undefined
My name is Bill Albert and I am generally known on the internet as Brigadier Bill. This is my personal tribute to my favorite TV series and I hope you'll enjoy as I share some of my memories...
I was to young to have any significant memories of the original run of STAR TREK and the series hadn't started syndication yet when I was in my formative, growing up, years. At that time there was very little choice on TV or feature films for fans of the science fiction genre and books weren't enough to satisfy my interests. Luckily, around 1974, my Oma bought me my own television set and I was able to spend time at nights searching the channels, well, 4 of them, for what little SF I could find. I was very lucky because I finally found three great shows that, though I didn't know it at the time, were going to influence my taste in SF. The 1st was TWILIGHT ZONE, the 2nd was THE OUTER LIMITS and the 3rd, late night on Iowa Public Television, was DOCTOR WHO. While I still occasionally enjoy revisiting the first two, and there have been others on and off, there has never been anything that has appealed to me like the Doctor.
Those were very memorable days. I recall staying up late at night with my eyes glued to the mighty 12 inch black and white picture tube as the 3rd Doctor travelled to an alternate universe to fight the evil Brigade Leader. There was also the Master creating the "Mind Of Evil", the Doctor being frozen at Devil's End, and even being shocked as the colonists were killed when their spaceship exploded as they left their 'Colony In Space." It was around this time, so enthralled by the Doctor, that I dared sending fan mail to someone who lived half a world away. It was a pretty astounding day when he wrote back!
As the years went on I started to learn more about the series and a penpal in England sent me one of that TARGET novels. Once I figured out who the little guy on the cover was there was a whole other world opening as I found out the about the other Doctor and the whole Who universe there was to explore. A lot of people don't like the TARGET novels in favor of the longer and broader Virgin and BBC books. But in the early 1980s when there was no internet, epsiode reconstructions, or original novels those were the only way we could learn about the other adventures of the Doctor that we would never have the opportunity to see.
Growing up in a small town in Iowa it was kind of difficult to be a Who fan. Nobody knew who or what I was talking about when I showed them the books, mentioned the series, or tried to knit a giant scarf that looked almost, but not completely, unlike the one Tom Baker wore. But that small town community was able to accept my odd interests and, occasionally, even enjoy it at my expense. At our senior prom the junior class prophesy was that I would eventually end up starring in an odd television series called "Doctor Where."
It was also at this time I wrote my first Who story. There is no mistaking it that this was heavily influenced by the style of the TARGET novels but it was still a pretty rousinga dventure. It was originally called DOCTOR WHO AND THE ALIEN ALLIES but a friend who read it said the title was about as scary as DOCTOR WHO AND THE CARE BEARS so I changed it. It became DOCTOR WHO AND THE DEADLY ALLIANCE
At the same time I was starting to flex my creative muscles and doing original science fiction and fantasy writing. Strangely enough almost all of them dealt with time travel.
Several years passed, DOCTOR WHO was cancelled by the BBC, and fandom for the series seemd to have passed its peak in the United States. In 1991 I was browsing a book store when I happen across a new title, TIMEWYRM: GENESIS was like nothing I'd ever seen before. It was an original story, full length, and most importantly, it was DOCTOR WHO.
It was also in the mid-90's that the internet was starting to develop and press in to Iowa. MORE HERE LATER
This is a list of Who fiction that I have written over the past several years. STILL LOST is a story featuring the 1st Doctor, Vicki, Ian, and Barbara and takes place during THE CHASE. TECHNICAL PROBLEMS is a story featuring the 3rd Doctor, the Brigadier, and Jo Grant immediately following THE THREE DOCTORS. THE ULTIMATE FEAR features the 3rd Doctor and Sarah and takes place after THE TIME WARRIOR. THE DEADLY ALLIANCE features the 4th Doctor and K9 Mark II and takes place immediately after THE INVASION OF TIME. SHADOWS OF THE FUTURE features the 5th Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough and takes place immediately after THE FIVE DOCTORS.
|
owned by: U.N.I.T. [Previous | Next | Skip | Next 5 | Random | List]
|
|
EXTRAS and DETAILS
