter-Measures: Sins of the Fathers
Graceless: The Edge
Graceless: The Battle
Graceless: Consequences
Vienna: The Memory Box

The first Who from 2013 that I encountered: Not the best of starts with Eoin Colfer's short First Doctor story, A Big Hand for the Doctor, published in January.

My favourite Who from 2013: Perhaps you'd better ask me a week from now, or on Christmas Day. I've enjoyed it all, but I admit that I had a particular grin for The Night of the Doctor when it came out last Thursday. There have been some decent books too, including Alastair Reynolds' The Harvest of Time, and I'm way behind on audios (and even further behind on writing them up), but must commend The Auntie Matter and the anniversary special The Light At The End.

Moving swiftly on from: After A Big Hand for the Doctor, the only way was up.

So, what was your favourite of the above? What is the best bit? (And if you like, what is the worst bit?)

In conclusion: Doing these posts has been quite hard work, but also good fun. I hope you've enjoyed them too – I’ve certainly appreciated and enjoyed your comments – and maybe they have inspired you to seek out some Who that you might not have previously thought of. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to do the comics as well; maybe I can bring them in in ten years' time…

Someone asked me the other weekend if I had a favourite year. I have several. The first three Tom Baker years, 1975, 1976 and 1977 for television; 1995 and 1996 for the Virgin books; 2002-03, and later 2010-11, for Big Finish; 2007 and 2008 for everything.

I'm updating all of the posts in this series with a full set of links to each entry – as first posted on my own LJ, rather than the reflections to the or communities. Feel free to browse back!

1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

• Terrible real estate agent photographs
  
  What it says.
  (tags: photos )
• Quiz: What Do You Know About Moldova?
  
  Ashamed to say I got two wrong.
  (tags: moldova )

Having praised both the Sarah Jane Adventures on television and the associated audiobooks, I thought I should try the 11 novelisations – the pilot, the five stories of the first season, the first two from the second season, one from the third and two from the fourth. Apparently the first ones sold rather poorly, so the decision was made to adapt only a few later episodes; though it’s interesting that it was still felt worthwhile to continue with the exercise.

23) Invasion of the Bane, by Terrance Dicks
24) Revenge of the Slitheen, by Rupert Laight
25) Eye of the Gorgon, by Phil Ford
26) Warriors of Kudlak, by Gary Russell
27) Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?, by Rupert Laight
28) The Lost Boy, by Gary Russell
29) The Last Sontaran, by Gary Russell
30) The Day of the Clown, by Phil Ford
31) The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith, by Gareth Roberts
32) The Nightmare Man, by Joseph Lidster
33) Death of the Doctor, by Gary Russell

I had already read the first four some time back, and the same general observations apply: these are short, cheerful books, full of positivity, with Gary Russell shouldering much of the burden of the transfer (four of the eleven, three of the last six) and doing it rather well. On my first reading I had been a bit underwhelmed by Phil Ford’s Eye of the Gorgon, but it grabbed me a bit more on re-reading; perhaps it was just the mood I was in. The one book that I felt missed the target a bit was Lidster’s The Nightmare Man, which seemed written for a slightly younger age group – particularly incongruous since it is the rite-of-passage story about Luke growing up.

The chronological skew of the books means that all seven stories with Maria Jackson as a regular character are available in print, while only four of the twenty with Rani made it, and none with Sky (all the books feature Luke, all but the first has Clyde). With the greatest of respect to Anjli Mohindra, I’m a Yasmin Paige fan, so I am not complaining.

And that concludes my October bookblogging for this year.

I used to be really into the Fables series, but this had been languishing on my shelves for some time and I realised after reading it that I had actually skipped a volume and not noticed. The title story is actually rather nice – the six/seven children of Snow White and Bigby are in competition to see which will become the new North Wind after the death of the incumbent, though the East, West and South Winds are rather unfortunate racial stereotypes. The other stories in the book are linked with the grander narrative, which I’d lost track of. Not a volume for newcomers to the series, which to be honest might have been better brought to a close after the grand conflict in volume 11.

After the excellent Blue Lotus, The Black Island is a bit of a step backwards for Tintin; he is shot and wounded ion the first page, and then chases a group of forgers to Scotland by a series of improbable incidents involving various means of transport and defeats a gorilla in a ruined castle, all the while hindered by the bungling detectives Thomson and Thompson (who in fairness get some good lines here). One wonders why anyone would go to the trouble of forging Belgian francs in Scotland (or indeed anywhere at all); the basic plot, of a criminal conspiracy being unmasked, is awfully similar to Cigars of the Pharaoh and Tintin in America, though the story is on safer ground by mocking the British rather than Arabs, Indians or native Americans. Not really one of the classics.

The penultimate in the series of short Who ebooks for the 50th anniversary (the last of which, by Neil Gaiman, comes out today week) takes the Tenth Doctor and Martha to a place very similar to the Land of Fiction from The Mind Robber, essentially updating that story for today’s readers. It’s good fun, and perhaps intended to encourage younger readers to find some of the books that Martha likes (though the Enid Blyton parody doesn’t actually exist as far as I know).

