As I mentioned in Part One, I prefer to discuss the mythos of the show rather than behind-the-scenes matters. But a lot of you expressed to me that you found it an enjoyable read so I'll continue on....
THE WILDERNESS YEARS - THE FIRST HALF
The 90s is a sad time in the lives of any fan who started watching Doctor Who before it went off the air. Many of us went on a wonderful journey of discovering this wildly imaginative low-budget science fiction series that just seemed to have way more charm than any other franchise out there. I remember fondly discovering some latter-day Tom Baker episodes on a local PBS station here in Canada and falling instantly in love with it. A good chunk of my boyhood was then spent finding other TV channels that featured the program. I soon watched every episode in existence. All while picking up novelisations and other literature concerning the show.
But nothing was more exciting than when a new season came out. It often took some time before the episodes would reach me in Canada. So the anticipation could be quite gruelling. There was no real internet to speak of at the time. But there were fanzines that could give me teasers about what was to come in the latest adventures of my favorite Time Lord. This just whetted my appetite all-the-more as I waited for new material to reach my side of the ocean.
While I was still blessed with an extremely healthy social life (not something an awkward, geeky teenager always gets), some of my fondest memories actually involved me turning down invitations to parties and other such events because there was a new episode of Doctor Who on that night and I couldn't miss it. On a few occasions, I even broke off dates with girls who had asked me out!
But, as the 80s ended, all that happiness seemed to ebb away. News came out that it looked like the show had been truly laid to rest. Quite sadly, I accepted that life would have to just go on without Doctor Who.
What really happened, however, was that life went on without Doctor Who on television. Other forms of media started picking up the torch and continuing the story.
Probably the biggest development was a series of "New Adventures" novels that were released by Virgin Publishing. They followed Ace and the Doctor after the events of Survival. They even novelised several scripts that were meant to be in future seasons of the show. Eventually, Ace was written out and new companions like Bernice "Benny" Summerfield and futuristic police officers Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester were introduced. Which really gave the novels their own sense of identity rather than being just a continuation of a TV series. While it still wasn't quite the same level of satisfaction that new episodes would give me, I really enjoyed this book range. The Seventh Doctor became even darker than he already was on the program and his character went to some very interesting places. All in all, this was probably my favorite form of alternative media that came out during the Wilderness Years.
But I should also mention the contribution Doctor Who Magazine made during this dark time. Not only did they continue to publish interesting articles about a show that was now extinct, but they also did an ongoing comic strip that prolonged the adventures of the Doctor and Ace. The comics became especially interesting as they started tying in with things that were going on in the New Adventures novelisations. It all became one big fun shared reality for tv-starved fans to enjoy.
1996 - THE YEAR OF HOPE
For a good five years, books and comics were the mainstay for people that still wanted some kind of fix from the Doctor Who Universe. Virgin released a second range of novels called "The Missing Adventures" that involved earlier incarnations of the Doctor (I only collected these books a bit as I didn't really like them as much as the New Adventures). An occasional video was released that would involve companions or monsters from the show but could not feature the Doctor, himself. There was even a range of audio adventures starting to develop.
And then this rumor started circulating that Doctor Who was being revived. There had been any number of rumors of this nature over the years, of course, but this particular grapevine seemed more firmly rooted. Steven Spielberg even seemed to have his name attached to the project. This definitely offered a ray of hope for the fans. If anyone could bring back Doctor Who, it would be Spielberg.
As 1996 approached, more and more concrete news came out. Although Spielberg left the production, a return to television still seemed imminent. This was to be a British/American co-produce. Which made some fans a bit nervous. Would all the eccentricity of the series be removed to make it more palatable for a U.S. audience? In some ways, though, we were only so concerned. We were dying to see Doctor Who on our screens again. We could live if some of its integrity was compromised.
When it did finally arrive, some interesting choices had been made. There would be a new Doctor played by Paul McGann. Who was, quite honestly, brilliant in the role. Oddly, though, Sylvester McCoy was still brought back for the first ten minutes or so of the story to get a regeneration scene. It was great to see the effort being made to join this feature-length story to the original series. But this would also alienate anyone trying out the show for the first time. To change your lead ten minutes into your story was definitely a bold decision.
There was one distinct Americanisation made to the tale. We would also be getting a new incarnation of the Master. He would not be British, though. He was played by famous U.S. actor Eric Roberts. Roberts is great at playing villains. But it was still very strange to hear the Master speaking his lines in such a different accent.
