Welcome to this very special issue of the WIDWWA Newsletter. You may notice that both outside and inside we look different this month, and that is because we’re celebrating the Sixth Anniversary of WIDWWA, and we’re doing it in style. This issue is styled to replicate the look and feel of an early-1990s Doctor Who Magazine, so don’t be alarmed at some of the more dated design... it’s supposed to look like that! No, don’t adjust your monitor, the front cover is supposed to look dirty and dusty, it’s not something to do with your screen!
So, in this edition, I’ve packed it with lots and lots of things that reflect on the past of WIDWWA, but especially the 1990s, as that’s not only where it started, but that’s what the first WIDWWA book will be focusing on. Why am I bringing up the WIDWWA book? Well, because it’s coming out soon. I can’t give you an exact date, but I’m aiming for the end of the summer, so keep an eye out, because it’s going to be a very interesting read! The only other update I can give you on the book is the front cover, which I have revealed in this issue. Go flick forward a few pages, it’s there, I promise! What do you think? As I’ve said before, there will be two covers: this one, which will be the primary one for the mass market, and then a special fan one, which will use the main artwork on the front of this Newsletter, but all the graphics obviously be different, more closely resembling a 1990s Virgin New Adventure cover. This cover will also fit in line
with the Elysium book, for those who want some consistency. I will reveal the exact look of it, later down the line, but for now, you can enjoy the mass market cover. We’ve got some fantastic features this issue, focusing on the history of WIDWWA. Jack Murray-Bell, who contributed his Fan Fiction last issue, returns to take a look back at the first Doctor Who movie, from 2003; Toffa completes his series of End Board features, while also giving us the lowdown on the viewing figures from Season 56, so far. Additionally, I’ve bagged an interview with Moment Mission Studios (remember him?) to talk about his history with Doctor Who, WIDWWA and at the end I announce something very exciting! I’ve also republished the original Retcon-athon commentary, later in the issue, as not only is it extremely relevant, considering what this issue is about, but also two-and-a-half years on, I’m still getting questions about the retcon-athon, constantly, as many people aren’t fully aware of it. So, I’ve gone and republished the whole thing, so it can be enjoyed, debated and argued over, once again.
As usual, Tadeusz Cisłak’s reviews feature in the back pages of this issue, where he gives his thoughts on the final few episodes of Dokter Wie, and the first four episodes of the Daleks’ Master Plan. Speaking of the Daleks’ Master Plan, the previews for the final two episodes are a bit different to usual, as due to the fact
In other news, I’ve decided that following the release of the Daleks’ Master Plan, in two weeks, I will be taking a break from all social media, for personal reasons. This break will last through the summer, but I will likely be back, if all goes well, in the Autumn. For the length of this break, WIDWWA will be paused, in June 2022. I will be leaving the Discord server, and I will be signing out of my Twitter account, as well as other social media accounts. Upon my return, which will likely be sometime after the book’s release, we will resume WIDWWA from June 2022, and will move to get back up to the present, as soon as possible.
This means that the Newsletter will also be suspended for those months, simply for the fact, there won’t actually be any news, as there won’t be any WIDWWA. I would be prepared to continue making the Newsletter, despite having left social media, and just email it out, but there won’t be anything to put in it, so this will be the final issue until the Autumn. Consider this as not only a special Sixth Anniversary Edition but also a big Summer issue!
WIDWWA has taken up a lot of my life for the past six years, and while this break isn’t entirely due to WIDWWA, a rest from it, is certainly something that I am happy to have. I think back to last September, when WIDWWA was coming to its end, apparently, and some people on the Discord server were freaking out (you know who you are), but instead what’s happened is it seems we have more WIDWWA, more frequently than we had before we reached the present day. Ironic.
I have really enjoyed this time, though, since last September, when we began Season 55, and we started doing everything in real time, discussing announcements and leaks and new episodes pretty much every week (yeahhh check out that Paramount+ money). Also, with the launch of this Newsletter, eight months ago, it has really brought the community together in a way I haven’t seen since the wiki was first launched in 2018. Although, I won’t be here, and although this Newsletter won’t be published for a few months, I really hope that the community does stay together and that you continue to be bound by your joint interest in the fundamental question of “What if Doctor
Who Wasn’t Axed in 1989?”...
As for the Discord Server, please keep on using it for discussion about WIDWWA, it’s just I won’t be there and there won’t be any new releases. I am in the process of appointing one of my executive supervisors to become the Admin, while I’m gone, but no decision has been made. If you’re not an executive supervisor, but you are interested in the role, please contact me, because I am open to the idea. Also, when it comes to the server, recent events, in the past week or so, have brought to light that there are issues there, and change needs to happen. If anyone has felt like the server is not a safe or comfortable place, you have my word things will change. Perhaps a new admin is just what the server needs.
The wiki has been managed by Robert Morrison for the past few months, and this will continue during my absence. I will be checking in on the wiki, now and again, to make sure everything’s going smoothly, but that’s likely to be the extent of my interaction with WIDWWA (bar writing the book) during my break.
We’ve got so much good stuff to come, when I return, that you can look forward to! We’ve got more Doctor Who: Adventures, we’ve got Mike Flanagan’s take on The New Renegade, we’ve got the Centenary Special, and we’ve got that BBC Three show, you keep hearing bits of information about... I wonder what’s up with that? Maybe you could turn the page? Wouldn’t that be nice? Well, turn the page and you’ll see just why the BBC Three show is something to look forward to! But, yes, we have so much to look forward to, and this is definitely not the end of WIDWWA, but rather a brief hiatus. I don’t know exactly when I’ll be back, but please, don’t go making any awful charity records, and don’t send Daleks around to my house!
In all seriousness, have a great summer everyone, and enjoy these final two Doctor Who episodes. I hope everyone enjoys them (but I might be wishing too hard there)!
I hope you all understand why this is happening, and I hope you’ll all still be here in the Autumn, upon my return. Please enjoy this jam-packed issue of WIDWWA goodness, and until the next time, whenever that may be, goodbye.
of this very exciting show, and I just couldn’t turn down the opportunity. We’re aiming for young people, just before the watershed, who want to watch a science-fiction comedy series, also set in the confines of the Doctor Who universe.”
While BBC Three runs mainly during the night, with postwatershed and more adult content, it begins broadcasting at 7pm, for two hours before the watershed, and one of the shows occupying those two familyfriendly hours will be ‘Doctor Who: The Time Meddlers’. The first series will consist of 6x30 minute episodes, and will be shot in front of a live studio audience, of 200 people, at WhoStudios in Greater Manchester, during June and July, this year. Tickets for fans to attend the live studio recordings are available to book on doctorwho.com now. This show will also be the first that Mal Young’s, newly formed, WhoStudios will be producing.
It has been announced that, the Ronald D. Moore created, BBC Three ‘Doctor Who’ Sitcom, which will air in 2023, will be titled ‘Doctor Who: The Time Meddlers’ and will star Jo Brand as the Monk.
The series, which was officially announced in January, was created by Ronald D. Moore, who was approached in October 2021, during the production of ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ about creating a ‘Doctor Who’ series for the newly relaunched BBC Three channel. BBC Three is a channel aimed at 18-34 year olds, in the UK, which focuses on comedy and drama, and is often less mainstream than its sister channels.
Creator Ronald D. Moore said in January: “Jane [Espenson] approached me with the idea of setting up a new Doctor Who series when our work on ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ was just beginning. BBC Three approached about a tentpole show for 18–34-year-olds, around October time, and luckily I had just the thing under my sleeve.”
While Ronald D. Moore created the show, he turned down the offer to showrun it, past the pilot, with it being announced in March that, former script editor, and comedy writer, Steven Moffat will instead be taking up the job. Steven Moffat said, in March: “Jane [Espenson] approached me, earlier this year, to take the reins
The main star of the show, has now been announced as Jo Brand, who will be playing the Monk, a role she stepped into, last month, during ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’. Brand is an actor and comedian, much like her predecessors in the role, and heralds from Clapham. Brand says: “First they offer me a role in Doctor Who, and then they give me the keys to my own show, written by the wonderful Steven Moffat, no less! What a joy! See you all next year...”
‘Doctor Who: The Time Meddlers’ will launch in 2023 on BBC Three, and on Paramount+ internationally, running for 6 episodes, each 30 minutes in length. Episode 1 will be written by Ronald D. Moore, with the remaining 5 episodes by Steven Moffat. It will be Doctor Who’s first venture into a dedicated comedy series!
WIDWWAIn even more exclusive news, we can reveal the full main cast of ‘Doctor Who: The Time Meddlers’, ahead of the studio recordings this month.
