Fish Fingers and Custard - Doctor Who Fanzine - Issue 11 by Daniel Gee

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

Exciting Times Lay Ahead It’s that time again! As I write this, the excitement is building up from fans (both real and those made up out of computer code). We’re hearing some very interesting things and we’ve seen some very interesting clips from the upcoming series, so the excitement has been ramped up that little bit more! With the 50th Anniversary coming up, with a special ‘The Story of Doctor Who’ drama, new companion and no doubt many other surprises – I predict the internet will explode and fans will be left with no money whatsoever (and still moan about it!) Just don’t forget us fanzines along the way! The last few months has seen us working on this issue as well as reviewing the Matt Smith era, episode-by-episode on our website. So be sure to check them out! The fanzine likes to reflect the different views of fans, from all ages and from all walks of life. This is generally what I believe Doctor Who is about - it’s inclusive for everyone. In this Issue we have contributions from people all the over the world, some of whom whose first (or second) language isn’t even English. We all have differing views, but we all have one thing in common – we love Doctor Who. That just shows how much of an impact that the show has, when these people bother to send something in to a

shabby publication such as this. Even the new series is starting to build up an history for people to dive into and be inspired. As I’ve said on numerous occasions, the real legacy of Doctor Who is that it has inspired generations of people and will continue to do so for many years. Now bring on 2013! Enjoy the new series! Cheers Danny

Whilst writing this Issue, we’ve sadly lost both Caroline John and Mary Tamm. We have a small tribute to both ladies in this issue and will be featuring a closer look at both their contributions to Doctor Who in the next Issue. The news has just become all the more sad, as we’ve just heard that Mary’s husband, Marcus, has died hours after reading a eulogy at his wife’s funeral. According to Mary’s agent, he was replying to well-wishers via e-mail before having a heart attack. There’s nothing you can really say to that, so just be sure to keep their daughter and grandson in your thoughts. Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to say anything about any/both Caroline and Mary.

This Issue of Fish Fingers and Custard is dedicated to the memories of Caroline John and Mary Tamm Editor: Daniel Gee Contributors: Tim Gambrell, Mike Pearse, Katie Steely-Brown, Thais Aux, Jay McIntyre, Vivienne Dunstan, Matt Powell, Leslie McMurtry, Richard Farrell, Thomas Cookson and Nicola Pilkington Back Cover Art: Colgreyis (http://colgreyis.deviantart.com) Doctor Who is ©BBC – A written apology of our copyright infringement can be found in the same place where Lenny Henry is hiding these days. Barking Premier Inn.

FFAC113

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

Caroline John ‘Spearhead From Space’ was one of the first classic Doctor Who episodes I saw. I had one of those free DVD’s that the paper was giving away and one of them had the first episode. Not really expecting much, I was drawn in and loved that first episode. It also helped that I was immediately struck by the strong female presence in the story, provided by Caroline John’s Liz Shaw. Many people hold up Sarah Jane Smith as a role-model for being the first ‘Strong Independent Women’ in Doctor Who. As a self-styled feminist, she had her moments. But with the writers having her screaming every few episodes, it’s a bit difficult to place that title on her. Liz Shaw was the first attempt at having a strong female character in the show. Sadly, in 1971 both parties parted ways (Caroline was pregnant, and producer Barry Letts wanted a different companion) and 42 years on, we’re left wondering what might have been if the character had have been developed more. In today’s show, we would do anything for a character to be cast that wasn’t overawed by The Doctor and one who would often make fun of him. You could argue that she was the first attempt at a ‘female Doctor’ in many ways – with her often using science to solve things, which would trickle down to the young viewers watching. I don’t think that there’s any doubt that her finest moment was that as a, shall we say, a very different Liz Shaw in Inferno (which happened to be her final story). It was the story that allowed the actors to play something different and have some fun, and it’s clear that certainly helped to make this one of the best Third Doctor stories. If there’s one story to remember Caroline John by, put that one on! Over the years, she appeared in many spin-offs and audios – most recently reprising the role of Liz Shaw for Big Finish’s Companion Chronicles series. Despite the end to her time on Doctor Who being so long ago, Caroline was always a face on the convention scene and many people have fond stories to tell about her. Words like ‘Classy Lady’ are often banded about when fans talk about meeting her in person. And as time goes on, I think it’s very important that we sit back and remember the contributions of members of the Doctor Who family we have lost, because without them, our little obsession may not be as special as we’d like to think.

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Romana – The Original It’s proved to be a difficult 12 months or so for the Doctor Who world, even more so recently, as we have lost Mary Tamm, just over a week after Caroline John. Known by fans for playing Romana during the Key To Time series, Mary brought a touch of class, which only reinforced her character as an equal to The Doctor. I particularly enjoy her teasing of The Doctor throughout that series and the dynamic, which makes The Doctor look a bit uncomfy in his own TARDIS, was played out brilliantly. Mary left before filming of the next series, which saw Lalla Ward take over as her next regeneration. Despite willing to come back and film a regeneration scene, she was never invited to do so, which makes the scene at the start of Destiny of The Daleks, all the more baffling. Mary’s reason for leaving in the first place, was because she felt that her character wouldn’t have been developed. To be honest, I think that reason has to be admired. I much prefer someone to be so caring about their role that they were willing to challenge the writing, in order to improve, rather than sit there and take the job, and that just tells you what type of character Mary Tamm was. Unlike (I think it’s fair to say) most former Doctor Who companions, Mary had a very steady career after Doctor Who and was still working regularly before her passing. The Big Finish Fourth Doctor Adventures which she recorded with Tom, are due to be released from January and will feature her long-awaited return as Romana alongside The Doctor and K9. Reading quotes from Mary and Tom, it was clear that this was something that they both thoroughly enjoyed and something that they dearly wanted to do again. Hopefully this time, Romana will be given the depth of character that Mary craved all those years ago. I was at a Doctor Who convention recently where it was clear that her friend, Louise Jameson was very upset and Colin Baker even mentioned that he exchanged e-mails with Mary on a regular basis, but she never let on about her illness. I think that speaks volumes about a lady who wanted to keep her news private without any fuss. Big Finish even reveal in their online tribute, that they thought that the series was important to her and was something that she dearly wanted to do. Like all sad Who passings, I hope you can take the time to remember them, watch their episodes and enjoy their performances, because without them Doctor Who would be very different indeed!

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The Boy Who Kicked Pigs – The Play! I was amazed that someone wanted to do it on stage. When I wrote the piece it was obvious to me I could not write about a good boy. Who wants to read about a good boy? So I piled on the awfulness and everybody laughed – Tom Baker As soon as I heard about this adaption coming to the stage, I snapped up tickets as soon as I could. Written by Tom Baker (knowing Tom, presumably after many drinks. Then again, knowing Tom, he probably doesn’t need to drink to think this story up!) it tells the tale of a boy, Robert, who ‘likes to kick pigs’ and generally wreak havoc for people. I’m sure we’ve met children like him! The story is very cartoonish but does show what impact misbehaving can achieve. The theatre company Kill The Beast seem to revel in bringing this cartoonish violence to life and you can see that, just by watching this performance. It’s something that’ll be difficult to put together if its cast and crew ‘didn’t get it’ but this one does. Taking place in one of upstairs studios, this intimate venue seemed perfect, as this 4 person-strong cast filled the stage out brilliantly. I’m not really that much of an experienced theatre goer (but probably will be soon, thanks to this) but I very much enjoyed it, laughed nearly all the way through and picked up those things I learned at school about drama, which have long escaped my mind! Though I felt really sorry for the people in the front row - the graphic violence must have seemed very different up close, as my Missus commentated! The play was advertised for ‘people 12 and over’ but there were clearly some kids in the audience far younger who enjoyed it. In fact, it’s funny to see the comparison between Pigs and Doctor Who – suitable for families, with both adults and children taking something different away after watching it. The humour, though pretty violent at times, is very much done in the style of a cartoon and it fits perfectly with the setting of the book. It’s fastpaced in all the right places, but yet slows down at the right times for you to take in those all important story-changing scenes. Good direction needs good actors of course, and the 4 of them that act this out do an amazing job in bringing it to life. The actor who plays Robert uses a very distinctive voice and it just strikes you of belonging to the troublemaking child that Robert is. Or a ‘little shit’ as we would say. The other roles aren’t gender-specific, so we get some really great turns from the female actors who play males, which just adds to the cartoon-humour aspect of it all. Things like this can tend to slip into Pantomine mode, and as much as I love a Pantomine, I don’t particularly feel threatened by one and I don’t really learn anything (apart from the bloke playing the Dame looks good

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 in a dress) but with Pigs it’s the complete opposite (although the Gentlemen in this do look quite fetching in a dress). The cast (who also contributed to the writing) and crew somehow manage to present a slightly-updated adaption of the book and bring it to life, which is all you can really ask for, from an adaptation! The show was part of an ‘In Studio Development’ program that The Lowry runs and I was most impressed with their general attitude towards developing talent. On the way to the studio, we passed a few classrooms used for educating and the many programmes they had advertised. I just feel that in today’s world, where they spend millions of pounds on facilities and expect an immediate return, that not enough emphasis is put on trying to develop talent for the future, it should be about working hard and learning, so it’s wonderful that a new venue like this specialises in that area. And the ticket price wasn’t too expensive either! And after dismissing Tom Baker and Ian Marter’s idea for ‘Doctor Who Meets Scratchman’ as utterly bonkers, maybe there was something in it after all? On the balance of this story, I think it’s a great shame Tom hasn’t written any more stories. He (I’m sure all those who’ve seen him at a convention know) has a great talent for telling a tale. Most of them mask a meaning, a lesson if you will, very much like The Boy Who Kicked Pigs. Kill The Beast will now be working with The Lowry on other projects. We hope they’ll get the chance to tour Pigs, beyond their Edinburgh appearance next year. Any Doctor Who convention people reading must book them for an appearance. (And put us down for some tickets too!)  DANIEL GEE

Contribute to Fish Fingers and Custard! As always, we’re looking for more people to contribute to the fanzine. Interested? Then e-mail us at fishcustardfanzine@googlemail.com 6

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

2013 (and the problem with ‘The Five Faces of Doctor Who’) King’s Demons, Vengeance on Varos, Timelash, Paradise Towers, Dragonfire, Aliens of London / World War Three, Fear Her, The Runaway Bride, The Lazarus Experiment, 42, The Sound of Drums / Last of The Time Lords, Planet of The Dead & Victory of The Daleks. What do you mean some of those are the best stories?!

