Welcome to my blog – A Journal of Impossible Things. The title is taken of course, from one of my favourite Doctor Who stories – Human Nature by Paul Cornell. It is the name of the journal of the teacher John Smith and is rich with stories and line drawings concerning the adventures of a time travelling hero called ‘The Doctor’ – of a life he never lived, but half remembers:
DOCTOR: I have written down some of these dreams in the form of fiction. Not that it would be of any interest.
JOAN: I’d be very interested.
DOCTOR: Well, I’ve never actually shown it to anyone before.
JOAN: A Journal of Impossible Things! Just look at these creatures! Such imagination!
DOCTOR: It’s become quite a hobby...
Later, the story of the lives of John Smith and Joan Redfern are told by her granddaughter Verity Newman, in a book of the same name. The Doctor visits her at a book signing when he knows that he is dying in ‘The End of Time‘:
VERITY: No, it’s not just a story, no. Every word of it’s true. I found my great grandmother’s diary in the loft, and she was a nurse in 1913, and she fell in love with this man called John Smith. Except he was a visitor from another world. She fell in love with a man from the stars. And she wrote it all down.And who’s it for?
DOCTOR: The Doctor.
VERITY: To the Doctor. Funny, that’s the name he used.
DOCTOR: Was she happy in the end?
VERITY: Yes. Yes, she was. Were you?
So what is the blog about? Well, it is a collection of articles and reviews, mostly taken from posts originally made on the Gallifrey Base forum in a series of themed threads over a number of years. The reviews mostly cover TV ‘Doctor Who’ stories, but also some of the books, Big Finish audios and occasionally comic strips. They are collected, revised and organised here. In addition, I also write the occasional overview piece or article about a specific aspect of the show, spanning more than a single story review, again these are collected here.
More than that though, I wanted to expand the areas that I typically cover to include the other archive TV that I love – Quatermass and the works of Nigel Kneale, The Prisoner, The Avengers, Doomwatch, Survivors and others. We’ll see where it takes us!
I hope you find something to enjoy! If you do leave a comment.
A Journal of Impossible Things 