Not only will the show feature Jo Brand as the Monk, but additionally Ray Fearon as Eric; Sally Bretton as Astrid; Adrian Lukis as Glala and Nina Wadia as Ruksana.
The resumes of these six actors stretch far and wide, with work such as Absolutley Fabulous, Fleabag, Not Going Out, Death in Paradise, The Office, The Bill, Peak Practice, Red Dwarf, Goodness Gracious Me, Still Open All Hours, The Outlaws, Citizen Khan, and soaps, EastEnders and Coronation Street... WIDWWA
It has been announced that Doctor Who’s foreign adaptations, which already stream on Paramount+, internationally, will be finding a home on the service, when it launches in the UK, this month, They will still exclusively air on BBC Four, but following their avaliability on BBC iPlayer, for 12 months
after broadcast, they will arrive on Paramount+, for their exclusive streaming home.
On 22 June, Dokter Wie S1&2; Doctor Misterio S1; Doctor Who: Through Time and Space S1&2 and Mysteriet Doktorn S1, will be avaliable on the service.
Mysteriet Doktorn S2; Doctor Who: Through Time and Space’s ‘Eve’ and Dokter Wie: Eindpsel will follow once they leave BBC iPlayer, 12 months after broadcast. Apart from the movies, no other Doctor Who content will feature in the UK. WIDWWA
So, I’ve just finished the final ever episode of Dokter Wie, and damn... that was certainly a gut punch and was much darker than I anticipated. I enjoyed seeing the main characters attempting to save the universe. Gordra’s betrayal, while unexpected is sadly realistic. Some people will do desperate things in order to save something. The Daleks were truly evil in this episode: exterminating all Gallifreyans and of course all life in the universe. And sadly, nobody can stop them. There’s no counterpart to UNIT or Leftover in this universe.
So, now that’s it... the one that started it all with the foreign adaptations is over. It’s now the second adaptation to end after Doctor Misterio. So, with all that said, what are people’s overall thoughts on Dokter Wie. I personally enjoyed it. Though, I would’ve liked to have seen more original stories.
Dr. Bigmoney Honestly, these past two episodes have provided a new and original take on the Dalek’s Masterplan, even delving into Mavic Chen’s backstory. I’m excited to see how they’ll explain the Doctor reliving it again, although it’s likely going to be explained as someone messing with the timeline and wiping the Doctor’s memories .
Toffa Here’s a prediction of mine for the book. We know that shows such as Jonathan Creek and Outlander wouldn’t exist due to Renwick taking the showrunner job as Creek couldn’t be made due to financial issues, and Moore working his way up along with Espenson respectively. It’s made me think as to whether other shows may not have existed due to Doctor Who’s presence in the 90s so the BBC could afford to keep it going. Whether that’s a good thing, you decide.
The Secret of Kembel takes us unsurprisingly back to Kembel, and back to Production Block 2. Yes, Production Block 2, directed by Rachel Talalay, mainly at CBS Studios in Canada, mainly filming on the Pixomondo AR Wall, which brought Kembel’s jungle to life, in a way that Douglas Camfield could’ve only dreamed of.
While this episode doesn’t entirely conclude the story of the original 1965/66 serial, it does bring it pretty close to its end, so that Episode 6 can spend most of its run time wrapping up some more of the original elements to the 2022 version.
If you want a reference point for the original serial, most of this episode adapts the story from Episodes 11 & 12 of The Daleks’ Master Plan, whereupon the characters all converge back on Kembel. Things go a little differently in this version, than the original, but the general line of the story is the same... not through
the Monk’s lack of trying, though!
Speaking of the Monk, although we’ve now reached the point in the original serial, where the Monk leaves the story, our new Jo Brand Monk continues to feature throughout these last two episodes, heavily. She has a lot to do in this one, and we begin to unravel more and more of the mystery and just what her motives actually are.
Raleigh features less in this episode, than the previous one, as most of the action takes place on Kembel, but we do still get a few scenes with her. Her role in this serial is to take down Mavic Chen, and that’s exactly what she’s going to try and do!
With a return to Kembel, and to Rachel Talalay, and to Ronald D. Moore, this episode is unsurprisingly the most like Episode 1 out of them all. Expect the same sort of creepy atmosphere and intrigue, as the story ramps up to its inevitable conclusion.
Written by Ronald D. Moore & Ira Steven Behr Directed by Rachel Talalay
Produced by Seth Edelstein
Transmission
20:00, Sunday 5 June 2022The Doctor and Sara return to Kembel in order to search for Marc Cory’s original transmission in an effort to help Raleigh take down Mavic Chen, once and for all.
One Quote
“Oh, I can’t condone that...”
Finally, we reach the end of the road; the end of this six-episode epic and Ronald D. Moore’s last stand (well, if you don’t count The Time Meddlers’ Pilot). The Mutation of Time is the big conclusion to it all. Will it live up to the promise of what’s come before? Well, that’s for you to see... I’m sure you’ll all have an opinion.
I can’t say too much about this episode, as I’d give away things about Episode 5, as a result, so I’ll say as much as I can. This episode keeps most of its focus on the original “Moore” elements of the story, with most of the original story already wrapped up in Episode 5. Jean Marsh is in this one, so fans of her can rejoice! We do also go backwards, slightly, in the original story of The Daleks’ Master Plan, as we tell a bit of story that this 2022 version skipped over, in the first five episodes.
Raleigh is in this one a lot, so fans of her can rejoice, and everyone else can wonder when her last actual episode will be. Well, I can inform you, as far as plans go, this episode, yes, this episode is her final appearance in Doctor Who. Obviously, several years down the line, things might change, but this is supposed to be her last ever appearance. So, let’s all enjoy a proper send off for
Raleigh, that doesn’t include the Doctor teleporting her into the vacuum of space, or Pete stranding her in a Netflix-funded spinoff series.
As for the Restoration, I hope this episode gives you the answers you’ve been waiting for, and the closure you’ve been waiting for. I can say, so far, I have not seen a single person guess correctly what the Restoration actually is, so I think some of you will be surprised, but when you think back to what the Intendant said in Season 55, you’ll realise it makes sense. Obviously, as is clear as day, the original “Adrian Hodges plan” for the Restoration was something to do with Gallifrey returning, but Moore was the guy who got rid of Gallifrey, so he isn’t likely to go through with that.
Similarly, there’s been a lot of talk of Phaedra’s presence having to do with some sort of New Renegade style Vex masterplan. For the sake of my sanity, I can confirm that Phaedra’s presence is entirely to do with the fact that she (much like the Intendant) is an evolution of the Doctor, and not because she’s a Vex. The Vex aren’t involved.
The feel you can expect from this episode is one of intense emotion. The Doctor has to make some big decisions here, and they aren’t
As the Doctor begins to understand the realities of the Restoration, he truly begins to realise just how significant the Daleks’ Time Destructor is to the fabric of the universe...
“Don’t tell me you’re not tempted ”
necessarily easy, and they aren’t necessarily the right ones, in the grand scheme of things, but they are fundamentally the decisions that the Doctor, any Doctor (well maybe not early-15) would take. It’s been a wild ride, but in two weeks, it comes to a close.
Jack Murray-Bell looks respectively, from an in-universe perspective, at Doctor Who’s first Movie from 2003
So, with the 60th Anniversary film just a year away, I’ve decided to take a trip back in time and look back at the film that started it all, if you don’t count the Cushing films, Doctor Who: The Movie or simply just Doctor Who.
First, I want to talk about my history with this movie. I never saw the movie when it first came out in cinemas, and never owned the VHS copy. I first experienced the movie in 2007 when I first bought the DVD. So, let’s see if the movie still holds up to my childhood memories.
So, since this is the ‘first movie’ the plot is pretty simple. The Doctor and Sandra are summoned to Gallifrey by the Keeper because the defeat of Rassilon in the Season 40 finale caused time distortions that are messing things up, and will eventually erase all the Doctors from existence (1-3 are neatly written out via this plot point), so the Doctor summons 4-9, along with their various companions to Gallifrey, where each set of Doctors and companions are sent off to the places where the time distortion is happening in order to fix them.
So, as said, the overall plot is quite simple, but for a first movie and a 40th anniversary special, it gets the job done. The subplots themselves however are a bit of a mixed bag. The best of these is the Tenth Doctor’s subplot, where the majority of the focus lies, as he and Sandra help out Omega with the creation of the Eye of
Harmony and time travel, with Patrick Stewart giving an emotional and brilliant performance; especially at the end. Eight’s subplot is also good with the emotion, as it features the Leftover team, and from Eight’s perspective, Katie is dead, so we get some nice character moments. Also, we get an awesome sword fight between Eight and a mediaeval knight. The other subplots are decent, but feel rushed in a few areas, and they don’t get enough screen time, making me feel that they maybe shouldn’t have had so many Doctors. Mel is sadly as annoying as ever. Dear god, Bonnie Langford can still shriek, even after all this time. Also, the Cybermen show up in Ten’s subplot, and while I enjoy the new, harsh voice Nicholas Briggs does, this is sadly the start of the Cybermen being shooty, stompy robots with a catchphrase, and sadly their new design makes them look too much like robots.
