I Love... 1989

By Simon Rayner

Isn't the summer of 1989 on record as being one of the warmest in British history? It's certainly described thus in Gary Russell's rather splendid "Past Doctor" Novel "Business Unusual". Come to think of it, most of my memories from 1989 all seem to feature sunny days too. The photos of our family holiday to Weymouth that year confirm as much.

Weymouth. Nice place from what I remember. I've always bemoaned it a pity that Doctor Who never managed to do a story set in a British Sea side town. If only all of the "Leisure Hive" was set on Brighton beach! 1986's aborted "The Nightmare Fair" might have quenched my desire to an extent but a quick skim through it's synopsis reveals it's Blackpool setting to be rather underused after the first ten minutes.

But in 1989, not too long before season 26 began I witnessed the Dalek Invasion of Weymouth and when I say Dalek I mean Dalek...

As people do when on holiday we paid a visit to an unremarkable fun fair. It might well have been a permanent fixture in the town or it might have been passing through like a summer cloud. Anyway it was here in a dingy wooden Amusement Arcade on a dingy patch of waste ground that I met my first Dalek.

Big red, tatty and 10p a go. A few years later David J Howe’s "Sixties" book would reveal this to be an Alvin Hall Dalek Kiddy ride from the 1960s. That would explain why it looked about three hundred years old then.

It has to be said that this Dalek isn't really the most accurate of designs. It's over sized and over simplified. It's not unlike a giant version of the Louis Marx toys. Sweet but a little bit rubbish. I was surprised it still worked but once I'd put my money in it came to life and did it's business. Which was to move around a bit and say "exterminate". I can't remember if I even sat inside it or just watched it. I recall feeling a little too old for such a ride but I couldn't take my eyes off it and like a fully clothed, 9 year old Katy Manning I draped myself around it and struck a pose for the camera.

Four years later a family holiday in Great Yarmouth would introduce me to a more modern but equally unimpressive TARDIS ride at "Pleasure Wood Hills". I was definitely too old to even fit in the damn thing by this point but I put the money in and watched it do it's stuff...which was a distinctly un-TARDIS like going up and down motion. I felt a little cheated that I'd never encountered such a creation when at the right age to enjoy it. We had to make to with generic flying saucers in my day.

I've spent more than a few minutes doodling in note books about what a fully fledged Doctor Who theme park ride might be like. I did a lot of that sort of thing. I still do really, it helps pass eternity! I settled on a big scary Roller coaster type thing with models and props spread around it. If I win the lottery I'll fund it myself.

Back to 1989 and the Dalek wasn't the only surprising Doctor Who related encounter of that holiday. Amongst the buckets and spades and sticks of rock, the holiday park gift shop sold Target Novels. These were the first I'd seen apart from the batch my cousin had given me but his collection stopped in 1980. I was amazed at the new look Target Logo! I was even more amazed by the jaw droppingly exciting looking titles with Colin Baker and Peter Davison on the covers! I naturally had to buy one.

I bought "The Gunfighters".

What on EARTH possessed me!? I tried to read it in the car on the journey home and gave up. I'm not even sure I ever read it to be honest.

I have a suspicion that the reason I bought this rather dull looking book was because there was a full colour advert in the back cover for some Doctor Who posters which (unaware that the offer had probably ended several years before!) I intended to send off for or maybe I just wanted the advert to gaze at in the book. The things we do as kids eh?

So can we learn anything from these ramblings? Well yes! you can never predict where you're gonna stumble across Doctor Who next! Long may that continue.