I Love... 1984

by Andrew Curnow

In December 1984 I was lucky enough to get two Doctor Who books. One was Doctor Who - A Celebration which had actually been released the previous year to mark the show's 20th Anniversary. To modern eyes, its rather brief coverage of the creation of the programme and its development seems charmingly naive, even sanitised, and many elements we take today as part & parcel of the programme's evolution just don't appear at all - Jon Pertwee doesn't leave the role because he wanted more money, Tom Baker never drank alcohol, and you can read from cover to cover without finding a single hint of Donald Baverstock.

The other book was a follow-up to the success of A Celebration and was called The Key to Time. It takes the fictional notion of the Doctor's 500 Year Diary, and uses this idea to chart the 21 years of real-life Doctor Who in terms of dates and events. Its brilliance, though, lies in casting its net wider than just the obvious, presumably because the author quickly realised that five hundred plus entries of the "Underworld part 3 transmitted today" variety would make for very dull reading. So although there are some obvious entries - 23rd November 1963 of course, and Troughton's debut on 5th November 1966 ("A night for fireworks in more ways than one") - there are also more 'obscure' entries such as Ramsden Grieg of The Sun bemoaning the lack of monsters in season 7 (March 31st 1970) or the death of Kit Pedler (May 27th 1981).

For 1984 at least, the book is lavishly illustrated, and could genuinely use "twenty-four pages of colour photographs" as a major selling point. However, alongside the photographs, The Key to Time is also enlivened with artwork supplied by readers. In the run up to the book's release, fans were invited to send drawings into publisher WH Allen (in case anybody was wondering, no I didn't, being beaten into submission by a combination of apathy and lack of artistic talent) and although some are inevitably better than others it makes the book stand out as something quite unique, and also as a book not just for the fans, but by the fans. And again, looking back from today's standpoint, there's fun to be had in spotting the likes of Alister Pearson and Mike Tucker amongst the fanboy artists.

But regardless of how they may appear today, after more than two decades of ever more detailed and insightful research into the behind-the-scenes progression of the programme, I can still remember the excitement of getting these two books back in 1984. They were the first really lavish 'coffee-table' books devoted to Doctor Who, providing behind-the-scenes information which up to then had only been the province of Doctor Who Weekly or The Making of Doctor Who. I pored over those pages, thrilled by the early publicity shot of Hartnell in a hat, and the unusual overhead view of the Dalek delegates from Mission to the Unknown; and almost indescribably excited by the sheer luxurious wealth of information. They really were heady days to be a young fan.

Both books still reside on my shelf, proudly and rightfully rubbing shoulders with the Howe-Stammers-Walker books, and 2006's Inside Story; and both remain a delight to dip into, especially The Key to Time. I'm writing this on November 21st, a date which yields three entries:

- In 1964, Doctor Who enters the Top Ten of TV Programmes for the first time, with the return of the Daleks

- In 1980, Sarah Sutton's casting as permanent companion Nyssa is announced to the press

And, most entertaining of all I think, is the following from 1982:

"A member of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet, Lord Cockfield, the Trade Secretary is know to his colleagues as Lord Dalek." Frankly, I should think anything would be preferable to being known as Lord Cockfield...

I was reminded this week of these books, and these memories, by the news that Peter Haining has unexpectedly died of a heart attack, at the comparatively young age of 67. That means he was in his very early 40s when he first set to on penning A Celebration, and not much older when he put together 1984's Key to Time. It's sad, and it's yet another name gone from those golden, glowing pre-adult days of my Who adoration. Terrance Dicks and Tom Baker and Peter Davison and Mac Hulke and all those other great names were very much part of my formative years in terms of being a fan; but amongst the lesser-sung names are John Fitton (of John Fitton Books & Magazines, the first time I encountered anything as marvellous as a Doctor Who Mail Order company) and, of course, Peter Haining.

It's probably true to say that in the years between 1984, when The Key to Time came out, and the end of the decade, Haining's reputation started to fade, with each successive book being arguably that bit less special than the one before. The Doctor Who File (1985) is actually a very entertaining read, but is primarily a collection of pieces penned by Doctor Who cast & crew, so Haining's role is mainly that of an editor/compiler, rather than a writer; and although he was back to being the main writer of the 1988 release, 25 Glorious Years, it retreads too much ground covered 5 years earlier. By then, of course, the reputation of Doctor Who itself had started to lose its sparkle too, and the release of yet another Peter Haining book became far less of an event.

