Saving the Universe Using a Kettle And Some String!

Sorry I've been quiet on this blog. I do intend to update it fairly regular but of course as of late I've been very busy trying to put together the final edit on issue 8 of The Terrible Zodin. Once that's all done I'll have the freedom to talk more about Doctor Who on here and already have topics lined up. I will also take requests.

Additionally once you've all had time to read and hopefully enjoy TTZ8 (And I really would welcome your honest feedback) then I'd quite like to do a behind the zines feature and show how the zine was but together. Also as I'm on the editing team but thankfully not overall editor on every issue (I don't know how Leslie's done it 7 times!) I will also comment on the making of future issues as and when I can.

But in the meantime and to whet your appetite before TTZ8 we're happy to promote the competition, so here's a list below as far as I can ascertain of all current Doctor Who fanzines out there. Some are free, some you gotta pay, some are downloadable PDFs and some are photocopied A5 paper zines.

Enjoy (And make sure you tell em we sent you!)

**Last updated 29/05/11**

***

Blue Box (No longer active)

Celestial Toyroom

Comfy Chair

Enlightenment

The Finished Product

Fish Fingers and Custard

The Hub (Torchwood zine)

Inferno

Myth Makers

Panic Moon

Planet of the Ming Mongs

Rassilon's Rod (No longer active)

Reverse the Polarity

Shooty Dog Thing

The Third Zone

This Way Up

The Tides of Time

Time Space Visualiser

Venusian Spearmint

Vortex

Vworp Vworp!

Whotopia

You Could Try Trusting Me

I've only ever seen one episode of Blake's 7 and that was only very recently and a poor quality copy on YouTube.

I've always had the impression that Blake's 7 was probably a show that had some good ideas but was let down by the impression that it was full of dodgy acting, wobbly sets and atrocious special effects. In short rather unfairly I gave Blake's 7 the same kind of prejudiced stigma in my mind as most of the general public gave Doctor Who in the 80s.

The episode (Terminal) didn't overturn all of those preconceptions but I did enjoy watching it and I was curious enough that I might consider raiding the back catalogue at some point.

Which brings me to my main point, for this is something of an advertising interlude. My girlfriend Leslie (Otherwise known as The Editor of The Terrible Zodin) has teamed up with Melissa Beattie to produce a new series of online Blake's 7 comics.

If you're a fan of the show then why not check them out over at Comic Liberation. You're in for a treat.

It's not the first time these two have teamed up. I'm proud to announce that their one shot comic The Ballad of Ianto Jones makes it's online debut in Issue 8 of TTZ which, fingers crossed should be out on 30th September 2010.

The Tea's Getting Cold

Originally printed in The Terrible Zodin # 1

It's all my Dad's fault really.

5th October 1988. I was six years ago. Flicking through a copy of that weeks Radio Times, Dad noticed an article about the new series of a show he'd watched in his youth and one he didn't realise was still running. And so it was that we sat down to watch episode one of Remembrance of the Daleks. My life would never be the same again.

Doctor Who was the best thing EVER! Straight away I was sucked into the adventures of this funny mysterious man with a straw hat and an umbrella who was running around saving the world from the evil and hidious Daleks. And who can forget that cliffhanger - "The stairs!". I was hooked and as those weeks went by I knew I was going watch forever.

One of my earliest memories is drawing a picture of a Dalek in school. It wasn't very good, a triangle with a dome on top and the two gun sticks but I remember the class bully saw it and was very impressed. Daleks were followed by the Kandy Man, the Cybermen and the Gods of Ragnarok, all of whom were immortalised on scraps of paper by my childish hand in the week long enternities between episodes.

Dad had told me of course that there had been many Doctors before this one and many adventures but I hadn't really payed attention engrossed as I was by this Doctor. My Doctor with his frowns one minute and smiles the next. I even thought his question mark jumper was the epitomy of cool and so when Mami knitted me one I refused to wear anything else. I walked around with a hat and an umbrella which Dad had taken a blow torch to and melted it into a vaugely question marked handle. I would scurry around the house fighting the Daleks in my mind, deliberatly tripping up on the stairs and wishing my wardrobe was blue and would whisk me away to the farthest reaches of my imagination.

