I Love... 1992
 

By Simon Rayner

Everybody has met someone famous. Or at the very least seen someone they recognise off of the telly walking past them in the street. A couple of years ago I witnessed Narinda from Big Brother 2 walking past me as I was coming out of Clinton's cards. You’re not impressed are you? I saw Steve McGann in Liverpool Street Boots just before Christmas! The shop girls were damp with excitement! Maybe you've seen Debbie Watling hanging her smalls out to dry?

I've seen Jon Pertwee in a shopping centre. It's not as exciting as it sounds but I was pleased.

I was born and raised in the unremarkable and little loved city of Peterborough. As a relatively new town the pride of the city for many years was its huge shopping centre. In 1992 this celebrated it's tenth birthday and amongst many other dreary celebrations, one of it's shops, the long forgotten video vendor Ritz organized a signing by none other than TV's Jan Putrid who would be appearing their one Saturday in April to tout his wares - the then current repeats of "The Sea Devils" and the Pertwee years tape at a guess.

This was my first encounter with a Who star in the flesh. In fact unless you count the occasion when we bumped into Frank Carson on the sea front in Ilfracombe in 1985 this was my first brush with celebrity at all.

Back to 1992 and my Dad took me and my friend Adam, who wasn't a particular Doctor Who fan but tended to humour me and would occasionally watch it with me. He enjoyed "The Five Doctors" and remembered the pi bit for years!

Mr Pertwee was doing his signing outside the video shop in a big open square part of the centre which is usually home to whatever wandering advertising display happens into town or the big Christmas tableau come Santa's grotto.

There was a fare crowd gathered around and we duly queued. As we got nearer I could actually see him! He was like a wizard all white and wrinkly. He was in costume naturally, that curious blue purple jacket with grey cape he never wore on telly. Someone in front got him to speak in his Worzel voice and I cursed the fact it hadn't occurred to me to bring a video or book to get signed. Being a mere 11 years old I didn't have the finances to buy one either!

Never the less we got his signature on a bit of paper that the shop had supplied for free which contrasts with the recent trend in FORCING you to buy something in order to get the signature. I don't think I said anything to him but he smiled at me and that was enough. Adam took his autograph into school and showed it to some wee urchin who asked what football team Jon Pertwee played for.

Over the past two years I've been to many more such events at the Tenth Planet shop in London. They've been hit and miss really. We queued hours for Louise Jameson and seconds for Leslie Grantham who was distinctly dull. Jill "Louise Who" Curzon was another one we didn't have to queue for and she was lovely! Glamorous as an Egyptian queen (and almost as old!). We chatted to her for a few minutes and she even told us the stories she tells on the Dalekmania video which made our days!

They're a funny thing signings. I haven't been to one in a while. I'm naturally a quiet and shy person anyway and I'm even worse in these unnatural environments. You're as much on show as the celebrity what with the queue behind you and a handful of shops staff listening to your every word. But everyone should try them at least once and I'm glad I at least got to see Pertwee in person even if I was too young to really make the most of it.

4 years later he would return to Peterborough. Just a few weeks before his death I spotted him in the local paper, standing two Daleks by his side in the street only a minutes walk from where I'd seen him previously. I'd missed him! He'd come to open HG's a time travel themed bar. Seemingly I'd been at school anyway the day he was there but that's not the point and I was gutted.

A year later Tom Baker rode into town on his never-ending bookshop tour. I was at school that day too and for whatever reason didn't want to skive off to see him so duly dispatched Mother to go get a signed copy. She said it was very quiet in the shop. I wish I’d gone now. I feel much more comfortable meeting icons if it's quiet and you can actually talk to them at least semi normally! Alas it was not to be.

12 years later Jon Pertwee is gone. The Video shop is long gone too and is currently a bland mobile phone emporium. The shopping centre itself is basically the same and every time I walk through that square I picture Pertwee sitting there, ever the showman...he was a good old boy and we miss him. I’m glad I was in his presence however fleeting.