There were several other weird choices of this nature. This happened mainly because there were so many executive producers with different agendas that needed to be met. Philip Segal, the man who was putting the whole adventure together, was blown about by the various whims of his pay-masters. Ultimately, Doctor Who - The Movie (or The 96 Telemovie) only worked so well for its potential audiences. It had been hoped that this would be a sort of "backdoor pilot" that would lead to a series. Sadly, because the story never quite found its niche, this didn't happen.
DOCTOR WHO - THE MOVIE: THE AFTERMATH
As quickly as our hopes had been raised, they were dashed against the rocks. Doctor Who was over again. Poor 'ole Paul McGann would only ever get one full story. And, with this failure, it seemed definite that another effort would never be made to revive the show.
Doctor Who had gotten its one chance and had missed the mark.
There was, however, one interesting nuance to this production. Up until now, the show had always been made by "career TV producers". People that worked in the industry who just happened to get assigned Doctor Who by the BBC. This was the first time a Super Fan had made a story. Someone who, like me, had just grown up loving the series and wanted to see it continue. It gave an interesting spin on how the whole adventure was depicted. It also set a precedent. If Doctor Who was to make another return sometime in the future - it would need another Super Fan to do it. No sane television producer would be willing to work against the adversity that would be levelled against them as they tried to bring the show back. Only someone with the deepest love for Who would endure such a thing. From this point on, the main creative force fueling the series would always come from a fan.
If you read the first part of this essay (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/07/analytical-doctor-who-delicate-years.html), you'll recall that I decided to watch my DVD collection from the beginning of Trial of a Time Lord until the end of the Classic Series. I, then, continued with The 96 Telemovie and went on to observe a few early seasons of New Who. This constitutes what I consider "The Delicate Years" of the show.
Just for fun, after I finished Paul McGann's introductory story, I also bothered to put on Night of the Doctor to watch Eight regenerate into the War Doctor. I then continued with Day of the Doctor so I could observe the War Doctor turn into Nine. While neither of these stories were produced during the Wilderness Years, it's still fun to insert them into the viewing order. They give us a bit better of an idea of what happened during those years between Season 26 and Series 1. Just like The 96 Telemovie, the material is somewhat scant. It seems that, at best, we will only ever get glimpses into this specific period. Which, admittedly, gives the whole thing a rather fun air of mystery.
THE WILDERNESS YEARS: PART TWO
While McGann's Doctor appeared to be only getting one full television story, his adventures were far from over.
Once more, novels had a strong role to play in continuing the saga. Virgin Publishing's rights to Doctor Who had lapsed and BBC Books took up the reigns. The Eighth Doctor's first story in prose picks up only moments after the Telemovie finishes. The somewhat-legendary Terrance Dicks is hired to write the novel. It's quite the fan-pleaser as Eight ends up travelling down his own timestream to have encounters with all his predecessors.
This range quickly receives the title of EDAs (Eighth Doctor Adventures) and lasts for several years. It took a while for this series to really grow on me. Overall, I still prefer the New Adventures. But some interesting things do happen with the EDAs. Most notably, the Doctor learns that the Time Lords are going to wage a very serious war with another species. This is not quite the same Time War that we hear about when the show does return. But it's still interesting that the idea was first born in these books.
The other form of entertainment that really finds its mark during this time are the audio dramas produced by Big Finish. They, too, pick up the torch and keep the Eighth Doctor running. Amazingly enough, the series is still going to this day. In the instance of both the novels and the audio dramas, stories were also created for other incarnations beyond the Eighth Doctor. Just as Virgin did "Missing Adventures" for previous incarnations. As the new series rolled in, Big Finish even started producing stories involving Doctors that were on the show. The EDAs, however, were concluded.
As great as all this is, the canon that gets established during both parts of the Wilderness Years through alternative media will, eventually, get thrown out. Or, at least, that's how I see it. Other fans may feel differently on the matter.
Both a Big Finish story using the Sixth Doctor and a New Adventures novel featuring the Seventh Doctor get "re-jigged" in the first few seasons for the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, respectively. In my view, the Doctor can't have the same adventure twice. It just doesn't really make sense. So, we have to accept that all Wilderness Years stuff doesn't really count.
Some like to point out, of course, that the Eighth Doctor does name a bunch of companions from Big Finish during Night of the Doctor. Which must mean Big Finish is canon. I'm inclined to believe that those companions did travel with Eight - but the adventures they had in the audio dramas didn't, necessarily, occur during their travels. If we ever get a few seasons of a show featuring Paul McGann (which is highly unlikely to happen, at this point) then what we see in these episodes will be what I consider to be canon. Hopefully, some of the companions from Big Finish would be included in the run. But, to be honest, this is all a pretty big pipe dream! Poor 'ole Paul was lucky to even get that webisode! That was purely a 50th anniversary gift given to us by Moffat. Luckily enough, he's as big of a pedant as we are and needed to see Eight regenerate!