I wanted to be the Doctor, he was my hero and with callous disregard I ditched the previous holder of that title. Who wanted to be Arthur Fonzarelli when I could be Doctor Who? Sure the Fonz had all those girls but the Doctor had Ace and she was the prettiest girl EVER.

With a whole year to wait for the next series after The Greatest Show In The Galaxy ended, I was ready to discover the other Doctors my Dad had told me about. My local library had a very battered copy of Doctor Who: The Making Of A Television Series, with its spine held together with masking tape. Inside were my first glimpses of the other five Doctors (At the time both Dad and I were ignorant that there had even been a Colin Baker). There was a very grumpy looking old man, a funny man in a fur coat, Worzel Gummidge, a man with curly hair and boogling eyes and the young man who also had a straw hat. But the best part of all was the monsters. Those colourful dread inspiring creatures; Kraals! Nimon! Marshmen! Voc Robots!

The book was in such bad condition that the librarian offered to sell it to me for 50p, which was more than three weeks pocket money and meant forgoing my usual Mars bar but it was worth it. Now I had those adventures with me always and when we went to Colombia that year the book came with me and after dark when Abuelos garden took the form of a nightmarish jungle, I would wonder if there were Mandrells lurking out there.

The year of waiting for the next series had my imagination blossoming. It would be inaccurate to say that my path as a writer began then, because it began long before that from the days when I first learnt to write my own name. But nonetheless adventure after adventure would be scribbled by me, written in fluent gibberish and usually involving the Doctor fighting all those aliens which had appeared in that colour double spread in The Making Of...

Finally now however the new series was here and every Wednesday night I was enthralled by the Destroyer, by the Husks, by the Heamovores and finally by the Cheetah People. As the Doctor and Ace walked off into the sunset a few weeks before Christmas 1989, my hunger for all things Doctor Who was insastiable and I remember clearly that I felt deep concern that the continuity announcer hadn't said that the show would be back next year...

As it turned out we had to wait 14 years before the series came back properly.

Nonetheless in the wilderness years there was plenty to keep this Doctor Who fan happy. My local library had plenty of the novelisations of past adventures for me to read and read I did with a religious fervour, so much so that my school teacher had to request that if maybe just once when we did our weekly book reviews I could chose something that wasn't written by Terrance Dicks.

I saved up my pennies for months on end, counting them everyday longing for the day when I finally had nine hundred and ninety nine pennies so that I could go to W H Smith and buy Death to the Daleks or The Five Doctors or City of Death or which ever cover grabbed my attention that week. Death to the Daleks won the honour of being the first video I ever bought and how could I resist, the cover had an exploding Dalek!

Of course with time came my teenage years and I had to hide my fandom from the world. Being a Doctor Who fan wouldn't win me the heart of the girls who were no longer strange alien creatures in their own right but were now alluring creatures undergoing their awkward transformations which required a constant tugging down of my jumper to hide my own transformations.

Like an addict with a shameful secret I would bend the covers of the books I read so the Doctor Who logo wasn't visible. I no longer proudly expoused about the scariness of the Sea Devils, or shake my hand in a withered Davrosesque manner, nor did I associate monks with the word meddling or pretend when drinking a glass of milk that it was spectrox, the most precious substance in the galaxy!

Only my best friend Big Al, back in the days before he became Big Al, knew of my secret though being an African refugee he had no idea what the programme was about but he understood even though he himself was an out and unapologetic Star Trek fan.

Later still when I finally went away to university, with no hope of Doctor Who ever coming back, and with me now playing with those grown up toys of cynicism, criticism and disillusionment I turned my back on Doctor Who. I didn't bring any of the books or videos with me and whilst I didn't have the heart to cancel my subscription to Doctor Who Magazine I skipped over the articles with a detached interest. Doctor Who was just a silly programme I'd watched as a kid. It was full of wobbly sets, rubber monsters and bad acting. I had much more important things on my mind like sex and whisky.

