Me in September 2002. By now there was a new fanzine This
way up launched at the start of that year and this was definitely the image I
wanted to convey. Again done in a photo booth as smartphones and selfies still
hadn’t been invented and neither had time travel!
A blog about selected culture, media and other stuff. Includes all eras of Doctor Who and vintage Top of the Pops. Est. 2011.
30/11/2013
29/11/2013
John's Doctor Who Fanbook #7
27/11/2013
John's Doctor Who Fanbook #6
Sontar Ha! During 1989 /1990 some of us had a plan which for a long time was called simply Project X. We were disaffected former DWAS people who wanted to set up a rival and though we tried to explain it in reasonable terms that’s probably what it was. And doing things better than the DWAS who were badly floundering by now. Various persons were involved but there were two fundamental problems with it. One was that there was never a time when everyone was equally 100% enthusiastic. Two, look at the year. Doctor Who was finished, public interest was minimal, the DWAS’s own poor performance had put people off joining a society. If ever there was a time not to form a new Doctor Who club this was that time. So Network Who never got off the ground.
24/11/2013
Doctor Who The Day of the Doctor
So, after
all the build-up, anniversary hoopla and general Doctor Who-ness of this month, `The Day of the Doctor` arrives. It
has been the subject of endless speculation as to its contents- some turned out
to be true, some delightfully wide of the mark. For Steven Moffatt it must have
been a daunting task to construct a tale that would pay satisfying homage to
the past and also lay out something of a path for the future. The good news is
that he’s done it with some aplomb in a production that takes some risks; both
visually and conceptually, but emerges as one of those unique stories that will
always stand out from its surroundings. It is the best thing he’s done since he
took over the series.
Warning- Spoilers lie ahead.
22/11/2013
An Adventure in Space and Time
Wow,
there’s enough material here for a series! Mark Gatiss’ lovingly nourished
rendering of the origins of DW presents several characters whom we would
willingly spend weeks with. The only down side of An adventure in space and
time is that it is 85 minutes long so there are shortcuts galore however Gatiss
has honed the dialogue to give every line import. By focussing on four
personalities who you would never expect could collaborate especially in the
1960s he gives the whole thing a sharp focus. The result is something very special.
20/11/2013
Doctor Who The Web of Fear
Though Doctor Who had started to modernise as
early as `The War Machines`, the series often struggled to match contemporary
1960s style with the thrills and scares that had by now defined its best
moments. `The Web of Fear` manages to line up these aspects in equal measure
with a `real` setting in the form of the London Underground, some great
monsters and enough excitement to sustain its six episodes. It is
something of a mood piece building claustrophobic suspense around a minimal
plot that in lesser hands would be little more than a run-around. Under the
guidance of director Douglas Camfield however it becomes something much more
thrilling.
18/11/2013
Daleks - Invasion Radio: 1966 A.D.
by Tim Worthington
With all of the excitement about the recent recovery of `The Enemy Of The
World` and `The Web Of Fear`, and the subsequent deserved focusing of attention
on those intrepid individuals who actually hunt down long-forgotten film cans
(and not just Doctor Who ones either
- there are lots of people out there trying to find other equally deserving
lost programmes, who never seem to get the credit, publicity or assistance they
really should), it's worth indulging in a spot of cheerleading for the much
smaller band of enthusiasts who devote their time to hunting down stray
recordings of lost radio shows.
17/11/2013
John's Doctor Who Fanbook #5 Being on the DWAS Executive Part 2
We continue on this journey that is so big it wouldn't fit on one post!!
As 1986 drew to a close, things were changing. Tony was leaving partly because he was applying for a job abroad but also due to an incident at an earlier Exec meeting. He’d been on holiday and there had been a discussion on his progress as co-ordinator raising a few criticisms which seemed pointless. The same thing had happened to me the previous meeting; it is annoying to read these things in minutes later possibly out of context of the breadth of the discussion. Tony was in- censed and decided to leave at the end of the year. He had originally planned to stay till the following September. Incidentally, it was from this incident that Dominic acquired the nickname Slimy. Having actually started the discussion, Dominic then wrote a letter in the Exec circular withdrawing his comments.