In the end, "alternative media Doctor Who" was a wonderful diversion to keep us entertained until the show properly came back. Nothing more. It was a great ride, though. Some awesome stories were told and several people who were involved with their telling became part of the televised series as it did return.
Even Russell T. Davis, himself, wrote a New Adventures novel!
In the Grand Tradition of such great stories as Delta and the Bannermen and Planet of Giants, we're going to make this topic a three-parter. Hope you enjoyed the middle chapter. We'll be looking at the triumphant return and its shaky second season as we embark upon Episode Three.
Here's Part One, again, if you missed it:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/07/analytical-doctor-who-delicate-years.html
What really happened, however, was that life went on without Doctor Who on television. Other forms of media started picking up the torch and continuing the story.
Probably the biggest development was a series of "New Adventures" novels that were released by Virgin Publishing. They followed Ace and the Doctor after the events of Survival. They even novelised several scripts that were meant to be in future seasons of the show. Eventually, Ace was written out and new companions like Bernice "Benny" Summerfield and futuristic police officers Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester were introduced. Which really gave the novels their own sense of identity rather than being just a continuation of a TV series. While it still wasn't quite the same level of satisfaction that new episodes would give me, I really enjoyed this book range. The Seventh Doctor became even darker than he already was on the program and his character went to some very interesting places. All in all, this was probably my favorite form of alternative media that came out during the Wilderness Years.
But I should also mention the contribution Doctor Who Magazine made during this dark time. Not only did they continue to publish interesting articles about a show that was now extinct, but they also did an ongoing comic strip that prolonged the adventures of the Doctor and Ace. The comics became especially interesting as they started tying in with things that were going on in the New Adventures novelisations. It all became one big fun shared reality for tv-starved fans to enjoy.
1996 - THE YEAR OF HOPE
For a good five years, books and comics were the mainstay for people that still wanted some kind of fix from the Doctor Who Universe. Virgin released a second range of novels called "The Missing Adventures" that involved earlier incarnations of the Doctor (I only collected these books a bit as I didn't really like them as much as the New Adventures). An occasional video was released that would involve companions or monsters from the show but could not feature the Doctor, himself. There was even a range of audio adventures starting to develop.
And then this rumor started circulating that Doctor Who was being revived. There had been any number of rumors of this nature over the years, of course, but this particular grapevine seemed more firmly rooted. Steven Spielberg even seemed to have his name attached to the project. This definitely offered a ray of hope for the fans. If anyone could bring back Doctor Who, it would be Spielberg.
As 1996 approached, more and more concrete news came out. Although Spielberg left the production, a return to television still seemed imminent. This was to be a British/American co-produce. Which made some fans a bit nervous. Would all the eccentricity of the series be removed to make it more palatable for a U.S. audience? In some ways, though, we were only so concerned. We were dying to see Doctor Who on our screens again. We could live if some of its integrity was compromised.
When it did finally arrive, some interesting choices had been made. There would be a new Doctor played by Paul McGann. Who was, quite honestly, brilliant in the role. Oddly, though, Sylvester McCoy was still brought back for the first ten minutes or so of the story to get a regeneration scene. It was great to see the effort being made to join this feature-length story to the original series. But this would also alienate anyone trying out the show for the first time. To change your lead ten minutes into your story was definitely a bold decision.
There was one distinct Americanisation made to the tale. We would also be getting a new incarnation of the Master. He would not be British, though. He was played by famous U.S. actor Eric Roberts. Roberts is great at playing villains. But it was still very strange to hear the Master speaking his lines in such a different accent.
There were several other weird choices of this nature. This happened mainly because there were so many executive producers with different agendas that needed to be met. Philip Segal, the man who was putting the whole adventure together, was blown about by the various whims of his pay-masters. Ultimately, Doctor Who - The Movie (or The 96 Telemovie) only worked so well for its potential audiences. It had been hoped that this would be a sort of "backdoor pilot" that would lead to a series. Sadly, because the story never quite found its niche, this didn't happen.
DOCTOR WHO - THE MOVIE: THE AFTERMATH
As quickly as our hopes had been raised, they were dashed against the rocks. Doctor Who was over again. Poor 'ole Paul McGann would only ever get one full story. And, with this failure, it seemed definite that another effort would never be made to revive the show.
Doctor Who had gotten its one chance and had missed the mark.
