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.

Local Groups had started back in 1977 and grown to the point where the fifteenth and sixteenth are announced this issue. If anyone wondered exactly what happened during local group meetings at this time there’s a fairly detailed account of the North Surrey group’s meeting that took place in November 1979 hosted by David Howe. I’m not sure all groups managed to pack their gatherings with such a busy programme. Running from 2 till 8pm this one includes discussions on the recently shown `City of Death`, a quiz, updates on a then in progress DWAS film, a debate, a slide show and Jeremy Bentham speaking about his work on the Weekly. This was only the month after he resigned from the DWAS Exec amidst some controversy so I imagine the conversation was a little livelier than the review makes out! There were also refreshments provided by David’s mother. Parents of Doctor Who fans all over the country were dragooned into accepting a large group of people crowding into their living room in those days.

Below this feature is a Writer’s Pool update which includes the interesting fact that at this time there was a writer’s guide for Doctor Who suggesting potential script writers submit four part stories with new enemies.  CT was always home to press cuttings, and this issue features one from Dundee’s Courier and Advertiser in which fifteen year old fan John Cleall-Harding tells the reporter about the myriad of fan activities he’s involved in. He’s pictured sporting his fifteen foot long scarf knitted by his mother (another chore for the average Doctor Who parent). Its actually eight feet short of the official length but she says, “I had to stop somewhere.” Funny how things turn out though as John Harding would abandon fandom altogether a few years later. I wonder what happened to that scarf?

Fanzine adverts this issue include the `Gallifrey` Christmas Special, the latest issue of David Howe’s `Oracle` which promises the true story of the Ice Warriors and issue 3 of `The Doctor Who Review` which includes a Bob Baker interview. There’s a gorgeous ad for Paul Trainer’s zine `Galaxy Four` which seems to have mastered the art of distinctive and intriguing advertising much more than the others in this issue. By contrast `Type 40` hasn’t tried at all with normal typing and spaces and a weird comment about The Rockford Files.  Busy Bob Baker is also interviewed by `Spotlight on Who?` Timothy Bradley’s awkwardly titled but interesting sounding zine which reaches issue 5 while `Vortex` no 11 includes a Phillip Hinchcliffe interview, not a common thing back then and surely worth more than the mid list billing it gets in the ad.

The back page includes pen pals for the Tom Baker pen pal club which I never knew existed. They’re organising a coach outing to Newlands Corner near Guildford but it doesn’t say why. Is that where Tom was living then? Meanwhile optimistic Swap Shop people this month include Julian Knott trying to offload Star Wars figures without first travelling to the future and discovering they’ll be worth a fortune if he resists giving them away for Star Trek photonovels!  Gary Levy, here in the days before he became Doctor Who fandom’s Piers Morgan, is ready to part with Star Wars poster mags in exchange for a Denys Fisher Tardis. Don’t these people have any faith in the durability of Star Wars?!

February

There’s about a two month lag from when material in Ct is written till the actual month on the front so this shorter 4 page issue was compiled around Xmas 1979; Jan Vincent Rudzki mentions he wrote his column on Boxing Day. Therefore there’s not a lot of news about though members are invited to vote in the annual season poll earlier than normal because of the shortened season. There’s also a feature on how broadcasting differs in the United States with more commercials and a seemingly more liberal attitude to violence. The writer, Larry Wauchop also expands on Doctor Who related publishing across the pond including a compilation of three Target novels but no toys or similar collectibles. Fanzine adverts this issue include `Ark in Space `issue 2 with a Graham Williams interview, `Fendahl` 8 and the DWAS’ own publications `Time Space Visualiser` (photos from fifteen years of the programme) and `Cosmic Masque` issue 4 which boasts as well as its usual fiction eight stills from `Marco Polo` never printed before. Surely these should have gone into CT? And remember that weird coach trip to Newlands Corner advertised last month? Seem it didn’t have many takers. I wonder why.

March

This issue introduces the new production team - producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Christopher Bidmead with biographies of both of them. Bidemead’s is something of a high brow cv for someone stepping into a programme like Doctor Who with acting experience at Bristol Old Vic and ATV’s Emergency Ward Ten as well as being a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Sixties. He also has an extensive list of writing credits including a series for Thames called Harriet’s Back in Town. It’s a left field choice for sure and pared with the BBC man and part time pantomime enthusiast JNT already looks like something of a mismatch.

Perhaps the membership will be more responsive to their output though as editor Chris Dunk bemoans the low turnout in voting for the season poll. Out of more than a thousand members only “a pathetic one hundred and fifty” have voted so far. Poor old Chris has a bit of a rant about this; “Perhaps one month I’ll decide I can’t be bothered to do CT…” he moans. Jan Vincent -Rudzki elaborates on his view of the season citing `Creature from the Pit` as his favourite. Bizarrely he had no second place story putting `City of Death` and `Horns of Nimon` joint third, surely they’re joint second in that case? `Destiny of the Daleks` and `Nightmare of Eden` come fourth and fifth. “Nightmare was aptly named” he comments, “It was almost like watching a rehearsal where no one was bothering.”  Everyone’s in a strop this month.

Presumably in more chipper mood is David Howe who is the new head of the reference department even though nobody has introduced him. He’s going to start season booklets. Of course you don’t need a reference department  nowadays but before the Internet it was a valuable resource to have. He’s got a symbol too which is from `Armageddon Factor` but it can’t beat Jan Vincent-Rudzki’s energy dispensing hooded Gallifryan President picture.

 Amongst the features this issue is an account of a visit to Denis Alan Print including meeting Tom Baker. The company produced striking photographic birthday cards featuring the Doctor. The account by Richard Berelson includes being able to borrow “a dusty slighty battered” K9 from the BBC’s special effects workshop which was to be used as well as Richard’s home made Dalek. Tom arrives late with a tale of moving into a new flat. “At Toms suggestion we left almost immediately for lunch and a drink at the local pub,” writes Richard where the actor kept them amused with anecdotes aplenty. He recounts how a young fan spotted them “straight away the cigarette vanished from his hand.” They then undertake the photo session in the afternoon. Richard says this was the week before Tom flew to Egypt for Tomb of Tutankhamen so it would likely have been sometime in late 1979 (the tv film was first shown in May 1980).

Dennis Spooner must have been on tour or something as he turns up being interviewed in both `The Doctor Who Review` and `Oracle` this month though the former probably edged it as they include `exclusive script extracts`. `Inner Sanctum` issue 2 interviews Terry Walsh and has features on the Longleat Exhibition and Panopticon 79 plus “a marvellous piece of fiction”. `Continuum` 4 rather amusingly has an ad explaining they don’t have an interview with Douglas Adams and “exclusively ignores the Zarbi”. Unfortunately they don’t seem to say what they do have save from the final part of a Cyberman story “and other sundry items”. Joke underselling doesn’t always work but the fact that this is the fourth issue suggests there must be a market out there. The average price for a zine in 1980 seems to be either 35p or 36p (plus the obligatory SAE) though `Frontier Worlds` first two issues are available for 45p. There’s a double issue of `Moonbase` for a wallet busting 50p and an advert to match. Sometimes overselling is just as bad as underselling and Philip Chant’s ad almost reaches Wagnerian levels of overkill with questions and explanations aplenty. How large is a Tythonian and what material do they weave, he asks? Does anyone really care? If you did you’d need to pay 38p to find out. He leaves a quote from Graham Williams at the foot of this ad “Thoroughly enjoyable” says the outgoing producer but he was probably talking about lunch.