Fan Scene CT82 #4

With a different photo cover based on the Radio Times cover that promoted `The Three Doctors` the September issue reveals plans for an anniversary story next year. Jon Pertwee will definitely be in it and Gary hopes Pat and Tom will be too. He does suggest an anniversary special publication is unlikely though. The issue also has the first mention for a planned BBC anniversary event next year. Other news includes the return to the series of the Brigadier as well as actor David Collings. Rumours of the Daleks returning as well though appear to be false. Nyssa is departing and her last story will appropriately be called `Terminus`. 

There have been more thefts reported, this time from the Central Westminster Reference Library with Radio Times cuttings from `The Time Warrior` to `Brain of Morbius` swiped. There’s a clipping of a local newspaper report about Panopticon though it’s been written by a DWAS member David Guest (no, not that one) who turns in an intelligently penned and sometimes amusing account. If only all professional press about fandom were like this. “It never was ascertained how members got home but the sound of unnatural mechanical grindings and the disappearance of all the police boxes in Birmingham give a clue,” he concludes.

 

There are a lot of fanzines advertised this issue including `Cloister Bell` no 3 including a Q&A with Peter Davison, issue 11 of `Shada` which focuses on Peladon, issue 2 of `Flight Through Eternity` explaining why Graham Williams was a better producer than JNT and a rather vague ad for a zine called `Sontar` which has monster photos, puzzles, reviews, comic strips and “much more!” However it only has 12 pages so perhaps the print is super tiny?

 

The October issue declares Troughton Is Back, confirming his participation in the anniversary special as well as providing more information on `Mawdryn Undead`. In his editorial Gary R also announces he is leaving CT at the end of the year which I recall many people thought was a shame at the time as he brought a personality to the publication which it had not really had before. Other news includes ratings for the Meets the Monsters repeats averaging at about 5 million. You can also buy a Tardis pencil case and tea caddy which “becomes a money box when empty”. Why not just put more tea bags in it?

Fanzine ads take over this issue demonstrating just how lively a scene it was at this time. `Cygnus Alpha` are producing posters, one of which is by professional artist Ron Tiner. You can buy The Data File Project from CMS covering the first three stories. `Chronotis ` is going behind the scenes with newly discovered phots from various Seventies stories while that prospective zine advertised a few months back has now materialised as `Aggedor` issue 1 edited by Alec Charles. The Art department have cassette covers, bless ‘em (what year is this?) while `Morestra` is talking to JNT and ambitiously claiming to have the complete index of the aliens and planets of Doctor Who. `Web Planet` talks to costume designer June Hudson, `Cosmic Masque`, the fiction zine offers 13 new adventures plus Robert Holmes’ original storyline for `The Time Warrior`. And with a page sized advert `Skaro` announces its latest issue which includes an interview with Michael Wisher.

 

A pale blue cover fronts the November issue which leads with details of new companion Turlough (incidentally it was years before I realised Turlough was his surname) played by Mark Strickson. The son of a musician, he trained at RADA and has done a lot of fringe theatre. The White Guardian will be back and we learn of a 2 part story called `The Kings Demons`. One news item claiming the Blackpool exhibition moving further up the Golden Mile would turn out not to be true.

The DWAS it seems has decided not to hold a convention in 1983 and here we have the first mention of the elusive Tace- Con (Pronounced Tachyon except it’s not but never mind!). If you read the Fan Scene CT83 you’ll know this event never happened in the end.

This is a four page CT- apparently twice a year they have them to keep costs down - so the rest of the issue is mostly ads for zines such as `Definitive Gaze`, `Axos` issue 4 (Pennant Roberts interview), `Space Rat` issue 1 and the latest issue of DWAS zine `Tardis` which interviews Janet Fielding and Michael Craze and has lots of convention photos. After all these years it is somewhat reassuring to note that David Saunders’ Co-ordinator’s corner column is still pleading with members to include an SAE if they want a reply.

 

We reach December and a lush yellowy/ pale orange coloured cover announcing the return of Susan, the dates for the BBC’s anniversary convention and news of industrial action threatening production of next season. Beginning in late October, `Terminus` came to a standstill for a while and the first studio session for `Enlightenment` was postponed but we’re assured that unlike `Shada` both will be completed. There is little information about the seventh story and as we all know there never was a seventh story in the end as the industrial action meant it could not be made. Thus the season would end with `The King’s Demons`. Everyone join in now- “We sing in praise of total war…..”

This is Gary Russell’s final issue so in an editorial heralded by his trademark “Well, well, well…” he thanks people for their help during his nineteen month editorship. His successor is not known at the time of publication. Gaz ends with a page long Swap Shop though the issue is dominated by fanzine ads once again including his own `Shada`, an arty `Frontier Worlds` ad which just repeats the name again and again under the caption `Subtlety is everything`, `Skaro`, `Cloister Bell`, `Aggedor` and `Dynatrope` all of which will be adding to the Xmas mail that year! And that was the Doctor Who year of 1982! (With apologies for the terrible scans- old paper and an old scanner do not like each other!)