h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I can't imagine this will mean much to anyone reading this but I thought it worthy of some sort of remembrance. A parcel came for me today containing two and a half hours of second-hand wobbly sci-fi adventuring and Buddhist allegory starring Jon Pertwee and some rather variably-realised rubber spiders.

I only mention this because this new arrival means that I am now the owner of a complete set of intact Dr Who stories on VHS. (There are various odd episodes and incomplete stories also knocking about but these are not a priority - come to think of it, I'm missing the first five minutes of episode one of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, too - damn!!!) This brings with it a hard-to-describe feeling which mixes relief, satisfaction, and nagging anticlimax.

I appreciate I have taken my time doing this and it is not a particularly big deal given the colour stories are constantly rerun on satellite... but I don't care. One advantage to dragging my feet and taking nearly 20 years to get the set means that rather than sitting about wondering what to do next, I only have three or four months to wait until the re-emergence of the show (and, I shouldn't wonder, a whole new ball game). Time to sort things out as far as Old Who is concerned and get ready for the new.

Does that mean you'll review it for SSS when it arrives?

Are you asking? I tend to do my Dr Who-related writing for a specialist site although I have vague plans to do something about the show for the Post...

I asked you a few months ago... I think you told me to ask again closer to the date.


You remember, I asked if you would do the new Who series and I could do the Red Dwarf movie when it was released. (For lurkers this was of course before Awix quit 24LAS.)

Well, it'd be a bit of an assymmetrical deal as the new Dr Who is definitely happening, whereas the Dwarf movie...

I dunno. I'm not sure I could write a Who review for a mainstream audience, mainly because I'd be watching a different show to them...

...While any review I make of it will be hindered by my seeing the Green Bubblewrap Slug...

So presumably any opinion you wrote of the Spider-Man movies would be coloured by your memories of Nicholas Hammond climbing a wall with the aid of very visibles wires from the 70s TV show...? (I assume you've seen it, it's been endlessly reshown...)

No I haven't seen it. Seen clips but I know what you mean.


My experience of Dr. Who was those two Dalek movies and then everything got voided when I saw that Green Bubble Wrap Slug.

People screaming because their arm is being devoured by blatant bubble wrap is... silly. I don't like sci-fi enough to be, in that case, /that/ in the moment. I'm not going to having any emotional response if something that's taking itself seriously is having a nasty case of infectious packing paper.

You thought Doctor Who took itself seriously?

Mmmm, you're really not that familiar with it, are you...

*looks at 1996 TV movie*

Yeee- N-- No comment

Oh, don't mention that wretched article, I'm talking about proper Doctor Who.

Of which you will review when it arises for SSS?

Go oooon... go oooooon.

No promises, but I'm not ruling it out.

I plan to watch the first episode in a pub function room with a dozen other saddoes, so we may all be wasted and have very vague recall of what actually happens...

It's that big in Blackpool eh?

V. big in the northwest, but we are blessed in having the UK's only permanent Doctor Who exhibition, which is a focus and catalyst for Whoish activity...

Nothing like a North West/North East divide.


Prehaps that Regional Assembly should be halved if put into effect.

I've had some very good friends from the North East - and does Hull count as NE? Cos I spent four very happy years there.

I am officially required to object to a NW Regional Assembly as it would probably put my superiors out of their very cushy jobs...

Good thing it was a no then


Hm... I think the North East is anything north east of Yorkshire...