The Season 17 That Never Was

Mention Destiny of the Daleks and I will adopt a smile and a faraway wistful look. Unlike many fans, I adore Romana's utterly mad regeneration scene. It's camp and unexpected and makes no apologies to fanboys. Utterly charming, the scene always makes me laugh. And then we're treated to all that breezy banter between this new incarnation and the Doctor. It's so bloody refreshing. And yes, after episode one I progressively begin to lose patience with the actual story (well directed as it is).

I have an almost irrational love of season 17. Parts of its brilliance even appeared on screen (City of Death and bits of all the other stories patched together), but much more of it plays out in my imagination, helped out by such auxiliary reading material as Gareth Robert's An English Way of Death, The Well Mannered War and The Romance of Crime.

People love Doctor Who, because like the weather, if you don't like what you currently have, simply wait. Hence you have those who pine for season 7 Pertwee or the ever-so-brief Ben and Polly Troughton combo, or even more bizarrely the original season 23 that got scuttled for The Trial of the Time Lord.

When I was 15, life was suddenly looking up. I started taking drama in grade 10 and developed a more romantic notion of the world. I desperately wanted to change my identity and become a carefree bohemian who made witty remarks and bested all the idiots I was forced to endure in school. It didn't quite pan out that way--no matter how I wanted to be seen, as a teenager you're already pegged until graduation.

Season 17 was also a victim of its circumstances. Inflation and dwindling budgets meant some of the crappiest production values in quite some time (with the exception of John Nathan Turner's deft hording of cash for City of Death). And yet there was so much creativity too. Douglas Adams has enhanced much of Terry Nation's all too familiar story elements (or if director Ken Grieve is to believed, most of the script). I'm sorry, but I just love, "Oh look, rocks," and the bit where the Doctor is reading "Origins of the Universe" by Oolon Colluphid. As I said, it doesn't improve the plot, but it ups the entertainment value immeasurably.

In a parallel universe, season 17 lasted for 3 years and had a mid-seventies budget. In this reality, I'll just have to construct my own sweet delusion.

Original viewing date: October 20, 1984

Wine: "Fun" a rather insignificant beaujolais.

Music: "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker, Jr.