Bill Albert, founder and Fearless Leader of UNIT, issues a statement each month describing
his feelings on the state of Doctor Who fandom in Iowa. He calls these messages his "Ramblings".
Here is his message for April 1999
From: 9th Doctor
Hello everyone. Since I'm the listmom I thought I migt as well put
together a few thoughts. Any corrections, comments or concerns are welcome.
APRIL
DOCTOR WHO ON IOWA PUBLIC TELEVISION
They are showing the Silurians now. This is one of my all time favorites
because Jon Pertwee's early stories were my first introduction to the
Doctor Who mythology. It also brings to mind a stiry the Caroline John
(Liz Shaw) told at Visions last year. She explained how she was getting
ready to do some cave scenes and went in to make up and wardrobe to get
ready. She was surprised to find that her costume there was the usual
miniskirt and boots. She pointed out to them that Liz Shaw was a brilliant
scientist and it would be foolish of her to go crawling through these caves
in a miniskirt. Despit her best efforts they wouldn't listen and off she
went with the half costume. They were getting ready to shoot the scene
when Jon Pertwee comes walking in. He was just aghast. He went to the
wardrobe people and pointed out to them that Liz Shaw was a brilliant
scientist and it would be foolish of her to go crawling through these caves
in a miniskirt. "Go back! Get her something more sensible!" She said
that was an example of how wonderful it was to work with Jon pertwee. He
was always looking out for the other actors.
She also told how he gave her one of the best pieces of advice for acting
in Doctor Who. She said that, due to time and budgets, they never had time
to do retakes and most of what was done was a one shot deal. She said
Pertwee told her that, if she felt she was blowing a scene, to start
cursing and swearing. That way they would have to go back and reshoot.
We miss you, Jon.
DOCTOR WHO ON RED DWARF
A few weeks agon on RD8 the boys from the Dwarf were sent to prison. Since
the officials weren't sure what to do with Kryton he was sent to a doctor
to determine whether he should go to the male or female part of the prison.
The actor who played the doctor was Geoffrey Beevers. His is married to
Caroline John and had several appearances on Doctor Who, including the
Master in Keeper of Traken.
It hasn't been shown in this current season but, in the earlier shows there
is a familiar blue police box sitting in the RD hanger bay. Usually when
Starbug is exiting the ship it seen in the half shadows on what would be
the lower left corner of the RD hatch if you were looking out. Sometimes
on the reverse shots where Starbug is returning to RD it is further back on
the same part of the bay. I think I still have a pic I can dig up if
anyone is interested.
Sylvester McCoy also told us at Visions that the remastered Red Dwarf ship
has a Dalek on it.
THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO
For those of you who don't know, Big Finish Productions, the company that
was doing the audio cersions of the Benny books, has signed and agreement
with the BBC to do original Doctor Who audio adventures. The first is due
out in June and features Peter Davison (5th Doctor), Colin Baker (6th
Doctor), and Sylvester McCoy (7th Doctor). I haven't heard much about
these since the opening announcements so I really don't know what they are
about or whether any companions are with them or not. Considering Sophie
Aldred's constant connects with these productions it wouldn't be a surprise
to see her as Ace. I'm hoping that, since these are officially liscensed
production, they will use a Doctor Who theme and familiar TARDIS sound
effects.
VIDEO REVIEW
I got the BBV production of the Terrance Dicks story Mindgame. It features
Sophie Aldred, a Sontaran, and a Draconian that are taken from their own
places and used an experiment by some unknown being. It is never stated
that Sophie Aldred is Ace but she makes off hand references to a man she
travelled with at some time.
BILL SEZ:
Don't buy this video. It's horrible. It only runs about 25 minutes and
has no story or characters or any interesting elements at all. The
documentary is twice as long as the production and it tells how the thing
fell apart. Most of the actors didn't get thier scripts until the day of
the shoot. It explains that they only had one day to shoot and as they
realised they could not do the whole script they started editing out pages
and pages as they went. What's left is a pretty miserable video with no
value what so ever. You don't care why the alien is runing this experiment
and they manage to come up with a very complicated plot to escape with
absolutely no discussion what so ever. It's crap.
DOCTOR WHO BOOKS IN IOWA
Has anybody had any luck finding the BBC novels? I've had them on order at
Waldenbooks for a very long time. I finally got Short Trips, which was out
a year ago or so, and was told that they could not get Infinity Doctors.
Barnes and Noble had 5 or 6 of some very current ones on the shelves. I
say "had" because Mike and I pretty much emptied the shelves last week.
There was one copy of Demontage back there today. The problem is Barnes
and Noble doesn't think there are any series outside of Star Trek, Star
Wars, and Dungeons and Dragons. You won't find them togther. They are
alphabetized by authors and scattered around. X-Files, Quantuum Leap,
Babylon 5 and several others are also not displayed as series. Go figure.
Incidentally, Demontage and Short Trips are the only books, that I know of,
to have a photo of Paul McGann on the cover. There was a painting on Dying
Days when it was still a Virgin Books production.
DEMICON
I have every intention of going there and meeting Jeremy Bement and his
group. I'd like to talk about maybe having a small get-together sometime.
There are 17 of us on this list and if you have any comments or suggestions
on when, where, Who or how we can do this I'll be more than happy to take
them.
Well, I hope this has given you a few things to ponder and chat about.
See you earlier.
Bill
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