Great Fan Myths of Who No.5

During a recent conversation, I was suddenly reminded of this old chestnut. I can't remember where I first heard it, but I really must sit down one day and go through old Matrix Data Bank columns in back issues of Doctor Who Monthly...

TRUE OR FALSE? William Hartnell had an uncredited cameo in Jon Pertwee's debut story, "Spearhead From Space".

 

Well, I think it's safe to say that this is utterly false. But looking at the scene in question, you can see how the misunderstanding could have arose.

 

It would have been bloody cool if it were true, though...

 

 

Of course, "Spearhead From Space" does genuinely feature one notable uncredited guest cameo, which is probably the point where people started getting their wires crossed.

 

So here's series Producer Derrick Sherwin, who bravely stepped in after he sacked the original actor for presumably not being able to perform a comedy car park attendant well enough...

 

 

Great Fan Myths of Who No.4

Once again I find myself getting bogged down in an Escape To  Danger entry. I'm one-third of the way through and have yet to mention the story in question, so I think it's time for a break...

TRUE OR FALSE? Spectacularly unfashionable psychedelic popular beat combo Hawkwind were approached to provide the incidental music to Season 26's "Battlefield".

I normally get all sulky and over-protective at the prospect of one of my favourite bands doing something remotely populist (if you can conceivably call working on Doctor Who in 1989 as being down with the kids). But in this case I think it would have been a genuinely interesting collaboration if done properly.

Normally somewhat shambolic, Hawkwind were actually in pretty good shape in 1989. With the departure of Huw Lloyd-Langton the previous year, the band was finally escaping from the sub-Heavy Metal ghetto that Huw's oft-excessive lead guitar noodlings had thrust them in to.

By the time preparations for Season 26 were well underway, Hawkwind's line-up would have consolidated as Dave Brock, Alan Davey, Harvey Bainbridge and new drummer Richard Chadwick. This incarnation of the band combined pummelling space rock with increasingly sophisticated and multi-layered synth and sequencer work. Pretty much ideal for a Doctor Who soundtrack, you'd think. (And enough to make Keff McCulloch shit his bloody pants).

Come Serial 7N's transmission, Simon House had returned to the band, and Hawkwind embarked on a winter UK tour, seemingly unconcerned that the Who gig had fallen through. (Maybe House was lured back to the band with promises of meeting Sylvester McCoy. He looked pretty miserable during the concert at Sheffield; I was in the front row and pretty much in his eyeline the whole time, and I don't think he cracked a smile once).

But was it true, or was it naught but a rumour?

Sadly, it was all a hoax. Click on this link here to see just who the perpetrators were and why they did it.

And do try not to get too starstruck when you remember who was hanging around on rec.arts.drwho back before they used to let any old riff-raff on the internet...

Great Fan Myths of Who No.3

When a colleague at work recently turned up one morning sporting a rather large wound to her upper lip, I was put in mind of a certain story concerning Tom Baker.

 

When I later learned that my colleague's mishap was due to the involvement of a dog... well, you can see where all this is leading, can't you?

 

TRUE OR FALSE? Tom Baker received a wound to his upper lip due to inadvisedly teasing a dog with a sausage in a pub.

I've always had a great fondness for this particular story, and many times over the years I have mentally used the phrase "teasing a dog with a sausage" when attempting to rationalise personal actions that I know to be potentially harmful and stupid, yet which will be embarked upon anyway, common sense notwithstanding.

So, I was obviously disappointed to learn recently that it wasn't actually true.

Whilst Tom Baker certainly did sustain a rather nasty injury to his lip from Paul Seed's dog, it sadly didn't involve a sausage. It appears that Baker was warned that making a certain mouth popping noise would infuriate the dog, so of course he did the sane and rational thing and the script for "The Pirate Planet" had to be adjusted accordingly...

As a result of this revelation, I am now more comfortable around canine encounters that involve sausages.

Unfortunately, I am now also reminded of a pre-pubescent Patsy Kensit and her appearances in TV advertisements for frozen peas.

"Sweet as the moment as the pod went pop", indeed...

Great Fan Myths of Who No.2

Another old favourite, this one.

TRUE OR FALSE: In "The Myth Makers", William Hartnell refused to share any scenes with Max Adrian, because Adrian was homosexual.

 

This one probably started doing the rounds (or gained considerable momentum) when people like Anneke Wills stopped titting around and started telling anyone who would listen just how difficult and intolerant Hartnell could be at times.

 

(Personally I'm surprised that by the mid-1990's, allegations that William Hartnell stamped on puppies for fun weren't being printed as truth in some of the more sensationalist fanzines of the time).

 

In other words, this particular myth is often deemed believable solely due to our urge to think the worst of someone, so it jolly well serves us right.

But is there any truth to it?

 

Well, a quick glance over the camera scripts for Serial U reveals a total lack of scribbled notes, and no last-minute rewriting of scenes to accommodate the prejudices of the series' star, if that's of any help.

Hartnell was admittedly rather more "crotchety" (as Doctor Who Monthly used to say) than usual during the production of "The (Fan) Myth Makers", and that was largely due to incoming producer John Wiles.

As if having a new boss wasn't bad enough, Hartnell wasn't well pleased when Wiles refused to give him time off to attend his aunt's funeral. And to compound his ill temper, Hartnell had to cope with another upheaval in the regular cast, when Wiles took Maureen O'Brien at her word when he learned of her frequent mutterings about leaving. (O'Brien found out she had effectively been sacked on her return from a lengthy and expensive foreign holiday, booked on the expectation of ongoing regular work).

So that's that one sorted out.

And besides, if William Hartnell refused to work with every actor who was openly gay, he would have found himself doing an awful lot of one-man shows...

Great Fan Myths of Who No.1

Glancing on amazon.co.uk these days, there is a bewildering amount of books available on the subject of Doctor Who.

 

Admittedly, a lot of them look a bit rubbish, but it's a sobering sight when I recall that when Peter Davison began his debut season, there were pretty much only three Who reference books to be had. ("The Making of Doctor Who" by Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke and the two volumes of the "Doctor Who Programme Guide" by Jean-Marc Lofficer).

 

Thankfully Doctor Who Monthly (as it was then) provided a regular supply of behind-the-scenes facts for young fans such as myself who could not persuade their parents to fork out the cash for a Doctor Who Appreciation Society membership.

 

DWM has always been a bit of a labour of love for those concerned in its production, so we may can excuse the times that the accuracy of some of their information was sometimes left a bit wanting.

 

All of which is rather failing to lead up to outlining what this new thread is about, but I hope that the title alone is adequately self-explanatory. (There's some fun to be had with this. No, really).

 

So let's kick off with an old classic that still appears from time to time in lazy newspapers...

 

TRUE OR FALSE: Terry Nation thought up the name "Dalek" when he noticed an encyclopaedia on his bookshelf, the contents of which were DAL to LEK.

 

While Raymond Cusick and David Whitaker did all the meaningful graft on Serial B, Terry Nation swanned around plucking pound notes from the skies and coming up with the above bit of rubbish for what was probably the tenth time a journalist had asked him that question since breakfast.

 

It's a nice story to tell the papers, but it's quite probably nonsense on a stick.

 

While I admit that we cannot put this assertion to any meaningful test of veracity beyond breaking out the Security Kitchen ouija board, we can only scratch our heads and wonder just how large or (un)comprehensive Nation's encyclopaedia set actually was...

 

I'll leave you to do the maths, but meanwhile we can have endless fun with the Terry Nation Alien Name Generator (TM)...