It's not necessarily that Doctor Who fandom is the worst ever...

[lizbee]

...it's just had more time to practice.

For example, every now and then I like to look at old issues of DWM and fanzines. There is, of course, the infamous case of the Liverpudlian fanzine that shut down after a tasteless joke about the death of Colin Baker's infant son. (Some versions of the story have the child dying as punishment for bad acting, others have something about Baker digging the baby's body up for some purpose. The boy had died of what we now call SIDS, so Baker was deeply unhappy about the whole affair.)

Anyway, nothing I've found has been quite that terrible. Yet. I have to say that the idea, currently being put about, that Steven Moffat is a pedophile who writes children into stories to get himself off, comes pretty damn close. (And seriously, if you actually believed that ... what does it say that you're still watching?)

But I have discovered that, true to form, the fandom reacted with DISMAY and HORROR when Doctor Who began to be released on VHS. Because then you might realise it wasn't very good, you see. And plus, with home video, anyone could start watching it.

But I'm particularly charmed by this article from Doctor Who Bulletin, a publication for which the saying that a Doctor Who fan is someone who hates Doctor Who might have been created.





I just love the SCANDAL that apparently DWM exists to make money "with a balance of items published monthly in the form of a magazine". IN THE FORM OF A MAGAZINE! IS THAT EVEN ALLOWED?

And then, in the second column, a few paragraphs down, OUTRAGE that Richard Marson went so far as to suggest, WITH NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER, that Susan might be the Doctor's granddaughter! I mean, they only refer to each other as "grandfather" and "granddaughter"! THAT'S NOT EVIDENCE AT ALL! IT'S NOT EVEN CANON!

Not that I'm inclined to be forgiving towards Richard Marson. Not only is he the author of the upcoming muckraking biography of John Nathan-Turner (here's a fun game! Take a drink every time he describes a gay man as "mincing"! Then get fired from your job for turning up really, really drunk!), but back in 1986, as a staff writer for DWM, he wrote a rather horrible feature on the sexy women of Doctor Who, finishing up with this bit of mansplanation:



In fairness, it would be difficult to find a sexist Doctor Who fan. I'd have to leave the house, and before I did that, I'd have to change out of my pyjamas and put on shoes. Or worse, find my password to GallifreyBase.

Anyway, DWM couldn't possibly have been a sexist publication back then, because it was edited by a woman. A LADY EDITOR! Who lamented that there were FEMINISTS criticising the series, and worse, claiming that it would be "a fine and non-sexist thing for a woman to be the Doctor". Because, you see, it would actually be very sexist for a woman to be the Doctor, because that would be taking a job away from a man.

THE EIGHTIES, MAN. WORST. DECADE. EVER. For Doctor Who, I mean. I expect it's Margaret Thatcher's fault somehow.

Comments

[royalmarriage]

Ah, DWB. It was the worst of times, it was...the worst of times. Actually, it had its good points, but the personal hatred of Gary Leigh/Levy towards John Nathan-Turner was always prominent, even when it didn't really need to be...

Marson's JNT book is already out (as opposed to "upcoming"). I'm only a few chapters in, but it's nowhere near as bad as some of the previews made me fear. He's interviewed many of JNT's friends and colleagues, and the book gives a very rounded picture of both JNT and Gary Downie.

I don't think I've noticed any uses of the word "mincing". Yet...

And yeah, the Fantasy Females article was a load of trite codswallop, but be fair - he also wrote a Fantasy Males article, so at least he was being universally sexist... ^_^

[jesuswasbatman]

The Marson JNT book also describes the treatment of women in 80s Doctor Who as "antedeluvian" and justifiably expresses disgust with the sexism of JNT's original series bible piece on Mel, so he's changed his ideas since.

[wolfy_writing]

Wow Susan-denial goes way back! ("Susan is referred to as his granddaughter for unknown and non-obvious reasons" is kind of like the asexuality thing for me - if a person wants to adhere to that as their personal fanon, fair enough, but if they start screaming from the rooftops about how it's the only reasonable interpretation and the more obvious explanation is ridiculous and unreasonable and TOTALLY NOT CANON, it just screams of issues.)

That sexism article is just...do people not look at their own words when they write things? Does he really think "Men like it when women are all either powerful and evil or dependent and subservient and good" is an argument against that approach being sexist?