There’s also no proper explanation as to why most of the previous Doctors and companions look much older, except for the slight implications that it’s the time distortion.
One thing I’m not a big fan of is how they tie it into the events of The Other, which in my eyes is not very new audience friendly. If you want to start a movie franchise for your show, don’t have it tie into the events of anything; give the audience a fresh start. Thankfully, the rest of the movie does this very
well; not weighing itself down with too much continuity, and nicely explaining how things in this universe work without talking down to the audience. On a side-note: the novelisation of the movie also adapts The Other, which helps nicely.
On the other hand, I absolutely love the new Emperor Dalek that we get in this movie: he’s big and imposing with a deep booming voice; the Dalek mutant itself is even visible through a glass tube. Also, he’s got psychic powers, which is actually quite terrifying when you stop to think about it: a Dalek having the ability to screw with your mind. Seriously, whoever becomes the next showrunner, bring this concept back and expand on it.
Sadly, another flaw I have with the subplots is that some companions don’t get anything to do, and are just sort of there. However, I do like the little cameos we get from Susan, Ian, Benton and Mike Yates.
The same however cannot be said for what they did to the Brigadier. WHAT! THE! HELL! Now, I get wanting to write out the Brigadier: Nicholas Courtney was getting quite old, and there really wasn’t much they could do with him anymore, but suddenly killing him off in this way was not the way to go, especially for such a beloved character, who deserved a way better death than this. Personally, I blame David Renwick for this: I refuse to believe that Russell T Davies and
Nicholas Meyer would kill off the Brigadier in such a disrespectful manner. In recent years, the Brigadier has been joined in the hall of characters I liked that got shitty deaths by Mole from The Animals of Farthing Wood, Richard Poole from Death in Paradise, Breena Palmer from NCIS, and the original version of the Sixth Doctor’s regeneration.
Now as for my thoughts on the ending: I love it. It’s a dark and emotional gut punch, and nicely sets up the Redston era. The Keeper is an absolute dick in this movie: forcing the Doctor into a position he wants no part of for no real reason (at that point), other than the Doctor not fully taking on his role as President. To compare him to another Don Warrington character I’m familiar with, he’s kinda like Commissioner Patterson from Death in Paradise, except he never sent anybody to their deaths.
Sandra Armstrong fans: But
Sandra might not beOh, weesht, ya wee dafties. Yeah, I ain’t going down that rabbit hole. Sandra is definitely, 100% dead. It was 19 years ago, move on and accept the tragedy. And on that note: Sandra’s death at the end has to be one of the saddest deaths in the entire franchise.
Another good point for this movie is that the chemistry between the Doctors and their companions is brilliant.
Now on to some other things. Firstly, this movie introduced the Season 41-48 logo. I like this logo, it’s simple, but mostly nice to look at.
As for the movie’s title sequence, it’s decent: the particle effects on the Seal of Rassilon are nice to look at, but other than that, there’s nothing interesting here. I know that at this point movies weren’t using full title sequences, but even the future movies did something.
Murray Gold naturally provides the music for this movie, and he is on top form as always. A lot of pieces have this nice orchestrated feel to them, and all of the pieces fit each scene they’re in. This movie also contains brilliant renditions of Dudley Simpson’s music, as well as an even more beautifully haunting rendition of the Leftover theme, if that was
The DVD that Jack would’ve first experienced the movie through was this release from 2007.
possible.
Murray Gold also provides a brand new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme, and I love it; the triumphant, grandiose nature of it, and in particular the opening part of the theme song.
Nicholas Meyer directed this movie, and as always he does a great job, with nicely designed new locations, great action scenes, and a cool looking rendition of Karn.
The effects were handled by Industrial Light and Magic, and they’re pretty good by mid 2000s standards. I really liked the regeneration effect they used for Ten.
Overall, this movie was a decent start to the motion picture franchise, and even with its flaws, it still somewhat holds up, and I honestly have a wee bit of a soft spot for it.
WIDWWAMoment Mission Studios is a name you might not be familiar with, unless you’re a long time fan, but he was the winner of the 2018 “Submit a Story” competition for Season 48. Now, four years on, we catch up with him...
Hi, I’m Moment Mission Studios. I began watching WIDWWA in 2017 and basically in 2018, I won a competition with my idea for the story The Man at the End of the Street for Season 48. I’ve just been a loyal fan ever since.
What’s your history with Doctor Who itself, how did you get into it?
I got into Doctor Who around about 2006. It could’ve been in 2005, but I don’t really remember anything, unless it was DVDs or repeats, and even then my memory isn’t clear about DVDs of Series 1. I definitely remember being recommended to watch The Age of Steel, and then I didn’t know if I wanted to watch the show at that point, so I decided to come downstairs and watch The Idiot’s Lantern, which was the episode afterwards, and that was really my proper introduction to Doctor Who. I didn’t end up watching the week afterwards, though, I don’t know what it was, apparently I’d
heard it was a bit scary for the next two weeks, but I came back for Love and Monsters. That’s how I got into the show, and I’ve watched every episode ever since. I definitely caught up with Series 1 and the beginning of Series 2 by Christmas 2006, I’m sure of that.
I didn’t get into Classic Who until a bit later, but it may have been 2006 or 2007, when UKGold repeated the TV Movie, and I think I also had the DVD of Remembrance of the Daleks, and perhaps even The Five Doctors.
It was when the DVD of The Invasion came out that I became really interested, as that was an animation and as a kid anything animated interested me. It piqued my interest in black & white Doctor Who, which gave me a good representation of a different sort of Doctor Who from an early age.
What sort of Doctor Who is your favourite, overall?
It’s episodes like The Deadly Assassin or Midnight where the Doctor finds themselves on their own, without a companion. As much as I do like the dynamic of the Doctor and a companion, I feel like my favourite thing is when the Doctor is on their own and they have to survive without help. I love Midnight and David Tennant’s
acting when he is possessed by the creature is just sublime, to be honest. I do like other stories like The Enemy of the World where there’s a lot of suspicion and intrigue, and it’s my favourite Classic story. However, it’s companion-lite stories that I really like as the Doctor is really challenged.
How did you start watching WIDWWA, and also why did you start watching WIDWWA?
I’m not sure how I first stumbled upon it. I know I had recently watched the documentary on the Survival DVD about the plans for Season 27, and I believe when I came to it, it was about 2017, and I know it was in the Richard E. Grant era, and also that Leftover had started. I think I just came across it on YouTube, and I just found them very entertaining and very intriguing. I enjoyed that it wasn’t just fan fiction but it looked at the behind-the-scenes stuff, as speculative fiction. I’m surprised more people haven’t written things in this style.
Let’s cut forward a year, when you submit a submission for the Season 48 competition. So, why did you decide to enter it?
I think I heard about the competition at the end of the
Season 47 video, possibly, but I’ve not gone back and rewatched the videos, so I’m not sure. At that time, I was really into the series, and I saw the opportunity and wanted to just get involved in it. I know it was a tight-knit team, at that point, but the competition gave me a real opportunity to become creatively involved. You know, I thought to myself, I have hundreds of ideas in my head, I’ve been writing Doctor Who fiction since I was a kid, like maybe 2008, so it was a no-brainer to enter.
So, tell us a bit about your idea and how it might be slightly different to what made it into the Season 48 video?
To be honest, there weren’t too many changes from my original idea, the only one I really remember was the fact that Chris’ dad wasn’t in it, and the man was just an unknown figure. I didn’t see that coming, but it was a great twist. I believe Matt told me, afterwards, that it was his idea. I also remember saying in my submission that it would be written by Neil Cross, but you guys changed it to Mark Wright & Cavan Scott, and I also had it as directed by Joss Whedon, which thankfully you decided to change to Lisa Bowerman. If I could choose the director now, I’d probably go with Joe Ahearne or Nick Hurran, though.
Take us through the actual story, itself, what is The Man at the End of the Street actually about?
Basically, at night, around about 10pm, there’s basically a bloke who comes from the end of the street and everyone on the street is in danger of being killed by him, as the only thing the man knows how to do is kill him. Anyone who tries to leave the street is killed, so they’re stuck in terror. It seems like there’s no way out of this, but there
is a way out because the Doctor and his companions arrive and sort everything out.
