On The 48th Anniversary

To celebrate the 48th anniversary, here are 48 completely random things I love about Doctor Who. Which I've just come up with, off the top of my head, so don't blame me if I've got any facts wrong. Or missed out anything seminal.

1. The Terrance Dicks Target novelisations, which taught me to read.

2. Gareth Roberts getting the word “novelisation” into the ‘The Shakespeare Code’

3. The Fourth Doctor claiming that Shakespeare sprained his wrist writing sonnets.

4. Five-star stories in below-par seasons.

5. ‘Love & Monsters’: “The internet literally exploded!”

6. Caring that ‘Love & Monsters’ is the first story to have an ampersand in the title.

7. ‘Doctor Who And The Silurians’

8. All the title sequences in Season 7.

9. The debates about whether he’s called Doctor Who or not.

10. Drax in ‘The Armageddon Factor’

11. Rassilon in ‘The End Of Time’.

12. That Proclaimers wrap party video.

13. That Ballad of Russell and Julie wrap party video.

14. ‘The Writers Tale’ by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook.

15. Benjamin Cook.

16. Trock.

17. The William Hartnell Fan Club.

18. Richard Hurndall in Blake’s 7.

19. Paul Darrow in ‘Timelash’.

20. ‘Timelash’ being available on DVD.

21. The animated episodes on ‘The Invasion’ DVD.

22. Zoe’s catsuit.

23. Amy’s skirt in ‘Space/Time’.

24. Jamie’s weighted down kilt.

25. The Doctor’s penchant for sandwiches.

26. And swordfights.

27. Anthony Ainley.

28. ‘Survival’, the only Doctor Who story set on a council estate.

29. Jackie Tyler.

30. “I don’t dispute the results of your excellent potassium-argon test”.

31. Jac Rayner being scared of skellingtons.

32. Ian Marter novelisations.

33. The Sarah Jane Adventures.

34. Clani.

35. Fandom’s creativity.

36. Steven Moffat.

37. ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’.

38. Serial B.

39. Verity Lambert.

40. ‘Human Nature’ winning the best NA in the DWM poll.

41. DWM.

42. All the other Doctor Who magazines I could buy, if I so chose.

43. Merchandise.

44. Mechanoids.

45. Big Finish.

46. Jade Pagoda.

47. The Season 14 console room.

48. Fancying the TARDIS.