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.

Ok, so weekly might have been a bit optimistic for this bit of analytical fluff. Derek Burgan – the guy I borrowed the format from – gets to cover an industry where there is always something going on to get angry or excited or enthusiastic or sickened or happy or sad about, while my chosen field is more sedate. That said -

I wrote back in early January about the recons saga. The tapes which took me two years to get round to sending to the dubber came back with pictures but no sound. My windows of opportunity to get to an actual post office are few and far between (and mother was in South America so unable to lend a hand) so it was only the week before last that I finally sent them back for him to have another go. His service is excellent as they were with me within a week and what I’ve watched of Daleks Masterplan is good. Some of the Photoshop work is a wee bit obvious but not to the point of being a distraction. You might as well say the cast list for Fawlty Towers spoils the episodes because "Andrew Sachs" isn’t a Spanish name so Manuel is obviously not a real Spaniard. The supplementary material is always welcome, the quality of the dubbing is ok for VHS – DVD has made our eyes so much more discerning – and once I get the thing transferred to DVD I’ll give it a proper spin. I know the early episodes much better than the later ones (meaning I was able to concentrate on the visuals and not pay as much attention to the slightly muffled, but very familiar, soundtrack) so it will be interesting to see whether the later ones hold up in their own right. If I was cleverer I would marry the VHS recons, the CD soundtracks and the "Lost in Time" episodes to create a definitive collection. But for now I’ll just award it +1 in the DWEI.

I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a Big Finish as much as I did "Catch 1782". I’ve had it almost a year but hadn’t given it more than a courtesy spin of episode one. It was a fantastic little story. I use the word "little" deliberately. It didn’t try to be big. It is a failure of many BFs that they try to put too much on the line and so, paradoxically, lose our interests. It is something along the lines of the famous quote about "one death being a tragedy, a million deaths merely a statistic". A family being threatened can often be more powerful than the universe being at stake. The stuff about the canister was a bit unsatisfactory but it was a means to an end and the end was so good that it didn’t really matter. Four nights in a row and I didn’t nod off once. A triumph. DWEI score +2

There are many types of fan that pollute the online world. I have a wide and varied portfolio of dislikes – some rational, some irrational. But perhaps my absolute least favourite are the ones that hate everything but continue to buy everything just so they can continue to tell everyone that they hate it. Case in point – an individual who hates Big Finish productions. I don’t know if he’s a rejected author, an ex-lover of Gary Russell’s or just a prick but he hates BF. He even wittily refers to them as "Bog Flush" in every post, review and diatribe. And yet he buys every CD (or borrows them, downloads them or rents them from his local library) so he can post his third rate Charlie Brooker style reviews on any site that will have him. He’s also rude to anyone that dares to defend Big Finish’s output. I know and you know that BF aren’t perfect. They’re not even brilliant right now. But if you hate something that much, give it up. Don’t keep going to the well and complaining because what comes out is so watery. They’ve released 78 stories on CD – if you don’t like them yet I doubt you ever will. DWEI -1

Our very own Secretive Bus produced an amusing William Hartnell video. You can find it here if you are so minded. The creativity of fandom can be a great thing. While football fans are generally an uninspired bunch who can think of nothing more creative than new ways of abusing opposition players or new things to throw at the police, DW fans embrace technology and use it in inventive and productive ways. Some of the output is good, some is terrible. But it is good to see people enjoying themselves and making stuff. It’s also good to be reminded that ours is a show which isn’t owned by a nasty conglomerate that is unable to distinguish between harmless, non-profit, fan-produced stuff and serious breaches of copyright. DWEI +1

The only negative is that I’ve already storyboarded two videos of my own in my head thing but I lack the energy to actually make them happen. A shame but what can you do? Tom Baker was right – you really can get used to disappointment. DWEI -1

Scoreboard

Start of play : +7

This week : +2

Overall total : +9