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.