It's an odd thing. I hated that era, but later we worked together, and well. I was sorry when Andrew got sacked, only knew about it when I was ushered to his seat as I was the acting editor (Gary Gillatt took over, didn't last long but was also good). I think I was acting editor ofStarburst longer than it actually had an editor.
Last Classic Who Story you watched
- Thread starter Pindar
- Start date
Didn’t know he did the Starburst gig. I was probably reading it at the time still. Nice chap — had convos with him on Twitter. (Like to think I helped with returning Script Doctor to availability)
FWIW, acting editor means you do the donkey work of getting the magazine out, but have no control over content.
As actual editor of TV Zone I was once asked why we were covering West Wing. "10 years ago you watched anything with a spaceship in it. What are you watching now?"
"Fair enough!"
As actual editor of TV Zone I was once asked why we were covering West Wing. "10 years ago you watched anything with a spaceship in it. What are you watching now?"
"Fair enough!"
Last edited:
If you got the one with the big piece about Danger Diabolik, that was one of his.
Next time I am shuffling through the mags (to clear space and recycle alas) I will have a look. I know my golden era for reading TV Zone and Starburst was when I discovered them in the nineties. I think the first issue I read had a BTTF2 poster cover, and I know my first TV Zone had one of the whimsical Pat Troughton publicity shots in the Tardis on. Would have love to write for those mags back in th day — but now I have the qualifications, print is, as Egon said, dead.
Before my time. I was on sfx 96-99.
By about 2005 I was writing to balance the budget. As staff I didn't get extra pay. A good Pixley piece was half the freelance budget.
Occasionally it had benefits. Flash Gordon started awful, but if I hadn't been reviewing it I wouldn't have seen how it improved.
A major problem was someone who now does animations of missing stories. He would have been a great editor, but everything he suggested I already had in mind for in-house (He would probably done a better piece, but then I'd have had to pay freelance, rather than getting it free from an over-worked staffer). So I put off his calls to avoid him suggesting stuff for freelance before it was commissioned in-house.. cruel, but necessary.
Last edited:
Yep. Think I said about the last one that I was sorry it wasn't getting another run ("and never thought I'd say that.")
You can spot it in the Deep Thought four-pager.
I wrote about one in three, not because I had something to say (though I usually had a rant ready), but because budget-wise I had to.
People think editing is about writing. It is, but also managing (Stuart really wanted to learn) and budgeting.
Good point!
Seconded. Some land better than others. What's produced is often good, but the novelizations make for more engaging reads at times.
Or commonplace, perhaps? At least they didn't go the way of "parents divorced", so there is some originality, but it does get over the top after a while. Different strokes for different folks, ultimately...
Ace still came across as being more interesting. Rose felt like a generic stick figure, who used Mickey and then left him the moment someone else came along. But series 1 is loaded with dreadful scripting, especially with Mickey being the butt of jokes and she's a real prat for hyperfocused only on saving Jack, which is because she's horny for him and most people wouldn't be so myopic - we've seen that from people in real life plenty of times so it's not unrealistic either. Seeing Rose in that story is more distasteful is worse than seeing Hartnell in "an Unearthly Child". Series 2 thankfully improves on Mickey and gives him development and an actual arc, while making Rose utterly insufferable by accident. But her finale, before that was lazily retconned, hyped up how she was going to die and she didn't live until she met the Doctor, so she died as a 2 year-old, metaphorically, in a parallel universe with her version of the Doctor she can copulate with forevermore, while exposition told us how impossible it was for the real doc to ever come back. She comes back 2 seasons later for no explanation but we're supposed to cry on cue. Okey dokey then.
Also, avoid the issue with Martha in how it's always about someone wanting to **** the Doctor in another lame rehash of the same thing, and she's far more interesting with everything else accorded her. That's the other point - nothing's special about Rose. Martha took on a significant role and field. Not since Ian and Barbara and Ben have there, that I can recall, been many companions who were in professional fields of considerable need. But even then, Jamie had a more interesting background. So had Zoe, Liz... even Peri and what's said of her abusive stepfather, which wasn't sexual abuse until someone in the peanut gallery decided it was, but it could be argued either way as there's enough that's vague and the show didn't spend time wallowing in their pasts, but the presents and futures for them. Rose is just a generic kid, who leached off of her boyfriend for free food until the Doctor comes around, calls him "idiot", and likes this size of his big blue box. How original. Yes, Billie Piper does much with what's on paper, but the scripting behind the character is still weak for her to be so generic as far as characters go, outside their parents' backgrounds.
Delinquents who have issues with their parents aren't realistic people? I find that hard to believe, and they're more difficult to script for as well, much less act out on screen convincingly. Even punks do what they do out of nonconformity, and it'd be silly if they all did the same things the same, wouldn't it?
Last edited:
Not sure Ben falls into that category. He was an able seaman, which is just someone who's been working on a civilian ship's deck crew for more than two years, with only on-the-job training.
