Day 694: Survival Part 2

And so the story continues. In the land of Doctor Who, we get a villain in the story. It's the Master, who's played by Anthony Ainley in his final appearance in the role. here, he's given something far more interesting than the generic pantomime villain that he's been lumbered with for the past 9 or so years, being able to play a darker character. He brings the Doctor to the planet of the Cheetah People, not as part of some vast trap, but instead because he is trapped and needs the Doctor's help to escape the planet. What makes this darker, however, is why he needs help. He's unwell, turning into a Cheetah Person with every passing moment. It's unleashing his more animal nature, making the character feel just that bit more unhinged and dangerous. It's a shame, then, that this is Ainley's last story, as he's able to show here the potential that he has as an actor, and that he could have been a more memorable Master, were it not for poor direction/scripts/production etc.

Meanwhile in the real world, we look back to 2013. I'm chatting with friends about Doctor Who, and someone guesses that I've seen all of Doctor Who. I reply by saying that I haven't, and then I try and figure out just how much of Doctor Who I have seen. A quick estimate in my head says that I'd only seen around a third of Classic Doctor Who. This fact stuck with me, until one day I came up with a stupid idea. I would watch every episode of Doctor Who, in order, one a day, from the start. That way, I'd gain a new appreciation for the series, as well as plug some gaps in my Doctor Who knowledge, all in celebration of Doctor Who's upcoming 50th anniversary in November of that year. Then, almost immediately afterwards, I made another stupid decision, which was to tell people that I was going to do it, thus ensuring that I was going to do it. I started a blog as well, as another mechanism to keep me on track with this odyssey. So, on the 23rd of November, 2013, I began a grand marathon of all of Doctor Who, starting with An Unearthly Child...