In
part 2 of our look at the early days of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society we
find that success brings both triumphs and problems. Also see the DWAS@40 Early Years Gallery page above.
After
the success of their first convention and with membership rising, the exec
decided to effectively relaunch the DWAS for 1978. In October 1977 members were
invited to re-join. From the start of 1978 `Celestial Toyroom` split from
`Tardis` to become a monthly newsletter with the latter focussing on features,
articles and interviews.
`Tardis`
really flew in 1978 and included two important articles. One by Jan Vincent
Rudzki asked what had happened to the magic of Doctor Who. It may seem incredulous in the light of the creative
mess the show would later stray into that such things were being stated but
they were. The article cited that the `magic` started to fade during Jon
Pertwee’s tenure and accelerated once Tom Baker’s “less compassionate” Doctor
arrived. “Perhaps what is missing most of all is any warmth in the stories,” Rudzki
wrote. In some ways he might have seemed out of step with the members as he singled
out `Invasion of Time and its depiction of the TARDIS for particular criticism
in the same issue the story was revealed as being the winner of that season’s
members poll!