Tell us about when you found out you won the competition. I remember us holding a stream to announce it, and that we also invited you on. So, what are your memories of that night?
I can’t remember what stream it was, it might’ve been the Season 47 stream, or a special dedicated one.
I know I sent in the submission around about the summer, and then it was a couple of months later that I found out I’d won. I think you emailed me in advance of the stream. That was exciting knowing I had won, because, to be honest, I thought that the idea would be too dark, and too out there, but with Robert Shearman as Script Editor, I guess that’s what you wanted. I wasn’t expecting to win, that’s for sure. When I was asked to be on the stream, I was a bit surprised, and I had a bit of stage fright, but I did agree to go on. When I joined the community, it was small, but at that point in 2018, I think the community was at its largest ever, much bigger than it is now. So, trying to present myself to that audience was quite nerve wracking.
This was the first time we properly spoke, at that moment, and I had this sense of nervousness, as you were like a really big deal, at the time. I didn’t think it would have gone well, but it was nice and that, and I enjoyed it. It was a nice conversation, but I wouldn’t want to watch it back. I remember being scared and I didn’t know how to react. I wish we had spoken beforehand, as I was scared of you, but everything turned out fine.
How did that experience, of being, albeit briefly, on the “inside” change your view of WIDWWA?
It affected things because once I
met you and Matt, I had a sense of “now I know what’s going on”, because when I used to watch it, I wasn’t quite aware of just how much thought and work went into it. When you and Matt spoke about it to me, I realised just how big the plans were and the detail put into it. I thought, beforehand, that it was just sorta made up on the spot, but speaking to you guys about it, showed me the amount of work that was put into it.
Some of the earlier decisions, the producers and that, were probably why I originally thought this, even that you corrected it some time ago! I guess those must’ve been made on the spot, which is why I thought what I thought. But by the time of Season 48, things were obviously very well thought out.
By the time of Season 49, as it was quite a while later, I had gotten over this sort of revelation about how WIDWWA was made, and I sort of was able to watch it more in the way I did before and I really enjoyed that.
Now, I know like many others, when the video series ended and we moved over to Wordpress, you dropped off the series. However, some time ago you did get back into it again, so why was this? What made you go back to WIDWWA?
It was when the Newsletter began, and when I started talking to a few members of the community, again. They were talking about it, which got me interested. The Newsletter really helped, as it explained things I had missed out on. When I started speaking to you again, you explained which posts on the blog to read, which made it really simple to get back into it. I was surprised when I heard about Paul McGann becoming Michael French, but I think the change makes sense. It also made me realise that rewatching the videos
was a bad idea, as they weren’t fully correct, so it kinda made reading the blog the only option.
Let’s talk about your opinions, from an in-universe perspective, who’s your favourite WIDWWA Doctor, favourite kind of stories, favourite era?
This is easy, because it’s always been this, since the time, and it’s Anthony Head, and my favourite era is his era, too. That era is absolutely my favourite, because it was very different to what came before, and it’s just the sort of thing I’m into. I’m into longer season arcs, and that. I think when you get a show that does the same thing all the time, it gets a bit boring, but the Anthony Head era reinvigorated the show, after the last few years of the same thing, year in and year out. My favourite stories were more from the Paterson Joseph and the David Suchet era, to be fair. The Phantom Doctor is one of my favourites, as well as Mad World and I loved Brave New Town. My favourite Anthony Head episode, though, is definitely the Confrontation of the Wicked, which was his finale.
So, speaking of Anthony Head, what are your thoughts on Doctor Who: The New Renegade, which takes his Doctor and places him in a very new context?
I’ve read both seasons and I do like it, yeah. It’s taking a Doctor who was situated in the sorta “Jon Pertwee” era but in a Gallifrey setting, and then like Season 10 and 11, it takes him out of that and puts him into the TARDIS to have adventures, which is very interesting. I think, as well, the show was made at the right time, with it being about 15 years since his era came out. I know some people weren’t fond of the Anthony Head era, but I think the New Renegade can appeal to both his
fans, and the people who weren’t keen on the setting. My only issue with the show is when it gets a bit too confusing, because I believe there’s a plot which just confuses the hell out of me. If I’m having to consider going back to reread, then I think it was just too confusing. I think the show suffers through a lack of accessibility, which is a shame, because it is good. I think going into the show, you don’t need to know anything extra, it’s just the plot within the series itself, it is quite dense.
Now, your favourite spinoff series is Leftover, could you give your thoughts on the show and explain why it’s your favourite?
I think it’s because one of my favourite genres of TV shows is sort of mystery and investigative shows. When I first heard about Leftover, I was a bit weary, wondering how it would work, with older companions working with Katie, but actually it worked well. I think the stories and feel of the show really elevate the premise into working. The biggest flaw with the show is how it’s premise limits what it can do, but Series 3 proved that it wasn’t tied down, which I enjoyed. I just really like the show, to be honest. I like getting another set of episodes with old companions, especially as it was before some of them passed away.
Finally, if a story competition came up again, would you enter, or would you leave it, as you’ve had your opportunity, or would you happily throw your hat into the ring again?
Yeah, I’d love to enter again. I think since then, which was four years ago, I’ve grown older and wiser and learnt much more, and I’ve been through a lot personally, so I’d love to throw my hat into the ring. Yeah, honestly, if another came around, I’d come in and I’d 100% do it. WIDWWA
With one definite applicant, now apparent, I can announce that we will indeed be holding another “Submit a story” competition.
This time it’s for an episode of Doctor Who: Adventures, the animated-spinoff series, for children, that features the Fourteenth Doctor, Erin and Kyle.
To submit an entry to the competition, you need to send an email to widwwa1989@gmail.com with the subject “Doctor Who: Adventures Competition”. The email must include an episode title and a synopsis, as well as the full outline for the story. The full outline should be around 300-400 words long. If you want an example of what this should be like, please look at any of the Doctor Who: Adventures blog posts on the WIDWWA Wordpress.
The deadline for the competition is 15 July 2022. The winner will be announced in the autumn, however, an email will go out to the winner, at the beginning of August, to inform them that they have won.
Here’s a look at the viewing figures for Season 56’s ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ so far. We’ll be doing this a little differently to S55’s, with only the overnights and 7-day figures out as of now. There’s also the consolidated rankings for Sunday, as well as the BBC’s rankings to give a clearer picture.
‘The Carnivorous Jungle’ Overnight - 4.39m 7-day - 5.96m
Day ranking - 1st BBC consolidated ranking - 1st 7-day ranking - 2nd
Things kick off with respectable overnights of 4.39m with an audience share of approx. 27.7%.
It consolidated to 5.96m, up by 1.67m; placing second for the week behind talent show behemoth (somehow) ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ on ITV. Doctor Who was the most-watched show that Sunday, and also the BBC’s top show for the week. This was the highest 7-day chart placing overall since Season 53’s ‘Praxeus, Part One’ back in 2019, which also placed second. ITV’s competition was drama ‘Grace’, with Who claiming victory by almost a million viewers.
‘The Guardian’s Tale’ Overnight - 4.03m 7-day - 5.50m Day ranking - 1st BBC consolidated ranking - 2nd 7-day ranking - 3rd
A drop for episode two, with overnights down by 0.36m. An additional 1.47m gave it a 7-day total of 5.50m, a 0.46m drop from
before. Eurovision dominated that week and also for the BBC, placing Doctor Who 2nd for them, and 3rd overall, still behind BGT. Competition was much tougher; a live parade celebrating the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, which defeated Who in the overnights by almost a million, but narrowly managed to claw back with the 7-day numbers. It shows how consolidated figures can make all the difference.
‘The Face of the Enemy’ Overnight - 3.86m 7-day - 5.41m Day ranking - 1st BBC consolidated ranking - 1st 7-day ranking - 2nd
Despite a further drop in overnights by 0.17m, and 7-day figures by a slim 0.09m, the rankings matched those of ‘The Carnivorus Jungle’, topping the ratings on Sunday, and for the BBC that week. An extra 1.55m was added to make the consolidated figure of 5.41m. Doctor Who was back up against ‘Grace’ on ITV, and claimed victory again. As this episode’s consolidated figures were only out on the week of this newsletter’s release, for the next one, we’ll be looking at overnights only.
