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.

 

The Doctor Who Annuals especially these earlier ones are a strange beast. While officially licenced “in arrangement with BBC TV” as it states on the cover they take considerable liberties with the show’s house style. While some of this is due to being a different storytelling medium there are times when you wonder if the people writing them had ever watched the programme. Particularly noticeable in the 1969 annual is the way the Doctor is prone to addressing his companions as “children” while the narrative refers to him as Dr. Who. Even Zoe exclaims, “oh, Doctor Who!” There is a sharpness though to the storytelling drawing away from the over written earlier Annuals whose narratives aspired to something more than an Annual should. By 1968 the stories are more focussed and lively. The comic strips in particular have a dynamic quality with an appealing look of retro futurism.

The annual opens with `The Dragons of Kekokro` in which Dr. Who and his companions encounter what appear to be Jurassic era dinosaurs. Jamie somehow seems to know that dinosaurs were “over sized lizards, with tiny brains, which fought each other to extinction.” Dr.Who meanwhile calls Jamie and Zoe “children” or “child” all the time suggesting whoever penned this story had only seen William Hartnell’s version. This Doctor seems slightly human-like too chiding Jamie on his theories and suggesting “no one knows how the reptiles became extinct” even though he could pop back and find out. Nobody is awed by the dinosaurs and Zoe just moans about the heat.

The story does improve when it develops into a temporal anomaly. “Fascinating! Apemen with technology!” declares the Doctor. Their captors take them- on a Stegosaurus no less- and what transpires is a war between two hitherto unknown prehistoric tribes that have tamed dinosaurs and mastered technology. The thrust of the story is the Doctor’s fascination with this newly discovered strand of human history which he is reluctant to leave despite the dangers they are in. It’s a bold idea that reminded me of one of those 70s films like The Land That Time Forgot.

“Not one of them could move..” begins the next story called `The Singing Crystals` in a terrific opening to an imaginative tale in which living crystals try to feed on the trio. It’s the sort of scenario the tv production of the time would never have been able to achieve but as vividly described here- accompanied by suitably dramatic art – it works so well. Throughout there is an air of desperation as to the traveller’s plight. The use of sound to ward off the crystals is not a new idea- even then- but I like the fact that you end up with shouting recorded on an old style reel to reel tape recorder being carried by Jamie to allow him to make progress and find the missing Zoe. For once the pictures don’t quite match the vivid writing and it is somewhat distracting that neither Jamie nor Zoe look in the least bit like the actors who played them with Zoe even dressing differently. Odd too that the Doctor is fixated on the crystalline substance being no more than that; he seems uncharacteristically determined to prove they are not living beings.

These old Annuals liked to include educational pages because in those days children’s fun was still rationed so we come to `Are We Alone…?` which discusses over three pages the question “Do flying saucers exist?” and the idea that they may come from Earth itself. The article also suggests survivors of Atlantis have developed over centuries but as the last words on the page are “anybody’s guess” you’ll not be too surprised that no firm conclusion is reached. The focus of real life mysteries continues in the next story `The Mystery of the Marie Celeste`. The famed ship whose crew mysteriously vanished is something that I’m surprised the tv series has never visited. The tale opens with the travellers looking out of the screen where the Tardis has landed on something metallic but there is water all around. The place is already having an effect on Jamie whose hitherto absent Scots accent has returned with a phonetic vengeance. “Awa’ wi ye” he declares. This move- which also ushers in Zoe’s slight arrogance – means the characters now more closely mirror their TV counterparts. A sailing ship passes overhead which the Doctor identifies as the famed Marie Celeste. Turns out they are all prisoners of Arcturans, unseen aliens who end up under attack themselves from a sea serpent. You don’t expect any notable character traits in these stories but it is surprising that when it comes to being rescued the lost crew trust the Doctor no more than anyone else so refuse an offer to escape.

A comic strip called `The Vampire Plants` is next and the artist certainly captures a better likeness of the travellers. The story isn’t much though centring on a rare plant that vanishes from an experimental botanical gardens. The Doctor and Jamie leave Zoe in the Tardis for some reason and go in pursuit of this vegetation which is mobile and growing. They set it alight. That’s it. After a page of questions headed up as The Unknown Universe, yet with all the answers at the foot of the page (so it’s not really unknown at all) and a Space Quiz we come to `Grip of Ice`.  While the Doctor fixes a broken Tardis component, Zoe and Jamie venture outside, the latter having turned into some sort of scientist seemingly overnight as he seems totally au fait with checking controls, temperature gauges and so on. Zoe does seem to get noticeably less to do in all these stories as if the writers are non plussed by her character or perhaps are all male and don’t imagine she can do much. The two get swept away in a snow storm and searching for them Dr. Who finds a city and ends up in a storeroom containing thousands of glowing ice cubes. They are actually thought cubes, all that remain of a race called the Morrains. This is a great idea- the memories of each of the lost race are contained in the cubes. Only one of them- called Cosmos- has survived in his original form and now has the Doctor’s companions. The Doctor’s journey to rescue them is well paced and exciting full of alarms, robots and general laser battle mayhem! He eventually tricks Cosmos with the old trick of “reversing my thought power”.

