Rocket 88

Another in the series of Chronicles bookazines by the makers of Doctor Who Magazine is out today, this one focusing on 1988. I’ve written a few articles for it, and it was particularly nice to be onboard for this one given the 1988 season of Doctor Who was the first I watched in full (I’d started watching towards the end of the previous season, just before I turned nine — a bit late, but I was easily freaked out as a child and it had scared me whenever I’d gone near it before).

I still feel it’s a great season, and while researching the story guides to Remembrance of the Daleks, The Happiness Patrol and Silver Nemesis I leafed through Andrew Cartmel’s fascinating book Script Doctor about this period. One detail that fascinated me was that The Happiness Patrol was originally scripted to take place over several days, but Cartmel knew that setting it all at night would get better results from the studio lighting, which never managed to convincingly imitate daylight. A simple practical decision which transforms the story: the Doctor brings down a corrupt government in one night.

My guide to Remembrance explains why the theory put forward by Jonathan Morris in an earlier issue of DWM — that the story actually takes place in the spring of 1963, not November — is incorrect, with reference to the release date of the Beatles’ Twist and Shout EP. I’m sure you’ll all be eager to read that.

I’ve also contributed another instalment of my Where Were They Then? series to Chronicles 1988 — this has become a regular feature where I assess where the former stars of Doctor Who were at in their careers. The previous ones covered 1967 and 1973, so the first time I was able to refer to back issues of Doctor Who Magazine (I completed my collection of DWM during the lockdowns, and they’ve paid for themselves via features like this).

This revealed how easily things slip through the internet’s net: I found mention of a Channel 4 play this year starring Mark Strickson called Looking Back which doesn’t seem to be listed anywhere online, including IMDb. The DWM report is specific about the premise, so it’s clearly not a misreport or a figment of anyone’s imagination. If only there was a Channel 4 equivalent to the BBC’s magnificent Programme Index, I could look it up easily.

It was also via DWM that I found Elisabeth Sladen’s most prominent TV appearance of 1988. She’d found it difficult to rebuild her career after having her daughter, but she always had superb, lustrous hair, which no doubt helped her to score a part in a commercial for Vosene shampoo, which I present for your enjoyment here. The bit where her husband (Kenneth MacDonald, Mike from Only Fools and Horses) visibly wonders if she’s had an affair with the milkman is disconcerting. Why is he suddenly thinking about this now, years later? Or does he do this regularly?