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Newsletter
June/July 1999
Last Meeting
Was
again courtesy of the hospitality of John. It also marked our first "full house" of the year, although this still only meant that there were six of us. L It would perhaps be stretching matters to say that we made a significant impact on world affairs in the four hours afforded us, or even that we experienced any great sense of increased self-worth. Nonetheless, the time passed amiably enough: indeed the one encouraging thing about the reduced numbers this year is that we seem to have eliminated the friction that had been building up for some time. This is possibly why we are still here. Now all we need are a few more members, so keep those suggestions coming, folks!
New Adventures Review:
Dead Romance
by Lawrence Miles
As
Themes begun as a throwaway remark in a book some years ago now appear as crucial to the identity of the "Bennyverse", meanwhile Lawrence takes playful digs at his fellow authors. Kate managed to find references to her books that had eluded me totally. Even the title is multifoiled: Romance is dead? A romantic fiction about death? The book as a concept is dead? Or just a doomed love affair? Lawrence I'm sure does have specific meanings in mind, but nicely leaves matters so that we are free to interpret them completely differently.
Do not be put off by the back cover blurb where he describes it as his most challenging work yet, though. The concepts might be brain-fodder, but the book reads as smoothly as a lovely smooth thing that has been greased up specially, and it is even thoughtfully divided into almost 400 chapters for easy digestion.
Next month I'll give you my thoughts on Tears of the Oracle, if I can get hold of it, and hopefully an overview of the Bernice Audio plays (2 down, 3 to go so far)
My Favourites 
A
short time ago, I contributed my twopennyworth to a RADW debate on the best stories from each season of Doctor Who. For your delight and delectation, I have reproduced my list below, season by season:
1: The Aztecs, for taking the historical seriously.
2: The Romans, for not taking the historical seriously at all
3: The Gunfighters, because it's simply magical, taking the rip out of Western myths and then being criticised by dullards for supposedly perpetuating them...
4: Power of the Daleks: intelligent Daleks, no wonder TN hated it ;-) {also Evil and Macra Terror just for being brill.}
5: Fury from the Deep, possibly the 'scariest' of a group of similarly well-made siege stories.
6: The Mind Robber, falls apart at the end, but a brave attempt to expand the series' horizons.
7: The Silurians, for a half-decent 'alien' race. The other three stories are also all in my top four Pertwee list...
8: The Mind of Evil, for being less patronisingly crap than the others.
9: The Mutants, boring as hell, but at least it tries.
10: The Three Doctors, don't like the story much but it's got Pat in it.
11: Invasion of the Dinosaurs, because IotD 1 is the only Season 11 episode I can still sit through without the urge to do an Elvis on the telly.
12: Ark in Space, for the ep 1 cliffhanger and a general breath of fresh air in a then stale series.
13: Pyramids of Mars, for all the obvious reasons :-) Incidentally, when discussing violence in Who, why is the Doctor's cold-blooded gassing to death of Solon in BoM 4 never mentioned?
14: Robots of Death, a tense thriller on a low budget, with Pamela Salem as a bonus.
15: Underworld, bringing CSO to the nation. It may not have worked particularly well, but someone had to do it first, and the team should have been applauded, not mocked, for their valiant efforts.
16: Androids of Tara, the peak of wit in Who, and only the crowning glory of my second-favourite season. Ribos especially is also sublime.
17: Horns of Nimon, for the divine Janet Ellis and for being a storming Lallafest. Also City for the script, acting, direction and Lalla in a Schoolie...;-)
18: Warriors' Gate: as David McIntee said on RADW, probably the best 'hard' science fiction ever screened on television, let alone DW. Every line is quotable, every scene memorable, and most people still don't understand half of it (you know what I'm going to pick for S26, don't you ;-) ) Also most of the rest of the season: Leisure Hive was a wonderful rebirth, Full Circle at times magical and State of Decay the best "classic" Who for years.
19: Kinda, the scenes in Tegan's subconscious stand out, as do the actors. Also Davison's best performance until Caves.
20: Terminus: Nyssa, the Garm, Nyssa's underwear, the Vanir, Nyssa again, my sigfile...
21: (reluctantly) Caves, overrated, but still damnably good in parts, especially ep 3 and THAT cliffhanger.
22: Timelash: oh, I'm going to get lynched now... i don't know, it wasn't a great season and I just like to watch it for fun (and not at all for Peri in bondage, oh no, how could you possibly think that of me?)
23: Mindwarp, everyone else seems to like TOTV, but I can't stand Agatha Christie, or P&J's dialogue. MW at least offers a decent storyline if you can look beyond the mostly abysmal acting.
24: Paradise Towers, for much the same reasons as Mindwarp. Some of the 'comedy' seems to grow on you with time, too...
25: Greatest Show in the Galaxy, again trying to do something different and at least partially succeeding.
26: yes, Ghostlight. Maybe it's because my degree was in English Lit., but I like these stories where the 'reader' has to supply a large proportion of the answers, rather than having them spoon-fed. Anyone who hates GL for this reason should stay away from the works of Henry James...
And an overall top 5? Warriors' Gate, Ghostlight, Androids of Tara, Full Circle, Horns of Nimon, in that order.
You're doomed, all of you! Doomed!
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