So, I've been a Big Finish subscriber for a number of years, but somehow never got around to reading their freebie magazine, Vortex – I find magazine in general difficult to read with my middle-aged eyes, and this comes on a PDF which I don't really have time to read on either work or home desktop computers. So I had never really looked at it.

But on Thursday evening as I was settling to sleep, and checking the Big Finish website on the iPad to see if any more of their 50th anniversary material had been published yet, I realised that the latest issue of Vortex is available to download for free. It seemed just right for evening unwinding, and I read through most of it rather rapidly, taking a bit longer over the cast interviews with Doctors and companions from the recently released The Light At The End. Each is asked about their "one biggest Doctor Who memory", and the article finishes with Tom Baker retelling a couple of anecdotes which I already knew, and then one that I didn't:

Gosh, I thought, that’s lovely; and I screencapped the page, cropped it down to the last paragraph including a clear attribution to Vortex, posted it to Twitter and turned over and went to sleep.

When I woke up, it had been retweeted 200 times.

Up till then, my personal record for retweets was roughly 92, for a news story about a concealed Dalek that I think I had got from . And that was basically because it had been picked up (as my tweets sometimes are) by Charles Stross. This was a real grass-roots thing – none of the retweeters had mass followings; Tom Baker’s story had just struck a nerve with people.

By end of the day, the total number of retweets was comfortably over 500, more than five times my previous record, not to mention dozens who had tweeted or retweeted a modified version. By now a couple of big hitters had picked it up – comedian Mitch Benn and Labour MP Stella Creasey, – presumably at second or third hand, as I don’t follow either and neither follows me. According to Crowdbooster, the total audience (ie combined followings of all who had retweeted it) was just short of 300,000, comfortably ahead of my other personal record, set last year when Cory Doctorow, whose personal following then was around 230.000, retweeted my live coverage of the BSFA Awards at Eastercon. Again, those who had tweeted a modified version will surely add a five-figure number to that total, taking it well above 300k.

However, I have only gained about ten followers as a result. Perhaps conducting a snarky Twitter conversation with Belgian railways about my morning commute on Friday morning did not turn out to be a magnet for a potential new audience. But then, I hadn’t planned for a late-night sentimental tweet to take off in that way either. I can’t imagine that I will beat either the new record for retweets or for totAl audience very soon, and to be honest I am not really aiming to do so either.

I do regret that I did not give the source full credit in the original tweet. If I’d suspected that it would be picked up so widely, I would certainly have given Big Finish the publicity that they deserve. But I had no idea.

2012

TV
Good as Gold
Pond Life
Asylum of the Daleks
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
A Town Called Mercy
The Power of Three
The Angels Take Manhattan
The Snowmen

Books and original audiobooks
Doctor Who The Official Annual 2013 (11)
Doctor Who IDW Special 2012 (11)
Dark Horizons (11)
Magic of the Angels (11)
The Art of Death (11)
Darkstar Academy (11)
Day of the Cockroach (11)
The Nu-Humans Cavan (11)
The Empty House (11)
The Sleepers in the Dust (11)
Snake Bite (11)
Monstrous Missions: Terrible Lizards / Horror of the Space Snakes (11)
Step Back in Time: Extra Time / The Water Thief (11)
The Angel’s Kiss (11)
Doctor Who – Shada (4)
The Wheel of Ice (2)
The Exodus Code  (Torchwood)
Army of One  (Torchwood)
Fallout  (Torchwood)
Red Skies  (Torchwood)
Mr Invincible  (Torchwood)
The Weather on Versimmon (Benny)
The Slender-Fingered Cats of Bubastis (Benny)

Audios
The Curse of Davros
The Fourth Wall
Wirrn Isle
The Emerald Tiger
The Jupiter Conjunction
The Butcher of Brisbane
Protect and Survive
Black and White
Gods and Monsters
The Burning Prince
The Acheron Pulse
The Shadow Heart
1001 Nights
The Foe From The Future / The Valley of Death
The Guardians of Prophecy
Power Play
The First Sontarans
The Masters of Luxor
The Rosemariners
Destination: Nerva
The Renaissance Man
The Wrath of the Iceni
Energy of the Daleks
Trail of the White Worm Part 1
The Oseidon Adventure Part 2
The Great War
Fugitives
Tangled Web
‘X’ and the Daleks
The Anachronauts
The Selachian Gambit
Binary
The Wanderer
The Jigsaw War
The Rings of Ikiria
The Time Museum
The Uncertainty Principle
Project: Nirvana
The Last Post
Return of the Rocket Men
The Child
Night of the Stormcrow
The Davros Mission
Love and War
UNIT Dominion
Bernice Summerfield, Road Trip: Brand Management 
Bernice Summerfield, Road Trip: Bad Habits 
Bernice Summerfield, Road Trip: Paradise Frost 
Bernice Summerfield, Legion: Vesuvius Falling 
Bernice Summerfield, Legion: Shades of Gray 
Bernice Summerfield, Legion: Everybody Loves Irving 
Bernice Summerfield: Love and War 
Bernice Summerfield: Many Happy Returns
Jago & Litefoot: Jago in Love
Jago & Litefoot: Beautiful Things
Jago & Litefoot: The Lonely Clock
Jago & Litefoot: The Hourglass Killers
Jago & Litefoot: Voyage to Venus
Jago & Litefoot: Voyage to the New World
Iris Wildthyme: The Iris Wildthyme Appreciation Society
Iris Wildthyme: Iris Rides Out
Iris Wildthyme: Midwinter Murders
Counter-Measures: Threshold
Counter-Measures: Artificial Intelligence
Counter-Measures: The Pelage Project
Counter-Measures: State of Emergency
Graceless: The Line
Graceless: The Flood
Graceless: The Dark

