I Love... 1983

By Chris Wake

One year on. One year of reading every single Dr Who book my local children's library had to offer; one year of reading the few books I had at home so often the pages turned yellow; one year of learning "The Making of." off by heart. I knew all about Daleks, Cybermen and the first three Doctors. Well, as far as The Sea Devils anyway. Oh yes, I was ready for it now, ready for the return of the programme your telly was made for. It seemed like aeons since he had left Tegan behind, but at last the Doctor was back!

And I missed it. Bugger. Went to the pictures instead and saw E.T.. Unfortunately our family were still months away from owning a video recorder and my friend, whose birthday treat it was. Well, they didn't even have a colour telly! Still, his big sister kindly agreed to watch for us and fill us in with the important details: the Doctor's gone home and Tegan has turned up again.

And so we were off and running. Arc of Infinity was soon over, Snakedance came and went, and then, and then. Mawdryn Undead was brilliant! I knew all about the Brigadier from those secret UNIT files he sent, so it was dead cool to see him, and the 1977 storyline seemed perfectly logical to me in those days of childhood innocence, blissfully unaware as I was of the evil shadow they call "UNIT Dating" that was subsequently to exercise so many minds. The flashback sequence was another major thrill, but I have to admit I didn't get the clever idea of the new companion being not what he seemed; I just thought he was a bit annoying.

Even today I couldn't tell you the story of Terminus; my clearest memory is probably the same as everyone else's, and I was too young to even have even heard of the word gratuitous. Coming from Southampton, being into history and loving Doctor Who meant I basically had to enjoy Enlightenment. Old ships and stuff, you know. Even if it was a bit confusing to see David from "Duty Free" competing with Nurse G-G-G-G-Gladys.

As I previously mentioned, it really is quite amazing to think how little our "grown-up" opinions about the programme bear any relation to our feelings at the time. I never noticed the out-of-sequence hairstyles; I thought it was totally logical that the heroes never change their clothes; as far as I could see The King's Demons had a pretty plausible plot; and hell! I didn't even notice Tegan's cleavage till I saw Enlightenment at university. The Dr Who story, that is. So when Richard Hurndall rather pompously informed us that he was "The original, you might say!", I just nodded in agreement and felt proud of myself for knowing this already. Didn't even realise it was a different actor, just had a great time finally seeing all these old characters I had hitherto only read about - and wondering how come Susan was now a grown woman.

I don't think I'll ever forget the buzz I got at the very end of The Five Doctors, the warm, smug glow of knowing exactly what "my" Doctor meant when he mused,

"Why not? That's how it all began!"

by Logo Polish

Having seen a couple of advance clips from Arc Of Infinity on Saturday Superstore a few months earlier, as well as a photo of Peter Davison and Leonard Sachs accompanying the blurb in the Christmas Radio Times - which I recall also had a large-ish feature on John Craven's Back Pages on the new sci-fi detective programme for kiddies, Captain Zep (starring the bloke out of Rosie, and a big onscreen audience of children with their hair all slicked back if I'm not mistaken - and I probably am) - I can distinctly remember looking forward with embarrassing eagerness for the first DW episode of that year to start on Monday 3 January. I can remember watching The Addams Family for the first ever time, on Channel 4, only an hour or two before, along with an episode from some old 60s Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore sitcom, in which they were getting worried about their young son turning down his cupcake or somesuch, mostly to pass the time.

I enjoyed Arc, despite not feeling it right that Borusa should be so keen to have the Doctor terminated - I'd read the books of his previous two stories, and it just didn't ring true. This was also a time when I would eagerly try to compose possible outcomes to cliffhangers ahead of seeing the next episode (did anyone else ever do that?) - I know I was convinced that Ep 3 of Arc would begin with Pete materializing in Omega's green TARDIS.

I can also remember feeling genuine distress about Tegan's predicament in Snakedance Ep 1, finding something psychologically disturbing about the way the walkman thing she had on effectively isolated her from being able to communicate in the usual way with anyone else. And Lon fascinated me for some reason, to the extent that I can remember noting the actor's name at the time long before he became famous. I hadn't liked Kinda last year ("Foolish boy!") and so hadn't expected much from this but fairly quickly decided I did enjoy it after all. Standout scenes include the "Six Faces of Delusion" bit and the meeting with Dojjen at the end - I still didn't really understand much of it at that time, but I responded to it much more positively than I had the previous Mara story.

 Mawdryn Undead captivated me for all kinds of reasons - somehow, there was just something I loved about the whole geography of the thing, with it's playing fields, obelisks, and ornate spaceships - the fact that the Brigadier returned was really only a bonus (although I do remember liking the flashback sequence in Ep 2 so much I rewound the video just after it had gone out just so I could it all over again straightaway!), in many ways I was more interested in Turlough, in the way that he came across as a fairly sneaky and not immediately likeable character with hiden agendas, played in a rather sly and untrustworthy fashion by Mark Strickson.

