|
The Stones of Blood
The middle of the Key to Time is where my memories once more fade away. I
do know I found the Stones of Blood to a strange one because of the way it
suddenly moves from gothic, earth bound adventure to futuristic space
debate as though the pages got mixed up by the photocopier. I can’t
remember which half I preferred. Most people prefer the first half and I
think I probably did but given everything I’ve said about the gothic not
being to my tastes it may have been the latter.
The first Google Images result for "gothic"
The Androids of Tara
Being thinly read and not having seen any films ever (a slight
exaggeration but only a slight one) I watched Androids of Tara not really
noticing that it is an homage to something else. I was aware of the whole
doppelganger genre of lit and film but hadn’t seen any of them. I liked
the electric swords – I thought they were good. And Peter Jeffrey could
impress even the tiredst, most jaded teenager and I was as tired and jaded
as they come. It is sad there never was the promised "Next time…" Some
years later I went through a strange phrase – lasting no more than a week
or two – of watching QVC for the comedy value. I was astonished – my as
has rarely been so tonished – to discover that ultra-bland presenter
Paul Lavers was in the Androids of Tara. I promptly forgot this fact and
got to be astonished all over again when he popped up on the DVD.
Paul Lavers in all his glory
The Power of Kroll
I knew the Power of Kroll was no good – all the authorities agreed this
was not Robert Holmes’ finest hour and a half. I actually have clearer
memories of sitting through it, fidgeting and looking at the clock. I felt
a sort of misplaced duty to watch it. Even when the swampies appeared – a
more absurd bunch of patronised aliens I can’t imagine – I couldn’t get
out of first gear. The one bit which I thought was fine was Kroll itself.
By Doctor Who standards it seemed pretty good to me. And I was watching it
expecting it to be bad and having become physically numbed by the story by
the time it appeared.
The monster is not the most embarrassing part of this photograph
The Armageddon Factor
The Armageddon factor on the other hand is one of my favourite Tom Baker
stories. Not just of the Key to Time but from his entire reign. UK Gold
were showing Kenny Everett shows late at night and I was recording them.
It was classic stuff – no vaguely pretentious fan of British comedy could
hold a single head up high without at least a working knowledge of the
Everett. Because of UK Gold’s notorious time keeping I padded the
recording a fair bit and this meant that one night I also recorded the
first part of the Armageddon Factor. Although it would throw my Sunday
omnibus routine out of whack I decided to watch it. The varying lengths of
Doctor Who stories meant the omnibuses could drift months away from the
episodic screenings late in the evenings. I was fortunate – I got the
whole episode just about. The next night I deliberately extended the
recording to include it. And the next night. And so on. It was fantastic.
Many say it has a tired, end of season feel to it but I didn’t see any of
that. Episode by episode it works. It doesn’t have the wit of Ribos or
Pirates but it has a stronger, more compelling story. It keeps adding new
elements each week rather than introducing us to everyone in week one and
letting them go about their business thereafter. I’d even go so far as to
say it was the most enjoyable first showing of a Tom Baker story I can
remember. There are others I can say now are more entertaining but this is
primarily about first impressions and my first impressions were very
positive. So much so that by about the third episode I was fast forwarding
through Kenny Everett to get to Doctor Who.
In the same sale that gave me cheap Seeds of Doom I also got cheap
Armageddon Factor. They had all the Key to Time tapes but I only got the
one. I might’ve bought two but for the life (and shelves) of me I can’t
remember what the other one was. I was too busy being amazed that the BBC
could in fact fit six episodes of Doctor Who on a single video tape after
a decade of claiming it was impossible, or improbable, or inadvisable –
one of the above.
Speaking of videos, I had my omnibuses of the Key to Time on two cassettes
and I fear I made a cardboard outer box for them. It wasn’t the only time
I did it – I made a two tape box for some Inspector Morse episodes and a
three tape box for Jeeves and Wooster. My method was to take two regular
cardboard video tape sleeves and glue them together. Then I’d wrap them in
card – in this case pink – generally using file divider cards from last
year’s school folders. On the spine I wrote a title in my biggest letters,
on the back I stuck a piece of paper with some typed text (this was before
proper computers which ages me more than I can possibly say) and on the
front I stuck a drawing of Tom and Mary from the
1980
Doctor Who annual. If I still had it I would take a picture and
show it to you. It was dreadful but I feel we’ve learned something about
each other these past thirty thousand words and we trust each other enough
to show each other our embarrassing home made video covers. It’s a right
of passage every relationship goes through.
This man was shunned in favour of Armageddon
Destiny of the Daleks
I’ve just re-read the following sentence and don’t know what I was
thinking. It began “I don’t remember my first memory” which rather casts
doubt on it as my first memory. What I meant was that “I can’t be sure
when my first memory was”. So, take two, I can’t be sure when my memory
was but it must’ve been some time before April 1979 because it was at “the
old house” and it involved scratchy floor tiles. My earliest television
memory was the end of episode two of Destiny of the Daleks. I didn’t know
what Daleks were of course, I didn’t even know what Doctor Who was. But I
remember a bony hand suddenly coming to life and loud music starting. I
was delighted years later to see the cliff-hanger with more mature eyes
and it was exactly what I remembered – a close up of a bony hand and it
suddenly coming to life. With loud music shortly after. The mental image
has us watching this at my grandparents house in Fleetwood but then most
of my early TV memories are from there – Logopolis, the end of Blake’s
7, the death of Eric Morecambe - for some strange reason. We did have a telly at home, promise.
My earliest television memory
|
Doctor
Who, What, Where, When, Why and How