Doctor Who Decades: The 1980s

Every time Doctor Who reaches the end of a decade, it seems to be an automatic point of change and renewal for the series. However, in this case there was no change or renewal, just a full-stop. Here's the third in a trilogy of blogs looking back over a decade of Doctor Who.

The 1980s

I reached the end of the 1970s in December 2020, when the world was in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK we were initially under the impression we'd be able to spend Christmas with our families, but as the infections worsened, this leeway was reduced to just one day. It was a sad and frustrating time in world history, but if everything else was falling apart around me, there was one shaft of light that kept me going through it all - Doctor Who!

Here I am, 18 months later, and I've reached the end of the 1980s, and the end of Classic Who. It didn't take me as long to review the 1980s because I simply had more time to do it in, although family issues did interfere quite stressfully along the way. There were times - notably towards the end of the Davison era - when I considered packing it all in. My blog would have ended with part 4 of Planet of Fire, and its 'unfinishedness' would frustrate millions of readers for generations to come. Well, a couple perhaps. For minutes!

Doctor Who Decades: The 1970s

Every time Doctor Who reaches the end of a decade, it seems to be an automatic point of change and renewal for the series. Here's the second in a series of blogs looking back over a decade of Doctor Who.

The 1970s

So here I am, more than two years after I wrote about the 1960s, at the end of another decade of Doctor Who. It's not quite the end of an era, but it definitely feels like the end of Doctor Who's 1970s with the final episode of The Horns of Nimon, broadcast just 12 days into 1980. A lot changes after Season 17, and although there's another season of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor to go, it's a good opportunity to stop, take stock and look back at what has been a rollercoaster 10 years.

Whereas the 1960s began as a mild curiosity in a junkyard, the 1970s began with a technicolour bang at a cottage hospital in deepest Essex. Doctor Who changed so much between Seasons 6 and 7 that it was almost unrecognisable to what had gone before. The War Games had been an epic finale for the season, the Second Doctor and the decade, but as soon as Jon Pertwee collapsed out of the TARDIS in Oxley Woods in Spearhead from Space - in colour, and on film - it was clear the series had a renewed impetus. Pertwee was an older leading man, but that didn't matter because this new Doctor was all about the action! It was like Doctor Who had been given an ITC transplant, and suddenly it felt like a contemporary of one of Lord Lew Grade's genre-twisting action-packed exports such as Department S or Strange Report.

Doctor Who Decades: The 1960s

Every time Doctor Who reaches the end of a decade, it seems to be an automatic point of change and renewal for the series. Here's the first in a series of blogs looking back over a decade of Doctor Who, starting with...

1960s

It all started out as a mild curiosity in the junkyard, and it turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure!

When I embarked upon what is probably a most inadvisable odyssey to watch and review every single episode of TV Doctor Who for the Time Space Visualiser blog, I knew it would be a hefty task, and quite some commitment. My very first review - for An Unearthly Child - appeared on March 1st, 2017, at a time in my life when I needed some focus, something to occupy me, before the next big phase of my life came along. I was between eras!

I knew the reviews would take a long time to get through - years of my life - and I still have no idea whether I'll ever get to the end or not. But I'll persevere, I'll keep on watching and writing until something gives out, whether it's my patience, my sanity, or my health! But one thing is for sure, so far I've enjoyed every single moment of writing the blog. Why? Because Doctor Who is so much fun, that's why. I've never understood why every single person on the planet isn't a Doctor Who fan because it's got all the right ingredients to make life better. It gladdens, it cheers, it amuses, it impresses, it inspires and it shines. And it tries so very hard, all the time.