With the fiftieth anniversary of the programme just around the corner there’s much speculation as to whether the BBC will do a ‘Five Faces of Doctor Who’-type repeat season as part of any celebrations. Yes, many of us have seen it all before and own most of it on DVD by now, but still it feels more real or legitimate watching it scheduled on TV and we fans feel vindicated if someone other than 1990s UK Gold thinks these charming old episodes are worth the air time. Whatever any channel shows, it won’t satisfy everyone - either through the choice of material or the volume of material, so we’re best off expecting some level of disappointment at the outset and lining up our personal faves on DVD instead. But assuming the schedulers have any inkling into the programme’s history (I hope they do!) I think it’s worthwhile to consider some of the problems they may face in what could ultimately be a thankless task. First up, what not to include: anything utterly dreadful in case any ‘not-we’ see it and can’t contextualise it. So the following are out for a start: The Space Museum, Terror of The Autons, The Mutants, The Underworld, Meglos,

The Dominators, Colony In Space, Time Monster, Time-Flight, The

Also out are odd episodes and incomplete stories. Yes, they could do an introduction to explain why The Invasion episodes 1 & 4 are animated or why The Tenth Planet episode 4 is a selection of stills and 8mm off air ‘moments’, describing how lucky we are that fans taped the off-air soundtracks but do we need to when there are plenty of decent complete stories? It’s supposed to be a celebration, people, not a cathartic exercise in frustration at the Beeb’s old junking procedure. So let’s now look at what we can include. It’s not easy, given the wealth of material available. Agreed, there’s no Web of Fear, but there’s plenty of other good stuff. I’ll start with the stories that are ‘it goes without saying’ inclusions: An Unearthly Child / 100,000 BC The Three Doctors The Five Doctors But hang on - if we’re including the very first story we should include the first story of the return, Rose, as well shouldn’t we? But what about the Pilot Episode, or the various regeneration / post regeneration stories? They are also important. As is Survival, as the last regular story shown in 1989. And the 1996 TV Movie. At least we should have The War Games as the last b&w story and Spearhead From Space as the first

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 colour. How about The Daleks as the first Dalek story, the one that sealed the show’s early success? Toughie. Then we have the whole Caves of Androzani, Genesis of The Daleks, Talons of Weng-Chiang business – the three stories that always top the ‘best ever’ story polls. Shouldn’t we include the best of the old bunch? But then Genesis, in one form or other, must be the most repeated classic serial anyway, so why tread that route again? Ooh, but what about City of Death – a perpetual top-tenner and known to be a rough template for the new series revival in 2005? This is already getting out of control. And if we’re having the celebratory multiDoctor stories shouldn’t we have The Two Doctors and the various Charity efforts as well? But how many people do we risk putting off? Hell, if we’re letting things slide that much why not throw in a screening of the Doctor In Distress video too?! What about those grand pre-Moffat season-long story arcs The Key To Time and The Trial of A Timelord? How do they count? Would they be too much of a slice of both Bakers in their entirety? Should we just avoid them? Then there’s the smaller arcs, the E-Space trilogy, the Black Guardian trilogy, Frontier In Space & Planet of The Daleks. How about the whole story that runs continuously from Planet of The Spiders through to, arguably, The Android Invasion? Or Meglos through to Time-Flight? How pedantic can we be?! Breathe... th Moving on to the newer series, the 9 , th th 10 & 11 Doctors risk getting a dud deal unless we choose two-parters for them. But then a lot of the Tennant and Smith episodes are shown ad infinitum on BBC3 and Watch anyway, so does it matter if they only get an episode each?

Are we already risking over-exposure here? Dare I mention spin-offs? Is this the golden age of exposure that Reeltime and BBV have been waiting for all these years, when Downtime, Wartime, Shakedown, PROBE and AUTON get their overdue network TV airing? Are they any less legitimate than K9 & Company, Torchwood or The Sarah Jane Adventures? They’re all excellent in their own ways (except bloody Miracle Day – never again *shakes fist*!) but should we be adding them to a series of Doctor Who repeats? That’s a probing question, if you’ll pardon the almost pun - is 2013 a celebration of Doctor Who the TV programme or the ‘world’ of Doctor Who, the cult, the media and merchandising machine? Therefore do we also go down the ‘special programmes’ route? Should we expect the Beeb to dig out the 1977 Lively Arts’ Whose Doctor Who and subject the world once again to Doctor Sherwood-Jones whose hospital intensive care unit shuts down for half an hour every Saturday teatime so he can watch his ‘dolly birds’ get menaced by monsters, or the mother and daughter Ice Warrior team hissing their way around the over-stuffed middle class furniture while father tends to his combover? How about the Brummie anorak that gave us Resistance Is Useless? 2003’s The Story of Doctor Who might be worth dusting off, though, and there’s certainly some DVD extras that would sit comfortably on BBC4 – Doctor Who: Origins from ‘The Beginning’ boxset, for example. Does your brain hurt yet as well? They’re all legitimate in their own way, spin-offs and specials alike. They’re all part of the world of Doctor Who and it’s that world that’s fifty years old next year. It’s clear that whatever is chosen won’t please everyone. It was much easier for the ‘Five Faces’ schedulers in 1981,

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 wanting only four-part stories. An Unearthly Child was a sensible place to start, The Krotons was the only extant Troughton four-parter (we don’t have much more of a choice 31 years later!), Carnival of Monsters was a lively Pertwee existing in the right colour format, The Three Doctors was the milestone story and Logopolis was there to see out Tom Baker and give us our glimpse of number five before the credits rolled. It’s only surprising for its lack of dalek stories really – a fact which didn’t escape the 1992 BBC2 repeat season (no umbrella title this time) who weren’t restricted by story length, so this time we had The Time Meddler, The Mind Robber, The Sea Devils, Genesis of The Daleks, The Caves of Androzani, Revelation of the Daleks (US 4-part version) & Battlefield. Having established the impossibility of the task I think it’s time I made a stab at selecting a suitable repeat season that will please all: An Unearthly Child / 100,000 BC – because it’s the first one, and it’s brilliant. The Daleks – because it’s the first dalek story and continues the opening story arc. The Edge of Destruction – because it concludes the opening story arc. Tomb of The Cybermen – because it’s short and brilliant. The War Games – seeing out Troughton and the sixties and B&W in style. Spearhead From Space – seeing in Pertwee and the seventies and colour in style. The Three Doctors – because it’s a milestone. The Talons of Weng-Chiang – just because, followed by ‘The Lively Arts’ Whose Doctor Who – because it’s wonderfully informative and cringingly innocent. City of Death – we all know why, probably... The Five Doctors – another milestone.

The Caves of Androzani – probably the best of the classic series regeneration stories. The Twin Dilemma – because it follows on and isn’t as bad as all that really. Remembrance of The Daleks – a solid story, more dalek-y than Davros-y. Survival – the last outing for the classic run. The TV Movie – McGann’s sole stab, and boy is he good! Rose & The End of The World – bringing the series back with a bit of ‘wow’. Silence in The Library / Forest of The Dead – nicely contained and understated Tennant two-parter. Matt Smith will then be represented by whatever his next episode will be. Too much? Too predictable? OK. Here’s an alternative list: The Pilot Episode & ‘The Story Of Doctor Who’ documentary to open proceedings The Aztecs Tomb of The Cybermen The Three Doctors The Time Warrior Terror of The Zygons City of Death Kinda The Five Doctors Attack of The Cybermen Remembrance of The Daleks The TV Movie The End of The World The Unicorn & The Wasp Matt Smith still represented by his next series. Very few of these have been included in previous repeat seasons and it covers most of the main bases. We’ve got the very beginning, some historical doings, creepy cyber-brilliance, Time Lords, Sontarans, Catherine Schell, an inflatable snake, Daleks climbing stairs, the Master and even Agatha Christie – who could ask for more?! Yes, yes, OK, so there’s no Web of Fear – so go out and find it, damn you!

