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News And Views - With the future of the show remaining in the balance, independent production now seems definite, with a suggestion that the series would move to a fifty minute complete episode format. The new US cable channel SF Channel, launching in early 1991, will be screeing the complete Hartnell and Troughton stories. New Fiction - The first Brief Encounters is by John Lucarotti and ties in with The Massacre. There is a three page prelude to a forthcoming comic strip story called Darkness, Falling and featuring the Brigadier. Reviews - Off The Shelf reviews the Survival novelisation ("not a bad book" 3.5/5), The Dominators video ("dire") and The Web Planet video ("one of the brightest jewels in Doctor Who's crown. Without doubt, the best release by the BBC so far.") Boxpops - Harry Enfield's Television Programme debuts on BBC2 on 8th November. Sky and BSB merge to form British Sky Broadcasting on 2nd November. Top of the pop charts in November 1990 was Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers. Skaro Says - Sidesk felt that the extra cost was a big leap, even for a one-off issue, although he acknowledged that the flexi-disc was a great giveaway. He didn't think much of the suggested newspaper strip however. Andrew Curnow feels that the above mentioned quote regarding The Web Planet was very extravagant and inaccurate, even though he loves the story. His brother's flexi-disc jumped a lot, though this didn't stop it being worth listening to. Rob McCow found the John Lucarotti Brief Encounter to be gentle, lovely and quite wonderful - a classic. Si Hart loves this issue and nominates it as one of his all time favourites. He found the Graham Williams tribute to be well done, though looking back now it seems rather superficial in light of the recent major re-evaluations in the likes of the second volume of the DWM 4th Doctor Special Editions. His flexi-disc only played the first track, but his best mate's played all of them, and he loved the Trial theme remix. Critique - Si Hart is quite right that this is one of the all time great issues - I wouldn't have minded paying the extra at the time given the extra pages, the excellent content and the free flexi-disc, which was one of the best freebies in the history of the magazine. Sadly, mine seems to have gone missing. I do recall storing it in the sleeve of one of my records, but to this day I can't find it and fear it must have been accidentally thrown out or something. I love the artwork cover - I found Colin Howard to be a bit hit and miss with his work, but this one really worked for me. Highlights of this issue for me included the Those Radio Times feature on the Hartnell era, and the Graham Williams tribute, which was notably more indepth than other tributes had been in the past. This issue is also notable for introducing the Brief Encounters - one or two page short stories that tended to be sequels to televised stories or pairing up companions/Doctors/supporting characters from different eras, and very continuity heavy. Although I never tended to read text stories in DWM, these were an exception (no doubt helped by their brevity) and there were some very good ones during its run. With the annual round-up of merchandise, an intriguing Doctorless three page prelude to the forthcoming major comic strip, and a look at the proposed newspaper strip, this really is a memorable issue. |
| Paying the Bills |
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| I'm guessing "mail order" was some kind of primitive pre-internet thing |
The
Basics - Issue 167, 28th November, 1990. This bumper issue has 52
pages and costs £2.25, with a free flexi disc given away. The front cover
is artwork by Colin Howard based on Remembrance of the Daleks.