Mark

#1, #2, #4 and #5 would definitely have made my list if I'd just kept going past 50, as would two thirds of #3. Lovely as Nicola Bryant's bum is, though, it's not her best feature, and in the long list of Doctor Who companions ranked according to the shapeliness of their derrieres that I totally don't keep as a running tally in my head, Wendy Padbury is a clear winner. Or would be, if such a list existed. Which it doesn't. Obviously.

I could easily have come up with fifty things I love about the Troughton era alone without having to think about it for more than a couple of minutes. Hell, I could probably come up with fifty things I love about Colin sodding Baker's era without having to try too hard, although "it ended" would have to be one of them. Fifty isn't a lot.

Those of you who can be arsed make your own lists, please. Entertain me - I like reading lists almost, although not quite, as much as I like making them.

Apropos of very little, here's a list of 50 reasons Doctor Who is the best thing ever. The first 50 that occurred to me last night, in the order they occurred - first draft, no revising. Because I enjoy making arbitrary lists for no reason beyond "lists are fun". Think of it as a belated "Hooray, Doctor Who is 50!" wossname.

One or two of these may require footnotes for almost anyone who isn't me or my wife. Which is, I admit, most of you. Sorry (it's not deliberate arseyness, and I'll be happy to explain in the deeply unlikely event that anyone is interested/bored enough to ask about any of them).

1. Episode 1 of 'An Unearthly Child'.

2. The nightmares I still vividly recall having as a child after seeing the dead soldier opening his eyes underwater in 'The Curse of Fenric'.

3. Frobisher. All hail the big talking bird.

4. Ruprecht, the Special Needs Ice Warrior.

5. The snake in 'Kinda'.

6. The fact that the script for 'Kinda' is so good that not even that snake can ruin it.

7. The jumping-off-a-roof-into-the-TARDIS bit that Steven Moffat lifted wholesale from Lawrence Miles' 'Alien Bodies' for 'The Day of the Moon'.

8. The sofa of reasonable comfort.

9. Delia Derbyshire.

10. The design and construction of the original Zygon costume.

11. The 'Space Adventure' stock music used in, among other stories, 'Tomb of the Cybermen'. You know the one..."ba ba-ba baa-aa, ba ba ba"

12. The Tenth Doctor and Wilf as two old men sitting in a cafe, talking about death in part 1 of 'The End of Time'.

13. My friend Ralph Bisset shouting his impression of McCoy's splendidly hammy "If we fight like animals, we'll die like animals!" on the way to school the morning after the last episode of 'Survival' aired.

14. "I say, what a wonderful butler. He's so violent!"

15. The catharsis of spurious morality. There is nothing you can do to prevent it.

16. Colin Baker as the very model of a Gallifreyan Buccaneer.

17. Donna Noble.

18. Matt Smith's fingers during his first interview during the 'Introducing the 11th Doctor' TV special.

19. Tachyon TV's 'Cyberwoman' commentary.

20. The cheer in the cinema when Tom Baker turned up at the end of 'Day of the Doctor'.

21. The fact that my eyes are honestly welling up with Pavlovian tears of joy right now simply because I typed the previous sentence.

22. David Tennant explaining the concept of Big Finish to Catherine Tate live on stage in front of several thousand people at a BFI panel discussion.

23. The soundtrack to 'The Sea Devils'. All together now....SQUEEEEAAKKKRRRRWWWWR SQKWRRRRRKK SPRRRDDDLLL SPRRRRRROOOKKKKZZZZH

24."Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye, Susan. Goodbye, my dear." A line of dialogue so lovely, and so well delivered, that it almost completely makes up for all the other ways in which Susan's departure scene is awful.

25. Troughton dancing in the waves in the opening scene of 'The Enemy of the World'.

26. The fact that I can now watch Troughton dancing in the waves in the opening scene of 'The Enemy of the World'.

27. The fact that even something as sublime as 'The Caves of Androzani' can be followed a mere week later by 'The Twin Dilemma'. Because you need to take the rough with the smooth.

