It’s the last day of 2024 and I’m not entirely sure where it all went. Every year seems to go by faster than the last. There’s a mathematical explanation for that: each subsequent year is a smaller proportion of your life lived so far than the last one. There’s also a much simpler explanation for that: adulting sucks. Your life is consumed by your job and your bills and your chores and your personal admin. And also, travelling to all the places you want to be. I’ve been up and down the country trying to see everyone that I want to see this past month. Frankly, I’m looking forward to spending January is mostly one place: at home.

I’ve felt a bit bad about the blog this year. Towards the end of 2022 I managed to get back into blogging in a big way and I felt really energised about it. Then the decision came to move out and live on my own as a responsible and independent adult. The move was more exhausting than I ever expected and I needed several months to adjust to the changes in environment and routine. And assembling all that flat-pack furniture; honestly it did not stop for weeks. I managed to get monthly blogs out between March and June 2024, plus a last-minute one in November 2024. This one is gonna be in a more reflective style like my ‘In Search Of being A Better Fan’ essay from last year.

1. The Year In Who

Looking back on 2024, I’ve had a pretty good year being a Doctor Who fan. I’ve made four trips to the BFI Southbank to watch Horror of Fang Rock, The Celestial Toymaker in animated form, and two versions of The Happiness Patrol (original broadcast, then the all-new special edition). I watched five of the eight episodes from Series 14 (Or Season One, if you’re one of those) in the company of good friends, including a midnight screening of the finale at the BFI IMAX. Though on reflection, I think I would have enjoyed the episode more at home; I was tired and my neck hurt from having to look from side-to-side of the UK’s largest cinema screen.

I got to see two Doctor Whos in real life! The first was by pure chance. I went to see my friend in a local amateur production of Nikolai Gogol’s The Government Inspector… and David Bradley was in the audience! He lives around my local area but it was lovely to be introduced to him by a friend and I managed to get a photo with him and he insisted on us holding the lapels. What really stuck with me was that he stayed in the bar after the performance and spoke to every cast member about how good they were: a proper gentleman. Then I also got to see Ncuti Gatwa in person, on Doctor Who day itself no less(!), as he was performing at the National Theatre in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. I wish I could go back and see it all again.

I recorded another Galactic Yo-Yo podcast this year with my friend Molly on 73 Yards, my favourite episode of the year, and we even spotted actor Joel Fry in Brixton many months before we knew he was in this year’s Christmas Special, which he had already filmed by that point in time! Then in June, I attended Big Finish Day, my first Doctor Who convention in several years, with one of my oldest Who friends where I enjoyed meeting up with lots of people and I even won some artwork of William Hartnell in a raffle!

I attended my first Gallifrey Cabaret show in June as well and I had such an amazing night out – in fact, I distinctly remember one of my friends there saying, “you seem like a completely different person tonight”. Another posted a video of me dancing on their Instagram; thank God it’s private. I think that just shows the importance of having a safe and inclusive space to just enjoy being yourself. I loved it so much that I promised myself I would come back again ASAP and I managed to do this in December, where I was lucky enough to meet Russell T Davies himself! It all felt like some wild fever dream at such a late hour after so many drinks, but he was terribly polite, thanked me for waiting (RTD THANKED *ME*??) and complimented my denim jacket.

And to top it all off, we got a brand new Steven Moffat-penned Doctor Who Christmas Special to close out the year – something that we all probably thought would never happen again after 2017. Speaking of which…

2. My Reaction to ‘Joy to the World’

My main takeaway from the episode was Ncuti Gatwa’s commanding performance. After Ruby’s (temporary) exit from the show in Empire of Death, we finally got to see the Fifteenth Doctor travelling without a companion and what that does to him. We see him being charming and charismatic (“Ham and cheese toastie and a pumpkin latte!”), being dark and manipulative (“what kind of sad-sack human train wreck puts themselves in a room like that, at Christmas?”), and being just really funny (“Is this thing ARMED??”). I think the mark of a great lead actor is the way in which they can carry an episode, regardless of the writing, through the strength of their performance alone; Gatwa feels like one of those actors.