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 In some ways it might be best for someone who knows nothing about the programme to select the repeats, just going on what titles attract them most, which have sold most on DVD or simply sticking a pin in a board at random. As I said at the start, any series of repeats will be a welcome treat and a source of

frustration (probably in equal measure) for many fans, no doubt. But just in case the BBC read this and think I’ve done all their work for them I’m off to stick a couple of quid on my choices at the bookies.  TIM GAMBRELL

New Slang Dictionary 2012 AEROPLANE BLONDE One who has bleached/dyed her hair but still has a 'black box'. BEER ANGEL The unseen guiding force that watches over and keeps safe the inebriated as they stagger across a main road at chucking out time BEER COAT The invisible but warm coat worn when walking home after a booze cruise at 3 in the morning. BEER COMPASS The invisible device that ensures your safe arrival home after a booze cruise, even though you're too pissed to remember where you live, how you got there, and where you've come from. BEER DEGREE A qualification attained after a sufficient intake of alcohol, which enables one to talk at length and with complete authority over any given subject BOOZE SNOOZE An alcohol-induced siesta taken in the pub, or in a layby BREAKING THE SEAL Your first piss in the pub, usually after 2 hours of drinking. After breaking the seal of your bladder, repeat visits to the toilet will be required every 10 or 15 minutes for the rest of the night. BRITNEY SPEARS Modern Slang for 'beers', e.g. "Couple of Britneys please, Doreen". HAPPY PAPER Beer tokens i.e money for beer

DRINK-LINK A modern term for a cashpoint machine (ATM). Named so because it is common to visit one before going out on the booze. MONKEY BATH A bath so hot, that when lowering yourself in, you go: "Oo! Oo! Oo! Aa!Aa!Aa!". MYSTERY BUS The bus that arrives at the pub on Friday night while you're in the toilet after your 10th pint, and whisks away all the unattractive people so the pub is suddenly packed with stunners when you come back in. NELSON MANDELA Rhyming Slang for 'Stella' (the lager). SEAGULL MANAGER A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything and then leaves SIMON COWELLS Bowels, i.e. things that can be irritable and are usually full of shit TART FUEL Bottled Alcopops, e.g. WKD, regularly consumed by young women. TESTICULATING Waving your arms around and talking bollocks. WALLACE AND GROMIT Rhyming Slang for 'vomit'. WYNONA RYDER Rhyming Slang for 'cider'. e.g. "Pint of Wynona, half a Nelson and a bottle of tart fuel please Doreen" http://www.viz.co.uk/profanisaurus.html

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

Olá a partir de Brasil! Here at Fish Fingers and Custard we’re always, quite frankly, amazed that Doctor Who is watched all the over the world. Finding out the show is now building up a following in one of the world’s biggest countries came as a nice surprise to us. Brazil is a country that is vast in size, population and different cultures. With the country being on the way up economically, this represents a great opportunity for the BBC to expand into this huge market to establish Doctor Who and other content. Although they are the only country in South America to speak Portuguese, the influence of Brazil is South America is great and it could lead to Doctor Who becoming more established on the continent. Here we chat to Thais Aux who runs the Brazilian Doctor Who fan website, about the show and the fandom in Brazil (or spelt the right way – Brasil!) If you would like to introduce yourself and how you became a Doctor Who fan. What your favourite episode is... I'm Thais Aux and I'm 29 years old. I live in São Paulo, Brasil, and run a DW fansite, www.doctorwhobrasil.com.br. I became a whovian because a friend of mine talked to me about the series, she wrote about it in her blog with an Eccleston gif and then I just had to download it. I kinda didn't like the first episode, Rose, but she told me to insist and well, here I am! =) My favourite Doctor is David Tennant and my favourite episodes are Doctors' Wife, Blink, Vincent and the Doctor, among others... at the moment I'm starting to watch some of the classic arcs and I already like Pertwee and Davison! Also, I'm finishing my monography which is about the Doctor Who Brazilian fandom, and I met my boyfriend because

of Doctor Who, so I'm pretty involved with the whole thing! What channel is Doctor Who shown on and is it shown nationwide, or just in certain States? Doctor Who started being broadcast on TV Cultura, which is an open channel, in March 2012, all around Brazil. But before that, the show was on cable TV during the years of 2006~2008, a channel called People and Arts, that doesn't exist anymore. Also, it's important to say that most of the fandom came from downloading the series in the internet. That's how it became popular in the first place. Is the show dubbed into BrazilianPortuguese or is it subtitled? It dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese and you can watch online with the original audio, no subtitles.

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 How up-to-date are you? Has the latest Matt Smith series been shown? I've watched the entire modern series via internet download before it was broadcast on TV. At the present moment, TV Cultura is showing the 6th season (just yesterday the episode Let's Kill Hitler was aired). Has there been much information about the show in newspapers/magazines/television? Not really. Very little, it's something very new in Brazil yet. Are any classic Doctor Who stories shown? Not on TV, but fans find this material online and there are a few experts in Classic! Who in Brazil. My boyfriend is one of them, he also has a fansite (www.whovians.com.br) where they subtitle the classic series in Portuguese and comics as well.

Are there any fan conventions/parties? (Do fans get together and watch episodes/talk about the series) We don't have parties, but we are very fond of picnics! There are a few cities who do these encounters frequently: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Porto Alegre, among others. We sit to eat and talk about the show, discuss theories, gossip about the life of the actors, take our memorabillia, this kind of stuff! If they were to film a Doctor Who story in Brasil, and you could choose, where would it take place and what would the story be about? I believe Amy Pond wanted to go to Rio once, didn't she? It would be great to have an adventure there! Thanks to Thais for her time in answering our questions!

Interesting fact: TV Cultura was launched the day after the broadcast of the penultimate episode of Patrick Troughton’s final (regular) episode, The War Games. Marilyn Monroe’s Wikipedia – 26/12/2010

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That Odd British TV Show I have been asked before by some friends about why I always talk about that "odd British T.V. show" that I love so much. I have never been really able to answer this question in a conversationwhere am I supposed to start? How do I begin to explain the magic in Doctor Who right before we leave for biology? I always end up saying, "it's a really awesome T.V. show, and you should, really, really, try it." This essay gives me the chance to finally explain to someone, just a little bit, why Doctor Who is my favorite show, and I am so happy I can share a little bit of the area in my mind that starts dancing when I see the TARDIS swirling through the stormy purple and blue vortex. First, I'm going to start with the TARDIS. I think everyone in their lives has wished, at least once, that we could travel back or forward in time. The TARDIS is this wish in a cool blue retro form. The TARDIS is the foundation of what keeps this show so interesting, and running for so long. You see often in long-running T.V. shows that the quality of the episodes start dipping because the writers start running out of plots for episodes that relate to the show's theme. That's not the case with Doctor Who. The universe and infinity are open to the Doctor and his companions in the TARDIS. The plot lines are neverending, because the writers can go to any point in history, ever, and make up the future, too. It makes it a much more exciting show, as well, because you don't know where you will be sent to next in the new episode, and you really want to find out. With other shows, it can get too predictable after a while. Doctor Who is almost never predictable.

Next, I love Doctor Who because of the Doctors themselves. Doctor Who has such a long legacy. It started in 1963 and is the longest running science fiction T.V. show. It has such an interesting history because of the Doctor's many reincarnations. Each Doctor has a new, unique personality, a little sillier at times, a little more darker at others. With every regeneration, the fans experience the rush they felt when they first fell in love with series as they wonder what the new doctor would be like. I think people join so many fandoms because they love experiencing that little while of magic when they completely fall in love with a new book or T.V. series. Doctor Who is like eleven fandoms in one- the fans get to fall in love with the show over and over again as their Doctors and favorite companions change, and they realize that the new Doctor isn't as terrible as they thought he would be. (Tennant to Smith, anyone?) But underneath each different personality, the Doctor is still truly the character that everyone adores; curious, eccentric, mysterious, brilliant, alien, and lovable. My favorite Doctor is the Eleventh, or Matt Smith. Eleven is so adorably childish at times, but can switch to the old adult in times of pain. He's energetic, and hilarious, and confident, and Matt makes the role look utterly natural. I love his whimsical child side, because it reminds me that growing old doesn't necessarily mean growing up. The Eleventh Doctor takes the qualities of Peter Pan, and Narnia and puts them into a person. Of course, you can't really have the Doctor without his companions. You have to love the feminist values of River Song, the most badass women who is never a damsel in distress. Rose and Amy relates to anyone who's life is hard, and they represent us, the lucky ones who get to go for adventures with the

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 Doctor. Amy is my favorite companion. She grew up as an odd child who was alone and misunderstood, and I can relate to her because that describes me, I'm just not ginger. I loved watching her progress. She is often smarter and stronger than she thinks she is, and is witty, rebellious, and sarcastic. She also has a great fashion sense, and somehow manages to look great while running from monsters, which is a feat I can't achieve sitting through a day in high school. Now, what's a good sci-fi show without some deliciously creepy monsters and villains? I love the monsters in Doctor Who because they can really scare me. There's the Daleks, which are pure hate encased in a bumpy, shiny shell. What really interests me is the monsters that are very psychological. These monsters make you believe they could actually exist in the real world, which brings Doctor Who to life. The Weeping Angels, who attack only when you can't see them, because it's always easier to be scared of something you can't see. They play heavily on the little childhood fear we all have of the dark, tucked back in our minds. And the Silence, my favorite because you will never know if you actually saw one. For all I know, there could be a group of these creepy monsters living in my closet right now- I just can't remember them. I enjoy the romance in this show more than others. Rose and the 9th Doctor were really beautiful, and I believed they really loved each other. Then there was the heartbreak when the Doctor was regenerated into 10, but Rose didn't quite love him at first because it wasn't quite exactly the same person, but then their love for each other grew really strong. Until, of course the, devastating moment when the two were finally professing their feelings and the Doctor didn't say "I love you" fast enough and was left with tears on his cheeks. I quite enjoy the fact that there is no romance

between Eleven and Amy; I don't think I could have handled much more after Ten. Ten's relationship with Amy is very deep, but they are best friends, and he is very protective of her. I really like that Amy and Rory are together; I find them very cute, and I love how Rory became a hero by the end of season five. Finally, there is the episodes of Doctor Who overall. The show makes it easy for newbies to jump right in. You could really start on any episode and enjoy it. Though it is part of a series and there are some things you might want to know before hand because you'll be confused when they come up, each episode is like a mini-movie, pretty unique unto themselves, and you can jump in without much work. Anything that is confusing is always explained eventually in the show, and you're not left to wonder for long how something occurs, unlike other shows. There are so many interesting ideas in one episode. It actually makes you think, unlike most shows on T.V. today. The fact that problems are mainly solved with wit and intellect rather than violence teaches great moral values, and the show has something for everyone, for all ages and gendersrelatable and complex characters, adventure, science, aliens, creepiness, love, friendship, moral values... If you watch enough episodes, you'll see everything. The episodes also differ in mood, which keeps thing fresh. One episode may be very creepy, somewhat scary, and almost horror filmy with a thick love triangle plot building like in "The Empty Child," or magical, beautiful, and whimsical like "The Doctor, The Widow, and The Wardrobe," and then next a breathtaking hold-on-toyour-seat thriller like "Blink." The show can be dark and angsty and then change to silly and light hearted in the blink of an eye, and it actually works. And you must admit that the cinematography is gorgeous is the newer series and that the theme song is the best theme song to ever hit science fiction T.V.

