Let's Do The Time Warp Again...

Publication: Midweek
Date: 1991-07-25
Author: Pete May
Page:
Language: English

FANS OF THE FUNNY PEPPER POTS, THIS IS YOUR FINEST HOUR. MOMI's DR. WHO RETRO IS THE PERFECT PLACE TO RECREATE YOUR CHILDHOOD. PETE MAY FINDS GOLD AMONGST THE HEAVY METAL

MICHAEL Murray might have been terrified by a renegade fancy-dress Dalek exclaiming "Fornicate ! Fornicate ! " in Channel 4' s GBH, but for fans of the longest-running science-fiction series in the world, Dr Who is a serious concern.

The Whovians, as the Dr Who "fandom" are known, are currently travelling through time and space to the Museum Of The Moving Image's 'Behind The Sofa' (this was where every Whovian spent their infant Saturdays after tea) Dr Who exhibition.

"Welcome to the Panopticon, I am the Keeper of the Matrix," announces the alien-robed Time Lord guarding the gateway into the exhibition. Apparently we are now on the Planet Gallifrey and standing in the Panopticon, which is the Council Chamber of the Time Lords. The Doctor is a Time Lord "An advanced race of super beings using their profound knowledge to monitor the life of the universe . They have a 60 degree body temperature, a bypass respiratory system, two hearts and with 13 lives are able to regenerate their bodies." Altogether rather like a German tennis player.

Cries of "I remember those giant maggots!" and "1974, Saturday nights with fish and chips on the sheepskin rug ! " emanate from the press as we travel past early Dalek designs (creator Terry Nation really was inspired by the peppper-pot on his kitchen table), learn that Tardis stands for Time and Relative Dimensions In Space, and watch videos of the different versions of the theme tune since it all began back in 1963.

The fulcrum of the exhibition is a display of the monster costumes. "It's a boiler suit sprayed silver!" someone rather unkindly says of a Cyberman costume. Then there is "an amazing hands-on Dalek" to quote MOMI's publicity brochure. Visitors can fulfil their playground fantasies by getting inside and waggling the sink-plunger arm and ray-gun and adopt an authentic Douglas Hurd Dalek voice through a voice synthesizer, chanting either "Exterminate! Exterminate!" or as many Bleasdale inspired adults now mimic, "Fornicate! Fornicate!"

However, Alan Bleasdale was quite right to recognise the importance of Dr Who in modern politics by including that memorable Dr Who fancy dress party in GBH. In one seminal Daleks series a group of Daleks crossed a hill chanting "Do not deviate! Do not deviate!" which suggested to many viewers a strong link with the Militant Tendency. Equally it was thought the softer-speaking but ruthlessly logical Cybermen might be the SWP.

It is also a little known fact that the entire intellectual basis of Thatcherism came from the early seventies series Day Of The Daleks where the Daleks, having enslaved the population of Earth, declare: "Explanations are irrelevant. Production figures must be maintained. For the next work period figures will be increased by ten per cent... Only the weak will die. Inefficient workers slow down production. Obey the Daleks. To betray the Daleks means death."

As well as the 'hands-on Dalek' there are Imperial Daleks, Davros's Emperor Dalek and Davros himself, the creator of the Daleks. After K9 the dog comes an array of the monster costumes that entered British Who-lore, also causing Mary Whitehouse to fret for the country's terrified youngsters and questions to be asked in the House. There are Ice Warriors, Yetis, Silurians, Sea Devils, Vervoids, Plasmatons, Tetraps, Garm, Axon and numerous other monsters the colours of a festering vindaloo.

There is also a display case of Dr Who memorabilia. Here we find various sized model Daleks, Dalek jigsaws, a model Tardis, Dr Who milk chocolate, K9 toys and numerous Dr Who books. David Howe, the owner of this collection, is explaining its intricacies to visitors. "I got these Dr Who underpants from Woolworths in 1982," he tells me proudly.

The fanaticism the programme inspires is amazing. David Howe has now left the Dr Who appreciation Society (DWAS) and produces his own Dr Who magazine The Frame, available from "FP" as he terms the shop Forbidden Planet. The DWAS, with 1500 members, is the main fan group but just as in Series 26, Renegade Daleks fought Davros' Imperial Daleks, so the DWAS, the only group officially recognised by the BBC, are fighting off renegade splinter groups of Whovians. Younger fans complain that DWAS is dominated by a "DWAS clique" with only those old enough to remember the original Dalekmania and Tom Baker's sonic screwdriver admitted.

Last year the more militant Dr Who Bulletin mounted a phone-in to the BBC demanding a Series 27, which DWAS refused to support. Now the DWAS' news magazine Celestial Toyroom (named after a William Hartnell series featured on the new BBC video The Hartnell Years) notes that many local groups have affiliated with the Midlands-based Whonatics.