28. Sylvester McCoy walking away from the exploding tent at the end of 'The Greatest Show in the Galaxy'.

29. "We are the Daleks and this is our song. We are very naughty, and we like to do wrong".

30. The shot of the TARDIS materialisation reflected in a puddle at the start of 'The War Games'.

31. Almost everything else about 'The War Games'.

32. The existence of the Virgin New Adventures. Even the really shit ones, of which there are a not-inconsiderable number.

33. "Yes, Jamie...it is a big one, isn't it?"

34. Warrior Woman Barbara Wright, and her formidable cardigan.

35. The gutwrenching scene where a partially cyber-converted girl returns home to her family in 'Spare Parts'.

36. "I wear a fez now. Fezes are cool" (the first time he said it, and the first time only)

37. Ace hitting that Dalek with a baseball bat.

38. Verity Lambert.

39. Terrance Dicks' prose. "Creaking, groaning sound". "Pleasant open face". "Teeth and curls". "Through the ruin of a city stalked the ruin of a man". Etcetera.

40. The cliffhanger at the end of episode 3 of 'The Caves of Androzani.'

41. David Tennant walking away from the Mars base near the end of 'Waters of Mars', and the sheer joy of the moment when he realizes that he just has to go back to save them all.

42. The moment, less than five minutes later, when you realize that he was wrong after all.

43. Watching Malin the first time she saw 'Blink', because I'd already seen it and knew exactly when the bit where the Angel bares its teeth was coming.

44. Clyrani.

45. The sheer balls of Lawrence Miles killing off the Third Doctor before the events of 'Planet of the Spiders' in 'Interference'.

46. A holographic Christopher Eccleston suddenly turning directly to address the camera in 'The Parting of the Ways'.

47. "Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority".

48. The fact that something as bugfuck mental as 'Ghost Light' was aired at 7.35 on a weeknight, right in the family/light entertainment slot. See also: 'Warriors Gate', slotted ever-so-slightly-incongruously between Grandstand and The Generation Game.

49. Phil Collinson saying "Hooray!"

50. The next season. And the next Doctor. And the one after that. And so on, forever.

Not *that* cold - I suspect you're thinking fahrenheit, rather than celsius. But cold enough to render dressing gown and slippers somewhat inadequate as protection against the elements.

I also rather liked the wedding episode . Not the best episode to date by any means, but certainly nowhere near the worst* - I might have preferred something a bit more substantial given that we only get three new stories every couple of years, but that's a problem (to the extent that it is one at all) with the production schedule, not the actual story. In a longer season, the wedding episode would have been a charming interlude rather than a lull in the middle.

Like JasonT, I thought the first one was terrific, with the exception of a small number of writerly tics that grated on me very slightly (given that both Gatiss and Moffat both tend to display a large number of writerly tics that grate on me enormously, that's a definite achievement). Third episode was an absolute blinder, as well as rather marvellously retroactively explaining a few of the things I didn't especially care for in the first two episodes. As has become typical of Sherlock, it was barely concerned with the detective/mystery aspect, but the character stuff was sufficiently excellent that it didn't bother me at all. Quite the contrary, in fact - Cumberbatch and Freeman, along with the universally superb supporting cast, are more than good enough for this more character-driven approach to really work to the show's benefit. It's not as though there isn't a good amount of entertainingly ludicrous crime-solving, obviously, but it's usually there either as an eye-catching "BAM" moment, or simply as a backdrop against which the character-driven stuff can play out. The last episode that actually revolved around a mystery in which the viewer was provided with most of the clues in advance so they could think-along-a-Sherlock was the Hounds of Baskerville, and it might be quite nice to get another one at some point. That said, there've been plenty of versions of Sherlock Holmes in which the who/howdunnit content was great fun but the characters were one-dimensional cyphers, so it's nice to get a version that somewhat subverts that.

I find it somewhere between amusing and irritating that, given charge of both Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes, Steven Moffat is treating one of them as a largely character-driven story featuring several highly charismatic and memorable villains and in which the clever-clever mechanics of plotting are frequently sacrificed in favour of characterisation and emotional scenes about the bonds between characters, and the other as a largely plot-driven story featuring virtually no charismatic or memorable villains and in which characterisation and the emotional bonds between the characters are frequently sacrificed in favour of clever-clever scenes about the mechanics of plotting. But he's got them completely the wrong way round. It works a lot better for me here than it does there.

