I've been meaning to post something on the magnificent fanzine Vworp Vworp for weeks. Printing problems meant it took about four months to arrive but it is such a labour of love. Behind a wraparound cover by the great Mike Collins, with a crashed Daleks: 2150 saucer, there's a host of delights. A parody of the TV21 Dalek strips featuring the Adipose fat creatures ("The suet lakes are dry"!). Mock-ups of a Radio Times listing and a Look In issue featuring both Ian McShane and that burly swinger from space, Gil Gerard, as Abslom Daak. A feature on the immortal Tides of Time. Paul Magrs writes a surreal and camp comic strip starring Mrs. Wibbsey from the Tom Baker BBC audios. The Doctor gives a cocktail party at Nest Cottage, soundtracked by an Abba b-side ("Watch Out"). Iris Wildthyme, Rupert, Paddington, Davros and Peter Cushing are among the guests.
The interviews with every editor of DWWeekly and Monthly are fairly interesting but very dense and a little repetitive.But then there's Vworpabix: a lovingly rendered pastiche of the 1977 Weetabix promotion, with stand-up characters from the Matt Smith Years- Saturnyns, Weeping Angels, even the Pandorica.
This is an absolute joy for anyone interested in UK comics ephemera. Buy it, by Rassilon's disco pants!
There have been Xmassy -indeed, deliberately pantomimic -releases from Big Finish in previous years: The One Doctor being the obvious example. Terrance Dicks may have written the last word this time, however, with Beyond The Ultimate Adventure, the wonderfully-named sequel to the 1989 stage show The, er Ultimate Adventure.I saw it during Mayfest at a matinee in the Kings Theatre in Glasgow; it starred Jon Pertwee as the Doctor for the first time in six years. Remember, this was almost half a year before Who went off-air for good (and before the Virgin novels revived my interest in the character.)
It was a touring production with songs - originally and somewhat optimistically designed as a vehicle for Kylie and Jason Donovan. It was kitschy family entertainment and I was a jaded, slightly embarrased twenty-six. I wish I had been mature enough to appreciate what a showman Pertwee was. The show was not unlike the Batman Live production I enjoyed uninhibitedly last year.
I didn't really give UA any further thought until BF released the audio version of the script with songs intact, in 2008, starring Pertwee's tour replacement Colin Baker. This sequel is basically the plot of The Three Doctors blended with The Three Doctors: an ominous superbeing called the Eidolon lives in a gloomy world called Ultima Thule (on tv, this would have been Brian Blessed's part.)
The Doctor and his companions are confronted by some of Uncle Terrance's Greatest Hits including vampires and the balletic Raston Robot. For once, I wasn't bothered by Noel Sullivan's employment of BF's standby, "ze waffer-theen Franch acczint". Unfortunately, and at odds with the zeitgeist, there is no cameo for Mrs. T ; or for Zog, the cute alien ( I prefer to think that Zog was a turncoat alien psycho, as established in the Steve Lyons short story Face Value!).
It's silly, nostalgic fluff and a change of pace from Moffat's self-conscious Emo Who. If you fancy a bit of tinselly sci-fantasy before January is out, this could be it.
Next: The Superman-Proof Death Trap
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Rassilon's disco pants are the best/ They go up from his ar*e to his chest/ They are better than giant Zarbi ants/ Rassilon's disco pants.
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