The Shadow Who

November 29, 2018 7:08 PM

Cyberons, sexy Zygons and Mark Gatiss: the bizarre world of the unofficial Doctor Who spin-offs - featuring actual Colin Baker, Peter Davison, Sylvester McCoy and Jon Pertwee as “The Stranger”.
posted by Artw (11 comments total)

I do not believe in fandom gate keeping. All Doctor Who fans are always welcome. But those that lived through and stuck through the fallow period of 1989-2004 will always be my people.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:00 PM on November 29, 2018 [10 favorites]

(I owned Wartime on VHS.)
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:07 PM on November 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

*pops in to see if MCMikeNamara has commented, leaves satisfied*
posted by roger ackroyd at 8:10 PM on November 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

Aye, those of us who lived through the Great Hiatus, we've all got stories to tell. You kids nowadays, you can't imagine a time when someone would actually anticipate seeing Eric Roberts as The Master, but we were so desperate to see new Who we actually convinced ourselves he was doing an ok job of it. And as for The Curse Of Fatal Death , in retrospect it's everything that's wrong with Steven Moffat in one tiny package, but for us at the time it was a bloody godsend.
posted by dannyboybell at 8:18 PM on November 29, 2018 [7 favorites]

In other words, Wartime wasn’t made in response to the cancellation, but for a very different reason.

“We made Wartime because we weren’t happy with the way that Doctor Who was going and we thought we could do better,” says Wartime producer Keith Barnfather, one of the founding members of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society and former BBC and Channel 4 employee.

Fandom never changes.
posted by Artw at 8:32 PM on November 29, 2018 [3 favorites]

Oh yeah, Wartime, though beloved by teenage me the way you're gonna love some thing you bought imported as a 13 year old in 1988, was absolutely not better than anything the BBC has ever produced. DWAS taught me an important lesson early on. Love what you love and never associate with other fans of things you love ever because they will always be wrong.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:44 PM on November 29, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Curse of Fatal Death was and is canon and nothing can convince me otherwise.
posted by delfin at 5:21 AM on November 30, 2018 [4 favorites]

Given that I saw Trial of a Timelord on scratchy VHS tapes recorded off PBS and sent to me through the physical mail from several states away by someone on a BBS...

...how could I not know about this!? OMG!
posted by Horkus at 7:07 AM on November 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

I just saw Summoned by Shadows Part 1 for the first time. In plot and characterization, I found it as good/better than the oldWho BBC broadcasts of my anorak youth in the 80s. It's got an interestingly creepy villain, and it's the first Colin Baker episode I've seen that didn't fill me with immediate disgust at his portrayal of the Doctor.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 7:30 AM on November 30, 2018

Now that could be Chibnall's best tribute and farewell to the Moffat era — the Whittaker Doctor bumps into the Lumley Doctor, and they exchange the briefest “fuck yeah, you badass” grin before a second thought makes them simultaneously shudder and exit grimacing, never mentioning the encounter to anyone.
posted by mubba at 8:10 AM on November 30, 2018

I guess it is true that Moffat has over-relied on clever time travel tricks as a device and then ended up on a female Doctor TWICE now.
posted by Artw at 8:13 AM on November 30, 2018 [1 favorite]