Continuity – Who is the Doctor?

Right! The editor of this fanzine was so pleased with my "Hand of Omega" article in issue one that he asked me to become continuity editor. Being keen to impart my knowledge and have a moan every now and then, I said O.K, so here's my gripe for this issue;

There is supposed to be a revival in the mysterious element of "Doctor Who" once again, led by script editor, Andrew Cartmel. Along with the producer eternal and current Doctor, Sylvester McCoy, he is supposed to have brought the "Who" back into "Doctor Who" again by making us re-examine the Doctor's past and even consider his validity as an authentic timelord. My response to this alleged return of the mystery is simple - Balderdash!

It is impossible to make "Doctor Who" more mysterious again as we know too much about him now to even wonder about him as we once did. Of course the Doctor has become less mysterious over the years, but that is a natural process of evolution and cannot be altered. When we first met him in 1963, we didn't how who he was, where he came from or his reasons for leaving his own time and people, Over the years we have learnt of his origins, Piece by piece like a jig-saw
slowly being assembled we have discovered the truth about the Doctor and who he really is:

• He is a timelord.

• His home is Gallifrey.

• He stole a TARDIS and left Gallifrey because he was tired of his people's stagnant lifestyles and non-interventionist policy.

• He can change his appearance when his body is worn out or damaged by illness or injury.

The only area of mystery still left to be explored and discovered are the details of his personal life on Gallifrey, his family that he spoke briefly of in "Tomb of the Cybermen" and his true relationship with Susan. Was she really his Grand-daughter or was that just an affectionate term for her? These areas could be explored in the future along with his true relationship with the Master -was he just a student at the Academy, or a brother as has been suggested in the past?

Andrew Cartmel's philosophy of "hang the past! Let's invent a new mythology" is nothing short of sacrilege. The suggestions in "Silver Nemesis" that the Doctor was around in the "Old Time" and is therefore a contemporary of Rassilon and Omega is a load of rubbish, The Doctor's contemporaries are the people from his academy days - The Master, The Rani, Drax, and in all, probably the Monk. Equally absurd is the notion that the Doctor isn't a timelord! If that is so, Mr Clarke and Mr Cartmell then why, prey is he able to regenerate in the way all other timelords do? I'm sorry, but the Cartmell idea of re-introducing mystery into "Doctor Who" is so laughable that it would take an idiot to see any credibility in it.

Well that's it for this issue: Keep watching this space -and be nice to "Kinda". Until next time....,

J.T.