By Lissa Levesque

Doctor Who was part of the TV wallpaper when I was growing up. Like Blue Peter and Grange Hill it was just there. It was something you happened to see rather than something to be followed. I remember going to the exhibition in Blackpool one year and have a late 1970s trove of early DWWs, bits from a Dr Who board game and an annual with a Ribos Operation photo on the cover. Whether they were bought for me or m’brother I cannot say. But I cannot have been entirely ambivalent towards the series because, skimming eagerly thought the Xmas and New Year Radio Times in early December 1991 I noticed, on the very last day of that exciting double issue, was the start of a repeat run of Dr Who.

I probably knew more than the average person about the show because I was that sort of child. I forget Stephen Fry’s description of himself at a similar age but it wasn’t overly complimentary and included the word "factoid". In short I knew of the show, I knew who the Doctors had been and I have vague memories from Destiny of the Daleks, An Unearthly Child (from the Five Faces season apparently unless I’m older than I look) and various bits of the 1980s. But in 1992 I passed two milestones within the first week of the year. I was excited about watching Doctor Who and I recorded it. I still have that tape, complete with 45 minutes of Trevor and Simon and weather interference during part one of the Mind Robber. The 6.30 slot on a Friday was a good time for repeats like this. You’d catch the nostalgia crowd as they grabbed a bit between work and rampant debauchery. It must’ve been a success as, unlike every subsequent repeats run, it lasted its intended course.

The Time Meddler was a good story to open with. Lots happens, there are some wonderfully enjoyable performances and everyone seems to be having a good time. Even both the Vikings are good for a giggle. The story is intriguing, the third cliff-hanger is incredible and the whole thing wisely doesn’t outstay its welcome. The Mind Robber was another good pick from the admittedly small Troughton archive. With Tomb of the Cybermen still raking in the cash on VHS it was probably down to this or Seeds of Death and the pace of the Mind Robber may have clinched it. The Sea Devils was a much more traditional story with which to close the 1992 portion of the repeat run. Boasting rubber monsters, a fair chunk of action, a pretty blonde, the Master and some pontificating, it is almost a microcosm of the Pertwee era. My tape, weighed down by the aforementioned chunk of Trevor and Simon, doesn’t have the final two episodes of the Sea Devils. To this day I don’t know where I recorded them. I must’ve done as I’m like that but where they went is anyone’s guess.

But 1992 wasn’t just a vital year for Dr Who because of a few BBC2 repeats. In November 1992 came UK Gold. I can’t prove it but I believe Dr Who has been on UKG continuously since the channel was born over thirteen years ago. A little online research shows that my memories of the channel’s inaugural twenty four hours were surprisingly good. It launched at 7pm on 1st November and Doctor Who was pegged for either 5pm or 5.30 every week day. So on 2nd November 1992 I sat down and watched An Unearthly Child. It wasn’t until the next day that a long held myth was shattered. For twelve years (give or take) I had believed that first episode ended with the shadow of a dinosaur cast over the Tardis. I still believed when I saw the cliffhanger in 1992. This was in the awkward years when I needed glasses, had glasses but would only wear them when absolutely essential and sitting with mother and father watching television was not essential. Part two’s singular lack of dinosaurs and plethora of human beings made me realise my boneheaded error. Sadly the most convincing dinosaur in Doctor Who’s history turned out to be a bloke.

I wonder how many people UKGold has snared for the Dr Who cause. I’m sure there are some people within the reading several who saw it for the first time on UKG. It’s Saturday or Sunday morning and you can’t face the noise and more noise of children’s TV. So you flip the channels and there’s Doctor Who. Unlike the videos, novels, CDs, magazines, conventions and merchandise which has sustained the fans throughout this long hiatus, UKGold has also served the non-fans. When the topic comes up in conversation (as it does from time to time) it is rare that someone doesn’t say "I saw a bit of that on UK Gold the other week" or something similar. UKGold are not a charity – their shows must economically justify their slot so Dr Who must be good for them just as they have been very good for us.

1993 and 1996 may be thought of as the most important years of the decade for Doctor Who but 1992 was every bit as important for the long term popularity of the series. By making Doctor Who something that the population could stumble across and enjoy they helped to give the generation which grew up with no new series a chance to share in what William Hartnell would call "the great spirit of adventure".