Beyond the Roundels

[I wrote this with about 0 brain something like 2 months ago. But I was feeling like posting one of my drafts and I just realised belatedly that Chris Bidmead had died in August. Or possibly just found out and was shocked for a second time, who knows, it's terrible how much I forget. But I do love his DW era very much and while he lived to a good age, I am still sorry to hear it - he brought so much to the show & was a rare DW script editor who was genuinely interested in SFF* as a genre, which showed in a whole bunch of scripts commissioned by him, which are like any of the other eras - even if a whole set of them then had the misfortunate to be made by the next script editor who Did Not Get Them at all. This serial is actually one he wrote later for his successor's rather more action/dark orientated era (and said successor, Eric Saward, Did Not Get this one either), but - I had prepared it earlier! And also: I love Frontios!]


I haven't much brain so I thought for this edition of the Unofficial Fandom 50 I would once again burble about a favourite classic Who serial, this time...

Frontios

tumblr gifset for pictures

What is it?

It is a four part Fifth Doctor serial (4x 25 mins; c. 1hr 25 minutes in total) from Season 21 (1984). Yes, it has Giant Woodlice.

The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Strickson) accidentally stray into the far future - so far that the Time Lords are forbidden to go there. They arrive at a tiny, struggling colony of survivors from Earth, who are under bombardment from an unknown enemy from space - except there's also something beneath them: the earth on Frontios is hungry...


Sometimes, as a DW fan, you love the unloved serial; sometimes you adore the fan favourite - and sometimes you just love a decent one more than you can properly justify or exactly explain, but we've all been there. I have a few of these, and Frontios is one, although honestly I think it belongs in the circle just outside of the all time greats personally, which is why I'm going to babble about it. (I mean, I realise, like everything, it does depend on a) taste and b) how people feel about lumbering giant woodlice).

(It's also the only DW serial where a member of the main guest cast had to be replaced at the last minute because the original actor, Peter Arne, had been murdered. This has no bearing on anything, other than the replacement being the excellent William Lucas, but I felt the need to mention it anyway). (All my DW classic faves do not involve someone dying or nearly dying irl, I promise).




What do I love about it?

It's about confronting buried/unspoken terrors & what you can do with gravity in SFF if you have some giant woodlice to hand, plus it's one of those forsaken, almost Shakespearean colonies classic Who loves to do (the youthful leader with his fragile hold on it is even called Plantagenet) and I am a sucker for such things. The guest cast is great - William Lucas, Lesley Dunlop, Peter Gilmore & Jeff Rawle, pre-Drop the Dead Donkey.

Penned by Five's original script editor, Chris Bidmead, Peter Davison shines here, and gets to pull out his brainy specs for the first time since Bidmead left; Tegan and Turlough are both really well used, with Turlough's buried race trauma demonstrating that having alien companions as well as earthlings on the TARDIS can lead to interesting options for storytelling.

It's dark and weird, fascinating and quotable, with excellent team!TARDIS banter. The hatstand gets a moment of glory. The TARDIS is disintegrated. The Doctor saves Tegan's life by being really insulting to her. "Frontios buries its own dead."

Basically, I love weird colonies, I love strange ideas, I love this TARDIS team, I love the hatstand, I'm not at all put off by giant woodlice and: "Just tell them I came and went like a summer cloud." (Oh, Five. <3)


* Classic Who script editors (and producers) were assigned to the show by the BBC and did not always have a huge amount of choice about being offered the post and then being removed from it - it was just how the BBC worked at the time.

When I first thought about doing a Fandom/Fannish 50, as I said, the aim was not to do manifestos, and obviously Doctor Who is too big to cover in only one post anyway.

Naturally, I then immediately drafted out a manifesto for the whole of DW on the theme of "it's not THAT intimidating, I promise!", and it has been sitting complete in my posts in progress since January.

I wasn't going to post it - I think my flist is now comprised of DW fans, people who have left thanks to the Timeless Child, and people who don't want DW in their lives - but my intended Post #2 is not quite done (blame Yuletide ficcing), this one was, and I didn't want to have a long gap between posts - and it is the 23rd of November, after all. (I'll maybe see about linking it to tumblr or something, and that might give it more usefulness.)

So, have a chirpy DW primer I prepared earlier! Forgive me if it's annoying. And -

Happy 62nd birthday, Doctor Who! ♥

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As most people around here probably have at least a vague idea of it already, this is mainly addressing the idea that it can be seen as too overwhelming and large and wanky.

It's true there is a lot of it, but the nature of DW is that it's all optional and rather than 40+ series of 100s of episodes you have to work your way through it's just... enough joy just waiting out there for a lifetime, with no need or hurry to catch it all. And the fandom can be wanky at times, but no more than any other, and a lot less than some. I've had more fun and made more friends hanging around in odd little corners of DW than any other fandom.

What is it?

It's a UK science fiction family-aimed show about a mysterious alien known as the Doctor who travels about in a time and space ship (known as the TARDIS).

The ship's exterior is stuck in the shape of a 1950s police box. It's bigger on the inside than the outside, like the show.

