Note:`Tardis` started out as an
independent Doctor Who fanzine but in 1976 was absorbed into the fledgling
Doctor Who Appreciation Society (aka DWAS). This series of posts looks at the
zine’s 1977 issues which went out under the appropriately correct title `Tardis
‘77`.
If you saw the
posts last year about the first volume of Tardis you’ll recall the rather tatty
covers but 1977 gets under way with a much improved front design featuring the
second Doctor and a Kroton. The latter are one of those monsters which always
look better as artwork than if you see the real thing. Its there to illustrate a
series called The Doctor Who Compendium written by Richard Landen which
summarises the Krotons, Gonds and HADS. It worth remembering that back in the
day such information was not as widely known and there would be many readers
who were too young to have seen the story.
Gordon Blows
was well known for expressing strong views and in his editorial he addresses
`The Deadly Assassin` which was the most recent story broadcast while the issue
was being prepared. Younger people may be aghast at what seems to be about a
three month lag between the story going out and fan’s reactions being recorded
as this issue is labelled Jan / Feb 1977 but the world was a different place
pre-Internet.
Anyway Gordon’s
had a while to simmer about the iconoclastic story. “I feel now this is a story
the majority of us would wish to forget” he declares summarising responses to
Robert Holmes’ re-imagining of the Time Lords. He also expresses a dislike of
what he sees as the show “getting more and more concerned with itself instead
of other lifeforms and adventures. Hardly an episode goes by without the Doctor
confessing he is a Time Lord.”
DWAS President
Jan Vincent –Rudzki continues the grouchy tone with a column talking about the
show being stuck by “two terrible afflictions”. One he says is the use of
superlatives for example someone described as “the most evil”. Also he says its boring for the Doctor to
save the Universe all the time instead of just, for example, a city or a
person. The third affliction (yes he said two but he lists three!) is humans in
every story. Surely he recalled `The Web Planet?!” What’s going on here- and
will re-surface in his later review - is that most of the prominent people in
the DWAS at this time were old enough to recall the Sixties stories and seemed
to prefer them.
Newswise the
big story is the upcoming departure of Philip Hinchcliffe, a new editor for the
Society’s other publication Celestial Toyroom (Richard Leaver) and early news
about the DWAS’ plans to hold a convention in August. The first DWAS Yearbook
is on sale for the princely sum of 41p. Plus there’s information about a
documentary to be produced about the programme.
An interview
billed as being with Heather Hartnell actually consists of quotes from William
Hartnell but is rather lovely anyway (see below). There is –warning- fiction
this being before it was siphoned off into its own zine. Penned by Paul Mark
Tams `The Genesis Requiem` concerns a powerful character called THE
EVOLUTIONARY (yes in capitals!) and has the Doctor arriving at Stonehenge to
receive a mission from the Time Lords. It looks vaguely promising but stops
before its got going. Part 2 next issue.
The unintended
centrepiece of this issue though is Jan Vincent- Rudzki’s review of `The Deadly
Assassin` which has been oft quoted down the years. This review started a tradition of the DWAS
being an independent minded society rather than just an obedient fan club and
because it was penned by the President seemed to suggest the entire DWAS was
behind his views. He really doesn’t like the story (see full review below). OMG
he hates it. All these years later you can feel his blood boiling – in fact
he’s so angry he doesn’t even bother to type out Time Lords; just calling them
TL for most of it. He rails about the number of floors in the citadel, the fact
that the Time Lords have guards and bad hips, about Runcible and so on. Special
disdain is reserved for episode 3 which he describes as “the biggest waste of
time ever in Doctor Who”. His conclusion- “what has happened to the magic of
Doctor Who?”
With an odd
sense of pacing editor Gordon slots a comic strip and Martin Wiggins’ latest
instalment of the History of the Time Lords in between the rant. It’s about
their hips. Ha! Just kidding, it’s about time travel. There’s also an Ian
Marter interview recorded when he was in a play called Baggage and his film screenplay co-written with Tom Baker gets a
mention.
Amusingly the
first sentence on the first letter of the Trans Dimensional Mailbag says “The
Deadly Assassin” was brilliant” and indeed of the four people who talk about
it, only one really disliked it. So perhaps JVR didn’t represent as many
members of the Society as he thought?
William Hartnell quotes -
I was the author of that laudatory review in the letters page! Gordon Blowes had earlier had to review Mandragora himself due to a lack of fan input. He could have had no such complaints for assasin so I suspect the DWAS executive wished to editoralise and impose their own views upon unsuspecting fandom.
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