‘The Cry of the Past’ Overnight - 4.12m Day ranking - 1st
Suffice to say the cliffhanger did hook in some extra overnight viewers: 0.26m more in fact. ITV’s competition this time was ‘Midsomer Murders’ which previously went up against last
Ep Date Rat. Rank
1 8 May 22 4.39m 1st
2 15 May 22 4.03m 1st
3 22 May 22 3.86m 1st
4 29 May 22 4.12m 1st
Ep Date Rat. Rank
1 8 May 22 5.96m 2nd
2 15 May 22 5.50m 3rd
3 22 May 22 5.41m 2nd
season’s premiere ‘Rebirth, Part One’, and lost out by quite a margin. For the overnights, Doctor Who won out yet again.
As it stands, ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’ is performing very strongly, with rankings all hitting within the top three at this stage consistently, not seen in Doctor Who’s viewing figures since Season 48 in 2011.
Compared to its 1965-66 version, the consolidated ratings are a lot lower, hovering around 5-6 million, but have fared better in the rankings, with the original averaging 38th through its run.
So how will the rest of the serial fare ratings-wise? Well, for ITV’s competition, this Sunday’s ‘The Secret of Kembel’ is pitted against the final of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’, whilst episode six plays against ‘Soccer Aid’. The outcome for those, and the ratings, will be revealed in the future.
As part of our celebrations for the sixth anniversary, and in anticipation of the upcoming book, let’s take a look at some of the merchandise that you could’ve got your hands on during the 1990s, in the WIDWWA universe!
To begin with, we have the long-awaited return of the Doctor Who Annual. Between 1965 and 1985 (apart from 1971), the BBC published an Annual every year for the show; often a guaranteed stocking filler for any Doctor
Some things never change, in either universe, and the 1999 DVD release of The Five Doctors: Special Edition, is one of them. Apart from the inclusion of the current Doctor Who logo, in use at the time, in the WIDWWA Universe, this is identical to the one released in real life.
Doctor Who: The Five DoctorsSpecial Edition Format: DVD, Single Disc Publisher: BBC DVD Release: November 1999
The Doctor Who Annual 1993
Format: 64 pages, hardback
Publisher: Marvel Comics UK Release: September 1992
Who fan. In 1992, the BBC resurrected the Doctor Who Annual for the 30th Anniversary, and it has been published every year since.
The 1993 Annual was largely a celebration of Doctor Who’s 30 year history, but did most prominently feature the Eighth Doctor throughout its pages. The other Doctors appeared in fact files and retrospectives, where the current TARDIS team appeared in pretty much everything else!
Doctor Who: The Paradise of Death Format: 2 Discs, CD Radio Drama Publisher: BBC Audio Release: September 1993
The Paradise of Death was a BBC Radio Drama, that after being broadcast on BBC Radio 4, in August 1993, was released on CD & Cassette. It was produced to tie in with the 30th Anniversary Celebrations and saw Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen and Nicholas Courtney each return to their respective roles, as it was set during Season 11.
Doctor Who: Lungbarrow
Format: 156 pages, Paperback
Publisher: Target Novels
Release: May 1992
The Target Novelisation range was not something which vanished (until 2018) in the WIDWWA universe, instead continuing on, steadily until the present day. In the real world, overall, there has been 168 Target Novelisations, whereas in the WIDWWA Universe it’s closer to 344! The product we’re showcasing here is Book No. 161, Lungbarrow, the novelisation of the Season 28 serial, published in the May of the following year. It was written by Marc Platt, who also wrote the television serial.
Although common in the 21st Century, the trading card world was never someone Doctor Who ventured into before 1996, but all of that changed with the Doctor Who Collectible Card game. It seems quite boring by modern day standards, as each card features a character from Doctor Who, with their biography... and that’s it. There’s no scores to trade with, or actually play a
Doctor Who Magazine - Issue 163
Format: 43 pages, stapled
Publisher: Marvel Comics UK
Release: August 1990
DWM 1963 was the classic “is the Doctor” issue of Doctor Who Magazine, and the first sporting the face of the newly announced Eighth Doctor, Richard Griffiths. The Magazine was released just before Season 27 began airing, and thus featured an exclusive preview of ‘Earth Aid’ for all readers to enjoy.
The Doctor Who Collectible Card Game
Format: 400 Cards
Publisher: MMG Ltd.
Release: July 1996
game in the conventional sense. They are simply biography cards, sold as a Collectible Card game. The “game” however, comes in a completely different form to what you might expect. The game sees two players face off as Time Lords, and each plays creatures and resources in three time zones - past, present and future - using them to battle their opponents’ creatures and destroy their Time cards, which represents a player’s life energy. When all the Time cards are destroyed, that player loses.
The card set featured 400 different cards, featuring Doctors, Companions, Recurring characters, Villains and Monsters. Despite being promoted in Doctor Who spaces, the Doctor Who Collectible Card game was a massive failure, being one of the worst selling pieces of Doctor Who merchandise in history.
I hope you enjoyed our lookback at some of the merchandise avaliable during the 1990s in the WIDWWA universe. Which of these would you most like to own?
WIDWWA
It’s our final look at Doctor Who endboards for now, and during our last look through Seasons 51-56, we see arguably the most amount of changes than ever before in such a short space of time.
Ahead of the 2016 Christmas special, Doctor Who’s aspect ratio had changed from 16:9 to 2.35:1, matching that of spin-off
was used onlyfor ‘The Last Winter’.
Another radical update to the endboard took place for Season 52. Following the firing of Ronald D. Moore, the production schedule had changed, and two episodes rushed to be completed to fill the
‘The Elysium’ since 2015, and the endboard was updated to go with it.
In April 2016, BBC Studios was founded; the new venture for producing programmes made in-house by the BBC. Like most shows, Doctor Who’s endboard was affected by this. Programmes that were produced by other ‘nation regions’, such as Scotland, as well as Cymru Wales and Northern Ireland shared space with the BBC Studios logo, appearing together; BBC Studios on the left, nation logo on the right. The CBS logo remained in a similar position as before.
Another addition was the ‘Albert Sustainable Production’ logo at the bottom. Again, many UK TV programmes would use this practice, and was used for shows where during production, effort was made to reduce the use of carbon footprint. This endboard
Some time before Season 51 aired, the BBC Studios logo had changed already. While it was initially assumed that the nationproduced logos were gone, the name lived on underneath the logo, reading ‘BBC Studios Scotland’, and was moved to the center. This was used for Season 51 (sans ‘False Prophets’ which we’ll get to in a mo), and again from ‘The Martian Equinox’ until ‘Terror on Tolia’, in Season 52.
Season 51’s finale, ‘False Prophets’ was somewhat of a crossover with The Elysium. As
rest of the first half of the season. During this, the BBC Studios logo changed once again, now with the BBC’s new corporate font, Reith, replacing Gill Sans. The endboard was now layered differently, with the BBC Studios logo at the top, now reading a lengthy ‘BBC Studios Scotland for BBC and CBS Television Studios’. The Albert Sustainable logo was made bigger and moved closer to the left. The copyright line now read ‘© BBC MMXVIII’, returning to the pre-S43 style. This remained in use for the rest of Season 52 from ‘Friends on a Train’ to ‘The New Empire’.
such, Left Bank Pictures, who handled production of the show, were credited on the endboard as the scenes set on Taoter III were produced by them in this serial.
The BBC Studios Scotland logo moved to the left, in the same position that it did in ‘The Last Winter’, just with Left Bank’s logo next to it on the right. CBS’ logo remained unaffected again.
For Season 53, the endboard remained similar, with the only tweak being the last remnant of
BBC Scotland gone, with the Scotland tag removed, and it just reading ‘BBC Studios for BBC
and CBS Television Studios’. This was used from ‘The Doomsday Cannon’ to ‘Praxeus’.
So, now we’ve reached Season 56, and, sorry Toffa is gone, and I, DDWF, have taken over, to guide you through all of the Daleks’ Master Plan End Boards, including the ones from Episode 5 and 6!
A tweak to the endboard was made from ‘The March of Evil’, that being an update to the Albert Sustainable logo at the bottom, with an updated design and the logo now animating. This continued up to ‘The Fourth Continent’ in Season 54.
The BBC 2021 rebrand will go down in history as being laughably slow to roll out, consistently, and even by May 2022, the End Board for the first episode of Doctor Who’s latest season, exclusively features the 1997 BBC logo. However, never fear, this isn’t always the case, this year.
Studios logo. However, there was another change, in that this was the first to include the new “BBC Studios Drama Productions” logo, which the show should’ve been using since mid-Season 55, however, well done for finally getting there!
In October 2020, CBS Television Studios was renamed CBS Studios under the ownership of ViacomCBS. Once again, the endboard was tweaked to include the new name and logo, but otherwise remained mostly the same. This was used from ‘The Last Supper’.
During Season 55’s broadcast, the BBC debuted a brand new logo, ridding of the Gill Sans version after 24 years of use, first used on Who’s endboard in Season 34.
