To mark the 50th 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!
