The Children's Own Programme That
blah blah blah
Part Two
Having covered my Dad in some detail, and in the interests
of equality, let me move on to talk about my Mum. On the basis of Dad
being Doctor Who, you might now be picturing her as a dizzy blonde who
screams a lot and has a perpetually twisted ankle, but no that would be
unfair and wholly inaccurate. My Mum's association with Doctor Who in fact
goes back to 1963, and the very first episode. She was (although I think
she'd probably prefer me to keep it quiet) a bit of a fan! Anybody want to
start a discussion about heredity...?
In late 1981 BBC2 philanthropically decided to show old Doctor Who
episodes on weekday evenings. To this day it remains utterly unbelievable
that they did, but for anybody who can remember it, that was THE most
exciting time in the show's history. In these days of VCRs and DVDs and
satellites, it's easy to forget that back then the only real contact with
past adventures was the Target range. In fact, until the advent of Doctor
Who Weekly in 1979 I don't honestly think I could have named the first
three actors to play the Doctor - they may have had their faces lovingly
rendered on the book covers by Mr Achilleos (before he began his strange
fascination for scantily-clad women) but their names were nowhere to be
seen. I suppose I could have consulted my brother's "The Making of Doctor
Who" (2nd edition) but I certainly hadn't committed the now-household
names of Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee to memory. So on November 2nd
1981, at 5:35, we were all there ready to watch "An Unearthly Child". (One
further aside: that episode was slightly less than 18 years old then, but
because I was only 10 it seemed to be a TV show dredged up from
prehistoric times. Now, 18 years ago is 1985 and the hiatus era, and seems
to me only slightly more than 5 minutes since. Ah well...)
So there we were, sat on rather than behind the sofa, about to watch the
first ever episode on our TV. Actually on two TVs - the colour one was on
the blink at the time, but only intermittently, so Dad (of course) had
rigged up both that and the big black & white one (normally in the
kitchen) so that they were stacked one on top the other, in case the
sitting-room one should give out at an inopportune moment. Can you imagine
that? The TV dying halfway through the first episode?! It was another 9 or
more years before the video release, I would probably have been scarred
for life.
There is a point to this, nearly swept away on a positive tsunami of
nostalgic reminiscence. Not long before it started my Mum innocently piped
up that she remembered the first episode from the first time round, with
its flashbacks and so on. I didn't say anything of course, but I was quite
sure that she was wrong, so wrong. Don't forget, I'd read 57 issues of
Doctor Who Weekly/Monthly by then, and I was quite sure that 'my' show did
not do flashbacks (and to be fair it doesn't, other than during the JNT
era. And in "Planet of the Spiders". And, well, during "An Unearthly
Child". Ahem.)
Within ten minutes, Mum was of course vindicated. Perhaps I should have
already learnt my lesson. Two years previously she had similarly piped up
during the opening credits of "City of Death" part one that this new story
was filmed in France. How my brother and I must have scoffed at her during
that opening shot of what looked like an alien world, and certainly did
not look like France. And how quiet we must have gone as the ship blew up
and suddenly the Doctor was wittering about bouquets from the top of the
Eiffel Tower. In, erm, France...
If my Dad is Doctor Who, then Ian's description of Susan that "She lets
her knowledge out a bit at a time..." could apply to my Mum. I've never
sat her down and interviewed her for a fanzine, but nevertheless over the
years I've gleaned a few more 1960s (or dawn of time) insights from my
Mum. On one occasion she apparently came home early from the Chapel Bazaar
so as not to miss an episode - an innocent enough confession you might
think nowadays, but in that time and space there were no greater crimes in
her calendar. Another time she, in passing, gave a neat one-line review of
fan-classic "The Celestial Toymaker" as, "That stupid one with the dolls."
To be fair I could hardly argue the point - she does have the advantage of
having actually seen it after all.
In later years of course (I say of course - somehow it seems appropriate
with that generation, but would seem very unnatural with mine) Mum grew
out of the programme. Probably, at a guess, around the time that I and my
brother became besotted with it in a real fan sense. When our main
priority at a family get together in January 1985 was to make sure we
didn't miss "Attack of the Cybermen" part 1 it's easy to see how the charm
of the programme may have worn off for her.
Nevertheless, there have still been occasional signs of interest. When I
got the video of "The Monster of Peladon" I was on holiday at Mum and
Dad's and having watched episode one I turned it off. Mum, however, was
actually quite interested to watch more, and I think we may even have
watched the whole thing then in one go. Just to reiterate, I am talking
about "The Monster of Peladon" here. I wouldn't even make my worst enemy
watch it in one sitting (if at all)!
Mum and Dad also watched the 1996 TV Movie, but like a lot of people they
didn't somehow feel it had caught that 'certain something'. I suspect the
association for them was of something from a certain time, whereas this
was something made 'now' and which therefore looked up-to-date. The
indefinable magic they were looking for was probably something it could
never have, namely to be an old programme. Ah well. As regards the new
series, my Mum is still puzzling over the comment she heard on the radio
that Doctor Who is "a gay icon" so whether she'll be watching in 2005 I
wouldn't like to say.
Before I move on I think it only reasonable to consider Mum and Dad as a
unit, as well as individually, as indeed I have somewhat already. Dad
still used to watch the show right up to the end (although his rather
accurate comment after "Silver Nemesis" part one was that it seemed to
have been made by people who wanted to finish the show off). But what I
mainly remember is that up to the end of Tom Baker's era, or put another
way, until the show was sent away from its Saturday night slot to hunt for
mid-week ratings, we used to watch it as a family. We probably didn't do
that all the time, and Mum may have sometimes taken the opportunity to do
the ironing while the three 'boys' were watching the TV (she certainly did
that later on when "The Twin Dilemma" part one aired, although
interestingly enough she did have the kitchen TV on - she wasn't impressed
with our Col!). But my memory tells me that in general we always did watch
it together in the 70s and early 80s. Sometimes it was held over us as a
threat - for some particularly ignominious offence (and of course nobody
can now remember what) my Mum barred my brother and I from watching 'next
week'. The episode in question was "The Leisure Hive" part 4, and it was
only due to some sterling defence work on the part of my Dad, in the main
I believe citing the superbly enticing part 3 cliffhanger as both his
exhibit A and his star witness, that we ever got to see that story finish
in 1980. My brother was also barred from watching "Timeflight" part 1, but
we won't dwell on that...
In the end, my final comment is really only that, looking back, we were
very lucky to have been able to watch Doctor Who in those days. A lot of
children did, of course, but there were always some at school on a Monday
who hadn't been allowed to, because it was too scary for children (the
parents missing the point entirely there I think). Part of the reason I
bore the Message Boards rigid with my admiration and fondness for the
Graham Williams era, and season 17 in particular, is because those were
the times I remember us sitting there as a single family unit, watching
Doctor Who on, I'm sure, several different levels. But all of us enjoying
it.
To be continued...
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