Joinson Dastari, Head of Projects

19-year-old Classic Doctor Who fan from Ohio

[junkyardbluebox]

Caption This!

[drdastari]

"Damn it, Jim, I'm a Doctor, not a dentist!"

[drdastari]

Watching a little bit of Greatest Show in the Galaxy before bed... looking at the Doctor's reactions to the "junk mail" robot, I now wonder if he had that materialized into the console room intentionally. Probably not, but it is fun to think...

[drdastari]

Following up on the previous post

Golfing was cancelled today so I might be able to finish the AUC novelization tonight. Maybe. We'll see.

I was making a shorter list of just the novels (so I wouldn't have to constantly sift through Eyespider) for me to add my notes to, only to be greeted with stories like the cancelled PDA Campaign and the recent novel Dracula. Turns out that book and the Wonderland one set between Mawdryn & Terminus are part of a larger series with two other stories set in the Classic era. I have to make decisions now! Fuck!

I'm thinking that I probably will read Campaign (since it was released as a free PDF) but not the Puffin ones, since I don't want to go to the trouble of tracking down copies of those. I was only planning on reading the "Wilderness" stuff anyway, so nothing like The Wheel of Ice. I do want to check out that Wonderland novel someday though!

One thing I do absolutely dread about this liveblog is having to tag everything constantly...

[drdastari]

What do you MEAN there's a K9 & Company novelization??

Since it was part of that side series with the novels about Harry and Turlough, I'm gonna skip it, even if I will be reading the Harry and Turlough novels at some point on my own time!

[drdastari]

Okay I'm tired. The liveblog will begin sometime next week

[drdastari]

Following up on the previous post

Golfing was cancelled today so I might be able to finish the AUC novelization tonight. Maybe. We'll see.

I was making a shorter list of just the novels (so I wouldn't have to constantly sift through Eyespider) for me to add my notes to, only to be greeted with stories like the cancelled PDA Campaign and the recent novel Dracula. Turns out that book and the Wonderland one set between Mawdryn & Terminus are part of a larger series with two other stories set in the Classic era. I have to make decisions now! Fuck!

I'm thinking that I probably will read Campaign (since it was released as a free PDF) but not the Puffin ones, since I don't want to go to the trouble of tracking down copies of those. I was only planning on reading the "Wilderness" stuff anyway, so nothing like The Wheel of Ice. I do want to check out that Wonderland novel someday though!

One thing I do absolutely dread about this liveblog is having to tag everything constantly...

[drdastari]

What do you MEAN there's a K9 & Company novelization??

Since it was part of that side series with the novels about Harry and Turlough, I'm gonna skip it, even if I will be reading the Harry and Turlough novels at some point on my own time!

[drdastari]

Following up on the previous post

Golfing was cancelled today so I might be able to finish the AUC novelization tonight. Maybe. We'll see.

I was making a shorter list of just the novels (so I wouldn't have to constantly sift through Eyespider) for me to add my notes to, only to be greeted with stories like the cancelled PDA Campaign and the recent novel Dracula. Turns out that book and the Wonderland one set between Mawdryn & Terminus are part of a larger series with two other stories set in the Classic era. I have to make decisions now! Fuck!

I'm thinking that I probably will read Campaign (since it was released as a free PDF) but not the Puffin ones, since I don't want to go to the trouble of tracking down copies of those. I was only planning on reading the "Wilderness" stuff anyway, so nothing like The Wheel of Ice. I do want to check out that Wonderland novel someday though!

One thing I do absolutely dread about this liveblog is having to tag everything constantly...

[drdastari]

To whomever it may concern

Obviously I haven't been using this blog much on account of how little Dr. Who news there's been (I assure you my ass hole firmly clenches whenever I remember there's gonna be a Christmas special this year), but that may change. I've been thinking about reading through every Dr. Who novelization in chronological order with the VMAs and PDAs between, and I'm coming to the realization that I kinda want to start that this summer.

Rather than liveblogging the whole experience (I always feel pretentious when I write longwinded reviews of things) my idea is to use this blog to chronicle every continuity inconsistency I notice between the books in the form of a bulleted list, which will get really fun pretty quickly, as the second book I read will be Doctor Who In An Exciting Adventure With The Daleks (1964), which I understand shares no continuity with the show or with the much later novelizations of An Unearthly Child and The Edge of Destruction.

Some notes about this liveblog:

I have a life and this will probably end up being much longer than just the summer.

I really must emphasize that I have a life. I am going golfing tomorrow and camping the day after that. I will not be starting the liveblog this week.

Because this is in chronological order, I will be reading both novelizations of Evil of the Daleks and I will of course save The Massacre for last.

The only novelization that I have read so far is The Two Doctors (it was great, aside from the bit about the Doctor drinking shit smoothies).

I do not plan to read much beyond Survival besides the post-Survival PDAs, The Massacre and maybe The Novel of the Film as part of this liveblog. I will read the VNAs and EDAs on my own time, out of order.

The wiki says the Third Doctor appears in the Downtime novelization, but I'll probably read it before Battlefield, since that's when it's set. Side note, Downtime's a great movie and I highly recommend it.

