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

2013

( 9 TV stories, 20 books and audiobooks, a record-breaking 78 audios - so far! )

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 doctorwho or who_at_50 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

2011


( 14 TV, 27 books and audiobooks, 64 audios )

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?)

( Other years )

2009

( 14 TV episodes, 39 books and audiobooks, 54 audios )


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?)

( Other years )

2007

( 24 TV episodes, 35 books and audiobooks, 36 audios )>

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?)

( Other years )

Hello from Nottingham!

2005

( 16 TV episodes, 23 books, 33 audios )


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?)

( Other years )

2003

Webcast
Shada
Scream of the Shalka

( 24 books, 27 audios )

The first Who from 2003 that I encountered: I reviewed the Telos novella Shell Shock for Infinity Plus soon after publication; it impressed me more than my previous encounter with the range.

My favourite Who from 2003: The Shada webcast is great, but once again Big Finish had captured the high ground - my favourite is Creatures of Beauty, but I also like Jubilee (which of course got remade for TV a couple of years later), Flip-flop, Omega, Zagreus, The Wormery and from the Unbound range Sympathy for the Devil which has David Warner as a different Third Doctor and Nicholas Courtney as retired Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, whose successor, Colonel Brimmacombe-Wood, is played by David Tennant. Plus Mark Gatiss as the Master. I also enjoyed the Short Trips: Companions anthology.

Moving swiftly on from: It is rare that one has to mark down a Big Finish audio for poor production values, but The Poison Seas is not their finest hour.

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

( Other years )

2001

Webcast
Death Comes to Time (part 1)

( 26 books, 20 audios )

The first Who from 2001 that I encountered: Bunker Soldiers, and shortly after that Last of the Titans and Storm Warning, in 2007.

My favourite Who from 2001: The Eighth Doctor Adventures have picked up a bit here, I think; I've got as far as The Slow Empire in my own reading of them. But Big Finish is now really coming into its own, with some absolute crackers, of which my favourite is Bloodtide. Shout also for Kim Newman's Time and Relative.

Moving swiftly on from: Byzantium! is one of the worst Who books ever. And from BF, a rare lapse: Minuet in Hell.

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

( Other years )

1999

TV
The Curse of Fatal Death

Books
The Face-Eater(8)
The Taint (8)
Demontage (8)
Revolution Man (8)
Dominion (8)
Unnatural History (8)
Autumn Mist (8)
Interference: Book One (8,3)
Interference: Book Two (8,3)
The Blue Angel (8)
The Taking of Planet 5 (8)
Frontier Worlds (8)
Salvation (1)
The Wages of Sin (3)
Deep Blue (5)
Players (6)
Millennium Shock (4)
Storm Harvest (7)
The Final Sanction (2)
City at World's End (1)
Divided Loyalties (5)
Corpse Marker (4)
More Short Trips
Perfect Timing 2
The Mary-Sue Extrusion (Benny)
Dead Romance  (Benny)
Tears of the Oracle  (Benny)
Return to the Fractured Planet (Benny)
The Joy Device  (Benny)
Twilight of the Gods (Benny)

Audios
The Sirens of Time
Phantasmagoria
Whispers of Terror
Bernice Summerfield: Birthright
Bernice Summerfield: Just War
Bernice Summerfield: Buried Treasures

The first Who from 1999 that I encountered: The Curse of Fatal Death, closely followed by The Sirens of Time, both in 2006.

My favourite Who from 1999: Well, despite the silliness and everything, it's difficult to top The Curse of Fatal Death. Honorable mentions to Salvation and the audio version of Just War.

Moving swiftly on from: Not much enthused by either The Blue Angel or The Taking of Planet 5; or indeed by the Eighth Doctor Adventures of this period generally.

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

( Other years )

1997

Books
Eternity Weeps (7)
The Room With No Doors (7)
Lungbarrow (7)
The Dying Days (8)
So Vile a Sin (7)
The Eight Doctors (8,1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
Vampire Science (8)
The Bodysnatchers (8)
Genocide (8)
War of the Daleks (8)
Alien Bodies (8)
Burning Heart (6)
A Device of Death (4)
The Dark Path (2)
The Well-Mannered War (4)
The Devil Goblins from Neptune (3)
The Murder Game (2)
The Ultimate Treasure (5)
Business Unusual (6)
Illegal Alien Mike Tucker and Robert Perry (7)
The Roundheads (2)
Decalog 4: Re-Generations
Decalog 5: Wonders
Oh No It Isn't! (Benny)
Dragons' Wrath (Benny)
Beyond the Sun (Benny)
Ship of Fools (Benny)
Down (Benny)
Deadfall (Benny)
Ghost Devices (Benny)
Mean Streets (Benny)

The first Who from 1997 that I encountered: It only barely counts, but I read Decalog 5: Wonders back in 2004, less than six months after I started bookblogging, and one of a very few Who books that I read in the wilderness years. If we are only counting fiction with the Doctor in, then it's The Dying Days which I read in 2005.

My favourite Who from 1997: The New and Missing Adventures kept up quality to the end. My favourites from the list are The Dying Days and The Dark Path; I'll also give a shout to Beyond The Sun.

Moving swiftly on from: Actually I enjoyed all of these, though I may lose credibility in some quarters by admitting that Alien Bodies did not really work for me.

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

( Other years )

1995:

Books
Warlock (7)
Set Piece (7)
Infinite Requiem (7)
Sanctuary (7)
Human Nature (7)
Original Sin (7)
Sky Pirates! (7)
Zamper (7)
Toy Soldiers (7)
Head Games (7)
The Also People (7)
Shakedown (7)
The Romance of Crime (4)
The Ghosts of N-Space (3)
Time of Your Life (6)
Dancing the Code (3)
The Menagerie (2)
System Shock (4)
The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1)
Invasion of the Cat-People (2)
Managra (4)
Millennial Rites (6)
The Empire of Glass (1)
Lords of the Storm (5)
Decalog 2: Lost Property
Doctor Who Yearbook 1996

The first Who from 1995 that I encountered: Human Nature was posted quite early to the BBC website, and I lapped it up. Correction: I had already read, but not especially enjoyed, Invasion of the Cat-People which I bought around 2002.

My favourite Who from 1995: Evolution, bringing the Fourth Doctor together with the young Arthur Conan Doyle.

Moving swiftly on from: Toy Soldiers.

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

( Other years )