Hopefully it won't be quite such a long wait until the next series.

*The horribly racist one with the Chinese bankers, obviously.

It was -10 degrees outside!

(although yes, there was a time when I would regularly pop out to the shops in pyjamas or dressing gown, and that time was "a couple of months ago").

Yesterday, I had decided that I was going to stay in my pyjamas all day. In light of this, I feel that Malin's firm 'suggestion' that I go to the shop for groceries was somewhat unfair.

Fortunately I am a resourceful soul, and was able to save the day by putting my clothes on over the top of my pyjamas. Winning on a technicality is the best form of winning.

So yeah, things are pretty exciting here right now.

Is that Captain Nemo thing any good? I haven't read it yet, although obviously in Moore's case this shouldn't in any way preclude me laying into it with aggressive gusto, ideally incorporating a number of vitriolic personal attacks on the writer.

The bit about eye contact is massively true. The rest...well, some comedic license has been taken. But yeah, I saw that one and liked it a lot.

The one about (popular Norwegian dating site) sukker.no is even better, or at least even more blindingly accurate. Just about everyone I've spoken to who uses/has used sukker has laughed and confirmed that yeah, it's pretty much exactly as she describes.

It finally started snowing here on Saturday, so with a bit of luck I might be able to get at least *some* local cross-country skiing in before the spring. Steve, I insist that you report on the success or otherwise of any snowcycling in which you engage.

Proper grand New Year's Eve, that was. Just me and Malin visiting a friend of ours, sitting in her living room and chatting until the early hours of the morning. Lovely - no preparations, no expectations, no stress.

I think we all more or less agree that it was a fitting end for this Doctor/era. It's just that we don't all entirely concur on whether or not that's a good thing.

I'm very glad you enjoyed it.

It was warmer than Norway, but that isn't saying much. No sweltering hellishness, and it got quite chilly at night, but that's much as I expected. Very pleasant, warm but not too hot. First time I've been in North Africa, and we'll definitely be going back.

To focus on the positive for a moment, I really like the notion of an episode that sets up an epic war between every Doctor Who villain ever...then almost entirely ignores it in favour of a really quite small story about the Doctor looking after people because he's the Doctor and that's just what he does. The execution was, shall we say, not entirely to my liking, but that was a nice idea.

Of course it was also a nice idea the first time through in 'The Big Bang', but...well, Moffat.

In fact, on reflection I liked most things about this episode with the unfortunate exception of the episode itself. There was a lot of stuff going on that I'd have found tremendously refreshing and moving otherwise. I just wish it hadn't spent so much time wrapping itself in ever more tedious circles around a bound-to-fail effort to present unconvincing and/or half-arsed explanations for a checklist of continuity points that didn't really need explaining in the first place.

I suspect it'll grow on me.

Hope everyone had a particularly splendid Christmas, and that the New Year treats you all marvelously.

Christmas in Morocco was ace, by which I mean "not even a teeny tiny bit Christmassy, but we went out for a very nice meal". Should do it more often - I actually rather enjoy Christmas, but it was nice to have a break for one year.

On the plus side, I really enjoyed the previous two Moffat-scripted episodes - neither of them made much sense either, but they weren't pretending to, and both had a bit more fun along the way. Two out of three isn't bad.

Also...

How many times will he recycle the bit where...

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

That last sentence does sort of imply that photos of my holiday will suffice to fix things if anyone isn't well,. I'm quietly confident that this is not, in fact, the case.

Well, that's Malin and I off to the airport for our getting-away-from-everything Christmas holiday in Marrakech. My first time in North Africa, Malin's first time on the African continent at all. I'm really rather looking forward to this. A much-needed break for both of us.

We'll try to post some photos afterwards. In the meantime, hope everyone's doing well.

