Back to At Home on the WebOn Saturday 15 December 1973, at the tender age of three years, I was traumatised by the sight of an actor playing a space army officer raising his helmet from his dome-shaped head to reveal the hideous features created by designer John Friedlander, at the end of the first (and only) BBC 1 broadcast of episode one of the Doctor Who serial The Time Warrior. Twenty-seven years, a lot of books, magazines and of course episodes (remember when those were actually being made, and not just endlessly recycled on UK Gold?) later, I'm still following the Doctor's adventures one way or another, whether in publishing, on video, on CD, in the many film rumours being repackaged in the newspapers, and in the other ways this venerable media franchise, and indeed British institution, continues in its strange afterlife eleven years after BBC production ended.
If you don't know what I'm talking about there are a number of Doctor Who sites on the net to enlighten you. In 1998 the BBC finally introduced their own official Doctor Who site, but thankfully this has not led to others being shut down en masse as has happened with sites celebrating some other series. The ones I most frequently use for reference purposes are Siobhan Morgan's Nitro Nine, and Outpost Gallifrey.
As a student, I was on the committee of the Oxford University Doctor Who Society from 1990 to 1993. The background picture on this site shows part of one of the highlights of my period on the committee, the visit of Sophie Aldred to the Society in February 1991. For those with other priorities, I was also one of the first members of the Oxford University Star Trek Society. I have also edited and published a Doctor Who-led fanzine, The Troglodyte, sadly now defunct as an ongoing exercise. There are a few copies still available.
My other Doctor Who activities have involved membership of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and contributions to its magazines Celestial Toyroom and Cosmic Masque. I have also written for several other Whozines, including Skaro, The Tides of Time, Circus, Faze, and In-Vision.
Below are links to photographs taken of two celebrity visits to Oxford:
Sophie
Aldred (February 1991)
Lalla
Ward (June 1996)
The Ascent of Fan was my first
contribution to Skaro for issue 8, published to
commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the first transmission
of Doctor Who in 1993.
Return to the Event Library was
originally written in 1994 and appeared in Skaro issue 9.
Thanks to Paul Dumont for the title.
Why in the Universe Are We Still Doing
This? originally appeared in Tides of Time issue 17 in
1995. It was written with an Oxford audience in mind, but I hope
other people find it of interest.
Independence Day. Neither a reference to
the 1997 film or to Richard Ford's novel, but to the liberating
effect of the Doctor Who TV movie upon an audience of
which I was a part. The article appeared in print in Skaro
issue 13, published in May 1997
Beyond Our Vision is a tribute to Sydney
Newman, written for inclusion in Tides of Time issue 21,
published in 1998.
Mixing
the Paints - was Philip Hinchcliffe's producership so
extraordinary? From Faze issue 14, 1998
Ice
up your Life! reviews The Ice Warriors Collection.
From Faze issue 15, 1998
Time and the Mark of the Rani, contributed
towards In-Vision issue 81: The Mark of the Rani,
1998
Guests
for the Night, requested for Celestial Toyroom,
March 1999, but never used.
The
Tippex Files, published in issue 18 of Faze,
examining over two decades of fan publishing.
To learn more about the aformentioned journals, write to:
CELESTIAL TOYROOM
and COSMIC MASQUE
Karen Davies, Publications Officer, DWAS, PO Box 519,
London SW17 9XW
SKARO
Vanessa Bishop, 4 Vernslade, Upper Weston, Bath BA1 4DN, UK
TIDES OF TIME
Matthew
Peacock, St Hugh's College, Oxford OX2 6LE, UK
FAZE
John Connors, 8 Henley Road, Liverpool L18 2DW, UK
CIRCUS
Colin
Brockhurst, 73 Vann Road, Haslemere, Surrey GU27 8BU, UK
IN-VISION
Publisher: Jeremy Bentham, 13 Northfield
Road, Borehamwood, Herts. WD6 5AE, UK
Editor: Anthony
Brown, 10 Gablefields, Sandon, Chelmsford, Essex CM2 7SP, UK
When writing to the above people for information, don't forget to send an SAE if within the UK, or IRCs if without.
Back to At Home on the Web