Episode 2: The Guardian’s Tale, saw an alteration to the End Board, swapping out the 1997 BBC logo with the 2021 logo (hurray!), but only one of the two BBC logos on screen. So, awkwardly we see a 1997 logo, with a 2021 logo below it. Well done BBC! Well done!
For Episode 3, however, the End Board went back to the design as seen on Episode 1. Why? Who knows?
Episode 5 is the first one that finally gets everything right. Correct BBC Studios logo! Correct BBC logo! Paramount+ logo... what? Yes, while unexpected, the old “for BBC and CBS Studios” is gone and is now “BBC and Paramount+”. Why is CBS Studios’ logo here at the top? Well, Episode 5 was shot at CBS Studios in Canada, as a co-production. This used to be the way things were done before 2018, when the End Boards stopped acknowledging that CBS Studios actually had a hand in making the show too.
Despite this, the endboard remained unchanged throughout the season, and even more confusing, a new endboard system was released at the same time, with BBC Studios splitting its sectors up into genres; most of which still used the 1997 logo!
NMEpisode 4’s End Board managed to have the exact opposite problem to Episode 2’s, whereby the BBC logo was updated to the current logo, but only on one of the two logos. This time being on the BBC
Finally, Episode 6 is the first correct “normal” End Board that we’ve had, since the BBC rebrand. For the first time since 2005, CBS don’t receive a credit, at all, as CBS Studios didn’t contribute to the actual production of this episode. The episode was made by BBC Studios for the BBC and for Paramount+, with both of those companies financing the production. It’s a complicated matter, but this end board finally gets it right.
Two and a half years ago, the Retcon-athon was released on Reddit now due to popular demand, the full original post has been reprinted
Originally Published January 2020 Quite a while ago, I announced that I’d be ‘remaking’ earlier episodes of the WIDWWA YouTube series, and that was my intention for the longest of times, that when I finished the WIDWWA series, I’d loop around to Season 27 and ‘update’ those earlier episodes using the knowledge and skills I’d required throughout the process of making over 50 videos, by that point. Unfortunately, in early September, my computer hard drive, with all the WIDWWA files, crashed, and became the catalyst for my decision to cancel the YouTube series. I did however decide to continue the series on through this sub-reddit, a blog and our fantastic wiki! As Season 49 began to be published, with an episode a week, on the wiki, I began to realise that I could do something very special with this format. I decide to sort out those earlier seasons of WIDWWA from Season 27-40, and change things, which I now know, probably wouldn’t have happened. The plan was to update all the wiki pages, with all of the changes I’d make, and then every now and then add plots on to stories I fancied doing, until I finished them all, alongside the Elysium, Season 50 etc.. So now, I’ve just finished the first stage and I present to you my commentary, in a way, on what’s been changed and what’s stayed the same. Season 27 has remained pretty much the same, although I have made some small, and somewhat
significant changes. Firstly, I decided that John Nathan-Turner and Andrew Cartmel would stay on, but as their last season, as I came to the realisation that it not only makes sense, for them to firstly finish the McCoy era, but also to round off all the story lines they were dealing with in the last two seasons, but also because the whole point of the WIDWWA series is what if Doctor Who just carried on, so it makes sense that Season 27 would be a continuation of Season 26. I also then decided to keep the Season 24-26 titles and theme tune, as well as the logo, changing the title cards to match. The final change I made was changing the writer of Crime of the Century to Kevin Clarke, as I thought it quite unrealistic that the Script Editor, Andrew Cartmel, would write two whole stories in the season, and the BBC rules at the time, only allowed a Script Editor to commission themselves once. In the Endgame documentary on the Survival DVD, it said out of all the episodes, this story had the most uncertainty about the writer, and therefore I chose Kevin Clarke, who’d previously written Silver Nemesis as I thought this story would have a similar tone.
Season 28 is probably the most similar season of WIDWWA to the original. All the stories are exactly the same, the companions, Katie and Henrick, are the same and the Script Editor, Ben Aaronovitch, is the same. However, the producer is not. There were a couple of
reasons for changing the producer from Stephen Garwood to Ian Fraser. Firstly, in 1990, Stephen Garwood was only an Assistant Floor Manager, for some reason, when making the original Season 27, I’d mistaken the position of Assistant Floor Manager for Production Manager, so my reasoning was that if Doctor Who would’ve continued, Stephen Garwood would work his way up to Production Manager throughout the Ian Fraser years, and then eventually become Producer himself in 1994. So, what’s essentially happened now is that the original Garwood era has been split into two halves. Also, the title sequence has changed to the new ‘retconned’ version, I debuted some months ago.
Season 29 had a few changes story wise: two new stories enter the mix, the Path Not Taken, which is a ‘What if the Nazis Won the War Story’, we had done this with Season 36’s Exodus in the old WIDWWA but we decided to use a new version of this story, earlier on, and we also added the VNA, Lucifer Rising. Also, this season, the format of the show changed, to 22x25 minute episodes, making up 7 stories, ranging from just 2 parts to 4 parts in length.
Season 30 sees some more substantial changes than the last few, story wise. Firstly, we opened with Conquest of the Daleks, moving into An Earthly Child, an adaptation of the Big Finish audio, which reintroduced Susan, this replaces the Susan Arc from Season 31, just using her in this one, 3-part serial. The Enemy Within becomes the third serial, at a much more manageable 2-part length, rather than the original six, and Benny and Henrick are also here too! The VNA The LeftHanded Hummingbird has been slotted in, and a new story called the Reverent Peril is here too,
which introduces the character of President Gregori and focuses around him and Romana – good news though – Romana doesn’t die anymore, she just loses the election and then sulks off back to E-Space, but only after the 30-anniversary. Rounding off Season 30 is the Legend of Merlin, which was originally the 8th Doctor’s story in Season 40, but as I think you’ll agree, it makes a bit more sense here. Finally, we have the 30th Anniversary, the Lords of Time, which like the Three Doctors and the Five Doctors focuses around Gallifrey and it also has a load of random monsters thrown in like the Five Doctors did.
Season 31 sees the arrival of Stephen Garwood as producer, and the arrival of Colin Brake as Script Editor, as I felt Aaronovitch doing 8 seasons was pretty unlikely. The season begins with Legacy and Knight Falls, as expected, but without Susan now, as that was covered last season, and then moves into 5 new stories. Pipe Dreams and the Sanctuary of Confession are both original stories and Blood Heat is a VNA, and obviously the Long Game is our first New Who adaptation! The Long Game was chosen as in fact it was pitched in 1989, by Russell T Davies to the Doctor Who production office, just before the show was cancelled, so I thought there’s a good chance it could just show up before long. The Prisoner of Time, as expected, rounds of the season, although the story is slightly different now, focusing on a new character, called the Reformer accusing the Doctor of rigging the last election, the one we saw in the Reverent Peril. Also, Henrick dies.
Season 32, like the original one, is the final season for Griffiths, and now sees Eight and Benny travelling alone, in the TARDIS.
I did this because I thought Henrick was in the show for too long originally, and I wanted Benny to have one season to herself being the focus of attention. The season is very different from the original with only Tragedy Day and Hatred of the Daleks surviving. In its place we have a run of VNA adaptations, a lot of them focusing heavily on the character of Benny, Saint Anthony’s Fire, Return of the Living Dad and Shakedown and then the Game of Resurrection is a new original story and the Conglomerate used to be the Sands of Life in Season 40, not to be confused with its Season 40 replacement the Sands of Time (yes, they are completely different stories). Hatred of the Daleks rounds off the season, killing Benny (sorry!) and also the Eighth Doctor, in an epic fiveparter.
Season 33, like its original, remains the previous script editor and producer, as does Season 34, but introduces a new Doctor, a new Companion and of course a new title sequence. The sequence is basically the same, although I imagine shots of the TARDIS flying around the Earth, sadly I can’t really realise this, but I have slightly changed the title card, just to make it a bit nicer, and change the horrible original text placement, but not a whole lot has changed there. However, the same cannot be said of the rest of Season 33, as pretty much everything is different. We do open with Revenge of the Master and once again, it’s Nine’s post regeneration story, and it’s the final story for Anthony Ainley as the Master. However, it now introduces a new companion, Janet Wells, who is from 1956, and is a traveller, or to use the more common (and less PC) term ‘gypsy’. The episode is set in Lancashire in 1956,
mainly at Janet’s campsite, but also throughout the area, and sees the Doctor battling with the Master, while also overcoming his post-regeneration. The season then has a string of all new stories, with the Time Ravagers (now spelt correctly), the Well (as the first 1 part, 25-minute story, since 1965) and Resurrection of the Autons (now as the season finale but written by Steve Lyons) retained from the original.
