The Start of 2023 (Not How I Planned) (Patreon)

Hello, everyone and welcome to a new year!

I'm currently typing this out after my 7th consecutive day in bed with severe flu. You name it, I've got it unfortunately; temperature, difficulties breathing, violent cough, loss-of-voice, fatigue, vomiting etc. You can probably tell I felt very clever selecting a picture to accompany this post. Tee-hee.

Due to this, I've not had a productive start to the year and while that's usually fine, I've found myself in a position where I'm trying to assemble train-tracks while on the moving train, like that scene in 'The Wrong Trousers' with the Hartnell-era marathon instalments catching up with me despite being in no position to record or edit the reviews. As a result, there may be a slight gap between 'The Reign of Terror' and 'Planet of Giants' to give myself time to catch up and the weekly uploads can resume. I've already given myself a buffer with the full "Top 50 Doctor Who Scenes of the Revival" compilation (the 2021 video marathon series, but with the 2022 specials included) but I may need another week to account for this loss.

It also means I've not been able to livestream. I only meant to take 2 weeks off, but as my health started to deteriorate around Christmas, I knew I wouldn't be able to return by year's end and as I approach next week with no signs of improvement, I may need to take another week off. Frustrating, especially considering the amount of news, footage and updates we've had over the past month (Mark Tonderai; director of 'The Ghost Monument' and 'Rosa' has been confirmed for Block 2 of Series 14 which is massively hype news).

All of this news will be covered, but I can barely even speak from my bed, let alone get in front of a webcam and process thoughts for several hours in front of an audience. Not to mention the office where I record/edit/livestream from has recently been the victim of two large leaks in our house due to plumbing and wet weather, meaning that it's not a safe room to physically be in for long periods. I'm hoping to move furniture around and move my workspace to another room (the 1963 Livestream location) but that has to wait until I can get out of bed without needing to take another 15-hour nap.

I'm also aware that I have a brilliant and understanding audience. I'm not posting this for sympathy or fishing for support. I know the vast majority of you will say "Don't worry! Wait until you're better!" and I do appreciate the lack of pressure. But since you're my Patrons and a certain amount of uploads/content is expected, I thought it best to be transparent about what's been happening.

However, for good news, all this time in bed has allowed me to catch of up some TV shows and films I've missed out on. I've been especially enjoying 'The Mandalorian' and there's been some 2022 Big Finish audio dramas I've had chance to listen to as well. In case you missed the message, in November 2022 Big Finish added me to their list of critics so I get early access to most of their releases for up to 2 months. There's been some really good 'Torchwood' audios recently that I'm looking forward to talking about in the near future. I'm still planning an epic 2022 BF Retrospective Video but that has been delayed due to...everything. Though on December 31st, we did reach 30K subscribers! In fact, we're already at 30.2K so...maybe I should take a hiatus more often?

So, that's where we're at. I hope you folks have been keeping safe and are doing well this New Year and I'll hopefully see you all again soon!

Much love! ♥♥
- MrTARDIS