Around this time I was also busy on various bits of fiction based on the series - Planet Of Ice was a story I actually managed to finish for a change - 35 pages of foolscap detailing the Fifth Doctor, Tegan's and Turlough's exploits on the planet Jalek, involving people being buried for 2000 years and mad computers taking over the Matrix and destroying Gallifrey, and time being altered. I followed that one with a sequel called Time Ghost, which was really a total rip-off of whatever I could remember from Image of The Fendahl (not a great deal by then as I was still only 11 and had been only 6 in 1977), and another called Trapped In The TARDIS (the nature of which is probably self-explanatory), which is mainly notable now for the fact that it innocently stated that Tegan and Turlough slept in the same bed...

Terminus inspired a short discussion between my brother and me in a cafe the day after Ep 2 went out, reflecting on how sorry we both felt for Nyssa in the bit where the robot had dragged her off, with her shouting vainly for Olvir to rescue her. I think I was more relieved that she didn't die at the end than anything else. I know we had Eps 3 and 4 only on video for ages, and I must have watched them into oblivion - like Arc and Mawdryn (both of which we had on the same tape) I never ever grew tired of watching them. Then again, the significance of Dr Who for me this year was that it was the first time we had a video, making these the earliest stories we were able to watch at will. This might possibly partly account for why the season continues to be a strong favourite with me, even if few others have much enthusiasm for it, and why the usual fan issues - the politics of returning adversaries and the like - have never concerned me that much with Season 20. I was just an 11 - 12 year old viewer, and I basically enjoyed it at the time. It all seemed so much simpler in those days.

1 March also saw Peter Davison and Patrick Troughton guesting together on Breakfast Television, being interviewed by (I think) Frank Bough, and greeted by K9 at some stage. They also played a clip of Tom Baker and K9 in the TARDIS from stae Of Decay, a bit I couldn't remember at all at that time. Although it cheered me up thinking about it later that day while playing basketball in PE.

Enlightenment remains my favourite eighties story by some margin - although the tone of the first and second halves is actually very different, I enjoyed both the spooky mystery of the former and the raucous children's-storybook campery of the latter. I can remember watching the last episode after I'd been ill at home all day off school and already been watching The Moomins on Children's ITV (This, the forerunner of CITV, had actually only started in January that year, with Matthew Kelly, Isla St Clair and Derek Griffiths presenting it a month at a time), and feeling a certain joy at seeing the last scenes with the Guardian confrontation, and Turlough's wondering gaze over the crystal as the tinkling music built up to a crescendo. In retrospect (as I'd never heard of it at the time) I wonder if it had been inspired or at least influenced by Sapphire And Steel to some extent?

According to my brother, his teacher's favourite Dr Who story of that season was The King's Demons, because of its historical theme. Never mind that the history contained is highly dubious to say the least or my irritation at the time that King John didn't look like he did in books I'd seen, I really found I didn't mind this one. Short and sweet, I have a feeling this may have been what inspired me to read up on Henry II (John's father) later that year, even if it was only in a Ladybird book, although I did shortly after acquire one on John too (a fairly severe one too in its judgements on him). I also recall seeing a trailer for something just after it had finished, containing clips from all the stories that had been in the Five Faces repeat season 18 months earlier, which was nice, as we hadn't had a video in 1981. Troughton, Pertwee and Davison also turned up on Nationwide being interviewed by Sue Lawley (who had to quickly intercede when Patrick started talking before their feature was due to begin!) just after that if memory serves.

There was also an appearance by Peter, Janet and Mark on Superstore on 26 March, billed by Mike Read as "The Dr Who gang", in which they struggled to hear questions over the phone and were threatened by a quite obviously superimposed Dalek. Good to see some more clips from Unearthly Child, Logopolis and Enlightenment too.

It was also this summer I saw for only the second time Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, and many of my memories of it probably date from this screening. I seem to recall being particularly impressed with the finesse and timing with which Bernard Cribbins acted the Robomen Lunch Break scene (I'm not being funny - it takes ome skill to make clumsiness look natural).

I can remember nothing of Children In Need for that year (like most years really). I do recall reading a book from the school Library about The Five Investigators (not the Famous Five, this was nothing to do with that) having an adventure in a fictional foreign country with the evil Duke Stefan on the same night I watched The Five Doctors. As for the latter, I can only say that at the time, I loved every minute of it. I can remember theorising to myself as to how they were going to do this earlier in the year when walking to school, and devising a scenario where ever Doctor's TARDIS landed inside each others - an idea I was so taken by, I even drew a few pictures. Richard Hurndall also managed to win parental approval, my dad saying he hadn't expected him to be much good but thought he was alright in the end. On the whole, I enjoyed Patrick Troughton's contribution the most, and it was only on seing his antics, tossing out catapults and the like when confronting the Yeti, that I realised there hadn't been that much humour in recent years, and although pretty unsophisticated, it was nice to see some anyway.

Quite a fun year for me then, Who-wise. I can't speak for anyone else.