It all started in 1963, when two schoolteachers followed a mysterious Doctor's granddaughter Susan home to find out what was up with her weird knowledge, fake address and grandfather who didn't like strangers. In a panic, the Doctor abducted them and took them to the stone age. This worked out so well that the Doctor has continued to travel about with (mostly) human friends ever since. (Not all via kidnapping, though. Just a few of them.)

Together they explore all of space and time and fight monsters and alien invasions, plus many other even weirder things. And then it all ends, and starts again.

It was off-air from 1989-1995 & 1997-2004 and in that time several officially sanctioned runs of comic strips, novels and audios were made. There are also some spin-offs, both on TV and in other media. You can pick up any of these that you want to or not as you please. Or just watch the spin-offs and not watch Doctor Who. If anyone screams, ignore them.

There are also many unofficial fan productions, but you can worry about that later, if you want to.


Who is Doctor Who?

A mysterious traveller in Time and Space known only as the Doctor. Some fans will get very annoyed if you call them "Doctor Who," so you should do that.

The Doctor is a bit of a mix of wizard, wise mentor, or trickster character who's usually a side-character in things, but in this neverending story, they're the hero.

What we know is: They aren't from this planet or time period and they aren't human. They have a granddaughter. They are on the run from someone or something.

Later on, we learn they are probably a Time Lord from the planet of Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterberous. The co-ordinates for it are the same as the DW production office's extension line in the 1970s. In 21st Century Who and some of the Extended Universe (EU), Gallifrey may or may not exist, you may not be able to find it, and/or it may not stay around for long. Maybe none of this is true anyway. We don't know. These are the reasons why people say we have no canon. (This is nice, but not precisely true: all the broadcast episodes are canon. It's just very a flexible, inconsistent and wibbly-wobbly canon, plus you can add or remove any bits of the EU you choose. It doesn't exactly retcon, it embraces the "everything happened somewhere somewhen anyway in a different timeline" approach.)

When the Doctor gets close to death, they can cheat it by means of "regeneration," a process which renews them into a new body with a different personality and dress sense, but they're always the same person deep down. That's why we have lots of different Doctors but they're all still the Doctor. Regeneration is always sad because the old Doctor is dying and you don't want them to go, but two seconds later you are confronted with a shiny new Doctor to learn to love, which is exciting. This conflicting experience is our one staple, other than the TARDIS.


Why are you telling me this giant 60 year old show with hundreds of episodes, novels, audios, comics, whatever, is easy to get into?

Because Doctor Who eternally soft-reboots itself. It started in an era where anthology shows were the norm, and while there is continuity between episodes/stories, each one is set in a different location with new guest characters. You didn't like last week's alien planet? Welcome to Victorian England. Next week: aliens are invading Cardiff or London.

Plus, there's the concept of regeneration. It's always understood that every new Doctor's era will be a fresh start with new fans arriving while some old ones depart grumbling for good, or for a season. Companions arriving or leaving are also a good place to stop and start, and each producer/showrunner's era has a different feel, and those may divide a Doctor's era, or cross more than one Doctor.


So if I want to pick up any individual story in any medium but I don't care about the rest, I can?

Yes!

There are exceptions - some EU material occasionally has some complicated arcs, and from 2005 the TV show has (often 2-3 part) season finales that you might want to get some context on first (or not spoil yourself for if you think you might watch the rest later), but absolutely, yes. In any medium.

If you are curious about one installment for any reason (actor, writer, it just sounds intriguing, whatever) and that's it, go for it! Have fun. Never worry about DW again. \o/


Look, what if I do want to get into it? Where do I start? There are 800+ episodes out there and you've just told me there are hundreds of audios and books as well!

Start anywhere you like! Most of us did. Story that sounds cool, companion you like the look of, Doctor you're most curious about. Start from the beginning. Start at the end.

The only rule is if someone starts wildly insisting you absolutely have to start at any given point or else oh noes, ignore them. There is no reason to be linear about DW unless you want to be.

And, like I said, each individual story and era and Doctor and companion have their ending, so you're not signed up for good unless you want to be.


But I want to do the thing! Where DO I start?

In reverse broadcast order, from 2024 to 1963, here are some stories that are generally recognised as decent jumping in points, where the show changes showrunner or Doctor or has some other significant element of soft-reboot. As I said, though: you really can start anywhere.

( Story starting point details )


* Watch every story in chronological order by the date the story is set in rather than broadcast. There are lists around to allow you to do this and a whole book. I am reliably informed (by someone on tumblr who attempted it with the New Who list) that this is the worst way to watch Doctor Who. Perfect for the rebellious/unconventional viewer/listener/reader and very much in the spirit of the show.

I mean, caveat: it IS the worst way to do it and I'm not serious, but it would be very funny. If you attempt this, please liveblog.


* Put every story in a randomiser and watch it that way. Time-wimey, wibbly-wobbly, amiright? Pretty much the method every hiatus fan had to do it in anyway, the randomiser in that case being "which novelisations are in my library," "in which order will BBC release the VHS/DVDs," and "what the BBC feels like repeating every once in a while" or "what gets shown on [insert local appropriate random TV channel here]." Call it being traditional. Also in the spirit of the show. So much so, there actually is a website designed to let you do just that.


