Fan Scene CT Oct to Dec 1984

 

OCTOBER

It seems like pastel-coloured covers and thinner paper are behind us with this issue which debuts thicker white paper though there’s still a flash of colour on the headlines which is quite effective. Mark Anthony is this month’s clever headline referring to Anthony Ainley’s return on `Mark of the Rani`; “he of the lecherous laugh and diabolical dentures”, as Dominic describes him.  There’s news too of story five, `Timelash` whose author Glen McCoy seems to have foxed the usually information heavy Dominic who can find nothing about him. Story six will be written by Eric Saward and directed by Graeme Harper, a combo who of course delivered `Earthshock`.

Fan Scene- CT Jul to Sep 1984

 JULY

From a distance of forty two years, what are we to make of the headline atop the July issue? I daren’t even reproduce it here but suffice to say it mangles racial slurs and alliteration inappropriately in a story relating to the fact that `The Two Doctors` will be filmed in Spain. Meanwhile, `Space Whale` has been beached so instead Gangsters author Phillip Martin will pen `Vengeance on Varos`. Other season 22 news announced this month includes Maurice Colbourne returning as Lytton, Graeme Harper also coming back and the filming of `Attack of the Cybermen` starting at Gerrard’s Cross and Acton.  Remember when summer repeats were a thing before you could reach for your blu rays or iPlayer? In 1984 these welcome re-showings would include `The Awakening` and `The Kings Demons`.

Fan Scene CT Apr- Jun 1984

 

APRIL

What’s this? Gordon Roxburgh has regenerated into Dominic May as the CT editorship changes hands amidst a flurry of gold light and reported on salmon coloured paper. An immediate hint of Dom’s cheeky approach to the news zine comes with the headline The End of CT.  The story is actually that the final episode of `The Celestial Toymaker` has been found in the vaults of ABC Television in Australia. This find, which takes the number of missing episodes down to 130, was announced by JNT at the Interface event in February (see the time lag again). The producer also said he will be visiting Australia to check if there are any more such treasures lurking in ABC’s store rooms. Elsewhere it is reported that Eric Saward is staying on as script editor though unlikely to be writing any stories while Season 21’s ratings have hovered around the 7.5 to 8 million mark.

Fan Scene- CT Jan- Mar 1984

 

Yes, the return of a series I ran nearly ten years ago on early issues of the DWAS fanzine Tardis and its newsletter Celestial Toyroom, this time covering the Doctor Who and fan happenings as reported during 1984. 

 JANUARY

Gordon Roxburgh is the editor as we enter 1984 which seems to have been compiled just after the broadcast of `The Five Doctors` as there was a lag of several weeks from the issues being assembled to being mailed out. So there’s some news of the twenty first season which would be starting by the time members received the issue. Amongst the snippets of news on the yellow front page are that the Society donated £100 to the recent Children In Need appeal, and the release of a Doctor Who computer game called `The First Adventure` It may boast Peter Davison’s face on the cover, but the game takes its cue from the Key To Time season. There’s a reprint of a couple of newspaper previews of `The Five Doctors` and some comment on the decision to screen it in the US before the UK.

Twenty one years later...

 

Whatever your view of the recently curtailed RTD2, there’s no doubt that the showrunner’s first era was peak Doctor Who. This is an (occasionally re-edited) overview of that period in the show’s history, originally penned in 2010 for the zine Plaything of Sutekh. You can see my enthusiasm and if I’m honest, looking back at this period now, my zeal remains undiminished. As well as being a fan of the classic series, I feel that the 2005-10 period contains some of the best Doctor Who ever!

Once upon a time people used to define eras of Doctor Who by the incumbent Doctor so they would refer to the `Troughton Era` for example. A bit later, it was the producer who would be given all the credit, hence the `Hinchliffe Era`. Later still when we knew more about the way the programme was made; we’d refer perhaps to the Barry Letts / Terrance Dicks Era, recognising the invaluable creative input of the script editor. Latterly it reached a point where it seemed you could actually define three distinct Eras under the aegis of the show’s longest running producer John Nathan Turner. In fact, it was never even as simple as all of that but one thing we can never be in doubt about regarding the 2005-10 period of broadcast Doctor Who is that to call it the Russell T Davies Era is totally- factually- correct.