|
|
|
|
|
|
09/06 |
|
|
21/04 |
|
|
I can vividly remember sitting down for the first episode of "Trial". We were on holiday, staying in a static caravan at Durdle Dor in Dorset, and we were sat round a small black and white portable TV. I don't know if anyone else was ever the same (probably) but I always had an overwhelming urge to go to the toilet before Doctor Who was on. I think it was the excitement or something, who knows, but I had to time it just right before this episode, as the walk to the toilets took a few minutes. I was back in time for the end of the first episode of Roland Rat the series (the show with the eagle in the toilet) and sat impatiently as the BBC globe appeared on the screen... "But first a venerable Time Lord faces inquisition in the much awaited return of Doctor Who" said the announcer and the titles crashed in. "I don't like the new music Mum," I said. It was the first time I can remember ever criticising the show, but it wouldn't be the last. Still, by the end of the episode things were ok. Doctor Who was back after a long, long time and I was pleased. I started secondary school later that week. It was a scary and bewildering time. There was one person who moved from my primary school to my new secondary school with me and I didn't really get on with him. I was worried about the things I liked and fitting in, and so I kept the fact that I loved Doctor Who a secret. It seems silly now, but at the time it made a kind of sense. By Christmas I thought it'd be ok, and I wore my Doctor Who Jumper with the neon logo knitted into it, that my Nan had knitted for me, to the first form party and got laughed at all afternoon. Things were never the same again at school after that. From then on I was the Doctor Who freak of 1Y, and no-one ever let me forget it. Doctor Who had been popular at primary school, everyone watched it, but now with Colin and the Trial, it became a solitary thing. Everyone watched The A-Team instead. Still there was one bright moment where I made anew friend called Richard waiting in the pack lunch queue outside room 15. We were all playing Chinese whispers, and me, not being terribly imaginative, remembering the State of Decay tape started with "cabbages and kings". I whispered that into the ear of the boy who stood next to me, who smiled, passed it on then said "the TARDIS is on strings" and smiled at me. He said he had the tape too, but neither of us revealed our shared love of the show, not yet... that was all to come later, but Richard soon became my best friend. My relationship with Doctor Who was odd in 1986. I was always a fan, and always would be, but this year was rather muted. I stopped buying DWM for the only time I can remember between May and November, as we lost track of it. It stopped being sold in the shops in town and due to having to buy me a new uniform for secondary school, there wasn't enough money to keep up the subscription. It was really exciting when late in the year, Mum renewed my subscription and sent some extra money to pay for the issues I'd missed and an extra fat parcel arrived on the doorstep one morning before school! At the end of the year we had the Golden Wonder crisps promotion, with the wonderful mini-comics to collect. I didn't get the set, but some of my friends did. Still it was great to see all the multi-packs with Colin's face in the supermarket for a few weeks. I collected the crisp packets for the 1987 calendar though and that proudly adorned my wall for the following year. 1986 is so mixed up in a confusion of new sights and people and emotions for me, that Trial still evokes that feeling. A transitional and unsettled time for me and a somewhat unsettled time for the show too.
Pleased as I am to have Who a coming back I’m also a tad peeved and incredibly jealous of the young urchins who'll hopefully treasure our beloved series. Those BBC Bastards took Doctor Who off TV in 1989. I was 8 years old. To paraphrase a certain gentleman "what ever made them take Doctor Who out of time at that point!". I was the perfect age…old enough to follow the plots (up to a point anyway) and young enough to gaze in awe at all the weird things on show. But it was not to be. The show didn’t come back in 1990 and it wasn’t until I was 15 that we got the TV movie. You’re too kind Aunty Beeb. But before you start reaching for the violins and tissues, it wasn’t so bad. I obviously had the videos and I had few years of regular new Who on TV. Oh yes, I was there for all of McCoy and loved it. But the midweek thing was never going to be as good as special as the weekends was it? I remember cozy nights back in 1992 watching the Time Meddler and Mind Robber repeats on dark Friday evenings with steak and kidney pie and waffles. I remember the excitement and wishing time would whiz past on dreary Saturdays in 1996 waiting for the Ghosts of N-Space to begin. Better than nowt I’m sure we agree! I'm quietly pleased that my first concrete memories of Who are cut from the same mould as the Hinchcliffe or Lett’s Golden Era Brigade. I don't remember a massive amount of 1986 but I do remember ordering my Dad to make me a Lego TARDIS after Trial of a Timelord Part One. I demanded again and again until he made one that was acceptable. I can still picture it. A multi coloured extravaganza with one of those doors with the window in. It may even have had a little computer console in it. Or not. No matter it did the job for me!
Equally disturbing things were happening to the Doctor on Saturday evenings. Four weeks after my brother and I sat happily on the lounge floor munching on burgers (in buns) and home made KP dips (a mug of "Yamanut" chocolate spread and some bread sticks!) the Doctor was being dragged under the sand on a beach by arms of pure evil! We’d probably see him next week under the ground with lots of rats thought I as you do at such an age.
A few weeks later I was given a video of "Revenge of the Cybermen". From such humble beginnings things would never be the same again. Doctor Who stopped being something I watched in much the same way as Number 73, Terrahawks or Roland Rat and became something far more unique and something that would be there everyday for the rest of my life. Hoorah for 1986!
|
|
|
|
|
I’m so glad Doctor Who is
coming back next year. It warms the cockles to think that a whole new
generation are about to get the gift of a brand new Doctor Who series on
SATURDAY nights. Just like in the evenings of yore. The evenings I’ve read
about in Doctor Who Magazine or on message boards . The evenings of Fish
Fingers in front of the Telly, Basil Brush and Grandstand, having to miss
Logopolis Part Two while going to Fred’s birthday party, watching Deadly
Assassin Part Three in a hotel lounge in Skegness etc, etc. 
Around this time my (much)
older cousin was moving house and bestowed upon me the wisdom of the
elders. A truck load of Doctor Who Weeklies (with just a smidgen of early
Monthlies thrown in too) and a trifle load of Targets, both novels and
"Doctor Who Discovers" AND the legendary Doctor Who Monster book plus it‘s
smaller sequel! Alas I was a tad too young to read these lofty tomes at
this point (that would wait another few years) but the pictures were
stunning! I’m not the first to have been most disturbed by that custard
coloured DWM with the Meglos photo cover. Surely the Doctor is being
tortured thought I. It looked most disturbing. 
What else is there in my
hazy pot of memories? The Vervoids! What a great story. I loved the sight
of the TARDIS in the background of all the scenes in the hold. During this
story we went to stay with my Nan in her just moved into Bungalow in that
jewel of the midlands, Grantham. That weekend I chose the 1980 and 1981
Doctor Who annuals to accompany me. The front cover showing the Doctor in
armour looked most exciting. But not half as exciting as the picture of
the Doctor and his friend clinging on to the console for dear life! But
the best picture was on the inside cover! A lovely looking TARDIS
surrounded by giant snaky things! We also had KP Crisps that weekend. With
a Doctor Who mini comic no less! Wish I’d kept mine.