|
Mawdryn Undead
On another of our trips to check out Oxford University prior to me
deciding not to bother applying because I was too lazy, I got Mawdryn
Undead from yet another branch of Boots. I’ve just been talking to myself
as I thought I’d found a huge continuity error in my timeline which
would’ve made getting Mawdryn Undead from Oxford impossible. But I’ve
sorted it out now. It involves Trial of a Time Lord and some summer
tuition and needn’t concern you. I got home after a really long day and
started to watch it. It was really confusing. Though it had another good
montage. I didn’t know much about the story so it pretty much baffled me.
I thought it was fantastic though. I have happy memories of watching it
again one Christmas Eve and it falling into place a little better second
time around. My grandmother came to stay that Christmas. It would probably
have been the first after my granddad died. I used to love Christmas Eve.
It used to be my favourite day of the year because it was all expectation
and excitement.
The dating of Mawdryn Undead – and its effects on UNIT chronology – was
the cause of the first ever argument I had online. I can’t remember who it
was with (hopefully no one reading this) or what my stance was but it
ended fairly peacefully. I’ve had many online arguments over the years and
only once have I definitely behaved appallingly. It was with someone
called “Dickie the Hat Maker” and for some reason I was in a really bad
mood. I don’t even think he was arguing with me – I just took issue with
everything he said. I found out later he was disabled. I felt terrible. He
disappeared shortly after. I’m a bad person.
Is it me or does this look like two girls symbolically
heading for their first lesbian experience?
Terminus
You would think I’d remember the Garm – big cuddly teddy bear monster that
it is. But the bit I remember about Terminus is Liza Goddard. The enormous
space helmet she wears to house her enormous hair. I also remember the
novel because even as I child I could see it was a pathetic attempt at a
cover. Granted, it didn’t terrify my as much as the Dalek Invasion of
Earth cover had – and I was grateful – but a couple of photos stuck to an
orange back ground? That didn’t tempt me to read it. I might’ve read it
but if I did I don’t remember. I do remember reading the review of the
video in a back issue of DWM and it put me off getting the tape for a long
time. In fact, it wasn’t until my eBay adventures many years later that I
got it. I bought the two stories around it but left Terminus in the to-do
pile. Which kind of made a mockery of the whole trilogy concept but I
wasn’t bothered about that.
And when I did see it – late at night on UK Gold – the Nyssa so called
“stripping” did not live up to the hype. It was a miserable failure in a
miserable failure of a story. No wonder the author used a pseudonym when
he wrote the novel. Spreading the blame. That's what he's trying to do.
EPIC HAIR~!
Enlightenment
I don’t remember buying Enlightenment but I do remember not buying it. It
was after Christmas in 1993 and I stood in the cramped video section of WH
Smith (they were in the middle of a reorganisation and the video
department was in a strangely fenced off area at the back of the store). I
had a choice – the recently released Trial of a Time Lord boxed set which
I’d read so much about in DWB (very little of it positive) or three Peter
Davison videos of which two were Terminus and Enlightenment. I can’t
remember what the third one was. Nor can I work it out – I know it must’ve
been a Davison title but I can’t find anything which matches. They would
cost pretty much the same (£35 vs £33) and I did my usual indecision thing
while people jostled past me in exactly the same sort of hurry as I ought
to have been in. Eventually I decided to get Trial of a Time Lord, about
which I’ll write plenty in due course.
The 42 stages of enlightenment. Leeee John is fourth from the left.
The King's Demons
I always picture myself as very young when the Davison era was being
pumped out twice weekly. But by the time we get to King’s Demons I
would’ve been seven years old. You may say that was still young and I’m
sure the DVLA, BBFC and Hooters would agree with you but my little nephew
is seven and he doesn’t seem so young. Though if I’m anything to go by
he’ll forget just about everything that’s happening to him now. The only
part of the King’s Demons which stirs any bells is Kamelion, as you would
expect from a nerd in waiting. He seemed – and indeed was – unlike
anything I’d ever seen before. Though what possessed anyone to think he
should join the Tardis team would still be beyond me even if I’d spent
every moment from then until now trying to work it out.
The video came out alongside the Five Doctors Special Edition and a book
of postcards. I’ll chat about the Five Doctors shortly so here I’ll mention
the postcard book. I don’t know how many videos came with postcards –
probably not enough to fill a postcard book – nor why anyone would want to
collect Doctor Who postcards (this was some years before eBay). They were
only slightly smaller versions of the video box covers. So you’d think the
embossed but regrettably cheap smelling postcard book would be a waste of
time, yes? Well that’s where you’re wrong. It came in hugely useful
eighteen months later when Xena : Warrior Princess started. I don’t know
why I kept it nor how I was able to find it so easily. But when I decided
to keep every single newspaper or magazine cutting about Xena, the Doctor
Who postcard book was my scrapbook of choice. I’d remind you I was
technically having a breakdown at the time.
This photo makes the album look classier than it was
|
Doctor
Who, What, Where, When, Why and How