Pages about Gravity, Unconquerable Space, Star Facts, Prophets of the Space Age and Power from Space threaten to turn the Annual into a text book. The authors thought Doctor Who fans all liked science but there are too many factual pages here. The first of two games is called `Escape from Xenos` but essentially all these games were the same involving throwing a dice to move your counter along the corresponding number fo squares. Sometimes you’d land on one that said you had to miss a turn or go forward three spaces and so on. To be honest there’s a clear `this will do` quality about this one which lacks any distinctive signature and is rather blandly presented. The forfeits include `pool of acid- back 3 places`, `Cloud of poison gas- back 2 places` and my favourite `Stop to rest. Miss a turn`. A game for three players it curiously features Victoria rather than Zoe even though the girl pictured is clearly the same Zoe we’ve seen throughout the book albeit looking unlike Wendy Padbury.

`Man Friday` is the next story set on a tropical planet where most things seem to be alive and Jamie is taken away- the only clue being a giant foot. It’s a place the Doctor has been before and the author has him consult extensive computer records of his previous journeys which he keeps in the Tardis. The story has a certain intrigue about it particularly when the Doctor finds creatures of volcanic origin in the evocatively named Hall of Shadows. It ends seemingly in the middle of things though leaving the reader to reach their own conclusion.

Following more science and facts we have another game. `Computer Capture` is altogether more in tune with the aesthetic of 1969 being groovily colourful and surreal and its forfeits include the amusing likes of `Mental Relapse` and `Grotesque screaming breaks train of thought`. I wonder if Pink Floyd had a hand in this one? There’s a fiendish crossword which will definitely keep the kids occupied long after Xmas before we arrive at `Robot King`.

The Annual’s creators really like robots and they pop up in several stories with designs reminiscent of classic sci-fi comic iconography none more so than the guardian of a futuristic metropolis called Hope City. The comic strip story runs over six pages and uses just one colour alongside the monochrome, either a brown shade or a lilac one. The artist also manages a much better Zoe who for the first time in this book actually looks like Wendy Padbury. Jamie has been sent to explore and concludes, with that ever expanding brain of his, that the place has been devastated by an atomic explosion! They encounter a robot straight out of a 1940s pulp comic which describes itself as the Robot King. It wants to ensure no humans survive and intends to kill the trio but the Doctor turns it off. Yep. Literally that is the end. It is such a disappointing conclusion to what started as a promising story.

The next two pages are handy for all those fans who own a sailing ship as it tells you how to navigate the oceans by the stars. Then its into an adventure called `Slaves of Shran` which opens strikingly with the Doctor a mind numbed prisoner of guards overseeing the building of a spaceship by giant cockroach creatures. He is brought before their great God Shran who helpfully explains all that has happened just to update the reader. The writer paints a strong visual picture that actually sounds better than the slightly generic illustrations manage. When one of the creatures, called the Shelgars, fights back and rescues the Doctor the two have the most expositional conversation ever for our benefit. This does rather break the golden rule of entertaining fiction for younger readers by telling much more than they are showing. There is though an exciting balloon chase as the Doctor and his new mate Ekk fight off pterodactyl like birds in mid air.

`Run the Gauntlet` paints a vivid picture of a jungle planet inhabited by blunderbuss toting ape like creatures that ride around in the air on sledges and who are repelled by the Doctor’s recorder playing. It’s a lively adventure even if the ingredients seem to have been assembled with little concern for credulity. It is such a mishmash of things and the fact that the sound from the recorder has such an effect is not explained; mind you if you’ve ever listened to a room full of people playing recorders you can only acknowledge just how horrendous a noise they can make! Finally `A Thousand and One Doors` concludes the annual with the Doctor musing on the existence of multiple universe’s before all three find themselves floating towards a giant net. They are the prisoners of aliens whose heads are hidden inside a frosted glass dome. “My name is Doctor Who” says our hero to the irritation of thousands of fans no doubt. The aliens describe themselves as Dimension Explorers who seem able to cross between multiple Universes and the traveller’s escape does give the story some energy.

In the end there are too many robots and too much generic action to make any of these stories stand outs even by 1969 standards while the similarity to the tv series itself is mostly fleeting. However these were different times and the annuals were always popular xmas gifts with children eager to read further adventures of Dr.Who.

Tango practice was not going too well...