As 1986 drew to a close, things were changing. Tony was leaving partly because he was applying for a job abroad but also due to an incident at an earlier Exec meeting. He’d been on holiday and there had been a discussion on his progress as co-ordinator raising a few criticisms which seemed pointless. The same thing had happened to me the previous meeting; it is annoying to read these things in minutes later possibly out of context of the breadth of the discussion. Tony was in- censed and decided to leave at the end of the year. He had originally planned to stay till the following September. Incidentally, it was from this incident that Dominic acquired the nickname Slimy. Having actually started the discussion, Dominic then wrote a letter in the Exec circular withdrawing his comments.
John's Doctor Who Fanbook #5: Being on the DWAS Executive Part 1
So, there
isn’t a lot of photographic evidence from my DWAS Exec time just lots of words
and documents and columns and circulars. Plus all the old Exec minutes are too ropily printed to reproduce in a readable form here. Instead this is an updated account of
my tenure, originally published in 1990 but with some bits re-written recently.
How I ended up on the Exec was more by
accident than design. There had been trouble in our Merseyside Local Group (MLG)
and I called in Robert Moubert, then Local Group supervisor to assist. As it
turned out, he didn't really have any inclination to get involved which led me
to believe that perhaps I could have done a better job. Perhaps this was my
first mistake! When I heard that the post was about to become vacant I wrote to
the Society Co-ordinator David Saunders offering to take over. I received a
reply to say that the post would have to be advertised but in the meantime
would I be interested in becoming an admin assistant. So I did. I was seconded
to the Co-ordinator’s department even though he already had four assistants. I
can’t even remember what we all did except sit around in David’s ramshackle
house, laughing a lot and drinking tea. The highlight would be David standing
in his kitchen door shouting into the garden “Queenie!” I should explain
that was the name of his cat. Anyway when we did do some work for me it mainly involved
putting things into envelopes, sorting out labels and membership cards, that
kind of thing with fellow assistants like Alec Charles and Bill Baggs. We had a
laugh; Alec wound David up just to annoy him with petty criticisms and poor
Bill once got a right telling off for missing a departmental meeting. Just like
school!
16/11/2013
John's Doctor Who Fanbook #4
I once tried to work out how many conventions I’d been to and never managed to do so but it was a lot. These are some convention badges from various events. My favourite ones are probably that first Panopticon in 1981, the 1985 Brighton one where I saw Patrick Troughton, lifted lots of tables up a flight of steps and had to go to an exec meeting at mid night. Of the non DWAS ones the Exo Space events were good and we also had some cracking conventions in our area in both Liverpool (Monstercon) and Manchester (Manopticon). Perhaps the moment I recall best though was the 60 seconds of hope in 1986 when hundreds of us watched episode 1 of `Trial of a Time Lord` live at that year’s Panopticon. Just before the episode there was a countdown, party poppers and cheering and the stunning spaceship sequence followed. For about a minute it looked like Doctor Who was about to make the most astonishing comeback from the brink. Then the episode started. Little did we realise we’d have to wait another 19 years for the real comeback in 2005.
15/11/2013
Doctor Who The Night of the Doctor
A big online surprise prequel to the Anniversary Special
Without warning- though there had been rumours- a 7 minute prequel called `The Night of the Doctor` appeared on 14 November. It’s a double surprise because not only was it unexpected but it also seems to give away one of the major puzzles surrounding the anniversary special, now just a week away. You might not have seen it or want to see it yet so be aware the review that follows is totally spoilerific!
Warning- Spoilers after the breakWithout warning- though there had been rumours- a 7 minute prequel called `The Night of the Doctor` appeared on 14 November. It’s a double surprise because not only was it unexpected but it also seems to give away one of the major puzzles surrounding the anniversary special, now just a week away. You might not have seen it or want to see it yet so be aware the review that follows is totally spoilerific!
13/11/2013
Doctor Who - Enemy of the World
Back after being missing for
decades, can `Enemy of the World` live up to the hype surrounding it’s return?
