Happy Anniversary, Doctor Who!

[tony ingram]

Doctor Who is 48 today, still two years short of the big one, but not doing half bad all the same! Eleven Doctors, 223 stories, 783 episodes (not counting Children in Need segments), four spin-off shows (including the 1981 pilot K9 & Company), over 200 audio adventures, five separate ranges of original novels, 47 years worth of comic strips, two movie adaptations, several theatre productions and more miscellaneous spin-off material than you can count have flowed through the time vortex in that time, and it's still going! Happy Birthday, Doc.

[Digifiend]

Congratulations to DW. How many TV shows can claim to have aired their first episode that long ago that are still on air today? Not many. 48 years is an impressive run (of course, even when the show was off air, the books and magazine carried on).

Speaking of Doctor Who, I recently picked up a copy of Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, the 1974 novelisation of Spearhead from Space, and it only cost me 50p from an Age UK charity shop.

[tony ingram]

Congratulations to DW. How many TV shows can claim to have aired their first episode that long ago that are still on air today? Not many. 48 years is an impressive run (of course, even when the show was off air, the books and magazine carried on).

Speaking of Doctor Who, I recently picked up a copy of Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, the 1974 novelisation of Spearhead from Space, and it only cost me 50p from an Age UK charity shop.

I loved those old Target novelizations. For an entire generation of kids, they were the way in to a world of adventures we expected never to actually see in those pre-home video days. And they had some fantastic covers!








Not to mention the spinoffs...



..and the foreign editions!

[swirlythingy]

For an entire generation of kids, they were the way in to a world of adventures we expected never to actually see in those pre-home video days.

...And, in some cases, thanks to BBC tape-wiping, we never actually will...

[tony ingram]

For an entire generation of kids, they were the way in to a world of adventures we expected never to actually see in those pre-home video days.

...And, in some cases, thanks to BBC tape-wiping, we never actually will...

At least they released all the missing stories as soundtrack CD's.

[Phoenix]

...And, in some cases, thanks to BBC tape-wiping, we never actually will...

I wouldn't have thought that would bother you too much, Swirly, given that recently, on a different thread, you appeared to be a bit dismissive of comicsuk colleagues who express delight when they finally acquire a complete set of some comic or other.

My personal view is that, although it will not upset me if I never see again any of the earlier series of Doctor Who, it is a great pity that any tapes were wiped, especially because the BBC's penny pinching and their cavalier attitude to their archive, have led to the wiping of a lot of tapes of programmes that I and thousands of others, including you no doubt, really would like to see again.

[tony ingram]

I'm watching soime of the early stuff tonight. Watched the pilot episode earlier (still creepy and unsettling; Hartnell was excellent) and I'm now watching bits of the "Doctor Who at 40" weekend on UK Gold which I videoed in 2003; some really nice little mini-documentaries and interviews, and next up is The Tomb of the Cybermen!

[swirlythingy]

I wouldn't have thought that would bother you too much, Swirly, given that recently, on a different thread, you appeared to be a bit dismissive of comicsuk colleagues who express delight when they finally acquire a complete set of some comic or other.

Collectors are one thing, but I'd at least expect the publishers to maintain an archive. I believe DC Thomson are quite religious about it, although the same sadly cannot be said for IPC.

Which brings me to wonder: Are there any famous 'lost episodes' of well-known comic characters?

[Digifiend]

Why not make a separate thread about that?

[Phoenix]

Which brings me to wonder: Are there any famous 'lost episodes' of well-known comic characters?

I assume you are referring to comic characters in print, Swirly, as opposed to on TV or film, in which case the answer is No, at least as far as Thomson's story comics are concerned from the first issue of Adventure in 1921 to the last issue of Bunty in 2001. There are some issues of The Big Five that I haven't got but I have consulted all those in the British Library and made thorough notes on their content. I also have most of DCT's picture-strip story comics for boys and girls. If any of the ones I haven't got didn't exist, I would know which they were.

[Digifiend]

There is material prepared for Beano and Dandy which possibly never got published due to pagination reduction in the war, and probably for Magic and Skipper too due to their demise. The Beano's Alf Wit the Ancient Brit is an example of this, they finally printed some unused strips 50 years later in one of the Beano-Dandy reprint books. Before then, they were unseen by the public. At least that proves that they kept the unused material.

Unlike DC Thomson, if IPC/Fleetway/Odhams etc had similar unprinted material, unfortunately there's a good chance that it's lost. Wouldn't surprise me if some early comics have no surviving copies either.

[tony ingram]

I wouldn't have thought that would bother you too much, Swirly, given that recently, on a different thread, you appeared to be a bit dismissive of comicsuk colleagues who express delight when they finally acquire a complete set of some comic or other.

Collectors are one thing, but I'd at least expect the publishers to maintain an archive. I believe DC Thomson are quite religious about it, although the same sadly cannot be said for IPC.

Blame the late, unlamented Robert Maxwell and his equally objectionable son. Bloody philistines.

[Classic Comics]

Aah... Target novelisations... Doctor Who is my addiction, and the books particularly so. I bought my first in 1976 - Doctor Who And The Loch Ness Monster, bought appropriately enough in Inverness. I spent years collecting every edition of every Target, including most of the foreign ones - although I only have one of the Japanese ones and that cost me an arm and a leg. I'm delighted the Targets rereleased by the BBC did well enough to warrant another batch getting the same treatment. They're lovely. Also delighted that Shada and Resurrection of the Daleks are being novelised... maybe we'll get the full house of classic series novelisations? The completist in me hopes so.

[-MikeD-]

Aah... Target novelisations... Doctor Who is my addiction, and the books particularly so. I bought my first in 1976 - Doctor Who And The Loch Ness Monster, bought appropriately enough in Inverness. I spent years collecting every edition of every Target, including most of the foreign ones - although I only have one of the Japanese ones and that cost me an arm and a leg.

Heh. I only collected the UK books (mainly), but the completist in me used to always be on the look out for missing adventures. I once became so obsessed, I used to go to every library sale for miles around just to look for the hardback editions...

I still haven't read Pescatons or Harry's War...I may have to check eBay...

[Classic Comics]

Heh. I only collected the UK books (mainly), but the completist in me used to always be on the look out for missing adventures. I once became so obsessed, I used to go to every library sale for miles around just to look for the hardback editions...

I still haven't read Pescatons or Harry's War...I may have to check eBay...

The Pescatons was disappointing but I did enjoy Harry Sullivan's War. Ian Marter was lost too us far too young. He would have written some amazing novels for the Virgin and BBC ranges.
If you still have any of the hardbacks it might be worth having a look at what they can sell for on ebay... I got rid of mine to free up some space and was pleasantly amazed. The only hardback novels I've kept are the Telos novellas (and I have a personal reason for being very fond of one of those), and a few others, mostly spin-offs, one-offs, or the hardbacks about the new series.
I'm very partial to the foreign editions. I've even had a bash at reading a French and German edition - but always with the original close to hand.
I know that with the advent of video and then DVD the novelisation has largely become a thing of the past, but I do miss them and hope there's something behind the rumour of Neil Gaiman novelising The Doctor's Wife.