Life in the DWAS Lane! part two

 “My Favourite Waste of Time”

1985-86 was definitely a period when DWAS or Doctor Who related stuff was taking up all of my spare time. July 1985 was probably the most extreme example and because people used diaries then I can relate what I did. Having already been to the Fan Aid event at the end of June, the next week  I went to our local Merseyside local group meeting, a week after that I was at LogiCon hosted by the Solihull local group the same day as Live Aid. I’m sure they asked Bob to move his event, but it wasn’t happening. We couldn’t compete with Queen, Paul McCartney, Wham and co but I did end up on stage interviewing Graham Williams, Ian Marter and Richard Gregory. This wasn’t planned, in fact Paul Vanezis asked me the evening beforehand even though probably anyone else there was more suited. Back then of course with no prep and no Google, I had to rely on my tragically vast knowledge of Doctor Who related facts and wing it when it came to the rest of their careers.

Life in the DWAS Lane! part one

 To mark the 50^th anniversary of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society (aka DWAS) here’s a two part personal account of what it was like to be part of the organising committee. And check out a trio of posts from April/ May 2016 commemorating the fortieth anniversary including the full story of the early days from 1976 to 1982 (first part is in the Featured Post box to the right) 

“Hold the Door!”

It’s sometime in the mid Eighties. The location is a plush hotel somewhere in London. I’m standing behind a table holding two large doors shut because if someone doesn’t keep them closed a breeze will chill the two guests currently sat at a table in front of me signing autographs- John Nathan Turner and Colin Baker. Or maybe there’s a bison lurking on the other side of those doors, I’m not quite sure. I doubt the two stars are even aware of my presence and I’m not really even supposed to be here. However, as the person who is supposed to be here hasn’t turned up, here I am. For me it affords a view of the heart of Doctor Who fandom eagerly queuing for a few moments chat and an autograph. If this sounds like a familiar pastime (the autographs not the door holding) then it’s worth remembering that at conventions nowadays people pay a fee for this sort of thing and doors are so good nobody needs to physically hold them closed. Back in the day you would pay to attend the event but autographs were free. You could even take a picture though there was no social media to publish it on.

So, this is a different type of fandom I am witnessing while keeping those Arctic winds from wafting Col’s curls or JNT’s out of season Hawaiian shirt. By this point, the DWAS had been going for nearly ten years and this is the story of the four subsequent years I was part of the society’s committee, somewhat pretentiously known as the DWAS Executive. It’s a tale of coloured paper, long meetings, VAT, friends, enemies, politics and more. I am sure Steven Knight could write a banger tv series about it. Nobody was actually killed while serving the DWAS but there is the inescapable feeling that had access to guns been easier perhaps someone would have been!

Season 21- The Caves of Androzani

Is `The Caves of Androzani` the best Doctor Who story ever? It’s a bold claim that’s not quite as unanimously supported as people imagine. Looking at old zines recently I found a letter from someone who preferred `The Twin Dilemma`! What we can say is that it is the best of this season by a significant distance and probably the best story for eight years at least. Had Robert Holmes not been contracted (producer John Nathan Turner was initially opposed to any old writers returning) or had Graeme Harper not been given a chance despite relatively little overall directorial experience, then the fifth Doctor’s finale might have turned out rather differently. The old hand and the new recruit combined to create something that still seems fresh and which, unlike most old Doctor Who, could still be shown to modern audiences and appeal to their sensibility.

The Dalek Masterplan

 

With two further episodes of this story having been recently found and now available to watch on BBC iPlayer, we can get a broader impression of `The Dalek Masterplan` though there is still more than half of it missing. The lengthy gap since any other missing episodes were found raises hopes that it may still not be too late for more from this story to be found. Given the speed with which characters and locales change there’s still a fair amount of significant material we’ve not seem. Nevertheless we now have the first three episode plus part five giving us a large portion of the first half. Let’s be optimistic that some more of the second half might be found to join the only later episode available. Anyway, this does seem an opportune moment to review the episodes we do have, in sequence.

Season 21 - Planet of Fire / The Twin Dilemma

 Planet of Fire

`Planet of Fire` seems to have been somewhat forgotten over the years despite being only the second time the show filmed overseas as well as Turlough’s farewell and Peri’s debut. Yet amidst gemstones like `Revelation, `Frontios` and `Caves` its volcanic landscape cannot really compete when the drama happening within it is comparatively tepid. Its just one of those Doctor Who stories about which few fans have strong feelings about either way. So is that reputation justified?

Season 21- Resurrection of the Daleks

One of the aspects that distinguished the Hinchliffe/ Holmes era was that, however bleak the scenario, lively dialogue, character interaction and some dark humour gave it more depth. Eric Saward seems to have watched that era but perhaps not as closely as a script editor should because while he brings the nihilistic grit, he omits the nuances that made it more palatable. Sometimes this works giving the show an unexpectedly dark thematic palette. Sometimes however it can be too unrelenting. The Daleks were never a barrel of laughs so one expects their stories to skew grimmer than others and `Resurrection of the Daleks` definitely does that.  

 

Season 21- Frontios

 Studio bound, dialogue heavy with a bold concept and lashings of incidental music `Frontios` is very much like season eighteen in style, not surprising since it’s penned by that season’s script editor Christopher H Bidmead. It does make you wish he’d done a second season as whatever shortcomings the production has, its intent is steelier, more sci-fi and definitely serious. He writes the main trio so well and the actors each rise to the occasion while the story incorporates some interesting ideas. He did later admit some of these were poached from Nigel Kneale but that you should “steal from the best”. If the results are like this, then why not? Doctor Who had some of its greatest successes with stories filched from outside sources and remade in the series’ style.

Season 21- Warriors of the Deep

 

I once found myself chatting with Pennant Roberts back stage at an event and when the conversation switched to `Warriors of the Deep` I pondered why he’d not decided to spruce up the atmosphere by having everything doused in emergency red lighting, like that on a submarine. Was it, perhaps, something technicians would not agree with, was it too expensive or was it because it was felt viewers would find the results too murky? As it turned out, it was none of these things. He agreed it would have definitely added something to what is a somewhat over lit production but admitted that, simply, nobody had time to think about it. This was a hint of what we now know was a troubled production that had two weeks’ time taken from its schedule. By those criteria it’s a miracle anything much turned up on screen. Even when things were proceeding as normal there were crazy deadlines and limited scope which was Doctor Who’s biggest enemy whatever the era.