The first Who from 2012 that I encountered: A faithful Big Finish subscriber now, I downloaded and listened to The Curse of Davros in January. I was 44.

My favourite Who from 2012: On my Hugo ballot I ranked The Snowmen ahead of The Angels Take Manhattan and Asylum of the Daleks. The best of a number of good books was the belated novelisation of ShadaThe most enjoyable of the audios was the Trail of the White Worm /The Oseidon Adventure double, with once again shouts to Jago and Litefoot, though I still haven’t finished listening to all of these.

Moving swiftly on from: Darkstar Academy.

So, what was your favourite of the above? What is the best bit? (And if you like, what is the worst bit?)

1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

• Codebreaker Mavis Batey, who has died aged 92, commented on my livejournal in 2005
  
  (tags: )
• Why I’m leaving the Labour Party, and joining the Grüne in Germany
  
  @JonWorth explains.
  (tags: politics germany ukpolitics )
• My most retweeted tweet ever
  
  Tom Baker’s story of his best memory of the role.
  (tags: doctorwho twitter )
• Democracy in the Caucasus
  
  @TheEconomist looks at three 2013 presidential elections.
  (tags: georgia armenia azerbaijan )

2011

TV
Space / Time
The Impossible Astronaut
Day of the Moon
The Curse of the Black Spot
The Doctor's Wife
The Rebel Flesh
The Almost People
A Good Man Goes to War
Let's Kill Hitler
Night Terrors
The Girl Who Waited
The God Complex
Closing Time
The Wedding of River Song
Night and the Doctor
Death is the Only Answer
The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
Sarah Jane: Sky
Sarah Jane: The Curse of Clyde Langer
Sarah Jane: The Man Who Never Was
Torchwood: Miracle Day

Books and original audiobooks
Doctor Who The Official Annual 2012 (11)
Doctor Who IDW Annual 2011 (11)
Doctor Who The Brilliant Book 2012 (11)
Dead of Winter (11)
The Way Through the Woods (11)
Hunter's Moon (11)
Touched by an Angel (11)
Paradox Lost (11)
Borrowed Time (11)
The Silent Stars Go By (11)
The Jade Pyramid (11)
The Gemini Contagion (11)
The Hounds of Artemis (11)
The Eye of the Jungle (11)
Blackout (11)
Heart of Stone / Death Riders (11)
The Good, the Bad and the Alien / System Wipe (11)
Alien Adventures: The Underwater War / Rain of Terror (11)
Sightseeing in Space: Web in Space / Terminal of Despair (11)
The Prison In Space (2)
Department X (Torchwood)
Ghost Train (Torchwood)
First Born (Torchwood)
Long Time Dead (Torchwood)
The Men Who Sold The World (Torchwood)
Children of Steel (Sarah Jane)
Judgement Day (Sarah Jane)

Audios
The Crimes of Thomas Brewster
The Feast of Axos
Industrial Evolution
Heroes of Sontar
Kiss of Death
Rat Trap
Robophobia
Recorded Time and Other Stories
The Doomsday Quatrain
House of Blue Fire
The Silver Turk
The Witch from the Well
Army of Death
Thin Ice
Crime of the Century
Animal
Earth Aid
The Elite
Hexagora
The Children of Seth
Prisoner of the Sun
Lucie Miller Part 1
To the Death Part 2
Peri and the Piscon Paradox
The Perpetual Bond
The Forbidden Time
The Sentinels of the New Dawn
Ferril's Folly
The Cold Equations
The Three Companions / The Mists of Time / Freakshow
Tales from the Vault
The Rocket Men
The Memory Cheats
The Many Deaths of Jo Grant
The First Wave
Beyond the Ultimate Adventure
The Five Companions
Short Trips – Volume 2
Short Trips – Volume 3
Short Trips – Volume 4
Serpent Crest: Tsar Wars
Serpent Crest: The Broken Crown
Serpent Crest: Aladdin Time
Serpent Crest: The Hexford Invasion
Serpent Crest: Survivors in Space
Bernice Summerfield, Epoch: The Kraken's Lament
Bernice Summerfield, Epoch: The Temple of Questions
Bernice Summerfield, Epoch: Private Enemy No. 1
Bernice Summerfield, Epoch: Judgement Day
Jago & Litefoot:  Litefoot and Sanders
Jago & Litefoot:  The Necropolis Express
Jago & Litefoot:  The Theatre of Dreams
Jago & Litefoot:  The Ruthven Inheritance
Jago & Litefoot:  Dead Men's Tales
Jago & Litefoot:  The Man at the End of the Garden
Jago & Litefoot:  Swan Song
Jago & Litefoot:  Chronoclasm
Gallifrey:  Reborn
Gallifrey:  Disassembled
Gallifrey:  Annihilation
Gallifrey:  Forever
Torchwood: The Devil and Miss Carew
Torchwood: Submission
Torchwood: House of the Dead

