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The Chase
The Chase is a bit of an odd one. Not for the obvious reasons – it’s
ineptly made, bafflingly written, padded like a fat suit and contains more
errors than “The Doctors” by Adrian Rigelsford – but because I don’t
associate it with the thing I probably ought to. It was a Saturday in
September 1993 – the 11th of September as it happens, a fact I’ve just
checked online because United lost to Chelsea that day. We went down to
London and I bought the exciting new Dalek tin. For those used to fancy
modern packaging such as the New Series One cardboard Tardis (a bad idea)
or the plastic Key to Time (impractical but fun), back in 1993 Doctor Who
came in tins. If you got an undented one and looked after it, you had
nothing to worry about except a bit of rust. Mine still looks fine after
fifteen years. It wasn’t worth taking the tapes out and getting rid of the
tin in those days because we got cardboard sleeves on the tapes. Bastards.
No thought for people with order to keep. Anyway, we got home from this
shindig (some say jaunt) and found that my only grandad had died while we
were out. Perhaps because I was watching it at the time I was told,
or perhaps because I was just more excited by it, it is Remembrance of the
Daleks which I associate with his dying, not the Chase.
I’ve tried to embrace the
Chase as one of my so-bad-they’re-like-the-Sensorites-i.e.-really-good
stories but it just doesn’t happen. If anything it was an early Doctor Who
comfort blanket as I know I had it on while frantically prepping on the
morning of some A-Levels but it remains bad in a bad way and not even my
best ever
music video can change that. Alas.
I'm also pretty sure they
did the several-different-pics-on-the-tin gimmick. I know they did it with
Trial of a Time Lord. They put one of the seven Doctors on each tin. As if
anyone - even Doctor Who fans - would buy seven Tardis tins just to have a
complete set. Email me if you did. The Dalek tin must've had iconic Dalek
images on its reverse because there is no other reason why a
Chase/Remembrance tin would've had this shot from Genesis of the Daleks on
its backside.
The Time Meddler
And now we come to perhaps the most important bit so far – the Time
Meddler. It was the Christmas Radio Times of 1991 which ended with news of
a Doctor Who repeat series. The last day of the Christmas Radio Times is
something you look at with misery and regret. It may only be the 10th of
December when you read about it but it makes you feel like Christmas is over,
you’re back to work or school and you’ve nothing to look forward to but
other people around you catching colds and sneezing in a faintly comical way. I
hadn’t given Doctor Who much attention in many years – not since Colin
Baker’s time if I’m honest and even then I might be being a bit generous
going as far as to say “attention” – but this appealed.
Before the first episode we had a little documentary-cum-clipshow.
“Resistance is Useless” – for that was I think its name – is generally
regarded as a bit of patronising nonsense these days but all those clips -
so many old bits of Doctor Who - were lovely. I’d spend the next few years playing
spot-the-clip from that little documentary. Every time a new story gave me
another piece of the jigsaw I was happy. So what if it was narrated by a
talking anorak? It was fantastic. They missed a trick not including it on
the Time Meddler DVD.
So it was the Time Meddler which got me into Doctor Who for the first time
since I was ten. I think I’ve still got my old tape with the Time Meddler,
the Mind Robber, four episodes of the Sea Devils, Resistance is Useless
and – for reasons of unusual laziness – half an episode of a Trevor and
Simon series which was on after Doctor Who. I hope I haven’t thrown the
tape away. The documentary is probably unwatchable after all these years
but I’d like to salvage what I can. Trevor and Simon – that’s something
else which should’ve been on the Time Meddler DVD.
Being new to all this – I hadn’t even bought Jean-Marc Lofficier’s
programme guide yet – I was somewhat baffled by all that business in the
Tardis. I wasn’t to know the two best companions that would ever travel in
the Tardis had just left. But I was enjoying it. Then Vicky said the
kafuffle in the cupboard was “obviously a Dalek” and I wondered what on
Earth I was doing watching this programme. Luckily it got better and those
four Friday evenings flew by. The existence of the Trevor and Simon
footage suggests we went out on one of those nights. I fear it would’ve
been to a McDonald’s.
Galaxy Four
I’m afraid Galaxy Four means very little to me. I don’t think I’ve ever
reached the end of the CD and – unlike the Crusade and one or two others
that we’ll come to – I don’t feel I’ve missed out on anything. It is four
episodes which end with us being told not to judge by appearances. I’ve
seen Sesame Street do that in half the amount of time and with more
convincing monsters. Though I’ve no idea what the Rill(s) actually look
like. I’m just assuming they were rubbish. Even the prospect of a strict
blonde woman in a short skirt isn’t enough. I’ve watched the clips on the
Frazer Hines / Debbie Watling archive documentary and that’s it. Galaxy
Four means more to me as a shop than it does a story. Despite their
excessive postage costs I’ve bought a ridiculous number of DVDs from them.
Mainly, it must be said, because they gradually became the only place I
could buy Myth Makers releases. Reeltime’s own site has been gone for
ages, Tenth Planet abruptly stopped stocking new ones and before I knew
where I was I had a stand order (~!) with Galaxy Four which let them send
me DVDs as and when they were released and bill me accordingly. Eventually
this got silly. It was also Galaxy Four which let me buy some imported
books for about £12 and sell them on Amazon for £30+. One Doctor Who
author called me a bastard for doing this and the market collapsed pretty
quickly but I made enough to keep me in Myth Makers discs for a couple of
months.
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