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 For all of these reasons, I adore Doctor Who and am a Whovian because of it. I can't imagine my life without it. It beckons and calls me in with each new episode, to experience the joy and pain and magic, until I can almost believe that I, too, am a companion, spinning through space on the TARDIS right next to the Doctor, Amy, Rory, and River Song, until I wish I the TARDIS would land in my

front yard in the dead of night and I could run out with a flashlight and join him on his amazing, absolutely neverending adventures. As the Eleventh Doctor said, "All of time and space; everywhere and anywhere; every star that ever was... Where do you want to start?" ď&#x201A;ˇ KATIE STEELY-BROWN

Looking Forward To The New Series? As preparation for the new series of Doctor Who, and to tide me over the long drought of Who this year, I've been re-watching some of the 2011 Matt Smith series. I have two big favourites in that run of stories: The Girl Who Waited, which for me was sublime, and The Doctor's Wife, nearly as good. But I've re-watched those two a lot, including recently for Hugo awards judging. So this time I'm focusing on the arc-heavy episodes, providing a quick recap of the 2011 series, and the sequence of River-heavy stories. So the opening two-parter, then jumping to A Good Man Goes To War, Let's Kill Hitler, and The Wedding of River Song. And I have to say they're all improving on re-watching. Some people rewatch Doctor Who normally, but I don't do it routinely, and I strongly believe that an episode should work well the first time around. Maybe it's the Classic Series origins of my Who fandom: back in the late 1970s when I started watching Doctor Who there was no way to rewatch the story the next night. Doctor Who was judged on its first - and only viewing. For example in 2011 I was disappointed with A Good Man Goes To War, apart from the River reveal and ending, because it felt to me like a sherry trifle of an episode, with too many ideas thrown into it, not all working together very successfully, and each not given enough space to breathe. On rewatch though it's more enjoyable, maybe because I'm less critical the second time around, just sit back and take it as it comes. It still has problems for me, but I can enjoy it more this time around. The same goes for Let's Kill Hitler which the first time around was almost too bonkers to be really enjoyable. Maybe it also helps that I don't have to pay lots of attention to the intricate plots the second time, since I can remember some of it from before. My husband was also re-watching and picked up on things he had forgotten or not noticed the first time around. I'm not going to start routinely re-watching episodes in future, e.g. the BBC3 repeat the day after each initial screening. I do that occasionally, but only for the episodes that I've enjoyed the absolute most of all. I still expect episodes to work sufficiently well the first time around. But I am going to be open to enjoying things more the second time around, especially things that I had big problems with the first time on viewing. ď&#x201A;ˇ VIVIENNE DUNSTAN

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

The TV Movie was better than the Russell T Davies Era…

Yes, you read that right. Am I saying that the TV Movie was perfect? No. That it stands up to the best of the classic series? Not remotely. But it is better than the “revival” that was “masterminded” by Russell T Davies? Absolutely. First of all, let’s deal with the notion that the RTD revamp was a success and the TVM was not. The TV Movie was a ratings success, on both sides of the Atlantic. The problem the TV Movie had, is the same one the classic series had throughout the 80s; namely, that the BBC powers that be were against the show. Led by Michael Grade, there was a determined attitude to kill the show, and not allow it to return. When Russell T Davies came along, there had been a change in administration. So let’s put the notion of RTD being excused because he ‘succeeded’ to bed. Next, let’s look at what Russell T Davies did wrong compared to what TVM

producer Phillip Segal did wrong. Segal cast Eric Roberts as the Master, obviously a poor choice. Davies cast John Simm as the Master, which turned out, in terms of the Master’s characterization, to be even worse. Though I will concede that the problem had more to do with the material written for the Master than the actor playing him. If Simm had actually been allowed to play the Master, and not the victim-ofthe-drumbeat, things might have been very different. It remains true, however, that the Russell T Davies era retconned a drumbeat into the Master’s head, which the TVM did not do, nor the classic series either, for that matter. Segal gave the Master ridiculous comic book villain powers without explanation; Davies did this also, in End of Time, to an even more excessive degree. Segal gave the TARDIS an overlarge, museum-like interior. It was perhaps too grandiose, and unworthy compared to the classic series interior, but at least it looked like a proper time machine, and echoed the wooden console room that

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 Tom Baker occasionally used. The Russell T Davies console, on the other hand, was not only overlarge, but also hideous, as though a Zygon had thrown up. Segal had the Doctor kiss Grace twice. RTD had the Doctor have a sappy, over the top romantic relationship with Rose, who was clearly a Mary Sue. Then had Martha pine after him like a lovesick puppy, and victimized Sarah-Jane in a similar manner. Then, of course, there’s the thing that RTD did wrong that Segal did not. The Cybermen were turned into a moronic parody of themselves. (A classic series confrontation between the Daleks and Cybermen would have been much more evenly matched. Of course, RTD Cybusmen are not true Cybermen by any stretch of the imagination). Then there is the Time War. Wiping out the Time Lords completely (except for the pseudo-Master). Then later implying in End of Time that it was a good thing, since they had all gone crazy. The Time Lords were difficult, snooty, arrogant, and isolationist, getting involved in galactic affairs only when they had to, but there were good people amongst them as well as bad. RTD just threw the entire race (and portion of the mythology) under the bus, something else that Segal did not do. Segal had one opportunity to cast the role of the Doctor, and he chose Paul McGann. In his roughly one hour’s worth of screen time, McGann embodied the Doctor in several different aspects, all of them with verve and energy. RTD had two opportunities to cast the Doctor. His first choice was Christopher Eccleston. A poor fit, Eccleston only displayed Doctor-ish behavior twice; in the “Earth revolving” speech in Rose, and the “Every now and then a victim is spared” speechin Boomtown. RTD’s

second choice was David Tennant. A true fan, Tennant’s energy was high in his early episodes, but after School Reunion his spark faded. After that he was little more than a cheerful cosplayer. By the time he reached his final specials, his performance was truly cringeworthy. It has been mentioned to me that the TVM wasn’t child friendly enough, or didn’t have enough material for children. I would reply that the TVM is no worse in this than, say, the Hincliffe era. Also look at An Unearthly Child, The Aztecs, or most of Colin Baker’s run. I wouldn’t say the RTD era was child friendly, either. Adolescent friendly, perhaps, but not child friendly. The only counter argument remaining to the pro-RTD crowd would be that if the TVM had gone to series, it too would have committed terrific outrages against the mythos. To which I answer, it’s too bad we never got to find out. But we do know that any such outrages would not have included a Time War or a Master with a drumbeat in his head. I have thus far confined my critique to RTD, and not spoken of Moffat. It is true that Moffat improved the overall writing quality of the show, and cast an excellent Doctor in Matt Smith. However, he failed to clean up the mess RTD made of the mythos, only partially repairing the damage done to the Cybermen, and not at all, so far, to the Time Lords. Then of course, there is the archetypal Mary Sue, River Song. Moffat’s over reliance on story arcs will be addressed in another narrative. The TV Movie was far from perfect. But at least it was Doctor Who. The RTD era was, sadly, not.  JAY McINTYRE

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

Meet The Fanziners Recently, the Gallifrey Base forum has featured fanzines as part of its on-going ‘Timelash’ series, where members would look at a certain aspect of Who fandom and chat about it. Despite the majority of the chat being devoted to those fanzines produced during the 80’s/90’s, we current fanzines got a mention. So to give more people an insight into fanzines, we have moidered our fellow fanzine editors about their experiences and views on fanzines and fandom in general. At least it’ll save you from hearing more bollocks from me for a few pages.

Here we have contributions from Editors Matt Powell (RTP Productions), Leslie McMurtry (The Terrible Zodin) and Richard Farrell (Plaything of Sutekh) Why are you involved with a fanzine/How did it start? Matt: It all began for me in France. We were visiting relatives for two weeks and I was so bored! I then started on PowerPoint to come up with a fanzine called "DW: Reverse the Polarity" and I loved making it! So I decided to keep it going which eventually ended up with me launching the only Torchwood magazine and more! Leslie: The first Doctor Who fanzine which I knew was Paul Castle’s Shooty Dog Thing. At the time, being back home in the States, I didn’t even really know what an A5-sized “nostalgic” fanzine was. However, I liked SDT and contributed to it. However, Paul’s vision of his ‘zine was different from much of what I wanted to submit and because I had worked on a literary magazine during University, Scribendi, I thought I would “do it myself” (which I’ve since learned is the motto of the earliest punk fandom magazines from the late ‘70s . . .). This was in 2008, when I assembled a few other volunteers to contribute to the first issue.