The first Who from 2011 that I encountered: An excellent start to a better year for the Big Finish Companion Chronicles, with Peri and the Piscon Paradox. I was 43.

My favourite Who from 2011: Well, The Doctor's Wife was always going to be a favourite, and remains so. Rewatching the TV stories I found they were better than I remembered, thought the series was not quite equal to the sum of its parts. Peri and the Piscon Paradox was my favourite audio of the year, though there were many excellent plays in the various BF series, the two Jago and Litefoot sequences being perhaps a high point. Torchwood: Miracle Day was OK on TV, but had a super prequel in James Goss's novel First Born (and the audio House of the Dead gave poor Ianto some good closure). Two more very good books at the end of the year: Dan Abnett's The Silent Stars Go By and once again the Brilliant Book, with James Goss's Vastra/Jenny origin story.

Moving swiftly on from: Paradox Lost, though the audio version is lifted by Nick Briggs' narration; Hunter's Moon also pretty poor.

So, what was your favourite of the above? What is the best bit? (And if you like, what is the worst bit?)

1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

Now, we all know that the Eighth Doctor’s continuity is pretty convoluted. There are separate ranges of comics, paperback books and audio plays featuring his character, which may or may not be compatible.

It’s noticeable that the only companions mentioned in Night of the Doctor are from the Big Finish audios – Charley (Charlotte Pollard), C’rizz, Lucie (Miller), Tamsin (Drew) and Molly (O’Sullivan) – no mention of Mary Shelley, let alone Samson and Gemma. Now, in the Big Finish short Mary’s Story, several other companions are mentioned by the Doctor, including Gemma, Charley, Ssard (from comics), Compassion (from the EDA books), Trix (likewise), Destrii (from comics), and Alex (Susan’s grandson from Big Finish), plus the otherwise unknown Todd and Rita. So clearly, they are in the same continuity as Mary Shelley. (Fitz Kreiner, who possibly appeared in more books than any other Doctor Who companion, is omitted from the list in Mary’s Story, but he has his own story on that BF release, as do Izzy from comics and Bernice Summerfield who should need no introduction, so they can probably be counted in this continuity too.)

There is of course no guarantee that Mary’s Story is in the same continuity as The Night of the Doctor. In fact, one has to consider her omission a fairly big hint, especially considering that the Eighth Doctor at the end of Mary’s Story is heading off to the Time War, so would be unlikely to have forgotten her as he drank his last draught. If Mary’s Story hasn’t happened to the Eighth Doctor in The Night of the Doctor, then the continuities are unbound (spot the obscure Brian Aldiss reference there?) and we may have two (or even more) different Eighth Doctors in parallel timelines, one hurtling toward Karn, another to the Maison Chapuis beside Lake Geneva. I speculate that the central problem of Day of the Doctor is going to be how to reconcile the different timelines, or indeed to abolish all of them except the “right” one.

Oh gawd: “Will it Hurt?”

Edited to add: Futher to my Brian Aldiss comment, I had forgotten who played the protagonist in the film version…

Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, this trailer for An Adventure in Space and Time looks very promising:

• Europe’s Flailing Capital of Kitsch
  
  Skopje’s revamp.
  (tags: macedonia )
• The EU’s ‘yellow card’ comes of age: Subsidiarity unbound?
  
  A little-noted development in EU procedures – federalism rolled back?
  (tags: eu )
• Oh My GOD! Have the TORIES ERASED THE INTERNET?
  
  Er, no.
  (tags: internet ukpolitics )

2010

My favourite Who from 2010: This is another very good year. From TV Who, it has to be Vincent and the Doctor, though there are other good points too; this is also I think the best series of the Sarah Jane Adventures. David Tennant's last appearance is actually the excellent original audiobook Dead AirDeadly Download (Sarah Jane). The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who was an excellent innovation.

