'Requiem For A Street'

'Requiem For A Street'

Nothing is ever forgotten, so they say. But here at RTA Towers, it would be more accurate to say that nothing is ever forgotten, it just gets shoved into our cupboard under the stairs...

Recently emerging into the gloom, has been Issues Two and Three of 'The SFOW Express' - a tapezine from the early days of the Salisbury Local Group of The Doctor Who Appreciation Society. Or if you prefer, the (cough) 'Salisbury Federation Of Whovians'... Don't blame me for that title, I can't say I was that keen on it even in 1986.

With little in the way of equipment to play these tapes on, I can't tell you more than the fact that they definitely contain some episodes of 'Genesis Of The Wogans', the infamous audio play that Warren & I worked on all those years ago.

The cover illustration for Issue Three is, of course, a depiction of The Brig, but Issue Two has a graphic of a Dalek done using various typewriter symbols, which made our talented Art Department (in the form of Martin) grin fondly about this long-forgotten style. Martin's been unearthing his own scrapbooks recently, and used a similar method to label things on some of the pages when he were a lad, relatively speaking.

But thus jogged my memory about the early issues of 'Spectrum', which were all knocked up on a posh electric typewriter than even boasted a floppy disc drive.

'Spectrum - A Story Of Unhappy Families', to give it its full title, was a sort of soap opera created by Paul Chandler (also known as Shy Yeti). Paul wrote a fair number of scripts and we even performed a few of them on tape - I vaguely remember playing Fatima The Fantabulous, who was skilled in the art of reading crystal balls.

This was the early 90s and everyone in 'Doctor Who' fandom seemed to be starting their own fanzine. I'd had a few things published here and there, and althoigh I was interested in writing, I was looking further afield than 'Who'.

So, with Paul's permission, I drew Season One of 'Spectrum' to a close with 'A Fishy Tale'. a story involving jetskis in Poole Harbour and put characters Reg and Stella back on the coach for their homes in Spectrum Street.

I'd got the idea in my head that Spectrum Street was theoretically infinitely long, so any style of story was allowable and if we nicked characters from other populars series, we might pick up a few readers beyond our own Salisbury circle.

Returning home, Reg and Stella find that although they left Dorset in mid-summer, Spectrum Street is in the grip of a harsh winter and there seems to be no-one left alive...

Apart from a mysterious pair who call themselves Radium and Gold...

You can probably guess where this is going now, can't you?

'Sapphire & Steel' was enjoying a bit of a revival of interest with the video releases and a reprinting of the book and it was a show I totally fell in love with, having little memory of it the first time around.

But you know what my sense of humour is like. The more I love something, the more I want to have a laugh with it, so Radium and Gold were...

Well, I think I can quote a bit of my own scribbling here...

GOLD: It's all a bit weird really...

NARRATOR*: See? I told you so!

REG: I'll say - the street deserted and adrift in time with respect to the rest of the world.

RADIUM: Oh no, THAT'S not weird. Pretty routine stuff for us lot, really. What Gold meant was that it's a Thursday.

STELLA: So, what has the day of the week got to do with anything?

GOLD: Well, Sapphire & Steel do Tuesdays and Thursdays.

REG: Oh... What days do you do, then?

GOLD: At the moment, Bank Holidays and alternate Sundays... We're still on the training scheme, you see.

REG: Training scheme?

GOLD: Yes, we're not fully qualified Time Elementals, yet.

STELLA: Oh, I get the picture. We've been sent a couple of YTS** trainees, have we?

GOLD: Pretty much so, yes. Fun, isn't it?

STELLA: I'm not so sure about that... So, what are you going to do? A detailed analysis of the structure of Time within the affected area?

RADIUM: No, I don't think there's any need to go to all that trouble. We'll just mooch about in a generally mysterious and enigmatic manner until something weird happens.

REG: Something weird has already happened.

GOLD: You ain't seen nothing yet, mate.

'Spectrum : Requiem For A Street' was to the grand total of 24 A5-pages and even got a decent review in 'DWB's Fanzine Review column. I was even more surprised and delighted to receive a lovely letter from PJ Hammond saying that he'd enjoyed it after I took my courage in my hands and sent him a copy, being careful to point out that Imitation was the sincerest form of Flattery. And also that the phrases 'Spectrum' and 'Profit-Making' were mutually exclusive.

As with 'Round The Archives' I was lucky enough to have a number of willing writers, happy to provide a script or two. I remember sitting in the Waiting Room at the dentist in Wimborne, jotting down some notes for who was writing what in a notebook, mainly to take my mind off what might be in store for me in the dental saloon.

'DWB' awarded it a cheery 7/10 and looking at it again, that's pretty much what I'd give it, too. Some of the jokes even made me grin again after all this time and it's reminded me that it's about time we covered 'Sapphire & Steel' on 'Round The Archives'...

NARRATOR: It's no good doing a cliffhanger on this piece, you idiot! And that's two-and-six you owe me in royalties!

* Paul's original version of the show had a Narrator who was an integral part of the series, so I was more than happy to renew his contract, despite his tendency to big himself up...

** YTS = Youth Training Scheme. On-the-job )ob (ooer!) training for school-leavers in the 1980s. Radium was in green in contrast to the blue of Sapphire, with Gold wearing a leather jacket with yellow metallic studs, by the way.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)