Richard: I'd contributed to Who fanzines for a few years, including John Connors' Faze and This Way Up - these covered a variety of topics (SF and non-genre). I'd seen the recent wave of Who fanzines and though that as we knew a good designer, good writers and so on, we should have a go at a 100% Who zine ourselves and that's how 'Plaything of Sutekh' came about. I suppose I wanted to drive the bus myself for a change! What does your fanzine cover? Does it have a certain style, or niche? Matt: I have a few fanzines: firstly there's The Hub: the only Torchwood magazine available! More recent/future issues are packed with interviews, exciting features and other content that keeps the flame of Torchwood alive. I then released Eleventh Hour earlier this year which is the first part of a celebration of Matt Smith's tenure as the Doctor. I am working on a "Second Season" edition of the fanzine but I have ideas to make it bigger and better... I also, on occasion, release "Wibbly Wobbly

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 Timey Wimey" which is a generic Whozine that brings interviews and is my "little rambling fanzine." I try to style them as if they are professional fanzines: I use Adobe InDesign so I do have the capability of making something great. Leslie: The idea is that The Terrible Zodin is a more female fan-oriented fanzine. In practice, our content is split fairly evenly between the sexes, though we tend to get a lot of art by women (mostly from deviantART). Female fans have been a presence in Doctor Who fandom, I understand, since at least the ‘80s (in fact, I read in Dominic Sandbrook’s Never Had It So Good of a teenage girl in the early 1960s who watched Doctor Who every Saturday before she went to the highlight of her week, the dance). I’ve seen plenty of Doctor Who fanzines in which women have contributed, but to my knowledge TTZ is the only current fanzine which has a female editor. Richard: Our style, such as it is, would revolve around the humour and original art which supports some experienced writers who are able to 'get under the bonnet' of Who and look at it anew, even the stuff noone likes. Did you have any inspiration to start your fanzine? Matt: Not really: my passion for Doctor Who really drove the idea in the end. I became a huge fan in 2010, (even though I was a pretty big one since 2005,) so it felt right to do something like this.

present new facts, interviews etc or perhaps make readers think about familiar stories in a different way. What do you think is the most rewarding aspect of producing a fanzine? Matt: Giving fans something extra: I brand myself "RTPProductions" and I have some huge plans both in fanzines and out of fanzines. I've managed to interview a wide array of stars over my two year tenure which I hope has given fans a chance to hear from the people behind them. Alsoit's a great talking point to fans: Karen Gillan and Matt Smith both were very happy and thankful when I gave them a copy of Eleventh Hour; Eve Myles was so overwhelmed by The Hub that she signed it for free; Tony Lee got me to sign a copy of Eleventh Hour! It's so hard to explain but it feels amazing to have people like that and fans give amazing feedback. Leslie: I get really excited when people whose art I admire agree to illustrate TTZ. And ditto when I read an article someone’s sent it which I think is really great. The reward is when the issue comes out and you feel a sense of accomplishment. We’ve also had two TTZ meet ups now and they have been so much fun. Richard: It's good when articles roll in from other writers and they're just what I was looking for, but better. Also, tracking down someone to interview is good fun. Is there anything that frustrates you about producing a fanzine?

Leslie: As I said above, Shooty Dog Thing, Scribendi, as well as Doctor Who Magazine (not a fanzine, but I only started reading it regularly in 2007). Also in a way POTO, a Phantom of the Opera fanzine whose Millennium Issue clocked in at over 300 pages and was edited by a woman named Carrie Hernández.

Matt: I really struggle to maintain a full audience at times. I have a really crap start: my magazines got slaughtered towards the start but now I am producing things I could never have dreamt of. I really need to find a way to get people back to my work that went away from the start.

Richard: The best things I've read about Who have been in fanzines - bar none they opened my eyes to what I had been watching. So I wanted to do something similar which would either be able to

Leslie: 1) People listening to the whooshing sound of deadlines flying by; 2) People not paying attention to the style guide (I’m sorry to sound pedantic, but it’s very time-consuming to change all

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 submissions to the house style); 3) lack of feedback. Good, bad, or a little of both, please just tell us what you thought of the ‘zine! Richard: I'm no salesman so pushing the zine and getting it known is the hardest part for me. But we get there in the end! What do you think are the main differences between a fanzine and a magazine? Matt: At times: not much. The Hub intends to act as if it is a real magazine: news, interviews and similar features. We even had a preview of the first episode of TW:MD in one issue before anyone saw it! But I guess with something like Eleventh Hour or WWTW you have the freedom to be honest about what you think of certain episodes: what was interesting/not interesting etc as well as providing features DWM would never bring out. Leslie: Magazines have the money element involved. They often have a greater degree of “professionalism.” For me, this is where the line is blurred with something like Vworp Vworp which looks stunning. Fanzines tend to have more personality and an element of fun, sometimes an element of controversy (Vworp Vworp is definitely fun, so it qualifies as fanzine!). Richard: A fanzine can be more incisive, especially about recent stuff, than any magazine having to keep the production team onside. Fanzines never read like publicity releases - they don't stay neutral but say it how it is. Everyone behind a fanzine loves the subject matter as much as the readers. Fanzines are also invariably way funnier. Why do you think a fanzine is important to audience it’s made for? Matt: Fanzines offer fans a little bit more Doctor Who/Torchwood. We only get Doctor Who on screen for sometimes six weeks a year so we need something extra to keep us going. I'm so glad that I provide this to people.

Leslie: This may be an odd way to answer the question, but here goes . . . as a creative writer as well as fanzine editor (and PhD candidate and so on . . .), when I write the first draft, I write for myself primarily—I try not to think about the audience so much; they are important, but secondary to the first creative impulse. When I am writing for TTZ, I write for myself, to be honest—I write what I want to say because it’s my fanzine and my forum to do so. Obviously when swapping to put on the “editor” hat I revert to what stylistic decisions will keep the fanzine to its (hopefully) high standard and will include as many voices from the audience as possible. Richard: I think a fanzine cuts out the gloss and gets to the point quicker and better. Do you think that fanzines are still able to play a role in fandom, despite the rise of Social Networking, Blogs and Forums? Matt: Yes, it gives fans the chance to write about their shows and not jut express their thoughts in 140 characters. One of the writers of The Hub said to me that it is such an honour to be writing about the show they love. Leslie: I just saw this archive of paper fanzines from the early ‘80s at the British Library, and I know you couldn’t do fanzines any other way then, but they feel real, like lasting documents. Many people before me have cited the fact that to get an in depth look at any issues facing fans today, you need the fanzine—the Internet, etc, are an outlet for what Matt Hills calls “just-in-time” fandom. TTZ still uses all three of those things—social networking, blogs, and forums—to help promote. And TTZ is a PDF online zine, which would not be possible without technology in a way that the print zines don’t have to worry about so much. Richard: The internet gives an instant response to new episodes which is fine,

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 but that's not everything. Fanzines are the place for longer, more considered writing. Do you think ‘official’ outlets, such as DWM, should be doing (even) more to inspire fans to be creative? Matt: I think DWM should have a fan page where fanzines, conventions and more are showcased. Real fandom is not shown in full sometimes: you have to dive into the internet to see the amazing work such as cosplay and these magazines. I sometimes struggle to gain new people into my audience- something like that would really help. Leslie: For something unrelated to Doctor Who, I read a lot recently about different fandoms and the primarily ethnographic way pop culture researchers looked what fans did. The “Not We” I think sometimes hold us at arm’s length and consider our creative efforts puny and/or just cynical money-spinning devices. In some senses, having creative outlets as fans is easier now than ever before because there are so many ways to do so, so I wouldn’t necessarily expect the “official outlets” to do anything else about it. Richard: They used to push fanzines, there must be a reason why they don't/can't. But the internet's a powerful way to market.

RTP Productions

reversethepolarityproductions. wordpress.com

If you spoke to someone who’d never even read a fanzine, how would you persuade them to pick one up? Matt: I'd say this: "Do you want some extra Doctor Who in your life? Want to hear from the people behind it? Like fiction? Want to read me rant? Then PICK IT UP!" Or i'd hold a gun to their head until they read it! Leslie: I think I would use the (visual) art to draw them in (assuming the fanzine had visual art). Once they’d had a chance to admire that, I think I’d allow them to come to the conclusion that whoever did the art obviously put some time and effort into it, at which point they would hopefully realize that the writers and even the editor had put some time and effort into it. Even if they had no interest in the subject matter, hopefully they would be impressed enough by the effort to want to look into it further Richard: It'll make you think more about what goes into the subject. It'll show why you love the series so much then at the same time it'll make you laugh as it pulls the same series to bits. But it's all done with love! And I guarantee you'll go back and re-read the best ones more than once, they're that good. Thanks to all the editors of answering our questions! Be sure to check out their fanzines by using the links below

The Terrible Zodin

doctorwhottz.blogspot.co.uk/

Plaything of Sutekh

playthingofsutekh.blogspot.co.uk

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

The Krotons: A Fan Divided possibly the worst adventure from the whole B&W era, and his fourth script, 1971’s Terror of The Autons is another patchy affair giving the viewer easily the least likeable Doctor from the entire original run - even if he does ramp up the scares.