When the news that fandom had been waiting for ever for broke, that the series was coming back my reaction was minimal. I could well remember the empty hollow feeling I had that Bank Holiday weekend back in '96 when Paul McGann had had a crack at the whip.

As it got nearer and nearer to the time however I took the time to start reading through the back copies of DWM, read a couple of books, even watch a video now and again. And then I came across the comic strip Doctor Who and the Fangs of Time. The plot? The Doctor pays a visit to a 20 something who loved the show when he was 6 but thinks he should have grown out of it by now.

It did the trick. I was hooked all over again and as the new series approached I could feel all my fan boyishness coming back and I rejoiced.

The Doctor still was and always had been my hero. Never cruel, never cowardly as the cliche goes. He wasn't like James Bond or Captain Kirk, he didn't save the day with his fists and he certainly didn't get the girl and that's what made him better than all those others. He was just somebody who wanted to travel, someody who was rootless with no home of his own, flitting about wherever and whenever he wanted. He never sought out trouble and when he did become involved in such situations it was his brains that won out, his ingenuity, his inventiveness. He did what was right. Not what was good but what was right.

I'm no longer ashamed to call myself a Doctor Who fan. I was wrong. For every set that wobbles, there are the ones that don't, for every unconvincing alien there is a breath takingly real one and for every camp performance is one so straight and earnest that you really believe in the danger. If you were to ask me my favourite story I could be ready to trot out such safe bets as City of Death or The Caves of Androzani but the truth is it's joint place between Nightmare of Eden and The Claws of Axos. Both have wobbly sets and poor acting. But alongside they also have ambitious designs, strong performances and cracking scripts. I think they could simultaneously fall into the Best and Worst categories and I love them. And that's why I love Doctor Who. It can be anything and it is everything and when it's at it's best it's fun and it's exciting, ultimatly it's a great way to spend an hour on a Saturday evening.

I'm [26] years old but I tell you when I put on my battered brown leather jacket, I strut down the street and pretend I'm Christopher Eccleston. When no one's looking and I'm in Earls Court, I'll stop and touch the police box and I'll wonder if the doors will open and I'll be whisked off to Skaro or Peladon or Raxacoracafallapatorious.

Wait Here Susan, I Won't Be Long

Or context is all with my Doctor Who firsts.

First Doctor Who Seen: Remembrance of the Daleks on original broadcast in 1988. I was six years old. I was introduced to the show by my father who'd watched the show since the William Hartnell days but lost touch with the show. I may reprint my first ever article in TTZ which elaborates on this.

First Doctor Who Seen on VHS: My primary school friend Daniel Halliday had The Robots of Death on video and I was invited round one Saturday to watch it. Thus Tom Baker became my first out of sequence Doctor, and I saw this in the year long break between The Greatest Show in the Galaxy and Battlefield. The Doctor getting buried in sand, the Voc Robots advancing menacingly and Leela having her voice changed all stuck in my head and stayed in my imagination. It was almost 20 years later that I saw the story again when I bought the DVD.

First Doctor Who Missed on Original TX: Battlefield Episode 1. I was in Colombia. Finally saw it three years later when it was repeated on BBC2.

First Doctor Who novelisation: I believe it was Doctor Who and the Terror of the Autons bought as a birthday present by a friend of the family who no doubt had been informed by my parents that I was now a Who nut.

First Doctor Who VHS bought: Death to the Daleks which I bought with my own pocket money having patiently saved up nine hundred and ninetynine pennies. I chose this one because of the exploding Dalek on the cover. I don't remember how excited I was when I first watched it (I rememeber being scared of the swamp root cable thingy) but my memory of the story now is that it's pretty boring. It's been years since I watched it and I quite likely won't rewatch it till it comes out on DVD

First Issue of DWM: #170 from January 1991. I was in W H Smiths in Lewisham and happened to spot the logo. Colin Baker was on the cover as the Sixth Doctor which is why I didn't spot it earlier because for a long time I thought Davison was McCoy's predecessor. That was due to a combination of The Making of a Television Series book only going as far as 1982 and because my Dad hadn't kept up with the show he didn't know either. Without digging up the issue (I've still got them all), off the top of my head I remember that there was an interview with Johnny Byrne (and thus the Doctor Who? cartoon was The Keeper of Traken themed), an interview with Jon Pertwee, a feature on Search Out Space and part two of The Mark of Mandragora.

