DWAS@40 Growing Pains

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!

DWAS@40 Spirit of 76

Next month the Doctor Who Appreciation Society will turn 40. In the first of three posts looking at the Society's early days we discover how a college fan society went national. See also the DWAS@40 Gallery page above.

In 2016 the idea of a Doctor Who Appreciation Society sounds out of time. With social media, blogs, websites and other online resources as well as easy access to all existing old episodes there is really no need for a formal organisation to link Who fans with each other across the country. However forty years ago things were very different.  It was fanzines that were able to link people but they were published irregularly and due to the costs of production came and went. There had been Doctor Who fan clubs in the past and there was still nominally an official DWFC then but these clubs acted as providers only. They stood or fell on the enthusiasm of one or two activists. They would send newsletters and photos out but that was all. The mid Seventies was the perfect time for something like the DWAS to ferment as the show was becoming more sophisticated just as a tranche of its biggest fans grew up. Whereas they might have been expected to abandon something like Doctor Who after leaving school the quality and popularity of the 1970s series meant many did not. At University level a more active, social approach was prevalent on a number of campuses’ Doctor Who societies. This model was distinct from a fan club which was more passive and loyal.

The Making of Doctor Who 1972

A look back at one of the best ever Doctor Who non fiction books.

For the first eight years of Doctor Who there was precious little in the way of behind the scenes information beyond whatever appeared in Radio Times. Then in 1972 a book appeared that changed all that and really started the momentum of the series moving from popular to iconic. The Making of Doctor Who was published by the Piccolo range of Pan Books, penned by Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks and sold at the princely price of 25p! The cover features a rather odd photo from `The Sea Devils` of the moment where the Doctor is a prisoner of the titular creatures. Hardly the heroic posed stance you might expect it has the Doctor looking rather worried and sharing the cover with a Sea Devil rather than Jo Grant. Nonetheless the red on Jon Pertwee’s cape matches that of the series logo above it and the end result is a charismatic photo that was also rare at the time.
Considering the joint author’s pedigree on the series the text at the start of this book is somewhat less loquacious than you might imagine. Obviously written with a younger reader in mind it nonetheless sometimes resembles something translated from another language. The content may seem basic to the modern eye yet bear in mind that in 1972 nobody outside of a few primitive fanzines had undertaken any archiving of the series nor detailed the production process. In 2016 even Mrs Putey in the corner ship is aware of arc stories, CGI and the like but in the Seventies people just watched telly, enjoyed it, chatted about it and that’s all. A book which offered a window into the way the programme is made was a rare treat and a half. If the prose early on is sometimes awkward, the authors go on to achieve a nimble mixture of fact and fiction presenting some of the history of the series in the form of supposed found documents produced by the Time Lords or UNIT.

New Doctor Who Book!

Saturday Night Monsters is a compilation of fan written articles and reviews about Doctor Who originally published in the zines Faze and This Way Up. Covering the whole span of the series from the early days right up to recent episodes, this 260 page volume is packed with comment, analysis, opinion and flapdoodle about different aspects of the programme. It builds into a complete hovercraft and It is a book. You'll love it!
Features include: The triumphant 2005 Return ,The 1985-6 Cancellation Crisis,Hartnell’s Historical Stories, The Philip Hinchliffe Era,The stories of Robert Holmes & Robert Sloman, Season 21,The road from Survival to the TV Movies and more… 

Reviews include: Talons of Weng Chiang, The Dalek Masterplan, Spearhead from Space, The Macra Terror, The End of Time, The War Machines, Dalek, Remembrance of the Daleks, Blink, The Tenth Planet,  The Name of the Doctor, Logopolis, Tomb of the Cybermen, School Reunion, Pyramids of Mars, Human Nature / Family of Blood, The Dominators, Day of the Doctor, City of Death, Amy’s Choice, Earthshock, Day of the Daleks, The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon, Carnival of Monsters, Trial of a Time Lord,  The Android Invasion,  Deep Breath,  Castrovalva,  The Empty Child / The Doctor Dances, Death to the Daleks, Horror of Fang Rock,  Vengeance on Varos, Dragonfire, The Three Doctors,  The TV Movie, The Doctor’s Wife,  The Ice Warriors, Heaven Sent, Turn Left, Web of Fear, The Stolen Earth / Journey’s End and many more...
Writers: Tim Worthington  David Rolinson, Sean Alexander, Matthew Kilburn, Daniel O’Mahony, Colin Brockhurst, John Connors, Ashley Stewart, Roger Jones, Chris Orton, Adam Povey.