I really want to like The Krotons. It ticks lots of boxes, but somehow it doesn’t quite work as a piece of television. On the plus side it’s a Robert Holmes script, which is not a fast track to brilliance although most of his work ranks amongst the very best of the Classic series output. It’s directed by David Maloney – and the same reasons apply to him. The regulars are on top form and there are some strong guest performances. The story has an interesting premise and on the whole it’s visually engaging. Why then does it fail? It being Robert Holmes’ first script for the series is often cited as a reason for forgiveness. But that’s pure fan generosity, knowing he would go on to write some truly brilliant stories in later years. He wasn’t new to the craft of writing for television, so there’s not really any excuse why his first script shouldn’t have been as good as later ones. It’s a capable script with some good ideas, but the humanoid Gond characters are dull and lifeless and that’s it’s major failing. It’s worth pointing out that in terms of stories broadcast Holmes would pen three out of five at the latter end of season 6 and the beginning of season 7. That signifies a reliable and creative writer and a production team liking the output. His third story, Spearhead From Space is indeed a classic, but his second effort The Space Pirates is

Similarly David Maloney was a Who director in demand at the time, working on the show almost constantly from mid1968 through to early 1969 directing three of season 6’s seven stories. It’s no wonder he took a four year break afterwards. Maloney was a fresh director at this time, really cutting his teeth on these final Troughton adventures. He does a capable job on The Krotons, but that’s all – and in fairness it’s as much as could be expected of anyone directing a last-minute replacement script. In some ways it’s refreshing and sobering that The Krotons fails. It gives the lie to the idea that if you match up a top writer and top director they can just ‘phone it in’ as a guaranteed instant classic. No matter what anyone involved did, though, I believe that this story was always going to fail. It’s pretty well documented that there were problems behind the scenes at this time. It’s possible that viewers would have got bored if season 6 had continued to churn out the sort of ‘base under siege’ material season 5 dished up week on week – popular as it may have been, Derrick Sherwin was certainly bored of it. It’s also clear that Peter Bryant was rather weak and ineffectual as producer and Derrick Sherwin was struggling to fill the gap and find a direction in which to take the programme. Add to the mix a leading man who was becoming increasingly tired and bad tempered with the workload and it’s surprising in all

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 honesty that season 6 was as good as it turned out to be! The Invasion, The Seeds of Death and episode one of The Mind Robber are all excellent. The War Games is also excellent, but it gets away with it through sheer bravado more than anything, being dragged out through ten episodes. The Dominators and The Space Pirates are dreadful. The remainder of The Mind Robber is different, and pretty good, but clearly an experiment not to be repeated. The Krotons is our fence, it’s a firm ‘OK’. As we all know The Krotons should have been The Prison In Space - all PVC, hot pants and bosoms. It sounds like utter crap; a clumsy phallocentric satire on women’s liberation for smug men to toss off to, best avoided and left to the likes of The Two Ronnies, Carry On Girls and various awful 1970s ITV sitcoms with no integrity. We have much to be thankful for that sanity reigned and The Krotons took its place, but eleventh hour decisions leave little time for planning, thought and story development. It’s not difficult to see how the Gonds could have been made more interesting. Some inkling of the power struggle between Selris and Eelek would have added character dimensions, and involving Thara as the assumed natural successor to Selris would have created an interesting stand-off between two strong performances by Gilbert Wynne and Philip Madoc. As it turns out I feel a bit sorry for Wynne - Thara starts as a firebrand but after episode two he’s become a doting ineffectual romantic lead. Meanwhile off screen Eelek has picked up his reactionary attitude and arranged a coup. I know Philip Madoc always felt that Fenner in The Power Of Kroll was his worst Doctor Who character, with no progression and nowhere really to go, but he at least has stability and continuity throughout. Eelek is whatever Holmes needs him to be in each scene and any interesting character moments happen off screen.

His revolution comes from nowhere and he’s not even given a courtesy pay-off or comeuppance at the end. He’s not really a villain, since he’s only there when the story needs him; he’s not driving the story in any real sense.

Selris could have more depth, as an old, tired leader desperate to hold on to his position of power. But James Copeland plays him with all the charisma of a cold slice of toast, standing there with his fists permanently clenched by his side and his eyes constantly squinting – presumably either because the studio lights are too bright or he’s struggling to remember his next line. Either way he’s only slightly less wooden than the TARDIS prop. If they wanted a comedy Scotsman in the cast they should have got Stanley Baxter. In fact James Cairncross’ Beta is the only three dimensional Gond character. He’s got a bit of charm and integrity and it’s a pity more wasn’t made of him earlier on, perhaps assisting with treating Vana’s catalepsy..? The regulars on the other hand are all on great form. In many ways it was right that this story was chosen for the 1981 ‘Five Faces’ repeat season, as Troughton is rarely better. Famously Fraser Hines was upset at losing The Prison In Space so he makes up for it by sneaking a grab of Wendy Padbury’s left boob at the start of part two. When she’s

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 not being molested Padbury has great fun with Troughton and the teaching machines and those scenes are an utter joy to watch. Wendy Padbury seems to have been left with the costume she would have worn in The Prison In Space, showing how impractical PVC outfits are for week-inweek-out sci-fi exertion (heaven only knows what would have happened if they’d made the serial and all the costumes had started to split – or maybe that was part of the idea..?!) Since Selris seems to be wearing an armoured bustier unlike the other Gonds’ bland allin-one outfits I can’t help but assume James Copeland was also given a costume originally made for the shelved serial as well. Perhaps that’s why he’s permanently tensed? I’ve deliberately avoided the Krotons themselves so far. What can one say? They don’t look too bad from the waist up. But were they ever going to be impressive? They’re the last in a line of 1960s robo-villains that all want to replace the daleks and all fail. Do they look any worse than the war machines or the quarks? No. When you see them full length you can’t help but spot the operators knees against the rubber skirt as they waddle around. That could so easily have been the fate of the daleks as well, but you can only pull the solid skirt trick once and the cybermen had already monopolised silver trousers. I like the voices and I like the concept of crystalline-based life forms using mental energy to exist. Holmes gives them individuality and originality as a race by making them unable to sense in the way we do, relying instead on assistance from their dynotrope. They can give a nasty nip with their pincers as well! It’s easy to see the titular monsters as the weak point of the story, but in my view it’s their repressed humanoids that are to blame.

What is often overlooked, but is also a major contributing factor to the final piece is the lack of incidental music. The Dominators suffers in the same way. The Krotons is smack between The Invasion and The Seeds of Death, two stories with some of the most impressive and atmospheric incidental music of the original series. There’s radiophonic atmos sound, but it doesn’t guide the viewer or signify moments of tension or drama in the way that music does. This is another reason why, in my opinion, the story fails as a finished product. Regardless of the artistic merits of the story, the recent DVD release is fabulous. The impressive picture and sound quality allows the story to present itself for judgment unapologetically – it’s not hiding anything. I appreciated one moment in particular towards the end of episode two, where Jamie enters the dynotrope and you can now see the reflection of the waddling Kroton in the door as it sneaks up to grab him from the side – that would have been lost on the fuzzy old prints but now we have an ‘it’s behind you’ moment! Messrs Guerrier and Lidster give us another dose of ‘Strange Love’ in Sarah Jane’s attic, essentially capturing points that many fans would mull over in a pub discussion. These featurettes are all right, but there’s something mildly annoying about watching other fans doing what you do with your mates down the pub so it’s probably for the best that the range is limited. I’m really enjoying these ‘Doctor Who Stories’ interviews recorded back in 2003. They’ve got an energy and freshness that’s occasionally missing on those recorded specifically for DVD. Here we get part one of Frazer Hines contribution. Even though he did something similar for The Mind Robber DVD back in 2005 it doesn’t feel like he’s re-treading the same ground here and I look forward to the second part – presumably on The Ice Warriors

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 whenever that comes out, everything else has already released or re-released.

since been

There’s little that a ‘making of’ documentary would raise that isn’t covered either by the production subtitles or commentary, or by the discussion of season 6 in Ed Stradling’s wonderful ‘Second Time Around: The Troughton Years’ feature. This trundle through each of his stories from 66-69 is worth the price of the DVD by itself. My only grumble would be them glossing

over some of the season 6 script problems a bit too quickly. I’d have liked at least a courtesy mention of the planned third Yeti / Great Intelligence story Laird of The McCrimmon that was due to be Troughton’s swansong but withdrawn. I know it’s covered in ‘Recharge and Equalise’ on the Dominators DVD, but it would have been nice to see it in context here with the rest of the Troughton output. Also someone should have reminded Terrance Dicks to put his teeth in!

 TIM GAMBRELL

SEPARATED AT BIRTH??? Margaret Slitheen

Angela Merkel

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Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

John Nathan Turner: A Constant Reckoning As a fan who’d often prefer it if the show had ended in 1981/83 with its dignity intact and its memories untarnished, rather than continued its rapid decline, producing a corrosive critical mass of bad work, I’m not inclined to see this as a positive contribution. Simply put, a long running, much loved show like Doctor Who was never going to just be ended overnight, no matter how bad it got.

In issue 10, Tim Jousma wrote a concise defence of late Doctor Who producer John Nathan Turner. A controversial, divisive, and much unforgiven figure who oversaw the classic show’s final decade, and resultantly accumulated a lot of blame for the show’s decline and demise. Tim Jousma explained his position, giving key reasons for believing John Nathan Turner was not responsible either for the decline or demise of the show. For me there’s no doubt that JNT was almost entirely responsible for the show’s decline (other potential figures of blame like Eric Saward or Ian Levine, wouldn’t have even been involved with the show if JNT hadn’t shown such poor judgement in welcoming them onboard). But I don’t believe he was responsible for the show’s demise. That was arguably in other hands. So this is a rebuttal somewhat to Tim’s rather openended preaching to the converted. But also one that I hope meets Tim’s conclusions half-way. To answer Tim’s article, point by point: 5. His run lasted for nine years

Moreover, the show’s decline in the 80’s was a remarkably eccentric one. During a joyless, stale season of plastic, unlikeable characters and incoherent, mean-spirited writing, one would be momentarily blindsided by an Enlightenment or Revelation of the Daleks, where the writing was at its sharpest, and all departments worked to make it the best it could be, resulting in an awe-inspiring story that could have launched a dozen sci-fi subgenres alone. For those brief weeks the show looked like it had never been healthier or fresher. Then sadly, inevitably it proves to be a freak anomaly before the quality immediately drops and normal transmission resumes. Many fans forgave everything for that 10%. The show didn’t merely die, it suffered a prolonged death by a thousand cuts. If the show was allowed to carry on that long, I’d say that was more down to BBC neglect than anything. Also, I feel that praising JNT for keeping the show on air as an achievement in itself, regardless of its quality, is another example of that cultish fannish tendency to wildly praise new episodes simply for existing at all, as though bad Doctor Who is preferable to no Doctor Who. This particularly happened during the RTD era.