First Doctor Who Toy (As a kid): I'm guessing now but I'm fairly sure it was the grey coated version of the Seventh Doctor from Dapol.

First Doctor Who Companion Crush: Ace of course. I fancied Sophie Aldred rotten. Still do.

First Doctor Who Celebrity Met: Deborah Watling when I attended the opening of the Doctor Who shop in East Ham. I guess that was around 1992. She signed my copy of John Peel's The Gallifreyan Chronicles. Victoria was my Dad's Doctor Who companion crush.

First Doctor Who Convention: None! I've never been to one. I wanted to go to one as a kid but could never persuade my parents to take me then when I was old enough that I could've gone by myself I had entered the stage where I thought I'd outgrown Doctor Who and wasn't as interested and then once I was properly back in the opportunity has never come up. This year my girlfriend and I were considering Whooverville and Swansea Regenerations but unfortunately both clashed with other commitments. So I remain a convention virgin and the nearest to a Doctor Who gathering was attending The Flashing Blade Picnic. I have been to the Fitzroy Tavern once but as a civilian not a Who fan (It was the nearest pub to where a mate was doing summer working experience)

First Doctor Who Fanzine: Believe it or not, it is actually The Terrible Zodin. Why? Well you'll have to wait for my Editorial in TTZ8 for that one.

First New Adventures Novel: Timewyrm: Genesys. I read it whilst on holiday in Cali, Colombia.

First Doctor Who Audio Play: Slipback. I can't remember how I got a hold of it. Was it repeated? I do remember thinking the Computer was pretty funny.

First Doctor Who DVD Bought: Remembrance of the Daleks. I bought it second hand off my mate Davros (Not his real name obviously). I couldn't resist as it was the story that brought me to this carnival in the first place.

First New Series Doctor Who Missed On Original TX: Rose. I had just transferred to a new job within the company I was already working for and I'd just been on Annual Leave so I had zero opportunity of making an advance request on the rota. I managed to finally see it three days later.

First Doctor Who Toy (As an adult): I was given a sonic screwdriver for my birthday. Subsequently I've also aquired a fob watch. But honestly those are the only two things! I've still got my Dapol toys but they're far from mint. I played with them so much that Mel has no arm, the Tetrap has no leg, the Dalek is completely emasculated and K9's tail is held on with sellotape.

Ok I think I've wittered on enough for today but if there are any more firsts you wanna know about just ask.

Behold The Terrible Zodin

Originally written 18/02/10.

Although it's not something that comes up in conversation very often I am something of a Doctor Who fan.

Yes I know, I know you're all staggering back from that shocking confession.

Haha ok but seriously, I'm a Doctor Who fan. An unabashed and unashamed one. Like anything people are passionate about whether it's sports or opera, it is a part of my life that consumes me. The clue is there in the word fan which is an abbreviation of fanatic after all. Doctor Who isn't just some show that I watch on TV for 13 weeks and then forget about until it comes back on the following year, it's not something I just casually enjoy, it's something I eat, drink and sleep.

And I love it. I'm happy that I've something so fun and exciting and silly and ridiculous and loving and romantic and frothy and perplexing and mind blowing and cosmic and dizzy and frantic and energetic and barmy as my hobby obsession.

It's everywhere in my day to day life. When I wake up one of the first things I see is my Doctor Who calender, I've got framed posters on my wall, above my bed is the bookshelf groaning under the weight of the novelisations, opposite my bed is a cabinet with the DVDs... and hey you if you think I'm hardcore trust me there are even bigger fans than me whose collections would make mine look like a couple of tatty comics in a cardboard box at a jumble sale.