The book is available from Amazon in either print or electronic form. The links below should take you to the very actual place where you can buy it.

For Print Version click here!

For Kindle Ebook version click here!

For more info about the book including excerpts check out the Saturday Night Monsters Book page via the tab at the top of the blog.

Revelation of the Daleks Set Visit

Genesis of Revelation
In 1985 I was lucky enough to go on a set visit at Television Centre to see `Revelation of the Daleks` being filmed in what turned out to be the last two days of production before the infamous eighteen month hiatus. (This account was originally published in the fanzine Zygon)

It’s 1985 on a warm and windy Thursday and we are about to enter a building that is familiar yet also unknown. That is to say its exterior is something everyone in the country knows but it’s interior is altogether more shrouded in secrecy. On Blue Peter when it looks like they’re going to show you what TV Centre is like it turns out that the big studio doors open onto the outside. In fact it is even more circular than it looks from the outside to the extent that if you start off anywhere and keep walking you will eventually return to your demarcation point after passing hundreds and hundreds of rooms. There are so many rooms that you wonder whether every single employee of the BBC is entitled to one!

Robert Banks Stewart

Robert Banks Stewart, who has died aged 84, is best known for creating both Bergerac and Shoestring, a couple of inventive crime dramas but we Doctor Who fans hold him in high regard for his two classic stories `Terror of the Zygons” and `Seeds of Doom`. They also happen to two of my all time favourite stories which I recall enraptured a whole generation when first shown in the 1975 -76 season which must rank as the overall most consistently good season in the series’ history. Both manage to conjure up a slightly different take on the series than the other stories that season. Robert Banks Stewart seemed eager to push the show into a harder world with storylines that grew from everyday preoccupations of the time. He put a spin on old ideas- and sometimes the best Doctor Who does that- be they the Loch Ness Monster or plants taking over. Because they were largely made by the same team they are similar in production values and drawn together by Geoffrey Burgon’s elegant fluid scores. By way of a little tribute, here’s a piece I recently penned for an upcoming project about `Terror of the Zygons` though I should point out I love `Seeds of Doom` equally! 

The Time Tom Baker left Doctor Who

On 24 October 1980 an apparently hastily arranged news conference announced that Tom Baker was leaving Doctor Who after seven years in the role. He was, remains and in all likelihood always will be the longest running Doctor so you can imagine it was quite a big story at the time. For fans it was quite a shift as there would be some who could barely recall another Doctor. For Tom himself it was a life changing moment and his manner during the ensuing months leading to his final story would be, even for him, a little odd. 

The Face of Evil

“At last we are here. Us.”

Why did BBC4 show `Face of Evil` this week? Do people celebrate the 39^th anniversary of something? Who am I? Yes, a curious end to 2015 sees this 1977 tale being broadcast on a main(ish) BBC channel which is about as random as you get. It’s nice though that they chose this rather than the more obvious stories that surround it. In another season `Face` would be highly regarded but appearing in between `The Deadly Assassin` and `The Robots of Death` it doesn’t stand a chance really. I can’t imagine BBC4 are showing it because it has thematic links to the season we’ve just seen but you never know. It is really the precursor to the current series’ interest in the Doctor’s mistakes though there are no confessions dials or guilty admissions to be seen here, just a dogged determination to sort it out. 

