The BBC just added all available classic episodes of Doctor Who to their iPlayer streaming service, meaning they have the entire collection of Doctor Who series old and new all under one roof. This is superbly exciting. It’s always been in the back of my mind to watch some old Doctor Who episodes, partly because I do feel bad at being one of those ’new Who’ only fans, but also because you can never have too much TV in your life.

It’s always worried me a little because not all the episodes that were ever made have been kept. Wikipedia says there are 97 episodes that have been lost due to the early BBC policies of just recording over tapes. Some of them have audio and some have been reconstructed in various ways but it’s all a bit messy and it makes me itch a little bit. I like to go back to the beginning of something and work through it, but that’s just not really possible.

However, I’m going to have to get over that for this because it’s not really a good enough reason to not explore the full history of Doctor Who. Why miss out on enjoying something just because it’s not entirely in tact?

Of course thinking about this led me to remember that I used to write episode reviews for Doctor Who and have some gaps in that collection too. Turns out I’m no better than the BBC when it comes to completing things! If and when I can get my head around it, perhaps it will be a good way of solving both problems at once - a big old Doctor Who rewatch, hooray!