'TARDIS' Volume 9 Number 1

'TARDIS' Volume 9 Number 1

It's mid 1984. Season 21 is all done and dusted, I've been brave enough to join the DWAS and the postman has just popped a copy of 'TARDIS' through our letter-box. Significantly, this is the first A5 'Doctor Who' fanzine I've ever encountered.

OK, so I've already received a few issues of the newsletter 'Celestial Toyroom' which contains the odd merchandise review and details the odd goings-on at various Local Groups, but this is the real stuff. Concentrated fan writing in its purest form and, as such, a bit of an eye-opener.

It all looks rather professional, with a nice colour picture of Peter Davison on the front. Editor Richard Walter has assembled together contributions from a long list of names (some of whom would become very familiar over my next ten years or so as a DWAS member) but it would be some time before I would pluck up the courage to think that anyone would be interested on what I had to say about the worlds of 'Doctor Who'.

Opposite a shot of Anthony Ainley (wasn't this just before all that hoo-hah about actors' fees for photos?) there's an upbeat editorial, looking forward to the adventures to come in 1985, then we get a feature on forgotten Doctor Trevor Martin, who is apparently known to millions of viewers as Arthur Whittaker in 'Coronation Street', although the character doesn't ring any bells with me and I've just had to look him up. Although I note that Matthew Robinson is directing some episodes at this point.

Answering questions on 'Doctor Who And The Daleks And The Seven Keys To Doomsday' (phew, that was tiring just typing that!), Trevor is represented by a couple of publicity stills from the production, along with a photo of the Daleks in their control room from the second Peter Cushing film.

There's a brief piece by Dale Kilgare on heroes and their transport, which starts with the Doctor and the TARDIS, but also includes Noah and the Ark (Gilgamesh gets a mention here, several years before the 'New Adventures' series), Jason's ship 'Argos' (other catalogue-based shops were available at the time) and Roy Rogers & Trigger. Alright, Dale?

Tony Whitehead attempts to make some sense of the continuity problems around the Second and Third Doctors in 'The Five Doctors', and this sort of thing will lead to the 'Season 6B' theory that will occupy some corners of fandom in the future.

The 'TARDIS' Visdata section gives us four pages of photos themed around the Troughton era, including that gloriously daft picture of the Cyberman doing a V-sign at 'Michael Jackson' and Anneke Wills. Yes, Michael Jackson. That's what the caption says...

The bulk of this issue is devoted to everyone's thoughts on Season 21, which seems to have gone down pretty well all round. Ian McLachlan is prepared to declare it 'infinitely superior to its predecessor', which is generous if mathematically imprecise, but there's a feeling of optimism and modern readers might be surprised at some of the kind words offered in the direction of 'Warriors Of The Deep' ('an example of just how good a Davison story can be') and 'The Twin Dilemma' ('I hope we'll have more of Anthony Steven's work in the future').

'Primevil Legacy' is a short comic strip that manages to cram Troughton, Jamie, Zoe, Colin Baker, Peri, the Terileptils (plus robot) and a Kroton into five pages and still end on a cliffhanger with two completely black frames, which is going some by anybody's standards.

And then it's time for the letters page, which is a lively place, although a bit bewildering for a new reader as the writers refer to arguments that are on-going, but unlike Twitter you can't look up what was said previously.

We appear to be in the middle of a debate over the Graham WIlliams era and whether JN-T should go now. That phrase won't go away in a hurry... There's discussion about American fandom, with some annoyance that 'The Five Doctors' was shown in the US two days before airing in the UK.

Nicholas Pegg hasn't got a video and would jump at the chance to see 'The Claws Of Axos' or 'Pyramids Of Mars', while Saul Nasse is ruminating on whether the colour for monsters should be green or not, before we round off with photos of Roger Delgado and the Second Doctor & Jamie.

Some 34 years after it was published (ouch!) this edition of 'TARDIS' is still an entertaining read, with its high production values matched by the high standard of writing. And with hindsight, it's a fascinating time capsule of the 'Doctor Who' fandom of 1984.

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)