Basically, DW can be everything and anything and has been by turns, and therefore absolutely all of it is for no one but equally there's almost certainly at least one tiny bit of it that is for you. Canon, such as it is, very flexible. Settle in for life and have fun, or pick up one era or medium or spin-off or episode/serial or book or audio or whatever and never come back again, and everything in between.

(Obviously, for any fellow fans who are about to scream at me - there are arcs and continuity and character growth, right from the very beginning, and, of course, context adds a lot to everything, once you've got it. I'm only saying that the newbie can worry about all that later. Unless they want to worry about it now).

This post is just to say - if you think you would like to try it or whichever individual installment of it you're curious about, then don't be put off solely by the fandom or the size of canon or the confusing nature of it.

Doctor Who is a joyful thing to have in your life and beyond that there are no rules. ♥

I've been thinking for a while of doing Fandom 50 or Fannish 50 and just doing posts on what some fandoms/parts of fandom I like are and why I like them, but then I felt too flaky to sign up. So this is me doing but not doing it. It gives me something to aim for, but not to worry if I don't make it - or if I want to continue. Also I don't have to decide which of those two is best to sign up for - it's very confusing!

I was thinking about doing something like this for ages, because I love manifestos, but there are so few of us left in these parts, it would be ridiculous to expect to get people into things, so they'd just be annoying. But it's always useful to explain exactly what things are again, and it means I can hopefully spend a bit more time chatting about things I love.

(Anything above any cut text should be safe from any major spoilers; if I feel the need to get spoilery in my love, that will always go under a cut).


Obviously, I had to start with Doctor Who, but since that would be a very big post as a whole, I shall probably mainly pick some serials/episodes in between other fandoms. This might be more useful anyway, because while DW, even in the older eras does have some continuity and context and development, it is nevertheless, even in modern eras, still the nearest thing to an anthology show the BBC have left, so if anyone gets curious, there's no reason not to just watch most individual installments.

So I thought I'd remind myself how much I love Doctor Who by talking about one of my absolute favourites, which is from my "least favourite"* Classic Who era - the Third Doctor's run, because DW is awesome generally.

Inferno (BBC 1970)

gifset (by timelordinaustralia)

What is it?

The seven-part** final serial of the Third Doctor's first season, written by Don Houghton & directed by Douglas Camfield (& producer Barry Letts for eps 5-7, as Camfield suffered a minor heart attack during recording) & guest starring Olaf Pooley, Derek Newark, Sheila Dunn & Christopher Benjamin. The show had lately been reinvented in a swither by the BBC between that and cancelling it, and so returned that season in colour, with a new Doctor (Jon Pertwee), now exiled to Earth and stripped of the ability to pilot the TARDIS,working for the military outfit, UNIT, aka the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) and his handful of men, along with brilliant Cambridge scientist Dr. Liz Shaw (Caroline John).

Inferno finds UNIT safeguarding Professor Stahlman's project to drill through to the Earth's core in search of a new energy source he believes he will find there (Stahlman's Gas). The Doctor, meanwhile, is using Stahlman's reactor to power his experiments to get the TARDIS working again. But the project's computer is predicting catastrophe if the core is penetrated, Stahlman is refusing to listen, people are turning into monsters, and the Doctor's test TARDIS trip takes him sideways, leaving him trapped in a fascist parallel earth where Stahlman's project is hours ahead of the one in our world - and things are turning apocalyptic fast...


Why do I love it?

7 episodes is a hard length to pull off (see the rest of the season, even though I love it all), but Inferno does it beautifully - it gives the story sufficient time to allow us to understand and care about what's going in the 'real' world and the parallel Earth, the characters and their parallel world counterparts, and give the fates of both the weight needed, while tension is maintained by the constant hum of the drill - the mounting, unheeded sound of the world ending. The Doctor, the Brig and Liz are a really strong trio and this is not only another great story for them, but lets us see alternate versions of the latter two. Among the guest characters, Greg and Petra (particularly the parallel universe versions) are favourites.

It has that very UK 70s TV thing that always gets me so hard of being simultaneously one of the most bleak and optimistic DW serials ( Vaguely spoilery details ) ♥

On paper it's got a whole lot of would what become very typical Third Doctor era ingredients (unwise 70s scientific projects! green slime! HAVOC!***), but in practice, it truly is something special, and I love it.


ETA: An Inferno-related fannish recs-list.


* It's comparative. Like, yes, but also. It's DW. I love it anyway.
** Seven parts here = 7 x25 mins (although minus the intros/outros and 5 episode recaps and often with shorter runtimes - most given DW serials are about the same length as a regular/shortish film, the six-parters as a long film. It's just that some of them also feel like wading through porridge).
***HAVOC = stunt outfit run by Derek Ware. I think they were HAVOC officially by this point, but at any rate, they were definitely present and correct, pulling off the then record for highest UK TV stunt fall during the course of it, and in another case, getting accidentally actually run over by Pertwee in the course of duty). Also, of course, not that I am saying there is anything wrong with lots of green slime, dodgy scientific projects causing trouble and HAVOC. Obv all top notch ingredients!