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2009

TV
Tonight’s the Night
Planet of the Dead
The Waters of Mars
Dreamland
The End of Time (Part 1)
Torchwood: Children of Earth
Sarah Jane: From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love
Sarah Jane: Prisoner of the Judoon
Sarah Jane: The Mad Woman in the Attic
Sarah Jane: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane: The Eternity Trap
Sarah Jane: Mona Lisa’s Revenge
Sarah Jane: The Gift
K9: Regeneration

Books and original audiobooks
Doctor Who The Official Annual 2010 (10)
Doctor Who Storybook 2010 (10)
Judgement of the Judoon (10)
The Slitheen Excursion (10)
Prisoner of the Daleks (10)
The Taking of Chelsea 426 (10)
Autonomy (10)
The Krillitane Storm (10)
The Nemonite Invasion (10)
The Rising Night (10)
The Day of the Troll (10)
The Sontaran Games (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Dust of Ages (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Graves of Mordane (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Colour of Darkness (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Depths of Despair (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Vampire of Paris (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Game of Death (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Planet of Oblivion (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Picture of Emptiness (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The Art of War (10)
Darksmith Legacy: The End of Time (10)
The Doctor Who Stories (10)
Farewell Great Macedon (1)
Short Trips: Indefinable Magic
Re:Collections
Torchwood Yearbook 2010 
Into the Silence (Torchwood)
Bay of the Dead (Torchwood)
The House that Jack Built (Torchwood)
Risk Assessment (Torchwood)
The Undertaker’s Gift (Torchwood)
Consequences (Torchwood)
In The Shadows (Torchwood)
The Sin Eaters (Torchwood)
The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (Sarah Jane)
The White Wolf (Sarah Jane)
The Shadow People (Sarah Jane)
Secret Histories (Benny)

Audios
The Judgement of Isskar
The Destroyer of Delights
The Chaos Pool
The Magic Mousetrap
Enemy of the Daleks
The Angel of Scutari
The Company of Friends
Patient Zero
Paper Cuts
Blue Forgotten Planet
Castle of Fear
The Eternal Summer
Plague of the Daleks
The Nightmare Fair
Mission to Magnus
Orbis
Hothouse
The Beast of Orlok
Wirrn Dawn
The Scapegoat
The Cannibalists
The Eight Truths Part 1
Worldwide Web Part 2
Death in Blackpool
The Transit of Venus
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
Resistance
The Magician’s Oath
The Mahogany Murderers
Stealers from Saiph
The Drowned World
The Glorious Revolution
The Prisoner of Peladon
The Pyralis Effect
Ringpullworld
The Three Companions (first nine parts)
An Earthly Child
Freakshow
Hornet’s Nest: The Stuff of Nightmares
Hornet’s Nest: The Dead Shoes
Hornet’s Nest: The Circus of Doom
Hornet’s Nest: A Sting in the Tale
Hornet’s Nest: Hive of Horror
Bernice Summerfield: Glory Days 
Bernice Summerfield: Absence 
Bernice Summerfield: Venus Mantrap 
Bernice Summerfield: Secret Origins
Iris Wildthyme: The Sound of Fear
Iris Wildthyme: Land of Wonder
Iris Wildthyme: The Two Irises
Iris Wildthyme: The Panda Invasion
Iris Wildthyme: The Claws of Santa
Cyberman: Outsiders
Cyberman: Terror
Cyberman: Machines
Cyberman: Extinction
Torchwood: Asylum
Torchwood: Golden Age
Torchwood: The Dead Line

The first Who from 2009 that I encountered: By this stage I was a proper Big Finish subscriber, and got and listened to The Judgement of Isskar as soon as it came out. I was 41.

My favourite Who from 2009: This is not such a great year for televised Who, but a very good one for Sarah Jane, with The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith perhaps the high point. Children of Earth is also the most consistently good Torchwood series. But, but, but – The Mahogany Murderers, the first of (as it turned out) many Big Finish plays reuniting Jago and Litefoot from The Talons of Weng Chiang thirty years earlier, is a total delight. (Other, more continuity-heavy hits from BF: Paper Cuts, Death in Blackpool.) This year also sees the best (so far) of the New Who books, Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell. 

Moving swiftly on from: Another Big Finish audio, Enemy of the Daleks, where the guest cast seem to be just phoning in their performances. The Hornet’s Nest audios with Tom Baker and Richard Franklin were generally disappointing as well. And Mission to Magnus should never have been made.

So, what was your favourite of the above? What is the best bit? (And if you like, what is the worst bit?)