Nicola Coughlan was also an absolute joy being Joy (ho ho ho), despite her somewhat limited appearance within the story; I expected to see more of her to be honest. I was struck by the sense of melancholy in her performance, the way she swings between putting on a brave face to the anger and guilt she felt over her mother dying alone in hospital during the 2020 Covid lockdowns. I also found Joel Fry to be a delightfully funny supporting character – can he please come back every now again as the hologram interface for the Villengard software? But the unexpected breakout highlight of the episode for me was Steph de Whalley as Anita the receptionist. Her platonic relationship with the Doctor over a whole year, one day at a time, was a delight to watch. I hope she pops up again in the show, even just for a brief cameo.

As for the script, Moffat once again delivers a compelling high-concept storyline centred around a Time Hotel selling unsold rooms from the past. It’s the sort of brilliant idea that makes you ask, “Why hasn’t somebody done this already?” But like I felt with Boom, I feel somewhat weary that I can see Moffat bringing out the same old ideas and tropes but with a new lick of paint

• A mystery box (briefcase) coupled with a mysterious phrase/mantra (“The Star seed shall bloom…”), yep seen that before.
• Doors that are time portals to a sci-fi location, that’s The Girl in The Fireplace.
• A woman who becomes a part of the universe, that’s Bill and Heather in Series 10.

I won’t go on but there’s definitely more than those three. I think that’s part of the reason why it’s important to bring in new writers to the show. I mainly enjoyed Rogue because I could tell it was a new set of writers (Herron/Redman) as the story rhythm felt noticeably different.

Lastly, there’s the story’s climax which seems to have been the episode’s major talking point for fans online. I might feel differently on a rewatch, but on initial viewing I found the final plot swerve a little jarring in tone and pace. We think Joy is going to die by way of the briefcase only to see her smiling and accepting her transition to a new form of existence. And then her mother turns to stardust from within her own hospital bed. There’s a lovely metaphor in there somewhere but I don’t personally feel it translated well in a visual form. Although the final screen caption did give me a good chuckle.

Then first thing on Boxing Day, my dad told me very directly that my grandad had passed away peacefully that morning. I’d been lucky enough to visit him in hospital just over a week prior, and he had since been discharged from hospital and spent his last days at home in his bed with Granny. We weren’t expecting it, but it was understandable given the recent state of his health. Conversations about death plagued the entire day, with my mother remarking that she wasn’t afraid of death itself (as this is certain) but more worried about the manner in which she will die (which is uncertain). I imagine most people, if given the choice, would want to go peacefully in the company of those that they love and know. It made me think of Joy’s mum’s death slightly differently as fiction allowed her to have the death that several people in 2020 were cruelly denied. Even at the end, Steven Moffat chooses to be kind. Perhaps then my Grandad has been reborn as a star in the night sky… it would certainly give a new meaning to the term ‘born again Christian’. Rest in peace x

3. Who Year’s Resolution

So what about 2025? My year in blogging for 2024 lacked consistency in when posts came out so I’m going to try and address that this year. My goal for this blog is to get one decent post out every month for the next year. I’ve got some drafts waiting in the wings and some ideas I really want to realise in written form that have been deferred from 2024. Some are remixes and polishing up older pieces I’ve covered before, whilst some are entirely brand new pieces. And if there’s any maths to be found in Series 15 (Or Season Two, if you’re one of those), then you can be sure I will cover it here! Especially if it involves the number 57.

And thank you for reading for my blog – I hope 2024 was kind to you, and if not then I especially hope 2025 is going to be a great year for you. Oh, and if you have enjoyed anything I have written, please feel free to drop me a DM on BlueSky or Instagram or wherever you can find me really. I do really appreciate it.

*raises glass*

A Happy Who Year to all of you at home, hmm?