[marymac]

I think the whole Korean pop scene may have a slightly higher level of complete batshit crazy, but they haven't quite reached the same heights of sustained, vicious, completely out-of-order wankery just yet.

[phosfate]

My all time fave is the twerp whose "Doctor Who On..." essays were in every zine everywhere, because (one assumes) back in the day contributing to zines was how you got free copies. He did one called "Doctor Who On... Feminism" 'proving' that Sarah Jane was misguided in her efforts to raise the consciousness of other characters, and that women are just fine as they are and have plenty of power, thank you.

[gominokouhai]

> I expect it's Margaret Thatcher's fault somehow.

Perhaps so, but on the other hand she gave us Helen A.

[neadods]

I realized at 221BCon that people just don't *see* the crazy in their fandom, or at least try to quantify it as different than the crazy in other fandoms - specifically Doctor Who. I couldn't tell you how often I heard "I like Doctor Who, but I won't have anything to do with the fandom; they're completely nuts." And later in the very same panel the same people who said that were straight-facedly talking about some of the really vicious nasty stuff that goes on in Sherlock fandom and saying "don't do that" without ever stopping to think about what THAT looks like from the outside.

Who fandom has enough younger generations in it that they think they invented the crazy -- just like they invented fanfic and slash.

[amphigorym_2011]

I have to admit, I snorted over the whole 'releasing Dr. Who on
VHS' business. I used to watch the show on our local public Broadcasting Station, but when It became available on VHS (and VHS players became affordable), I started buying episodes. Which I still have, along with a working VHS/DVD player.

Thankfully, I seem to have missed most of the wankiness. I don't know if this was because I live in the states and knew maybe three people who watched Doctor Who besides me (one of whom was my brother, who introduced me to the show). There wasn't a whole lot of fannish culture back then and I think I was well into my mid-20s before I ever saw an issue of Doctor Who Magazine (all we had was Starlog). I lived in a very small town, and about the only people I ever connected with were people who posted ads in the back of Starlog looking for pen pals. I DID get into writing slash fanfic that way, and still have a couple of zines from the early-mid 80s I contributed to.

On the whole, I didn't encounter a whole lot of wankiness till I got online. Which seemed to increase when the new series started. Make of that what you will.

[lizbee]

Actually, one of the recurring themes in the JN-T biography was that American fandom was, on the whole, much nicer and more positive than in the UK, and I guess a lack of wankiness comes with that. (Although there was also the bit where the producers had the female president of an American DW fan club ousted because she was negative "and dykey". Thanks, guys, that's great.)

[ravenskyewalker]

American DW fandom back in the day could be quite fun, but was full of its own bullshit, as all fandoms are.

Allegedly, the reason British DW fanboys were such wankers was that they started out in punk fandom, where it was apparently natural to have fanzine writing at an insane pitch of vicious rage.

I've ordered the JNT book, but don't have it yet. Could I ask who the female fanclub president was, and the name of her club? Are they named? I'm curious as to whether I remember them. Thanks!

I'm sorry, this is the third time I've tried to post. My wi-fi stinks...

[(Anonymous)]

it would be difficult to find a sexist Doctor Who fan. I'd have to leave the house, and before I did that, I'd have to change out of my pyjamas and put on shoes.

Nah, you don't even have to do that. Just look in the mirror. Looking back at you will be the biggest Who fan I know with the world's biggest chip on her shoulder and the world's biggest discriminatory scorecard. Every Who episode must pass Liz's criteria! MUST HAVE AWESOME WOMEN. MUST HAVE BLACK PEOPLE. MUST HAVE ASIANS. MUST HAVE 'DIVERSITY'.

Summary: MUST NOT HAVE WHITE MEN IN ANY IMPORTANT ROLES. OR WHITE MEN AUTHORS. EPISODES WRITTEN BY WHITE MEN WILL BE VIEWED HARSHLY.

Anyway, surely it's time to criticize the latest Who episode, rather than trawling through things written for a world of thirty years ago? Come on Liz, we want to know what's wrong with what's out there now! That's a much harder job, even for you - you'll have to think pattern match about it for, oh, seconds - than imposing the values of today on a previous generation!