1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

Current
Reamde, by Neal Stephenson
Jacob Have I Loved, by Katherine Paterson
The Wise Man's Fear, by Patrick Rothfuss
[Doctor Who] Dark Progeny, by Steve Emmerson
About Time: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who, 2005-2006; Series 1 & 2, by Tat Wood

Last books finished
Reading the Oxford English Dictionary: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages, by Ammon Shea
Isaac Asimov: A Life of the Grand Master of Science Fiction, by Michael White
[Doctor Who] Sleepy, by Kate Orman

Next books
There Will be Time, by Poul Anderson
Patternmaster, by Octavia Butler
Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke
Eyeless in Gaza, by Aldous Huxley

Books acquired in last week
Saints of the Shadow Bible, by Ian Rankin
And Novacon happened:
The Sound of his Horn, by Sarban
TOR: Assassin Hunter, by Billy Bob Buttons
Halo: The Thursday War, by Karen Traviss
Heaven's War, by David S Goyer
Prophet of Bones, by Ted Kosmatka
Pattern-Master, by Octavia E. Butler
Dawn, by Octavia E. Butler
Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand, by Samuel R. Delany

• Angry pensioner tips bag of dog poo over Cambridge University lecturer for ‘cycling too close to her’
  
  Headline of the day.
  (tags: cambridge )

2008

TV
Partners in Crime
The Fires of Pompeii
Planet of the Ood
The Sontaran Stratagem
The Poison Sky
The Doctor's Daughter
The Unicorn and the Wasp
Silence in the Library
Forest of the Dead
Midnight
Turn Left
The Stolen Earth
Journey's End
Music of the Spheres
The Next Doctor
Torchwood: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Torchwood: Sleeper
Torchwood: To the Last Man
Torchwood: Meat
Torchwood: Adam
Torchwood: Reset
Torchwood: Dead Man Walking
Torchwood: A Day in the Death
Torchwood: Something Borrowed
Torchwood: From Out of the Rain
Torchwood: Adrift
Torchwood: Fragments
Torchwood: Exit Wounds
Sarah Jane: The Last Sontaran
Sarah Jane: The Day of the Clown
Sarah Jane: Secrets of the Stars
Sarah Jane: The Mark of the Berserker
Sarah Jane: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane: Enemy of the Bane

Books and original audiobooks
Doctor Who Storybook 2009 (10)
Doctor Who The Official Annual 2009 (10)
Martha in the Mirror (10)
Snowglobe 7 (10)
The Many Hands (10)
Ghosts of India (10)
The Doctor Trap (10)
Shining Darkness (10)
The Story of Martha (10)
Beautiful Chaos (10)
The Eyeless (10)
Pest Control (10)
The Forever Trap (10)
Revenge of the Judoon (10)
Decide Your Destiny: Lost Luggage (10)
Decide Your Destiny: Second Skin (10)
Decide Your Destiny: The Dragon King (10)
Decide Your Destiny: The Horror of Howling Hill (10)
Short Trips: Defining Patterns
Short Trips: The Quality of Leadership
Short Trips: Transmissions
Short Trips: How The Doctor Changed My Life
Short Trips: Christmas Around the World
Torchwood Yearbook 2009
Something in the Water  (Torchwood)
Trace Memory  (Torchwood)
The Twilight Streets  (Torchwood)
Pack Animals  (Torchwood)
SkyPoint  (Torchwood)
Almost Perfect  (Torchwood)
Hidden (Torchwood)
Everyone Says Hello (Torchwood)
Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (Sarah Jane)
The Lost Boy (Sarah Jane)
The Last Sontaran (Sarah Jane)
The Day of the Clown (Sarah Jane)
The Time Capsule (Sarah Jane)
The Ghost House (Sarah Jane)
The Vampire Curse (Benny)

Audios
The Bride of Peladon
The Condemned
The Dark Husband
The Haunting of Thomas Brewster
Assassin in the Limelight
The Death Collectors & Spider's Shadow
The Boy That Time Forgot
The Doomwood Curse
Kingdom of Silver & Keepsake
Time Reef & A Perfect World
Brotherhood of the Daleks
Forty Five
The Raincloud Man
Dead London
Max Warp
Brave New Town
The Skull of Sobek
Grand Theft Cosmos
The Zygon Who Fell to Earth
Sisters of the Flame Part 1
Vengeance of Morbius Part 2
The Catalyst
Here There Be Monsters
The Great Space Elevator
The Doll of Death
Empathy Games
Home Truths
The Darkening Eye
Return of the Krotons
The Mists of Time
The Ultimate Adventure
The Seven Keys to Doomsday
The Curse of the Daleks
Masters of War
Bernice Summerfield: The Wake
Bernice Summerfield: Beyond the Sea
Bernice Summerfield: The Adolescence of Time
Bernice Summerfield: The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel
Bernice Summerfield: The Diet of Worms
Dalek Empire IV: The Fearless (fourth part)
Torchwood: Lost Souls

The first Who from 2008 that I encountered: The start of the second series of Torchwood, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang – tuned in to watch in in mid-January. I was 40.

My favourite Who from 2008: This is a very good year overall. I think Midnight is a colossally good Who episode, perhaps the best that Russell T. Davies ever wrote. Of the audios, I loved The Doomwood Curse, The Great Space Elevator, Brotherhood of the Daleks (revolutionary Daleks singing "The Red Flag"!) and The Bride of Peladon. A less good year for books, though I quite liked Wooden Heart, Sting of the Zygons, The Many Hands and the Torchwood books Pack Animals and The Twilight Streets.

Moving swiftly on from: Sick Building, by Paul Magrs, which features a monster called, I kid you not, The Voracious Claw. The Torchwood episode Fragments is pretty awful too, apart from the bit with Ianto and the pterodactyl which is mildly funny.