I will be relying on eyespider.org.uk for the exact order of the VMAs & PDAs; if anything is wrong it's their fault. If any experts want to chime in with their preferred reading orders, please do!

Sorry this post was so long; I really only wanted this to demarcate between my random posts/reblogs and the start of this liveblog project. It's all just for fun and I'm not trying to be some Tumblr superstar or anything. Only reason I'm posting it publicly at all is because I think if some random Dr. Who fan stumbles upon it, they mind find it amusing. I know I would.

[innerchildabortionclinic]

i'm always thinking of "why is his smile so radiant"

[innerchildabortionclinic]

[drdastari]

god forbid a man have a hobby

[dw-opinions-you-wont-like]

This may be harsh but in my view, the people saying things like "doctor who was never well written", "it was never good sci-fi", "it never had compelling mysteries and payoffs", "it never made any sense", were never true fans of the show.

Like sorry, no, it did use to have really good writing and sci-fi concepts and payoffs. It did make sense, not in an objective way but it had a lot of well explained internal logic which helped keep you invested in what's going on. Not always, but often.

Don't use your lack of appreciation for the show to justify the lack of quality of the current seasons.

[drdastari]

Classic Doctor Who fans stay winning

[drdastari]

I just learned about Skip Haverty. I have now become Skip-pilled. I have joined the Skip Nation.

[caseygecko]

i don't think doctor who fans get nitpicky enough about the fact that in the setup for the tv movie, the master is put on trial for all his Evil Crimes by...............the daleks? yeeeah that's right, the race famed for hating evil crimes. also the race famed for Holding Trials and not just executing people on the spot

[drdastari]

It especially grinds my gears that none of the EU's "explanations" filled in this plothole. They all seem to think the Master being on Skaro is the mystery that anyone gives a shit about, and not why the squeaky-voiced Daleks were acting as the universal arbiters of justice

[gallifreyrises]

I’m just going to leave Tumblr with this. Please insert caption here. Free jelly babies if I think it’s funny.

[drdastari]

Not a caption, but I do think it might be fun to do a compilation of promotional photos with the Doctor and a bunch of villains. Such as this one from behind the scenes of The War Games:

(there are definitely better scans of this photo, but this is just what I have on hand)

[irrationalplanets]

doctor who needs to bring the hypnotism back i'm being so serious

[tens-radioactive-left-shoe]

there is no "worst" era of doctor who. they're all terrible in their own special ways

[drdastari]

With all due respect to this take, I disagree with it and its variations strongly. I like Doctor Who when it's good, and I like good Doctor Who because it is good. And there's a lot of good Doctor Who!

You can find flaws in any art if you try hard enough. All art has flaws, and obviously a franchise that's been going for 62 years is statistically likely to have accumulated more flaws than most media. That doesn't mean every era (whether that's defined by Doctor or by producer or by decade) is wholly terrible for one reason or another. By that same logic, all art is shit, even if it's just because of a few nitpicks.

Doctor Who DiscourseTM is very tiring, and I spent an unfortunate amount of 2025 in some relatively toxic corners of the fandom. So hell yeah, I'm all for offsetting the negativity! But I don't think this is even remotely a good way to do it. Limply saying "yeah the whole show sucks" is neither a good rebuttal nor a good reason for liking episodes that other fans didn't. If you not only agree with people who say the last couple seasons were bunk, but then also say that the rest of the show before it was also bunk, then can you really say you "like" Doctor Who? You definitely enjoy it, and no one can or should take that enjoyment away from you, but I find it somewhat oxymoronic to "like" something because it is "terrible"

Here's my counter-proposal: It is not possible to like something that is bad. If you like it, then it is good! Media being "good" or "bad" is completely subjective, and so if you like Doctor Who because of its flaws, then that means that is in fact not terrible, in your opinion. That way it's more than a glass half full; it's like an optical illusion that makes the glass seem completely full. And because you perceive it to be that way, then it is. I think I just derailed this with quantum bullshit but I hope my point is still clear!

With all that said, I still understand your perspective and I think it's completely valid. However, it does kinda grind my gears when others use similar rhetoric to "win" good-faith debates. Subjective critical analysis of media should be allowed to flourish nigh-unconditionally. Shutting a discussion down with "um actually, it's all awful and we should be embarrassed for liking it" (which is NOT what you were saying!) is pretty cringe, and I guess I made this reblog as a PSA regarding that.

[wildgifthorses]

For anyone who needs to hear it

[dragons-are-epic]

New Who Companions: Sarah Stone, Lily Brown, Brian Wang, Helen Walker, Tess Roberts

Classic Who Companions: Hezya of Tallius, Maximillius 'Max' Thompson, Feelion, David St Michaels-McDouglas, Bob

EU Companions: Km'fissi, 'Tammy' Tamarellotinthisiala, HydroMat Company® Model Four CleanBot™ (Serial Number 3872), Private Alkior of the Highest Amti Fleet of the Fourth Laterian United Federation, Jane Austen

[themistressofdolls]