Terror of the Autons

 

“I am usually referred to as The Master”. With just eight words a new classic tv villain made his debut appearance fifty years ago yet nobody could know just how defining a performance Roger Delgado would give and how enduring the character would become. The Master has re-appeared in many guises over the subsequent half century yet the benchmarks are all laid out from the start. Generously afforded the role of (increasingly un-surprising) enemy in each of 1971’s stories enabled both character and actor to develop a popularity to rival that of the Doctor. Yet there was nothing complicated about The Master really. Clad in black and sporting a Mephistophelian trimmed beard the only way he could look more evil would be to sprout a couple of horns. In another actor’s hands it could have been unimpressive but gifted a role he was totally suited to Roger Delgado makes it his own, so much so that every Master since has used it as a template either to copy or develop. As an example of how in thrall the Eighties version of Doctor Who was to its past when they recast the part they made the actor look as similar as possible to Delgado. Nowadays writers like to pry into the psyche of the main characters but this version of the series never went too deep. They didn’t need to. The Doctor versus The Master is clear good versus evil and kids at that time were happy with such escapist adventure.

 

Chris Achilleos

 

Growing up in the Seventies we only got to see each episode of Doctor Who once (or maybe twice if it was repeated) so the Target novelisations were our equivalent of how you can now watch any existing episode whenever you want. Crucial to those books were the covers especially the earlier ones which were the work of Chris Achilleos who sadly died this week. His artwork created a heightened, stylised version of Doctor Who with a grander and more exciting visual aesthetic than the reality of the series. Yet he was also able to home in on the elements that made each story tick. Finding a new book and a new cover was like discovering new treasure and those covers somehow became synonymous with the stories they depicted.

 

Fan Scene CT 1980 Oct- Dec

 

October

“The latest Doctor Who news supplied by the production office and society members” it says under an Update headline. I wonder if there was some issue with news in CT or perhaps the notoriously finnicky JNT just wanted credit. Anyway, the subsequent story does have a whiff of press release about it with the plucked from thin air suggestion that the new season “looks like being the biggest success for some time”. “The brilliant, imaginative Leisure Hive,” it continues and later on we’re told “we are being treated to one of Emrys James’ performances.” Why you can almost hear John Nathan Turner’s voice! Romana is going – “but K9 will go on.”  You can buy the theme music too with a b side called `Astronauts` though it’ll never match the legendary b side `Reg`.  Chris Dunk rather cheekily prints a picture of a press review of `Leisure Hive` underneath all this sunny promotional banter and its not a favourable one referring to “very cheap camera effects” and concluding “no-one seems to have any faith in this geriatric juvenilia”. Hardly “brilliant, imaginative.” Other news includes a Madame Tussaud’s display and a Doctor Who war game called `The Key of Kronos` in which players take on the character of one of the Doctors to search for a key that is in six segments. Sounds familiar. It doesn’t say if they have to dangle from the ceiling dressed as Kronos though.

Fan Scene- CT 1980 Jul - Sep

 July

`Decay in Studio` is the headline this month though rather than a story of dry rot it’s actually referring to the news that the unmade story formerly known as `The Vampire Mutations` or `The Witch Lords` and more recently dubbed `The Wasting` is now to be titled `State of Decay` and broadcast fourth in the new season. The news item reminds us that this Terrance Dicks tale was originally penned three years back but pulled due to the series being instructed not to `send up` a lavish BBC2 version of Dracula. At the time this raised hopes that `Shada` might also be resurrected but it was not to be. The issue also reveals the title of the second story as `The Last Zolphathoron` and that Jacqueline Hill is returning to the series. Of course we all thought this meant Barbara was going to appear.

Fan Scene - CT 1980 Apr - Jun

 

April

This issue leads with the sad news of the death of David Whitaker who was only 51. As well as his Doctor Who work the obituary mentions his involvement in the Australian film industry and also the Writers Guild of Great Britain. Other programmes he wrote for included Paul Temple, Private Eye and Mr Rose. He had lately agreed to novelise `Enemy of the World` for Target but it remained unfinished.

Meanwhile its reported that next season will be the longest for ten years with seven 4 part stories and that K9’s role will be “considerably restructured”. There’s also talk of a new male companion “a kind of cosmic Artful Dodger”. The DWAS too is looking for new blood as Stephen Payne relinquishes control of the Society fanzine `Tardis`. Requesting volunteers who might like to take over, Chris Dunk says “Applicants should be able to type with reasonable accuracy”! There is also news of the 1981 Annual – oddly Annuals are published in August even though most people associate them with Xmas. Story titles already known include `The Voton Terror`, `Colony of Death` and `Every Dog Has His Day`. 

Fan Scene - CT1980 Jan - Mar

 

The world of Doctor Who as it was reported in the Doctor Who Appreciation Society newsletter Celestial Toyroom aka CT.
1980 was a momentous year both for the programme and the Society. By the year’s end Tom Baker’s lengthy tenure in the Tardis would be coming to a finish while some of the founder members of the DWAS would depart during the summer. CT at this time was edited by Chris Dunk who largely eschewed the personality led style and chose to present a busy, fact based edition each month reflecting the myriad of series news and fan activity that was happening.

January
41 years is a long time of course and there’s an instant reminder of that when you see a small ad for what was then the recently launched Doctor Who Weekly “on sale now.” The cost? Just 12p. A magazine for 12p!! The main news is that industrial action at the BBC has affected production of the last story of the then current season, `Shada`. The story hits a positive note given that all the location work has been filmed. The DWAS policy is not to mention plot details for at least a year in case the incoming new production team decide to re-mount it.  Other news includes Target looking for someone to write a novelisation of `Evil of the Daleks` and the fact that initial ratings for the season’s first story were poor. It then reports that `City of Death` did better though neglects to say why that was  - industrial action at ITV this time! Inside Jan Vincent-Rudzki’s President’s Column takes a school masterly tone with Doctor Who Weekly picking up on errors that it included despite being “full of good intentions”. He generously suggests that the mistakes were due to the tight schedule but can barely hide his irritation and takes a large dollop of the page to correct them.

Doctor Who Annual 1969

 

I’ve never seen this annual till I bought it online a few months ago. Fronted by a photograph of the second Doctor looking decidedly cheesed off (perhaps yearning for the end of his contract) the 1969 Annual, released in time for the 1968 Xmas market is noticeable in a very distinct way. The artwork is extremely stylised and striking even if some of the artists don’t capture particularly good likenesses of either Jamie or Zoe. Both are often depicted looking at least a decade older than they should be dressed like characters from a serious period drama.  Some of the artwork is surreal- on the inside cover the Doctor is playing his recorder while being fired on by space helmeted aliens. Even more bizarrely on the next page a facially unrecognisable Patrick Troughton is capering about on an alien planet in his stove pipe hat being fired on while under attack from one of the `Mind Robber` robots.