So, what was your favourite of the above? What is the best bit? (And if you like, what is the worst bit?

1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

• Dr Who theme as Ron Grainer may have intended
  
  Good lord!
  (tags: doctorwho )

2007

TV
Smith and Jones
The Shakespeare Code
Gridlock
Daleks in Manhattan
Evolution of the Daleks
The Lazarus Experiment
42
Human Nature
The Family of Blood
Blink
Utopia
The Sound of Drums
Last of the Time Lords
The Infinite Quest
Time Crash
Voyage of the Damned
Torchwood: Captain Jack Harkness
Torchwood: End of Days
Sarah Jane: Invasion of the Bane
Sarah Jane: Revenge of the Slitheen
Sarah Jane: Eye of the Gorgon
Sarah Jane: Warriors of Kudlak
Sarah Jane: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?
Sarah Jane: The Lost Boy

Books and original audiobooks
Doctor Who Storybook 2008 (10)
Doctor Who The Official Annual 2008 (10)
Sting of the Zygons (10)
The Last Dodo (10)
Wooden Heart (10)
Forever Autumn (10)
Sick Building (10)
Wetworld (10)
Wishing Well (10)
The Pirate Loop (10)
Peacemaker (10)
Made of Steel (10)
Decide Your Destiny: The Spaceship Graveyard (10)
Decide Your Destiny: Alien Arena (10)
Decide Your Destiny: The Time Crocodile (10)
Decide Your Destiny: The Corinthian Project (10)
Decide Your Destiny: The Crystal Snare (10)
Decide Your Destiny: War of the Robots (10)
Decide Your Destiny: Dark Planet (10)
Decide Your Destiny: The Haunted Wagon Train (10)
Short Trips: Destination Prague
Short Trips: Snapshots
Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas
Another Life (Torchwood)
Border Princes (Torchwood)
Slow Decay (Torchwood)
Invasion of the Bane (Sarah Jane)
Revenge of the Slitheen (Sarah Jane)
Eye of the Gorgon (Sarah Jane)
Warriors of Kudlak (Sarah Jane)
The Glittering Storm (Sarah Jane)
The Thirteenth Stone (Sarah Jane)
The Two Jasons (Benny)
Nobody’s Children (Benny)
Missing Adventures (Benny)

Audios
Circular Time
Nocturne
Renaissance of the Daleks
I.D. & Urgent Calls
Exotron & Urban Myths
Valhalla
The Wishing Beast & The Vanity Box
Frozen Time
Son of the Dragon
100
Absolution
The Mind’s Eye & Mission of the Viyrans
The Girl Who Never Was
Blood of the Daleks Part 2
Horror of Glam Rock
Immortal Beloved
Phobos
No More Lies
Human Resources Part 1
Human Resources Part 2
Frostfire
Fear of the Daleks
The Blue Tooth
The Beautiful People
Mother Russia
Helicon Prime
Old Soldiers
Return to the Web Planet
Cuddlesome
Bernice Summerfield: The Tub Full of Cats 
Bernice Summerfield: The Judas Gift 
Bernice Summerfield: Freedom of Information 
Bernice Summerfield: The End of the World 
Bernice Summerfield: The Final Amendment
Dalek Empire IV: The Fearless (first three parts)>

The first Who from 2007 that I encountered: We watched Sarah Jane’s debut episode, Invasion of the Bane, on New Year’s Day. I was 39.

My favourite Who from 2007: Blink is still my favourite TV episode ever. But my favourite moment has to be the reveal at the end of Utopia. Big Finish’s peaks this year were with the new Companion Chronicles range, where I really liked three of the first four. A surprise hit for me are the three Torchwood novels, getting this range off to a very strong start.

Moving swiftly on from: Big Finish had a less good year this year, and I gave poor marks to Nocturne, Valhalla and No More Lies. But the worst of all is the dreadful Torchwood season finale shown on New Year’s Day.

So, what was your favourite of the above? What is the best bit? (And if you like, what is the worst bit?)

1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

Jo and her presentation pen from Novacon.

2006

TV
New Earth
Tooth and Claw
School Reunion
The Girl in the Fireplace
Rise of the Cybermen
The Age of Steel
The Idiot’s Lantern
The Impossible Planet
The Satan Pit
Love & Monsters
Fear Her
Army of Ghosts
Doomsday
The Runaway Bride
Torchwood: Everything Changes
Torchwood: Day One
Torchwood: Ghost Machine
Torchwood: Cyberwoman
Torchwood: Small Worlds
Torchwood: Countrycide
Torchwood: Greeks Bearing Gifts
Torchwood: They Keep Killing Suzie
Torchwood: Random Shoes
Torchwood: Out of Time
Torchwood: Combat

