(first published in Faze
1998)
Have you noticed how Doctor Who gives great clips? More and
more, the only really new things we can see are artfully collated sequences
with suitably powerful music that give the impression of wonder. Conventions
too are increasingly about celebrating 'bits' of the show. Close on a decade
after the last regular story, time inevitably moves on and while hard core fans
and, increasingly, professional writers delve into ever more trivial and
miniscule territory the people who made and appeared in the show recall less
and less detail and much of what they do remember is anecdotal and samey. Thus
the success or otherwise of guests depends increasingly on their strength of
personality. Some things don't change though; if it's PanoptiCon, it must be
the Leofric Hotel in Coventry, a city that this very weekend celebrated the
arrival of Sunday shopping with Morris dancing and clangey rock groups. Yes,
that's the Sunday shopping everywhere else started two years or more ago but at
least we can look forward to a right knees up, in honour of Labour's election win,
next year!