There was, however, one interesting nuance to this production. Up until now, the show had always been made by "career TV producers". People that worked in the industry who just happened to get assigned Doctor Who by the BBC. This was the first time a Super Fan had made a story. Someone who, like me, had just grown up loving the series and wanted to see it continue. It gave an interesting spin on how the whole adventure was depicted. It also set a precedent. If Doctor Who was to make another return sometime in the future - it would need another Super Fan to do it. No sane television producer would be willing to work against the adversity that would be levelled against them as they tried to bring the show back. Only someone with the deepest love for Who would endure such a thing. From this point on, the main creative force fueling the series would always come from a fan.
If you read the first part of this essay (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/07/analytical-doctor-who-delicate-years.html), you'll recall that I decided to watch my DVD collection from the beginning of Trial of a Time Lord until the end of the Classic Series. I, then, continued with The 96 Telemovie and went on to observe a few early seasons of New Who. This constitutes what I consider "The Delicate Years" of the show.
Just for fun, after I finished Paul McGann's introductory story, I also bothered to put on Night of the Doctor to watch Eight regenerate into the War Doctor. I then continued with Day of the Doctor so I could observe the War Doctor turn into Nine. While neither of these stories were produced during the Wilderness Years, it's still fun to insert them into the viewing order. They give us a bit better of an idea of what happened during those years between Season 26 and Series 1. Just like The 96 Telemovie, the material is somewhat scant. It seems that, at best, we will only ever get glimpses into this specific period. Which, admittedly, gives the whole thing a rather fun air of mystery.
THE WILDERNESS YEARS: PART TWO
While McGann's Doctor appeared to be only getting one full television story, his adventures were far from over.
Once more, novels had a strong role to play in continuing the saga. Virgin Publishing's rights to Doctor Who had lapsed and BBC Books took up the reigns. The Eighth Doctor's first story in prose picks up only moments after the Telemovie finishes. The somewhat-legendary Terrance Dicks is hired to write the novel. It's quite the fan-pleaser as Eight ends up travelling down his own timestream to have encounters with all his predecessors.
This range quickly receives the title of EDAs (Eighth Doctor Adventures) and lasts for several years. It took a while for this series to really grow on me. Overall, I still prefer the New Adventures. But some interesting things do happen with the EDAs. Most notably, the Doctor learns that the Time Lords are going to wage a very serious war with another species. This is not quite the same Time War that we hear about when the show does return. But it's still interesting that the idea was first born in these books.
The other form of entertainment that really finds its mark during this time are the audio dramas produced by Big Finish. They, too, pick up the torch and keep the Eighth Doctor running. Amazingly enough, the series is still going to this day. In the instance of both the novels and the audio dramas, stories were also created for other incarnations beyond the Eighth Doctor. Just as Virgin did "Missing Adventures" for previous incarnations. As the new series rolled in, Big Finish even started producing stories involving Doctors that were on the show. The EDAs, however, were concluded.
As great as all this is, the canon that gets established during both parts of the Wilderness Years through alternative media will, eventually, get thrown out. Or, at least, that's how I see it. Other fans may feel differently on the matter.
Both a Big Finish story using the Sixth Doctor and a New Adventures novel featuring the Seventh Doctor get "re-jigged" in the first few seasons for the Ninth and Tenth Doctors, respectively. In my view, the Doctor can't have the same adventure twice. It just doesn't really make sense. So, we have to accept that all Wilderness Years stuff doesn't really count.
Some like to point out, of course, that the Eighth Doctor does name a bunch of companions from Big Finish during Night of the Doctor. Which must mean Big Finish is canon. I'm inclined to believe that those companions did travel with Eight - but the adventures they had in the audio dramas didn't, necessarily, occur during their travels. If we ever get a few seasons of a show featuring Paul McGann (which is highly unlikely to happen, at this point) then what we see in these episodes will be what I consider to be canon. Hopefully, some of the companions from Big Finish would be included in the run. But, to be honest, this is all a pretty big pipe dream! Poor 'ole Paul was lucky to even get that webisode! That was purely a 50th anniversary gift given to us by Moffat. Luckily enough, he's as big of a pedant as we are and needed to see Eight regenerate!
In the end, "alternative media Doctor Who" was a wonderful diversion to keep us entertained until the show properly came back. Nothing more. It was a great ride, though. Some awesome stories were told and several people who were involved with their telling became part of the televised series as it did return.
Even Russell T. Davis, himself, wrote a New Adventures novel!
In the Grand Tradition of such great stories as Delta and the Bannermen and Planet of Giants, we're going to make this topic a three-parter. Hope you enjoyed the middle chapter. We'll be looking at the triumphant return and its shaky second season as we embark upon Episode Three.
Here's Part One, again, if you missed it:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/07/analytical-doctor-who-delicate-years.html
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