As for companions in professional fields in classic Who, we've got Steven Taylor (astronaut), Sara Kingdom (Space Security Agent), Zoe Heriot (space station astrometricist/librarian), Liz Shaw (scientist), Jo Grant (junior civilian UNIT operative), Sarah Jane Smith (journalist), Harry Sullivan (Naval surgeon), and Melanie Bush (computer programmer). And we know Romana once worked for the Bureau of Ancient Records on Gallifrey, though only for a limited time, suggesting it was a temporary or low-ranking position.
Billie was better as the Moment than she ever was as Rose. XD
To that end point though — Ace is *very* realistic. What’s ridiculous is that since then, no companion has touched her in that regard. The Ponds also come close, especially Rory, and I mentioned the others. In retrospect, I think Yaz was an example of an attempt at that level of realism too. But Ace was a very good example of doing a *lot* with very little. ‘White kids did it’ and the whole story of Manisha telling *so much* about her background with just a couple of lines and some blue flashing lights. Took two minutes and did more backstory in it than *all* of ‘Fathers Day’ for example.
Whilst it was great seeing her again in Power Of The Doctor, Ace was really a cardboard cut out there until she was opposite Sylv again.
You’re right about Rose. I don’t often lay it all out end to end, because if I do, she’s really quite terrible and possibly more than a little Mary-Sue-ish.
"The Five Doctors" - 40th anniversary edition.
This is easily the definitive edition. While I have one small nitpick, that alone doesn't derail the rest of it. Naturally, I have yet to realize what made the original voice of Rassilon so unpalatable that they felt to change it to something so low-baritone that it's borderline cliche and cartoony, and with the 40th anniversary adding a weird tv scan line effect that intrigues yet there was nothing wrong with the original voice... it's a very small nitpick. All of the other new f/x do far more to sweeten the deal and they replaced the original sound lines and scenes that they took out for a previous special release which had the result of stripped-down atmosphere/tone, so the whole piece really feels like the original 1983 release but properly enhanced this time. And the new timescoop obelisk effect alone is the most thoughtful of the bunch, but definitely get the blu-ray set as it's more than worth it.
This is easily the definitive edition. While I have one small nitpick, that alone doesn't derail the rest of it. Naturally, I have yet to realize what made the original voice of Rassilon so unpalatable that they felt to change it to something so low-baritone that it's borderline cliche and cartoony, and with the 40th anniversary adding a weird tv scan line effect that intrigues yet there was nothing wrong with the original voice... it's a very small nitpick. All of the other new f/x do far more to sweeten the deal and they replaced the original sound lines and scenes that they took out for a previous special release which had the result of stripped-down atmosphere/tone, so the whole piece really feels like the original 1983 release but properly enhanced this time. And the new timescoop obelisk effect alone is the most thoughtful of the bunch, but definitely get the blu-ray set as it's more than worth it.
Fair point.
Seconded. As much as the show did become "Ace Who" and the detractors of the time had a point, Ace wasn't done as overblown as more modern companions.
The "doing a lot with very little" definitely rings true and only good writing and acting can sell it.
"Father's Day" had some great ideas but they felt like they were put to the side just to wring more tears out of the audience just so the episode can make into one of those articles saying "which story made you cry the hardest". The reaper things can't get beyond old things, but swallowed the far older Doctor... and for a race of temporal beings that protect the timeline by stopping influencing elements, insufferable Rose was the one trying to change things but they did sod all with her. Zero substance at all, and from a story with more potential in that season than most. And unlike Adam, she's not unceremoniously ditched - but before I digress...
"White kids" has been argued for decades*, it's a line that has actually improved over time. Never understood the detractors.
* decades it's been now 
Yeah, "Survival" has held up very well indeed. We do see Ace's family. And the show dared to not be lazy by using generic stick figures, but actual personalities - even atypical ones, by making them interesting.
True. I'm tempted to rewatch TPOTD again, just for those nostalgiabate bits. So much of the story is a bundle of missed opportunities and motivations, instead they faff about with dumb songs -- good choice of music aside, of course. Then again, before Milli Vanilli there apparently was Boney M...
But that won't stop me from enjoying the song for what it simply is.
The song is fairly accurate for the history lesson as well, interestingly enough. Might be another reason of many as to why Chibnall wanted to find a way to squeeze it in. His take on historical figures is a definite positive for the show, which is why his underuse of the Master as Rasputin was a minor disappointment...
The rest of the story, however... Cyber timelords given token treatment, why the Master impersonating Rasputin is a cool idea but without any depth... the critter that kills the Doctor was using its beam to slice up a planet, yet she's not diced up by the same effing beam... modern Who has a worse track record in this regard and it's odd.
Or the modern show is telling audiences that anyone and everyone can be a Jedi**. I dunno. The companions with actual backgrounds or individual nuances have always been more interesting than average cookie cutter teenagers using their sex buddies for free food then ditching them over the smallest extraterrestrial threat for which the power of script magic let her stay. The less said about series 1 the better, especially with how Mickey was treated in the scripts. Series 2, however, is why Mickey is one of the more refreshing companions from the modern era. The series 2 finale does overcompensate with "Super Mickey" and all he lacks is a cape, but it's a minor nitpick given his arc of realization and building self-confidence (which was an awesome surprise, as series 1 was a real downer...)
** that doesn't stop me from enjoying 85% of the rest of "The Last Jedi", however
Similar threads
