The Doctor Who Enjoyment Index (DWEI) takes a weekly snapshot of what it is like to be one particular Doctor Who fan. Things that happen get a plus or minus score, those scores are totted up and a running total is kept. That’s it really.

The new DWM came out last week and I did something I’ve not done before. I read "The Fact of Fiction" – the lengthy series which replaced Andrew Pixley’s iconic "Archives". I’m not sure why I had skipped its pages every time since it first appeared, back in the year I can’t believe you’d expect me to know that. Maybe I figured it was just an Archive but written without the same level of detail, that it was perhaps a throwback to a lighter and less bearded time. Indeed, it looked to be little more than a scene-by-scene breakdown of the story with some "interesting" annotations. Well, given that it was about Pip and Jane’s third finest story this month I took the plunge. Sod me – it’s good. A bit of mickey taking, a bit of genuine factual information, a few amusing boobs and you’ve got six well used pages. It’s almost what "Twenty Four Things" could be if I did any research at all. DWEI score +1

There is a strong rumour that "The Christmas Invasion" will be released as part of the season two vanilla range. This is annoying. It either means waiting until November to buy it with extras as part of the Season 28/2 boxed set or buying a quick cash-in version in (around) May. No stand alone release with the Children in Need special (which surely they cleared in advance and won’t be subject to the same restriction as Dimensions in Time), the interactive special and various other bumph. There was plenty they could’ve done and they didn’t do it. Not least the buys they would’ve got from including season 28/2 preview stuff on the disc. DWEI score -1

Reeltime have slipped a few new titles in amongst the reheated experiments of non-Who Myth Makers. I should perhaps explain that Reeltime’s website went from hopelessly out of date to not appearing at all (it went offline and came back as a text message saying "no website configured at this address"). So the only source of info I can find for Myth Makers is the Galaxy Four site. They are now listing Dick Mills, Christopher H Bidmead and Derek Martinus, as well as a Genesis of the Daleks special, for February/March. I like Myth Makers – they’re like DVD commentaries but with added Nick Briggs. DWEI score +1

Amazon have had a change of policy. They used to have a fairly general 30% off most books and this included Big Finish stuff. Not absolutely everything but probably a good 9/10 of BF’s output. Now this 30% has become 34% (presumably one third rounded up to prevent legal action from some busybody who has taken umbrage at 33% not being a full "one third off"). Ok, it isn’t a massive reduction but it takes £14.99 BF products down below a tenner. An important psychological hurdle for those worn down by tired plays and too many short story books. DWEI score +1

BF have announced "I, Davros" – a four-disc series charting the life of Davros. Badly served by television (after his first appearance anyway), well served by Big Finish and now star of his own miniseries. Davros has come a long way from a one-time guest spot who rehearsed with a bag over his head. I’m not sure this is such a great idea – Davros is a great character because he is totally unthreatening physically but is scary as heck because he can bend your will just by talking to you. He needs to be the crippled genius in order to be interesting. Take him back in time to when he was just another guy and he’s, well, just another guy. It wasn’t good to hear Omega at school, it wasn’t good to hear the story of the Doctor and the Master as children and I don’t think it will be good to hear the back story of Davros. I hope they prove me wrong though and thanks to Amazon’s 34% discount I might actually give "I, Davros" a go. DWEI score 0

Scoreboard

Start of play : +5

This week : +2

Overall total : +7