Fantasy league Who convention: A Grim Reaper production

[WhiteCrow]

Congratulations, you have just beaten the Grim Reaper. Seems although his Chess and Backgammon skills are second to none, his Top Trumps skills are a bit poor.


"I can never remember how the horsey moves ..."

You have an opportunity like no other to create for one weekend only the ultimate Doctor Who convention.

With the power of the Grim Reaper at you hand, you can bring back any Who guest for one weekend.

You can bring back (for a limited time only) a line up of the following,

• one Doctor
• one companion/guest star
• one writer/producer/director

Who would be in your lineup and why?

[Andrew Curnow]

Is it me, or does the Grim Reaper look like a young Tony Britton?

But anyway, moving on...

[Andrew Curnow]

Since we're in the Fantasy Factory, I'm plumping for these:

Doctor - pretty obvious choice, but William Hartnell. He died too young to really see what a phenomenon Doctor Who, and Doctor Who fandom, became in the mid-late 70s, and it would have been just so fascinating to have had him as a convention guest. He wasn't that old when he died (in his 60s I believe) so if he hadn't contracted arteriosclerosis it would in theory have been quite conceivable for him to have been around for the 1983 celebrations. So, he would be the Fantasy Doctor at a convention, because he never, ever was. Shame.

Companion - it probably has to be Nicholas Courtney, because by all accounts he is just such a nice bloke, and must of course have plenty of convention calibre anecdotes. Even some that don't involve eyepatches.

Writer/Producer - a toss up between Douglas Adams and Graham Williams here, but I'm going to go for the latter. Again, he died tragically too young to really see his era go through its long-overdue reappraisal, so I suspect his 'memory' of his time on Who was a combination of panic, inflation, and moaning fans. Yes, Adams probably wrote most of City of Death, but Williams had a hand in it, and part-directed another favourite of mine, The Nightmare of Eden. Plus the notions of the Guardians and the Key to Time were his. It would be nice to hear his thoughts, and doubly-so nowadays since (in my opinion) RTD is very much influenced by that Williams era style in a lot of his scripts.

[P-Bal]

Nick's not dead, Andrew.

[Andrew Curnow]

What was I thinking, I must have had a temporary attack of... oh, what's it called, thingy. Insanity, that's it. A temporary attack of insanity.


Wubble.

[Andrew Curnow]

In which case, since Nick is thankfully still with us, I'll swap him for... Jaqueline Hill, for some top notch 'with Billy' remembrances.

[WhiteCrow]

Nick's not dead, Andrew.

I guess we can allow living or dead.

Okay for me, my choices are,

Doctor - I always liked Patrick Troughton and loved what I saw of his Doctor as a child. However I did once see Jon Petwee at a convention and simply the man was a brilliant entertainer, he couldnt half spin a yarn. I don't really like his Doctor much or his stories, but I'd love to see him again on stage.



Companion - Has to be Jacqueline Hill. I felt her death in 1993 felt like it was before its time. Looking back on her character I feel Barbara in many ways seemed ahead of her time, she was quite a strong minded and quite intelligent character. Probably one of the strongest female characters until Rose comes along over 40 years later - I know that will whip up some controversy. And before anyone mentions Leela, can I ask how much a woman in a shamy leather bikini can do to forward the position of womens lib???



Writer - Douglas Adams. I've had a battle with depression myself, and so always find people interesting who've had the same issues. Douglas believed he should have produced more than he did, and certainly I got annoyed when reading Dirk Gently going "isn't this Shada/City of Death". But a lot of his ideas were uniquely his.

[Captain Tancredi]

Doctor: I'd agree that it has to be William Hartnell, simply because he was six feet under well before conventions even started, although I suspect he'd be somewhat taken aback by the adult fans.

Companion: To be different, I'll go for Ian Marter, who I think did a few conventions but would still have had a lot to say about his various acting and writing experiences.

Two names from behind the scenes spring to mind- Dennis Spooner and Malcolm Hulke. Hulke's opinions and understanding of what the series was about would have been interesting to have heard, but on balance I'll go for Spooner simply as a television pro of long standing who worked on dozens of series and would probably have had a fund of anecdotes about them all.

[Lord President]

Doc - Troughton, without a doubt!

Comp - Ian Marter, love him to bits!

Behind the scenes - It would have to be Douglas Adams, he was on a par with Alan Bennett for wit and intelligence, he would be the ideal conventioneer!

[SiHart]

Doctor: Well it would be fascinating to have Hartnell back for a while, so we could find out more about him. All the others were widely interviewed and he wasn't really.

Companion: Jacqueline Hill. I'd love to hear her thougths on the show. The one interview she gave to DWM in 1985 wasn't enough! Hearing her and William Russell together would be a lovely!

Behind the scenes: Ok, I'm on a Hartnell era trip here, but I'd like to hear from David Whittaker. I'm sure he would have lots to say about the first season and about how he went about writing his scripts.

Si xx