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"Give-a me ze missing episodes or I will-a turn you into pasta." |
11/11/2013
John's Doctor Who Fanbook #3
The more events I went to, the more people I met and in
those days everyone seemed to be a fanzine editor so I started writing reviews
for them. My writing `style` if I can call it that was based on music paper
journalism which I loved because it seemed to bring things to life. In my own
way I tried to copy that particularly if reviewing events. This didn’t go down
well with some fans who would rather read every nuance of how the Axons were
made than the fun we were having in the bar but surely both these things- and
much more- make a great convention? Sometimes the events that went on were
beyond reportage being hugely embarrassing for some so not everything is in
there. These were my two favourite zines of the early 1980s and I wrote stuff for
both. `Shada` was edited by Gary Russell who went on to various roles
associated with Doctor Who eventually
ending up script editing some actual episodes of the show a few years back.
`Aggedor` was edited by Alec Charles who was one of those characters people
either loved or hated! I heard years later he was a well respected academic who
lectured in Europe.
09/11/2013
50 Doctor Who Things!
John Woodnutt used to describe his Zygon costume as being like “a suit of fairy lights”. Quite apart from the fact that this does not really describe it at all, nobody in the world has ever seen a suit made of fairy lights.
Oh by the way Woody (as nobody ever called him) used to tap dance while wearing this costume.
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"Well I'm not going to sing so you can take this microphone right out." |
06/11/2013
John's Doctor Who Fanbook #2
You know how you like Doctor
Who? And you know how mint flavoured ice cream is terrific? Put them
together and you have the 70s best ever piece of merchandise.
Ok so we didn’t have dvds or videos or anything actually
but we knew how to out on a Doctor Who
adventure. Just eat tons of Weetabix and you too could re-create the Sea Devils
and other stories or just make up your own courtesy of six different planetary
backgrounds. Thank goodness they weren’t given away with Shredded Wheat or we’d
still be working our way through them!
And below is the third staple of the 70s Doctor Who fan’s unhealthy diet;
chocolate. Of course they didn’t really have to entice us with anything other
than chocolate but an added bonus was an ongoing story involving the Doctor
fighting Masterplan Q. I can’t really recall the minutiae of this but it
involved The Master (of course) and some dinosaurs and do you know what? I
never found out what happened at the end. Before I could eat enough chocolate
the thing finished leaving me ignorant of whether Masterplan Q worked or not.
04/11/2013
Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet
Recently released on DVD, William Hartnell’s final story
is also the debut of a striking new enemy. Both have rarely been better.
03/11/2013
John's Doctor Who Fanbook #1
What a flapdoodle! Its Doctor Who’s 50th birthday this month and everyone’s doing
something to celebrate the fact but what is there really left to do? Every
story, episode, scene, line has been analysed well beyond the nth degree and my
keyboard refuses to type words like “classic”, “gritty” and “era” any longer.
Besides everyone else will be doing that anyway. Instead I thought I’d take a
personal look at stuff I’ve done relating to being a fan of Doctor Who. Well stuff that can be
reproduced without maximum embarrassment and shame at least. I’ve called it
John’s Doctor Who Fanbook.
I present this series with unashamed joy that whatever I was doing I had a good time doing it even if now I can’t begin to understand what the attraction was. It’s like how people think of someone they used to go out with and go “How did I ever fancy them?” It must have meant something at the time - and that’s what celebrations are all about!
01/11/2013
Doctor Who An Unearthly Child
How it all began (sort of)….
It is a foggy haunting night- an owl is hooting in the
distance as a small dog collides with the camera. Slowly, a car draws up extraordinarily
slowly as if it’s indoors and it cannot be driven properly. Ian Chesterton is looking very bored because
instead of inviting him round for sex and a coffee, fellow teacher Barbara
Wright has insisted they follow spooky Susan Foreman, their weird pupil with
the trainers, high IQ and an iPad. Whatever that is.
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The Doctor cannot remember what he did with that chocolate cake but luckly Susan has spotted it. |
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