Moving into Season 34, and we have much the same story as Season 33, when it comes to changes. The season opens with the Reckoning of the Shadows which is a re-working of the original opening story the Forest of the Dead however, the ‘River Song’ type character is now Professor Bernice Summerfield, from before she met the Doctor, and this not only reserves the ‘River Song’ relationship, but does so in the way that not only emotionally messes with the Doctor, but makes the Doctor have to hide who he is, in order to not change the timeline, and becomes and exploration of all of those themes, started way back in the Aztecs. Plan B is retained, after Matt made a very compelling argument for me to keep it (although it’s now a 1-part, 25-minute story, like the Well), the Room with No Doors is moved here from Season 36, and Iceberg is moved from Season 35. The Web of Time like the original, closes off Season 34, but it’s now penned by outgoing Script Editor, Colin Brake. Janet doesn’t die, unlike Grace, but she does leave on very bad terms with the Doctor, explaining why she doesn’t ever come back (inuniverse).
Bye, bye Chris Sanderman, WIDWWA doesn’t want you anymore. So, I suppose I should explain what the hell happened to
Chris Sanderman. Basically, unbeknownst to me, for literally years, Chris Sanderman is a typo. The assistant floor manager, who worked on the McCoy era of Doctor Who, was one Christopher Sandeman, and he went onto work on the Garwood era, in the original, and then I just picked him from the end credits and made him producer, not much logic tbh. So, with this opportunity, I decided to completely change the line-up of behind the scenes people in Season 35. Becoming the Showrunner, for the entirety of the ‘former Sanderman era’ is David Renwick, who was a very experienced producer, and TV executive, who seemed just right for Doctor Who, becoming its first Executive Producer since Barry Letts in Season 18. As the actual producer, I decided on Susan Belbin, a long-time collaborator of Renwick, however, her health, in our-universe, wasn’t particularly good, so she only lasts for Season 35. Like the original, Steven Moffat is the Script Editor. Also, the format is now 13x45 minute episodes, but most stories are multiple episodes, with few single part stories. Sammy Thompson, like in the original, is introduced in this season, but with one, very major change. Jennifer Lien is out, and new actress, Laurie Holden, is in. This decision was taken for a number of reasons: firstly, Jennifer Lien’s ummm record (google her if you don’t know what I’m talking about), secondly, she isn’t that great of an actress tbh and thirdly, with the advent of the Paramount deal (which now happens from Season 35, cos it kinda makes too much sense), a Star Treklike episode, would make sense to just be a full-fledged Star Trek crossover episode (and don’t say this doesn’t make sense, because in our own universe it nearly
happened, with RTD trying to make a make a crossover with Star Trek: Enterprise happen, but the cancellation of that show, literally the week Doctor Who came back, shot that in the foot), with Star Trek: Voyager, as only it and DS9 were running, and DS9 isn’t Star Trek-y enough to be able to do a proper crossover with – Jennifer Lien was obviously on Voyager, during its early seasons, and with the episode now being a fullfledged ‘canon’ crossover, we just couldn’t make having Jennifer Lien work, so she’s been replaced with the wonderfully talented, and indefinitely better, Laurie Holden. As for the rest of Season 35, it pretty much has all of it changed, with the first story, no longer anything like it’s original (sorry Jamie McCrimmon, see ya), and it focusses more upon Sammy, her very flawed character, she is a noble-woman from Colonial America, who obviously owns slaves (ouch), and also the real-life Battle of Culloden. Episode 2 is the End of the World, another New Who adaptation, and is pretty much the original, expect the CGI budget isn’t there for Cassandra, so she’s humanoid, but with a horrifying make-up job, making her look like a plastic surgery nightmare. A new story, the Robots of Time is slotted in, then A Case for the Blue Box, now an official Star Trek crossover episode, the VNA GodEngine follows, then a single 45-minute episode Don’t Blink, which is an adaptation of Series 3’s Blink, and finally it rounds off with Damaged Goods which was moved here, because the novel was written in 1997, so it being in 1993 makes little sense.
Season 36 gains a new producer, Sue Vertue, who is Steven Moffat’s wife. In our universe she’s produced pretty much everything Moffat has done, but Doctor Who,
and since they’re in need of a new producer, after Belbin’s sudden exit, Moffat asking his wife to come onboard makes a lot of sense. The season, like the original, opens with Never Mind the Rogue, introducing everyone’s favourite time-lord antagonist (but not villain #TBWHTK), and then the former The Lazarus Project is once-again split into two stories, like it’s Big Finish original, Project:Twilight and Project: Lazarus, so now we have The Twilight Project and rounding off the season, a few stories later, The Lazarus Project. In the middle, we get The Holy Terror, giving us our first Rob Shearman script (sorry no penguin now, just Sammy!), and Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust, which is pretty much the samew as the original.
For Season 37, I decided to introduce a new companion, as Sammy was around, with just her and the Doctor for way to long.
So, to combat this, I introduced Lou Madison, and then booted Sammy off at the end of the season (although she does stay until the end of the first story of Season 38 in fact). Lou, on the other-hand, is a student at the University of Liverpool, where the Master has taken control of everyone, because I guess he’s given up on World Domination, and just wants to run a university (fairs), the Master is now a new incarnation played by Murray Melvin, as there’s now no Sanderman to hate the Master. Fallout, follows, a bleak dystopia set during World War Three, then a new story the Forbidden Fruit, which is sort of a Back to the Future inspired one, following that we get Who Killed Kennedy as before, but now a 1 part, 45-minute story, then a new Gallifrey story, the Conspiracy of Time, and finally the season rounds off with Nine’s new regeneration story, the Chimes
of Midnight (this time with even more bleakness, as the Doctor actually dies!!!), this is mainly because this story would only work with Sammy, as the original did with Charley, and as such the whole thing is now set in the early 1700s, but it just means some of the details change, but mostly it stays the same.
Season 38 is the last season for Steven Moffat, as before, and as such, is also the last season for Sue Vertue. Sammy leaves in the first serial, too shaken by Chimes, and the Doctor changing into Richard E Grant, and Lou stays until the end of the Season when she gets exterminated by a Dalek (poor Lou). The title sequence changes to the original Season 39 colour, as it looks nicer for the Grant era just to have that sequence. After the first season of Leftover takes place, pretty much the same as before, except that letter now says, “Dr John Smith and Louise Madison”, Night of the Angels happens as before, and the Doctor and Lou are sent off to 1902, in pretty much the same story as the old One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Two but it’s now retitled the much nicer, The Dance of the Devil. An adaptation of New Who’s Tooth and Claw follows, called Metamorphosis. Big Finish’s Invaders from Mars and the PDA’s, State of Change, slot in here, the latter reintroducing the Rani, and leading directly into the next, onepart episode, Rogue Who, which is pretty much the same as before, and then the season ends off with an adaptation of Big Finish’s The Time of the Daleks.
Season 39 is probably the closest season to its original, since Season 29, with it opening with No Sky in Space, introducing Anna Hope’s Sandra Armstrong, RTD taking over as script editor etc...etc... Bill Shapter, now replaces Sue Vertue,
as producer, and does Season 40 as well. Our first new story is MoneyPuzzle but it’s not really, as it’s just a renaming of Sometimes Money Does Grow on Trees and it’s a pun on the tree, Monkey Puzzle, which is the type of tree which is growing money or whatever that story was about. Illusions of Life and Outer-Space Takes Manhattan follow as simple 1-parters, and then a new story, Logged In, is slotted in, which is a very paranoid 90s/00s style story about the dangers of a chunky old Windows XP machine, and how it has an alien race living inside of it, and it all goes very moral and cerebral (good stuff!). Past Tense and The Name’s Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, become just one episode each, and then the season rounds off with the twoparter, Shattered Lives, which is a renaming of Who’s Killing the Great Doctors of the Cosmos.
Finally, we come to Season 40, which follows the exact same concept, you’d be glad to know, as I recall that was quite popular. We open with The Curse of the Tower, where Murray Melvin’s Master is Richard III (sorry Rogue), then we go to the Fourth Doctor with the 3-parter, The Sands of Time (again nothing to do with its old serial, the Sands of Life), then Peter Davison gets a single part story (soz), Creatures of Beauty based upon the Big Finish play, Colin Baker gets his regeneration story here rather than in Season 31, and it’s all about World War II and the D-Day landings, News 24/7 is renamed to it’s original LIVE 34, and is moved here as a 1-parter for McCoy to do, the Societal Step becomes an Eighth Doctor story, a 1-parter again, then Spare Parts is moved here, with an actual sensible name this time, and given to Nine, as he never fought the Cybermen (10 does in the Movie), and then the
season rounds off with the Other like before.