My head is full of useless Who related junk. Take the Zygons for example. David Tennant's favourite monster apparently. I've never seen them in the original series myself but I know the plot, I've read the novelisation (and insist on calling the novelisation Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster), I own the original 10th Doctor novel Sting of the Zygons and I know which other novels, comic strips, audio plays, direct to video movies and computer games they've been in. I know more about a rubber monster from 1975 than is healthy. I can't help it, this stuff just sticks in to my brain.

It was quite lonely being a Doctor Who fan when I grew up as I first got in to the show in 1988 and in 1989 it was cancelled, and barring one US attempt at a reboot in 1996 I had to wait 15 years for it to come back. I read DWM and bought the novels when I could afford them but I was isolated from the other Doctor Who fans who must have been out there (After all I doubt DWM's circulation was only me!)

It's why these days I'm happy that the show is a success and that my friends are in to it and that if it comes up in general conversation it's not with perplexed looks as to why someone should care so much about such a silly thing. And it's why I'm so glad to be part of the team that makes The Terrible Zodin fanzine.

In some ways TTZ has almost become a seperate love. It's Doctor Who of course but now it occupies a lot of my time and my imagination as an entity in itself. I actively recruit new writers and artists, I keep the facebook group looking lively, I run the Twitter feed and I'm constantly thinking about how to expand the readership and get more publicity. Article ideas are always popping in to my head and I scribble them down - I've a word document full of stuff that could take me through another 20 issues even if I just did one article per issue and dropped Back2TheWhoture.

Maybe its silly but I often wish TTZ was my full time job, that rather than a lot of it being email ping pong from London to Swansea to Albuqueque to San Francisco I do fantasise about myself, Leslie, Lori and Steve working in a Press Gang* style office and of course Evan, Adi, Tony, Paul and Simon are there too.

I think we can have just cause to be proud of TTZ, the hard work of everyone who has contributed their time for free to work on it is appreciated and I think we've produced a wide range of articles from indepth analysis to punning silliness. Although the original intent was that the magazine was for female fans by female fans, Leslie very wisely noted that actually the beauty of Doctor Who is its all inclusive philosophy. It's still aimed as being more female friendly than other zines have been (though don't for a moment think that's a stereotype in itself and that the mag is for 'shippers and slash fic and full of squeeeee) but I think its appeal does go beyond that. I like that we've contributers from both the UK and US (and exemplified in the fact that our editor is from New Mexico but lives in Swansea) but also further afield as Finland!

We seem to be hitting our stride at the moment. Issue 6 (The 8th Doctor special) is due out in less than a month and we've already started planning Issue 7, whilst further beyond we've tenantively pencilled in themes for Issues 8 & 9. We've been advertised in the new Shooty Dog Thing book, and once I finish writing the damn thing, thanks to TTZ I'm gonna appear as one of those blurb reviewers on a forthcoming non fiction Who book.

If you haven't already then please do check us out, there's 5 back issues to browse through and like I said TTZ6 is out in mid March. We're on Twitter & Facebook too and our discussion board is very lively and from there there are links to other zines such as SDT, Vworp Vworp, Whotopia and to podcasts like The Flashing Blade, Staggering Stories and the forthcoming Professor Dave's Ark in Space.

As ever we're on the look out for contributers to the magzine and that doesn't just mean article writers, that includes artists too and even if you're not confident enough in writing something yourself, let us know your ideas and we'll see what we can do with them. Whatever you want to see in the zine we'll find someway to incorporate it. Our only restriction is that we do aim to be family friendly so anything too adult is likely to be excised (And the editing team is not exempt, I had salacious references to the Rani's breasts toned down in an article I submitted and Steve had to cut the last part of his Genesis of the Daleks haiku due to its oral sex innuendo). Finally of course, if you like the zine tell all your friends about it!

I admit, when Leslie first floated the idea of a 'zine and was casting about for names I had reservations about The Terrible Zodin. I thought something with the word 'terrible' in the title might just be tempting fate. But I was wrong and once things were underway for the first issue I just knew it was gonna be right, and I've loved watching each episode go from strength to strength.

Huzzah!

* Seriously you need to watch this, best kids TV drama ever.