The original Dalek novel

The novelizations of the series have occasionally thrown up anomalies but there is none more prominent than the very first which goes under the dramatic moniker of Dr Who in an exciting adventure with the Daleks. Beyond its historical significance David Whitaker’s 1964 novel is notable for the way it changes the story of how Ian and Barbara first encounter the Doctor. Gone is the iconic Totters Lane junkyard, in its place the foggy environs of Barnes Common. It is plausible that some Doctor Who fans grew up thinking this was what the first story was like and it a very persuasive alternative to how the episode `An Unearthly Child` did play out.The novel – originally published by Armada – is determined to set its own atmosphere. The back cover blurb reads: “The story from the beginning! Here is the exciting adventure of Dr Who, Susan, Barbara and Ian, from the moment they meet one foggy autumn night on a lonely common beside a Police Box (Ah, but what a curious Police Box!) to the time they encounter the weird Daleks”. Have we ever heard the Daleks described as `weird` before? Then it goes on to confidently say that “It is a thrilling story, and we know this book will be one of the most popular published in the Armada series. Can you wait any longer? Start reading!” 

The Underwater Menace

“Nothing in zee world can stop me now…..”

Funny how expectations change in just a couple of years. After the emergence of `Web of Fear` and `Enemy of the World` we were anticipating a huge haul of new old Doctor Who if the rumours were to be believed.  Now we’re just happy to welcome the extant `Underwater Menace`. Whereas we could be fairly sure of the calibre of 2013’s releases most of us have seen enough of this story to know it is not going to be reborn as a classic. Fans of a certain vintage will remember a particularly garish Doctor Who Magazine feature about it and we are all well acquainted with the notorious accent of Professor Zaroff and the garish appearance of the Fish People so it would be fair to say anticipation is hovering somewhat South of fever pitch.

"Ethel- stop your interpretive dance, we have guests"

 

The Tale of the Africa 90

(Or at least the Nigeria 9!)

WARNING! This post does not include any new information about the location or future release dates of any missing episodes. Just in case you got too excited.

Africa 90 sounds a bit like the name of a football tournament but is actually the unofficial name given for a supposed haul of most of the missing episodes of Doctor Who in Nigeria. It’s the most fluid Doctor Who related news story there’s been in years and by the time you read this it may well have changed again. It’s a tale of dangerous expeditions to Africa, of financial intrigue in the UK and of how key movers in the Doctor Who world can close ranks with surprising effect. It is about blatant denials from various sources. It’s a better plot than anything last season! The one immutable fact is that some of these episodes have seen the light of day. `Web of Fear` and `Enemy of the World` both containing previously missing episodes were made available in the autumn of 2013 first via iTunes and subsequently in 2014 on DVD.  The rest is less certain.

"Please! No!! I don't know where the missing episodes are!"

 

The origins of Doctor Who (possibly!)

Doctor Who’s beginnings- the `real` behind the scenes story

as researched by JJJ Pixley

The cast flee after reading the first script

Sydney Newman liked to tame lions and it was this mixture of bravery and madness that he brought to the BBC in the early 60s. Fired out of a cannon he arrived at Broadcasting House full of ideas for programmes. A new science fiction based series aimed at children had already been discussed when Newman had a glorious idea. He was walking through Hyde Park one afternoon in late 1962 when he saw a crotchety old man trying to strangle a duck. This set him thinking; what if there was a series featuring a crotchety old man. At this point that was the only idea he had; in fact the same crotchety old man was approached to star in the series but was deemed too fierce for television. 

Daleks Death Ray Ice Lolly

Kids love ice lollies so linking them to a tv series is a great idea yet this ice lolly which enjoyed popularity in 1975-76 did not feature the Doctor but instead starred his greatest enemies. Comprising a moregous combination of chocolate and mint, the Dalek Death Ray would taste amazing whatever it was called. The top half of the lolly was mint followed by a chocolate base.  Unlike some overly sweet lollies it also did the trick of really cooling people down in the days when we had normal summers.   

Produced by Walls, the product had the added attraction of the stunning Frank Bellamy artwork that adorned the wrapper meaning many fans kept them for years. The lolly also had other Bellamy drawings included which were taken from the 1976 Dalek Annual. These showed aspects of the Daleks’ world and history beyond their encounters with the Doctor. Evocative titles include `The Swamp Creatures of Terroth!, `When Daleks Flooded the World` and `How Daleks Bend Time`. 

As part of the promotion of the lolly, Walls were even reputed to have a fill sized Dalek in the reception of their main office.

 below. Yikes! it's those pesky swamp creatures from Terroth.