Finally, a few small changes are made to the Movie, firstly, the cast is altered to fit with this continuity, and secondly, Tony Redston comes on as producer for the Movie, while Renwick stays on as Executive Producer, and Ira Steven Behr starts off as an Executive Producer here as well.
So, what did you think of all the changes, comment down below, and let me know, and be sure to check out the new wiki pages!
Obviously there’s been one very big retcon since the publication of this, and that was on 5 February 2021...
One of the things I did not do in the original retconathon was recast the Ninth Doctor as I thought it would still have been possible, if not incredibly likely, for Paul McGann to have been cast as the Doctor if the show hadn’t been axed in 1998. I now believe I was wrong, and I have decided as soon as possible, that the Ninth Doctor will be recast. The character of the Ninth Doctor will remain exactly the same, as will his era and even his costume, however the role will now be played by Michael French. Now this has been a hard decision and one I have been wrestling with for about two years, however I have finally decided to do it. Also, I’d like to announce a new Season 35-37 title sequence, which will be released shortly. The Season 3840 title sequence will remain the same, expect for the fact it will no longer have its blue coloured predecessor and instead it will be its own original sequence.
Enjoy Seasons 33-37 with Michael French as the Doctor!
I still get questions to this day about the retcon-athon, as many of you may never have read it before, so I hope this was useful, for those people.
WIDWWAto destroy an enemy.
So, those episodes were all fine. Acceptable writing, faithful adaptations, decent action scenes. As much as I remain completely unimpressed by this show, I couldn’t really complain about De Dokter fighting with Borusa.
And then it dawned on me.
Why is De Dokter fighting with Borusa?
Hold your horses! I’m not questioning why she is opposing Borusa, this much is obvious. But why is she fighting? Why is the last act of a Time Lady bearing the name of healer and the wise man an action fight?
Part of the reason why The Doctor is so unique character in fiction is that he’s not an action hero. They’re not there to beat or conquer anyone, but to help. They don’t punch, but think their way through the problem. Even Third Doctor, the so-called “action hero” with Venusian Aikido and stuff, usually was coming up with some clever way to blow up the enemy instead of just kicking his butt.
There are times when The Doctor is forced to show their fighting skills, true, but that’s not the norm for this character. So why instead of dying how she lived, De Dokter ends her life with a brawl? Similarly to the beginning of Doomsday Cannon, I find this scenario just so... unDoctor-ish. I think De Dokter’s final stand should look more like… well, Her Final Stand, with a sacrifice to save countless lives, not
This isn’t however another thing that I can add to the “Dutch don’t get Doctor Who” pile, the original Endgame ends like that too. There’s a symbolical side to that fight, with The Valeyard embodying Doctor’s inner evil, but it’s still an action fight. This is a larger problem that plagued the franchise through Chapters Three and Four, primarily in movies, in a misguided attempt at fitting into Hollywood. Have we now restored the balance to the character, and Dokter Wie is just an echo of the past? I certainly hope so.
Boy, where to start with this...
If I were to deconstruct this story scene by scene, as I usually do with stories of this grandeur, we’d be here not just the whole day, but the whole week. But since I don’t feel very strongly about this one, I don’t have the need to do that. Now, that doesn’t yet mean this story is boring. Spy stories are just fundamentally not really my thing, and Daleks’ Masterplan is in many aspects similar to spy story. We’ve got agents fighting another agents, dangerous stunts, betrayals and breathtaking chases, just like in a spy story. It is a very well-paced story, and the characters like Vyon or Sara Kingdom are wellconstructed. But I’m only able to like it as much.
The curveball here is a sudden entrance of Ronald’s old toys. Has anyone missed Phaedra? I certainly did! Has anyone missed Raleigh? Probably not, but at least we finally lost the doomsday clock hanging over our heads, counting down to her inevitable return. Has anyone missed The Gaians? Yeah, me neither, but fortunately there isn’t much of them here, they are just lost great empire that Mavic Chen and the neo-neo-neo-nazis that raised him aspire to. And as funny as Gaians being the role model are, that’s still less funny than Bertie falling in love with The Emo Doc(gets slapped by his snarky self) ... Sorry, got distracted.
Ronald never does fanservice for fanservice sake, he definitely has a point in all these returns, so I should be excited. Instead, I’m afraid. The agenda of The Monk and co. is The Restoration – the setup from
THE RONALD’S MASTERPLAN (FEATURING THE MONK’S MASTERPLAN (FEATURING THE DALEKS’ MASTERPLAN))
the Hodges era that I spent 1/3rd of an essay praising and that remains rather enigmatic. However, the vibe that accompanies it already is pretty different than in Journey Into The Unknown. According to that story, The Restoration was an event involving the Sixteenth Doctor which brought thewell, restoration of Gallifreyan civilization and some elements of Time Lord society, like The Looms. In further perspective it made the existence in universe – according to The Intendant – so pitiful that The Intendant went back in time to prevent it, and when that proved FUNDAMENTALLY IMPOSSIBLE (implying that The Restoration is the natural direction of the course of history), he decided to just tear the timestream apart with paradoxes, considering that a more preferable outcome. That, of course, is quite a lot to pay off.
This story on the other hand establishes The Restoration as the plan of The Monk, Phaedra and possibly the other individuals we remain unaware of that apparently requires the Taranium core, events of Daleks’ Masterplan to be rewritten and possibly survival of Sara Kingdom. It is also concept that can be familiar to The Daleks and that they bought into wholeheartedly (which by itself is the red flag to the universe). It presumably involves Phaedra coming back to life and getting a great power, if we were to take at face value the scene with Phaedra gathering energy on the throne, in the vein of Mag Mel from Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge (hey, I managed to put a Bakugan reference in Doctor Who review!
What did you accomplish this month?).
As you can see, we have some differences here. Hodges’s Restoration somehow involves the Doctor, Moore’s Restoration
happens around The Doctor, but does it involve him? Support of the Daleks is troubling, but... shouldn’t The Restoration seem great at first glance? We heard someone cheering. The plan of Phaedra and The Monk proves quite clever, but how is rewriting the course of time a universal constant? And if the motivation behind it is Phaedra’s death, then why couldn’t The Intendant keep her alive? Is The Rogue’s incredibly risky plan involving dimensional hopping and grooming Will Adams into sacrificial lamb for years really that hard to foil? Or would alive Phaedra go ahead with The Restoration anyway?
Speaking of which, The Monk and Phaedra are aware of Intendant’s sabotage and existence, which means they’re likely aware of his reasons as well. So they know 100% what they doing and they still think it’s worth it. In this case, The Restoration’s ultimate outcome needs to simultaneously satisfy Phaedra and The Monk
AND be the fate worse than death for The Intendant and allegedly many other beings... As if the bar wasn’t set high enough already.
It might still be possible to tie up all this foreshadowing into something cohesive and satisfying, but it’s getting harder and harder. Mal, Jane, Ronald, David, everyone else involved –are you guys sure you didn’t bid too high? It is very much because I love how the Restoration was set up that I worry about the pay off. Yet the pay off has to come – we can’t afford to wait 20 years with closure like with The Valeyard if we don’t want to leave Season 55 viewers – who got to see Sixteenth Doctor very clearly in that vision – feeling cheated. So, for both your and my sake, I hope you have the resources to pay that bill.
In other news, did I mention that Mavic Chen is cool? I wonder who he reminded Raleigh of –she saw a good deal of diseased maniacs.
The WIDWWA community has been based on Discord since May 2021, and is currently a thriving community with over 45 members. But we don’t want to stop there... as long as your a WIDWWA fan and want to contribute a positive non-toxic discussion, and follow all the rules of the server - please come along and join.
Details on how to join the Discord server can be found on the twitter account @ WIDWWA. Additionally, there is some information on the YouTube community tab. If you still can’t get on, don’t be afraid to email DDWF at widwwa1989@gmail.com
WIDWWA has a wiki covering all inuniverse content at widwwa.miraheze.org
The blog with new releases can be found at widwwa.wordpress.com
Your fan fiction could be here next month and in future months! All you need to do, to be in with a chance of being featured, is to come up with a title, synopsis and the first 200 words of your story and then send it to widwwa1989@gmail.com, whereby if I like it, I will ask you to write a full 2500-3000 word story, which will be featured in a future issue.
If you do not receive a response, then I will have chosen not to go ahead with your story, at this present time.
Please can all stories be original, feature a WIDWWA TARDIS team and not feature any returning monsters, unless I ask you to during the writing process.
To submit a story, please email widwwa1989@gmail.com