To be a true Who-buff it is essential to refer to the series by their numbers rather than years. The Holy Grail that all Whovians pursue is Series 27, that is the next one. Already DWAS have mounted a campaign where members send a £5 cheque to the BBC made payable to Dr Who. The BBC now have £7,500 towards the cost of the next series.

Unfortunately there are no actual Doctors present at MOMI, although Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker did appear at MOMI's special Dr Who Weekend, price £30. But Sophie Aldred, the Doctor's current companion, is spotted amidst a group of microphone - wielding Whonatics. She is one of the Doctor's best ever female companions. Gone are the hysterical feeble female stereotypes of the early years - as Ace she attacks with baseball bats and exclaims "wicked!" after lobbing bombs at various extraterrestrials. Later she tells me she has many fan letters from young girls identifying with what she terms "strong role model". Sophie Aldred has also added extra interest for the show's more mature male fans and there are now a myriad 31-year-old Whovians besotted with Dr Who's companion - in fact Midweek's Mat Coward has never fully recovered from a glimpse of Ace's stockings in The Curse Of Fenric. Sweeping past the Whovians I question Aldred on behalf of Midweek.

As well as theatre roles she is due to appear on TV again in January in a children's TV series, Melvin and Maureen's Musicogrammes. She first started watching Dr Who herself during the Pertwee years, "I hid behind the cushion rather than the sofa" and says she felt like a child herself when she first met Pertwee at a DWAS convention.

Aldred is hopeful of a new series as she enjoys working with "Sylv" as she terms Sylvester McCoy.

Just as my sense of time and relative dimensions in space is beginning to go totally askew and I am dreaming of leaping into the Tardis with Sophie Aldred and becoming the Doctor's second companion, a voice cries "Sophie!". "Nick!" she answers and in very actorly fashion Nicholas Courtney, the man who once played the legendary Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, rushes over to hug and kiss her and whisk her off to other parts of the MOMI.

By this time Ms London's Nikki Bowden has consumed a bottle of Becks and is chatting up a Time Lord. "Welcome carbon-based bipeds. Why is it necessary to drink this substance called alcohol? This is not necessary on the Planet Gallifrey," he says. "Don't you get hot in that costume?" asks Nikki, tapping his fibre glass shoulder-pads.

"I should say so, I can't even raise my arm to have a drink in this bloody thing," he exclaims, slipping out of character and revealing that he is in fact one of MOMI's in-house actors. "I think it went down hill after Tom Baker left myself, they can't get the scriptwriters anymore," continues the Time Lord evidently relieved to be able to slip back into terrestrial character.

In vain I expound the virtues of the Sylvester McCoy series to him as a giant videoscreen behind us continually shows Daleks exploding in a mass of green gunge, a Cyberman being destroyed and throwing up in the ubiquitous disused 'alien' quarry, Zygons manipulating the Loch Ness Monster, Nicholas Parsons being terrified by the Curse of Fenric and a papier mache oil rig exploding.

Did the Time Lord have to carefully research the plotlines of old Dr Who series for the role? "No, I just say I'm the Controller of the Panopticon, that covers everything...He's got a drink, how did he get a drink!" exclaims the Time Lord, rushing across the room to apprehend an alcohol consuming fellow Gallifrean.

Meanwhile a special Dalek-shaped cake is being cut by the Doctor's companions Sophie Aldred, the sadly miscast Bonnie Langford and Carole Ann Ford who played the Doctor's grandaughter in the original 1963 series along with the Brigadier, Nicholas Courtney. The Dr Who theme echoes around MOMI repeatedly.

As we leave, various Time Lords, hacks, ageing producers, actors and Whovians are materialising before the free drinks table and planning to unleash all the show's monsters on the BBC unless Series 27 is commissioned. I can only conclude with the words of one of the special exhibition tee-shirts...

Dumba-de-dum dumba-de-dum dumba-de-dum, Diddley-dum, Dumba-de-dum dumba-de-dum dumba-de-dum, Diddley-dum, Dumba de-dum dum-a-de-dum dumba-de-dum, Diddley-dum, Dumba-de-dum dumba-de-dum dumba-de-dum, Wah-Wah-aaaaaaaahhhh!

Behind The Sofa is at MOMI, The South Bank, SEl. Tel; 071 928 3535. Admission to both Behind The Sofa and MOMI is £4.95, £3.50 children and concessions, £4.20 students, family ticket (two adults, four children) £15.

Caption: Lady Porter's anti litter police line up for inspection....

Caption: Jon Pertwee ... oldie but goldie Dr Who Right: more from the family scrapbook

Let's Do The Time Warp Again...

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