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 4. The end of the Sonic Screwdriver and K9 This point presupposes this change was either needed or wanted by popular demand. The show’s ratings figures before and after JNT took over, tells the opposite story. I’m also unmoved by Tim’s assertion that removing them made the Doctor rely on his wits more. No examples of this are given, and I suspect can’t be found without overturning a wealth of stones. Frankly watching the Fifth Doctor convinces me that under JNT, the Doctor’s wits themselves had been gotten rid of too. This was a Doctor who surrendered to Mawdryn, only being saved by a lucky fluke of the two Brigadiers’ arrival, and struggled to overcome the Master’s most witless schemes, and took till the end of a story to realise he can destroy his enemies with the conveniently abundant canisters of Hexacromite gas or Movellan plague that were lying at his feet all along (funny how they ended up replacing the sonic screwdriver with more contrived ‘easy fix’ plot devices)- by which time no-one was left alive for him to save. No wonder the public began to find the show unwatchable. And whilst fans claim this made the Doctor more fallible, and raised the stakes, if the Doctor’s made too much of a negligent liability and a compulsive loser to root for anymore, then what’s the point? Far from breeding uncertainty about whether the Doctor will pull through this time, it pushes the certainty too far the other way to the point where his failure is guaranteed, and there’s no point in caring. Watching an impotent hero refuse to act against adversity and be unmoved into any action by dramatic or tragic events, is the very definition of anti-drama at its most corrosive. By disarming the Doctor, writers had to resort to weakening his adversities to sustain the 90 minute plot machinations,

so they then had to weaken the Doctor further to level the odds. By the time Davison’s Doctor got round to facing the Daleks, they had become so weakened and self-destructive that they trapped the Doctor right where he needed to be at their biological weapons’ dump. When getting rid of the sonic screwdriver and K9, it’s crucial you replace them with something that keeps the Doctor still capable and reliable, and maintains the suspension of disbelief that this man has survived for centuries righting wrongs in a savage universe. JNT failed to do so, miserably. 3. Ace Scant compensation for quickly getting rid of Romana, and replacing her with Adric. 2. The Doctors I’d say this was the worst thing about JNT’s era. Frankly I could forgive everything else. The cliché goes that even in the worst stories the Doctor remains the shining light of hope that makes it worth watching. Yet unbelievably, in the awful Warriors of the Deep and Twin Dilemma, the portrayal of the Doctor actually manages to be the absolute worst thing about them. Every effort seemed taken to portray him as a humanity-hating lunatic and a dangerous liability that the audience has no chance in hell of liking or being anywhere near on the same page as. Trashing over a decade’s worth of work by past writers and producers to build the Doctor up as an inspiring, intelligent, charming hero. And if not for those previous 20 years’ good work, I doubt the show would’ve lasted another season after. Certainly no-one in their right mind would have wanted to save it. Many fans argued that “it’s because he’s an alien” and tried to find whatever precedents they could in the show’s

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 history to prove this repugnant, moronic characterisation of the Doctor was somehow definitive. As if JNT’s regime and the Levine/DWM fan industrial complex in their overwhelmingly pofaced, Orwellian redefinition and branding of the show’s history, had convinced fandom “this new version is the past and always has been”.

decisions, I’d at best describe Peter Davison as often the best actor onscreen, by default. I’d at best describe Colin Baker as a good choice, badly chosen. I’d at best describe McCoy as inconsistent at first but who finally began to demonstrate potential to fill that Tom Baker shaped hole that had haunted the show all decade.

With Twin Dilemma’s horrid foundation of the Sixth Doctor, I suspect JNT’s narcissism and fixation with the adulation of fan convention crowds had developed into the showrunner’s equivalent of Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. Certainly JNT was going by fan opinion for what would appeal to convention crowds, and in Colin Baker he’d actually cast a knowledgeable fan who had suggested getting the character back to his Hartnellian roots. JNT thought this would appeal to fandom. But it all went horribly wrong.

These Doctors work so well on audio because they’re consciously written to avoid the worst character failings of the 80’s Doctors onscreen. The sad truth is the Fifth and Sixth Doctors only worked when written against type. It’s argued that the more pleasant, compassionate Sixth Doctor of the audios is simply a continuation of what was intended on TV in a long term plan to start him unlikeable and irascible and then mellow and develop him over time into a more likeable Doctor. Frankly that just begs the question of why they couldn’t just not have made him unlikeable in the first place.

Tim argued how the Big Finish audios have proven the acting chops of all three of the 80’s Doctors. But I’m still unconvinced. I think the audios prove that these actors would eventually in their later years become seasoned into brilliant Doctors, but I don’t see that on screen. I still wince when other defenders of Matt Smith actually cite Peter Davison as proof that a young Doctor can work admirably. Because I think they’ve watched a different Davison era to me. When listening to the audios, I feel Peter Davison would be a brilliant Doctor now. But onscreen he was often over-earnest in a directionless way that suggested he needed better directors- notably he shines when Fiona Cumming or Graeme Harper is behind the camera. Eric Saward claimed Colin was miscast as leading man and would have worked better as a supporting character actor. Colin’s more than proved otherwise on audio, but his portrayal onscreen was often too patchy and slippery. As casting

1. The BBC didn’t want to pay for the show I’d say that lack of money had little to do with the show’s decline in the 80’s. If you gave Warriors of the Deep or Twin Dilemma a Hollywood budget, they’d still be unbroadcastable on a purely scripting level. As I highlighted about the repugnant characterisation of the 80’s Doctors, the show was disgraced by more than just its cheap aesthetics. So the central issue of Tim’s piece is: Was the apathy of the BBC more responsible for the show’s decline than JNT’s producership? Well I struggle to believe that, given how the BBC allocated JNT his desired slots for unprecedented feature length specials like The Five Doctors, and K9 and Company. I can’t help wonder if it was more a case of the BBC giving the show plenty of faith, only for the show under

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 JNT to keep spitting it back in their faces.

recreate its old glory days with poor remakes of its past monster stories.

Certainly there was no micromanagement of the show anymore. In the late 70’s the Head of Serials kept a watchful eye over script commissions, and had the right of approval, and often remarked upon where the show risked getting too violent, too comedic, or selling the female companion short. This was no longer done under JNT, so noone seemed to curb the show’s tendency for plastic companions, or ignoring the casual viewer in favour of the fanbase. This is partly due to changes in BBC management, but I suspect also because the BBC were so impressed with JNT’s early work, that a multitude of sins went forgiven.

Is there a link between the show’s economic conditions and the kind of personality that came to produce it? The image painted about John Nathan Turner is of a furiously driven and highfunctioning man who was burning with ideas for how to do the show. But he was uncompromising, dictatorial and neurotic in this approach and even quite short-fused and volatile. With so many ideas and problem-solving strategies at once that he had a tendency to gradually make more problems than solve them.

Warriors of the Deep and Twin Dilemma frankly leave me believing the series deserved cancellation, and even wishing the cancellation had come beforehand. But paradoxically, I believe the show’s declining quality had almost nothing to do with the cancellation. BBC controller Michael Grade, who made the cancellation decision, had long hated the show and would have cancelled the show at its creative peak in the mid 70’s if he could have. His official reasons for cancelling the show in 1985 which were ‘concerns’ about the show’s violent content, are completely contradicted since when interviewed on Room 101 he laughed at the show’s cheapness and ineffectiveness at creating scares for children. How can it be ‘too violent’ for kid’s then? However, such coincidence must be accounted for. The standard answer would be the show fell victim to its own past success and longevity. The older it was, the more distant its glory days, the more vulnerable it was to perceptions that it could be done away with, and the more likely the show was to resort to desperate gimmicks and attempts to

With Warriors of the Deep and The Two Doctors being intended as fanpleasing showstoppers, JNT’s fixation with getting them just right, meant that his frustrating interference and arbitrary demands for story changes (mainly to appease Ian Levine’s continuity complaints) led to both Eric Saward and Robert Holmes producing their most bitter, meanspirited work and perhaps the wrongest characterisation of the Doctor ever. Eric Saward claims JNT was a control freak, and was quite suspiciously possessive of the show, and would become meticulous, controlling and short-tempered over the strangest things. Perhaps this paranoid behaviour stemmed from how when JNT began, the BBC brought Barry Letts in as executive producer to oversee JNT’s first season. Perhaps this made JNT anxious about his job security and wary of having his authority undermined. Christopher Bidmead claims JNT had a drink problem, and frankly watching incoherent, misjudged, shambolic and volatile stories like Resurrection of the Daleks and The Twin Dilemma, I see a show that even looks chemically run. Moreover this would go some way to explaining his faulty judgement, and a certain self-destructive compulsivity that took over the show, turning even the

