Dr Who William Hartnell

Doctor Who and the ‘Betrayal” of Its Futurist Ethos! (25.5.2025)

Decades later, Peter Capaldi starred in an episode that featured a large wall containing an impressive picture of VI Lenin! This is the Doctor Who that flirts with the far-left – when at no time did this series similarly flirt with the far-right (partly because such a dalliance would have been “illegal” at the time). Today, British society has visibly shifted to the right – where what was not tolerated in the past – is common-place today. At no time during the 1960s episodes was the hippy movement mentioned. Punk was not mentioned in the 1970s. Thatcherism was not mentioned in the 1980s. Doctor Who was cancelled during the 1990s and so had no chance to mention the collapse of the USSR. The Vietnam War was not mentioned, and neither was the Falklands War. The Golden Rule was that contemporary human society should not impinge upon the imaginary processes that fuelled Doctor Who’s scientific speculation.

Book Review: The ‘Time’ Machine or the ‘Space’ Machine? Christopher Priest Takes the Easy Road!

One is left with the distinct impression that Priest truly believes that if his version HG Wells classics were published in the 1880s – well-bred young men would be masturbating everytime there is mention of Amelia’s exposed ankles- to the back drop of a Martian invasion of Earth and nutty Professors who have convinced themselves that their ‘Time’ machine (which is only secondarily a ‘Space’ machine) is ‘not quite there’ whilst it l supposedly lays shimmering in and out of material existence whilst inhabiting a study in Richmond! Those motoring goggles may well come in handy yet – and not necessarily for motor driving! As Priest penned this tome in 1976 – he was probably influenced by the highly successful British science fiction series of ‘Dr Who’ (that also possessed an advanced machine – the ‘TARDIS’ – which funnily enough could also travel in both ‘time’ and ‘space’) and was reaching its creative peak with the actor – Tom Baker – at the helm! More to the point, the ‘love’ scenes, if we can call them that, seem as if the author quickly threw the two Wells novels together, and then realised his caper was up if he did not attempt to go back and at certain random points in the story literally ‘insert’ obviously ‘out of place’ amorous interactions to act as a type Pythonesque ‘camouflage’ – in the hope that the distraction will draw the attention of the audience away from the fact that the book contains ‘zero’ originality and no genuine labour on his part! If anyone does happen to invent a genuine time machine, perhaps the top of any list might be the necessity to go back to 1976 and hide all the pens in the Priest household – and thus save humanity from a genuine catastrophe!