That's certainly true, Avaunt, but that hasn't actually been a huge problem except indirectly (the main direct impact on the Embassy for non-diplomatic staff like myself has been a crippling reduction in the budget, which had made some day-to-day stuff rather tricky). That sort of stress is challenging for everyone, but not in a truly soul-destroying way, it just means there's a lot more to do - tensions can get high, but there's at least a universal acknowledgement that yes, things are complicated, but at least everyone knows that and if able to work with it accordingly. The reasons for which I'm quitting are somewhat more specific, but for fairly obvious reasons I'm not willing or able to discuss them openly. Suffice it to say that nobody within the circles in which I can talk about this sort of thing has been remotely surprised that I've resigned, and most of them have been urging me to do so for months.

Yeah, I'll be finished at the end of February (3 months notice), which hopefully gives me time to get something else. Got a few feelers out, a few applications sent out, and all fingers well and truly crossed. Worst case scenario, though, wherein I end up without a new job to dive into, isn't catastrophic - I've been checking out a few care homes (psychiatric and geriatric), and I've got a reasonable amount of experience as a nursing auxiliary,, so it shouldn't be a problem to get enough shifts somewhere to keep bills paid for and such. Especially if I'm willing to work nights and/or combine it with part time bar work or similar,, which I totally am.

Don't worry, by the way, I have actually handled the resignation itself with a degree of tact and diplomacy. I'd quite like to get a good reference, if nothing else, and now I'm on my way out there's no reason to make things actively difficult or unpleasant. Haven't regretted quitting for a second since doing it, though. Things here have just been absolutely rotten for the past few months, in particular - I'm not the only person leaving soon, a few others have had more than enough too.

BABY POOKA

Can't believe I missed this. Congratulations, I'm over the moon for you. Great news.

Sorry for my near-total absence of late (to those of you who might have noticed, anyway). Life has been getting in the way, as it is wont to do. I love you guys/gals (yes, even you. And *especially* you), I've actually really missed this place. I'll be back, I promise. Possibly with a bit of a life update this evening.

Anyway, that was mental.

It'll be a while before I can start to think about how good it actually was, and I don't really want to because for now I'm happy just basking in how much I enjoyed it. I'm fairly certain that it didn't make a lick of sense, but I'm rather more certain that I don't care if it did or not - whatever else it was it was a hell of a ride, and felt momentous, exciting and celebratory in all the ways it really had to. Given the generally low calibre of the opposition it feels a bit like damning with faint praise to call it the best multi-Doctor story ever, but it was certainly that at the very least.

There are at least two Steven Moffats, the one whose stories are exercises in clever-but-slightly-soulless plotting contrivance and the one whose stories are a confused grab-bag of ideas thrown at the screen in the hope that at least some of them will stick. This was undoubtedly written by the latter, even if he was pretending to be the former for bits of it. I much prefer him that way.

The new direction it sets up for the future ["going home"] bothers me a little, I must admit - the idea of turning Doctor Who into a sort of quest narrative is one I've objected to quite strongly in the past, and doesn't appeal to me much now either - but it'll all be in the execution. As evidenced by this episode, really, because very little of what it did would have looked like a very good idea on paper (I don't entirely disagree with TimC's comments, for a start) but most of it still came together hugely entertainingly onscreen. After all, 'The Five Doctors' is incoherent nonsense completely addled by a unnecessary continuity fixation too, and while plenty of fans are happy to admit as much, they also tend to remember it incredibly fondly for the sheer nostalgic thrill it provides. I expect that the same will ultimately be true of 'Day of the Doctor', which feels appropriate.

Oh, and the two unexpected cameos towards the end absolutely wrecked me, in the best way possible. Lovely.

I will endeavour to post photos of booty. Guests and space permitting, I may even try to build it during WHOATHON 2013, or "tomorrow" as it is referred to by other, lesser beings.

Via Pål, Ade has sent me (and Malin) a pair of CDs, to which I haven't had the chance to listen but am looking forward enormously, and a frankly magnificent 'Build Your Own TARDIS' kit. Sadly only a small-scale paper model, rather than a fully functioning time and space ship, but life is made of tiny little disappointments.

Awesome, Ade. Many, many thanks.