But back to 1984, and The Key to Time. It ends, rather ironically perhaps, celebrating the arrival of the sixth Doctor (March 22nd 1984) and with an overwhelming confidence that the show's future was assured - so perhaps it's just as well that this book came out in 1984 rather than 1985! But the prose of that last entry is in a sense timeless, when Peter writes, "The miracle has happened again - the Time Lord from Gallifrey has a new appearance and a fresh lease of life to set off on a new generation of adventures." More than two decades on, and we've seen the truth of those words twice in the past few years, as both a ninth and tenth Doctor have hit our screens.

RIP Peter Haining.

by Simon Hart

1983 had ended excitingly with the Radio Times special, The Five Doctors and the announcement that we had a new Doctor on the way. Its funny. I don't remember ever being terribly excited by Peter Davison's Doctor. At the time, he was just the Doctor, nothing more, nothing less. Tom was always the one I did in drawings at school and the one who was highest in my affections. I never disliked Davsion, and I always loved the show as much as ever, but he was never the one, if you know what I mean. These days I can see his worth and he's one of my favourites. There's great comfort in watching his era now for me, with his lovely hat and those star-field titles... it reminds me of happy times in my childhood.

The first glimpse we had of Colin Baker's Doctor came one day at the end of John Craven's Newsround. A rather camp looking photo of the new Doctor appeared before him and John informed us that Colin said we could expect "a few surprises" with his Doctor. How right that was! His costume was quickly dismissed by my friends at school as being like a clown's, but I was sure it was going to be OK. I was always an optimist!

There was a an exciting trailer for most of the season that was shown during the children's programmes in the Christmas holidays before the new season began. It showed loads of amazing things from the first few stories of the season. Sea Devils! Silurians! The Malus! The Tractators! And best of all the Daleks crashing through an exploding door! Wow! This was looking like being a great set of stories and indeed, for the most part it was too. We had monsters and gripping stories and even Warriors of the Deep doesn't seem so bad when you're 8!

Mum and Dad had allowed me to keep the Five Doctors on video after its broadcast and this year they said I could have a three hour tape to keep two stories from the series. The choice was easy. Resurrection because it had Daleks in it and Caves because it was a regeneration story and was therefore bound to be great. While now I might prefer Frontios to either of those stories, at the time I was right. Resurrection was epic and had extra long episodes which made it seem extra special and Caves was good. I think its a story you grow into. For ages I dismissed it as dull and didn't watch nearly as often as Resurrection, but I was wrong about that. I still have that video which Mum labelled for me, with its chopped together episodes (I missed a large chunk of the start of part 2 of Androzani, which I only learnt of later!) and the start of The Awakening at the beginning. Somehow it'd be wrong to part with it.

My first real glimpse of Colin was being interviewed by Janet Ellis on Blue Peter. They showed all the regenerations at the start of the interview "and it all began with Doctor number 1: William Hartnell". I videoed that too, and it was amazing to see all the changeovers, especially the well remembered Logopolis one. Shamefully Peter Davison was totally overlooked in the montage, but there were some clips from The Twin Dilemma. Colin himself was rather subdued in the interview, certainly compared to later interviews, but I always liked the way he sent Jack the cat through time, even if they got the TARDIS background hum wrong!

So the season finished with me a little unsure about this new Doctor, but his smile at the end won me over. I can remember watching his titles for the first time and crying out "Look Mum! The new Doctor smiled!" which seemed really amazing at the time! Even then I was a title sequence lover!

There was the usual batch of Target books bought and read this year and DWM was as important as ever, especially when the sixth Doctor started his strip adventures. I loved the comic strip a great deal, but Colin's stories immediately seemed better drawn and more imaginative than the Davison ones had. I mean there'd never been a cliffhanger quite as great as the one where the Shape Shifter eyes are revealed in the Time Rotor! Wonderful stuff!

That summer we stayed at Grandma and Granddad's house in Weston-Super-Mare, and as a special treat we went to Longleat. I'd been in 1980 and could sort of remember it, but this year it was really special. I can't remember now what the exhibits were, but there was definitely a trundling K9 telling us where each version of him was and Cybermen, Daleks and the console in the middle of the exhibition. There was the usual photo taken outside the police box doors and I bought a mug with the neon logo on it from the shop. Its still sitting on my bookshelf today, and its still never been drunk out of, but it remains a reminder of more innocent days.