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 Doctor into a bad risk. Hence why for some fans it’s hard to believe JNT didn’t deliberately intend to ruin the show, when some of the results onscreen, such as Twin Dilemma’s closing line, make it hard to see otherwise. Christopher Priest and PJ Hammond describe being driven off by JNT’s narcissism that valued fan adulation and yes-men over good writers, and deliberately kept experienced writers off the show to avoid having anyone around who might stand up to him. Eric Saward had to fight an uphill struggle to get Robert Holmes on the show. And so JNT’s worser, most wrongheaded ideas couldn’t be vetoed, whilst he’d arbitrarily reject good scripts and good writers, especially those very writers who fundamentally understood the Doctor as a character. However, it’s worth noting Christopher Priest was the earliest example of JNT trying out a high-profile writer. With JNT’s tendency to keep changing the companion line-up, Priest became frustrated at having to rewrite his script and demanded an additional writer’s fee. Then things got ugly. But significantly, even here the economics of the show’s limited budget played its part, which might explain JNT’s reluctance to have high-profile writers on the show again. So there’s plenty to suggest why JNT is simultaneously seen as a hard-working man of passion who performed many miracles initially, and yet is also seen as someone who was trouble from the start. He got the job on the grounds that he was good with accounting, and stretching the pound of the show’s meagre budget. He was the one who suggested to his predecessor Graham Williams that City of Death would work out cheaper as an overseas shoot. Unfortunately I think this led to JNT being viewed by the BBC as the one man who could give the show a professional sheen with the limited budget it had, and that whilst he did that,

it justified what little money the BBC spent on the show. Perhaps because it was such an underfunded, technically difficult, demanding show to produce, no-one else wanted the job, even before the cancellation crisis turned the show into a poisoned chalice. However JNT seemed to thrive on such crisis conditions. But if JNT already was an uncompromising figure who was difficult to work under, then surely the years of overworking himself, consuming his life, would only make him more mechanical, stubborn, blinkered and ultimately out of touch, contributing to a more heartless, alienating show. After all that’s often the makings of a dysfunctional family. Perhaps that explains the coincidence. The show being in such an underfunded, chaotic, desperate state by the late 70’s, made it more likely for a ruthlessly driven, uncompromising figure to rise up the ranks. The same way that impoverished Third World countries are the perfect environmental conditions for tyrants to rise to power. Although JNT’s era became more like a country divided between three embittered factions - JNT, Saward, and Levine- with their own separate agendas trying to wrestle for control. Most defences of JNT that amount to ‘he was made to stay’, fail to move me, because they tend to refer to the latter half of the 80’s which was after the damage was done. But it is true that whilst making Season 20, the ever workaholic JNT was drawing up plans to launch a revival of the 60’s soap opera Compact which he’d been discussing with the show’s original creators. He intended to move onto that, and presumably leave Doctor Who on The Five Doctors (a fitting swansong). But the BBC rejected the proposal. Likewise Eric Saward was drawing up plans to leave and collaborate with Barbara Clegg on a planned sci-fi show called

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 Stargazers, which again got rejected. These things happen, but they couldn’t have happened at a worser time because this was exactly the point where either or both JNT and Eric should have left. Infact even Troy Kennedy Martin had a wealth of political scripts rejected by the BBC in the early 80’s before finally Edge of Darkness got commissioned. The BBC was becoming more reactionary, and entering into a financial shortfall that arguably made the corporation cautious about taking risks and spending money on new shows. It was this financial shortfall that led to Michael Grade being brought in to downsize the company, which is where Doctor Who’s cancellation crisis happened. Should JNT have just never got the job? Well there’s certain gems from JNT’s early run that I’d miss, which makes me wonder if he was initially exactly the producer the show needed to give it a kick up the 80’s, but who unfortunately stayed long enough to undo all his initial good work. Apart from some impressive promotional and publicity work, what JNT brought to the show was a sense of showmanship that hadn’t been seen since Talons of Weng Chiang. Sure Earthshock and The Five Doctors were superficial affairs that placed spectacle over plot, but they had an irresistible glee, iconography and punch that made many old fans fall in love with the show again, and arguably birthed many new fans, making them want to see more of this show’s exhilarating universe. Both stories suggested new beginnings for the show. Unfortunately they were both followed by examples of JNT’s showmanship at its most disastrous. In retrospect Earthshock probably began the show’s road to ruin in a mess of nihilistic violence and continuity, and by this fixation with the idea that the Doctor had become too invincible and that now it was time to hit him close to home.

Something you can’t do to the Doctor unless you’re really careful. But instead they did it carelessly, to excess. From hereon, with things becoming more volatile behind the scenes, the once pragmatic, rational Doctor became increasingly characterised by the worst emotional imbalances. Culminating in Twin Dilemma. Earthshock and The Five Doctors toed a careful line of ‘less is more’. But JNT’s style of showmanship gradually became more lurid, sordid, and excess-driven. It became about the spectacle of catastrophe, of pointless disaster, degradation, death, impotence and failure. As though JNT’s narcissistic impulses were leading to the worst kind of ‘making a scene’ with pitiful, selfaggrandising characterisation of the Doctor, reducing the once proud, selfwilled figure to a helpless puppet. Meanwhile the audience was rendered utterly helpless witnesses to this masochistic, repugnant display of disaster. The fruitlessly neurotic nature of JNT’s producership achieved its own nauseating, hope-destroying nihilism, like watching someone self-harming. Such a comedown for a show that was once about human endeavour and about one man making a difference. JNT’s difficult inflexibility was a problem compounded by the BBC’s own inflexibility at the time. But had JNT left on The Five Doctors, fandom would be unanimously praising of him, he’d be remembered for that early period of glory, and what followed would probably build on that success. David Maloney, Peter Moffatt or Fiona Cumming would be my picks for new producer, since they’d worked closely with the best writers and were very faithful to a writer’s vision. David Maloney’s ties with Terry Nation would make him ideal for negotiating new Dalek stories. Under a new production team, Warriors of the Deep would probably be judged

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11 logistically unfilmable and abandoned. Or at least wouldn’t have suffered Eric Saward’s rewrites that went for a total body-count that showed up the Doctor as a total liability, and characterised the Doctor with passive aggression and incoherent misanthropy that made it appear he’d impotently failed to save the humans just to spite them. Resurrection of the Daleks probably would have still happened, since Daleks were a huge audience draw. A chance encounter between Terry Nation and JNT at a 1982 American convention had been crucial in getting the story cleared, and by 1983 the script was approved and ready. And whilst much about the story is messy, excessive, misjudged and repugnant, it has some gem moments of existentially reckoning with the Doctor and his purpose in a universe that’s become ‘a haven for violent souls’. So I think I could live with it. It’s one of few mid-80’s stories in which the audience is able to be on the same page as the Doctor. The story’s excess killings and the Doctor being out of his depth would seem appropriately inevitable with this particular enemy, and could be forgivable if it was a one-off, rather than the rule. If the show didn’t or couldn’t feature the Daleks again, Resurrection of the Daleks would be an appropriate, apocalyptic final word on them. Same way that in JNT’s absence, Planet of Fire would be the end of the Master. The show would probably benefit ratingswise from the publicity of the Daleks’ return and the new Doctor’s casting, provided it wasn’t the unpleasant Sixth Doctor we ended up with, and provided he had better scripts. Writers Andrew Smith and Barbara Clegg, being the product of JNT’s ‘new blood’ policy, had demonstrated a strong understanding of the show in their outstanding one-off stories, Full Circle and Enlightenment.

They’d also submitted a wealth of enthusiastic new story ideas, which bizarrely nothing came of. Likewise Christopher Bailey said he left the show after Snakedance because he was neglected by the production team for months whilst writing his third script. Eric Saward must be blamed equally for this. But perhaps under a new team and fresh pairs of eyes, those stories would have a chance. Big Finish’s Lost Stories suggest an alternate Sixth Doctor era that featured potential classics like Point of Entry, Leviathan, Song of the Space Whale, The First Sontarans. Perhaps then the casual audience would have stood by the show, and supported it enough in the inevitable cancellation crisis to possibly overturn the BBC’s decision. Or at least the show mightn’t have needed a 15 year dust settling period before the BBC came round to the idea of its revival. It mightn’t have become remembered as an embarrassment. But without the BBC’s financial shortfall that kept JNT in place, the cancellation likely wouldn’t have happened at all. I don’t see JNT as victim of anymore than his own narcissistic martyr complex. But I think he can be seen as a reflection of the Thatcher years. Much like Margaret Thatcher, he defined progress as weeding out the old radicals, and had come up from a less privileged background into a prestigious elite of higher ups, and likewise overcompensated by administrating an arbitrary iron authority and a media cult of personality. He existed in a cut-throat, competitive time where people became obsessed with avaricious success, whilst many other people were left going wildly off the rails. JNT was a man who ended up seemingly doing both.  THOMAS COOKSON

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11

The (Not So) Famous Fives 5 Ways The Ponds Can Be Written Out  Stuck in an alternative universe  Killed off by River  Crash into Pre-Historic Earth just to make sure the job is done (transcribe that as you will)  Living happily in Leadworth  With a pen or a keyboard 5 Things Jenna-Louise Coleman Needs (Steady! – Ed)     

A good first script A bit of character Some decent clobber A minder to wade off the sea of geeks and press A mirror to see how nice she looks without fake tan

5 Olympic Events We’ve Been Enjoying, Despite Not Having A Clue What Is Going On     

Diving Judo Gymnastics Dressage (Horse Dancing) Ticketing

5 Fictional Characters Who Deserve A Good Hiding     

Postman Pat Bart Simpson Toby (from Curse of The Black Spot) (picking on kids eh? – Ed) Eddie from The Idiots Lantern Mr Grey

5 Things That You’ll Never See At A Doctor Who Convention

5 Ways To Avoid Spoilers

    

Cheap Merchandise Decent legroom Funny Compares A waft of Brut People willing to challenge you at ‘Up Peri(scopes)’

5 Doctor Who Swearwords     

Michael Grade Hiatus ‘Bring The Rani back’ ‘£54 for a Tom Baker doll’ ‘I don’t wanna go’

Don’t go on the internet Don’t read newspapers In fact, don’t talk to anyone Lock yourself up Don’t buy DWM

5 Demographics Who Read This Fanzine     

Classic Series Fans Fans who think we’re a ‘off-thecuff DWM’ People I know personally The CIA Anyone who can get it for free

Fish Fingers and Custard Issue 11