Books
Doctor Who Storybook 2007 (10)
Doctor Who The Official Annual 2007 (10)
The Stone Rose (10)
The Feast of the Drowned (10)
The Resurrection Casket (10)
The Nightmare of Black Island (10)
The Art of Destruction (10)
The Price of Paradise (10)
I Am A Dalek (10)
Short Trips: Farewells
Short Trips: The Centenarian
Short Trips: Time Signature
Short Trips: Dalek Empire
Deus Le Volt  (Time Hunter)
The Albino’s Dancer  (Time Hunter)
The Sideways Door (Time Hunter)
Parallel Lives (Benny)
Something Changed (Benny)
Genius Loci (Benny)
Collected Works (Benny)
Old Friends (Benny)

Audios
Pier Pressure
Night Thoughts
Time Works
The Kingmaker
The Settling
Something Inside
The Nowhere Place
Red
The Reaping
The Gathering
Memory Lane
No Man’s Land
Year of the Pig
Blood of the Daleks Part 1
Return of the Daleks
The Veiled Leopard
Bernice Summerfield: The Goddess Quandary
Bernice Summerfield: The Crystal of Cantus
Bernice Summerfield: The Tartarus Gate
Bernice Summerfield: Timeless Passages
Bernice Summerfield: The Worst Thing in the World
Bernice Summerfield: Summer of Love
Bernice Summerfield: The Oracle of Delphi
Bernice Summerfield: The Empire State
Gallifrey: Fractures
Gallifrey: Warfare
Gallifrey: Appropriation
Gallifrey: Mindbomb
Gallifrey: Panacea
Sarah Jane Smith: Buried Secrets
Sarah Jane Smith: Snow Blind
Sarah Jane Smith: Fatal Consequences
Sarah Jane Smith: Dreamland
Cyberman: Telos
I, Davros: Innocence
I, Davros: Purity
I, Davros: Corruption
I, Davros: Guilt

The first Who from 2006 that I encountered: Yep, I tuned in for New Earth. I was 38.

My favourite Who from 2006: Well, nothing quite packs the emotional impact of School Reunion. But The Kingmaker is another favourite Big Finish audio, the second Sarah Jane audio series is even better than the first, and I, Davros is brilliant too. The books are much less memorable this year, with the old ranges ended and the new just getting started.

Moving swiftly on from: Nicola Bryant is very ill-used in The Reaping.

So, what was your favourite of the above? What is the best bit? (And if you like, what is the worst bit?)

1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013

Hello from Nottingham!

2005

TV
Rose
The End of the World
The Unquiet Dead
Aliens of London
World War Three
Dalek
The Long Game
Father’s Day
The Empty Child
The Doctor Dances
Boom Town
Bad Wolf
The Parting of the Ways
Children in Need Special
The Christmas Invasion
Attack of the Graske

Books
Doctor Who Annual 2006 (9)
The Clockwise Man (9)
The Monsters Inside (9)
Winner Takes All (9)
The Deviant Strain (9)
Only Human (9)
The Stealers of Dreams (9)
To the Slaughter (8)
The Gallifrey Chronicles (8)
Match of the Day (4)
Island of Death (3)
Spiral Scratch (6)
Fear Itself (8)
World Game (2)
The Time Travellers (1)
Atom Bomb Blues (7)
Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins
Short Trips: A Day in the Life
Short Trips: The Solar System
Short Trips: The History of Christmas
Echoes (Time Hunter)
Peculiar Lives (Time Hunter)
The Tree of Life (Benny)

Audios
The Juggernauts
The Game
Dreamtime
Catch-1782
Three’s A Crowd
Unregenerate!
The Council of Nicaea
Terror Firma
Thicker than Water
LIVE 34
Scaredy Cat
Singularity
Other Lives
Cryptobiosis
A Storm of Angels
Bernice Summerfield: The Masquerade of Death
Bernice Summerfield: The Heart’s Desire
Bernice Summerfield: The Kingdom of the Blind
Bernice Summerfield: The Lost Museum
Gallifrey: Lies
Gallifrey: Spirit
Gallifrey: Pandora
Gallifrey: Insurgency
Gallifrey: Imperiatrix
Iris Wildthyme: Wildthyme at Large
Iris Wildthyme: The Devil in Ms Wildthyme
UNIT: The Coup (included with DWM #351)
UNIT: Snake Head
UNIT: The Longest Night
UNIT: The Wasting
Cyberman: Scorpius
Cyberman: Fear
Cyberman: Conversion

The first Who from 2005 that I encountered: Hooray! Yep, along with many people reading this, I tuned in for the rebirth of the show on Easter Saturday 2005. I was 37.

My favourite Who from 2005: My favourite episodes are Dalek and The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances. But I also want to shout out for the second series of Gallifrey, particularly episode 2, Spirit, which explores the relationship between Leela and Romana, as the high point of another good year for Big Finish. Of the books, Winner Takes All and Only Human are my favourites.

Moving swiftly on from: Scaredy Cat, another rather forgettable Eighth Doctor audio.

So, what was your favourite of the above? What is the best bit? (And if you like, what is the worst bit?)

1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013