The 1980 Annual
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World Distributors The 1980 Annual |
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| Published | 1979 |  |
| SBN | 7235 6549 X |
| Starring the fourth Doctor, Romana I and K9 |
A Review by Finn Clark 23/3/04
Another fairly nondescript collection. It's perfectly readable and I got through it easily enough, but I'd have to check my notes to remember anything about its stories. None particularly struck me as good or bad, to be honest. They're okay.
Mind you, at least it definitely stars Tom Baker and Mary Tamm - both in the text and the illustrations. The pictures of the Doctor himself generally bore some passing resemblance to the relevant bloke off the telly, but this must be the first time one could say the same for his companion. After years of drawing any old random face and passing it off as Liz Sladen or Louise Jameson, Paul Crompton suddenly decides to use photoreference of Mary Tamm for the 1980 annual. Astonishing! What's more, the writers have also upped their game; these may not be the best stories in the world, but I liked what they did with the Doctor-Romana relationship.
Even K9 is rather entertaining, evoking those little flashes of personality that John Leeson would make the most of on TV. Someone's clearly a K9 fan and they even have a sense of humour about him. Reluctant Warriors has him sniffing at a lamp post.
The stories... um, they're okay, I suppose. The illustrations for X-Rani and the Ugly Mutants show a somewhat deformed Doctor and Romana, but that's not unfitting since the eponymous X-Rani uses her mental powers to read the Doctor's mind and transform him into a three-armed mutant. The Light Fantastic stars a renegade Time Lord, but isn't bad either. Reluctant Warriors gives us the alarming sight of the 4th Doctor as Conan the Barbarian, bare-chested and sword-swinging when Leondin's anger ray hits him, so that's a laugh too. And The Sleeping Guardians is... actually, I can't remember a single thing about The Sleeping Guardians.
Return of the Electrids is probably the silliest in the collection, if only for being written by someone who thinks Cyclone Terror in 1977 didn't go far enough with the Z-names. Here the Doctor and Romana meet Zedons on the planet Zed, including Zeebon, Zuli, Zim and Zaniel, also known as Zani. Zaniel has bred a bunch of electrified six-foot worms called Electrids since he doesn't like pet Zobos. On p52 you can also see an illustration of Romana approaching a gigantic penis, though I'm sure Paul Crompton would claim that's an Electrid.
Ah yes, the mercurial Paul Crompton. It's as if World Distributors have been hiring a succession of completely different artists with the same name. Yet again you'd never guess it was him. This year his work reminds me of Kelley Jones. Of his comic strips, the black-and-white one (Terror on Xaboi) is yet another attractive failure; it looks nice, but you could go blind trying to see what's happening. Careful study suggests that it's Doctor Who meets King Kong. However the fully painted strip (The Weapon) is stark raving bonkers, undoubtedly the most completely metaphorical Doctor Who story ever. Many authors have included layers of metaphor in their writing, but this ending doesn't actually make sense as a story about real people. As the last page makes clear, the whole thing is a chess game. One could approach this story in two ways:
(a) dig down into the possible layers of philosophical meaning and think deeply about the themes which might be represented by the Black Knight's laser, allowing him to violate the 'laws' of the kingdom. Note that the Doctor and Romana don't take down the bad guy, but merely remove his unfair advantage and bring his eternal conflict back into balance. Something to do with the Black and White Guardians in the Key to Time season, perhaps? (b) marvel at the power and exoticism of Paul Crompton's drugs. Apparently Paul blames the 1977 Annual on his discovery of real ale, so I tremble in fear as I contemplate the pharmaceuticals which must have initiated this one.
Overall, this is an unremarkable collection with nice portrayals of the TARDIS crew. It's short, yes, but one would probably struggle to remember a series of twenty such books. It's fine. By the standards of Tom Baker's earlier Dr Who annuals, it's even quite good.
A Review by Ewen Campion-Clarke 20/4/04
The first thing about the 1980 Doctor Who Annual that struck me was its cover - using a different font, the actual TV logo instead of the words "The Dr. Who"... but, above all, the photo: a startled Tom Baker in his stolen Livithian Invincible outfit from The Ribos Operation. Why did they choose that? You think, six years into his reign, the publishers would have twigged that he usually wears a scarf, a fact not ignored by the lovely back cover.
Onto the contents itself. The authors have paid attention in terms of character at least - the first Romana is portrayed true to form, as is K9, which is impressive considering this is their first outing, annual-wise. The Doctor switches from extreme in every story, either being the bored time traveler having fun or the serious, near-mystical figure on a mission from God. Well, the White Guardian. It seems this element has confused the annual writers, and has a few stories showing the TARDIS crew working for an unspecified "them" who they cannot avoid. A bit like Sapphire and Steel, really... The two page spread showing a seriously pissed-off Doctor and Romana in a quarry as a ship goes by manages to catch the frostiness of their relationship, but the bewildering contents illustration needs a rethink: the Doctor impersonates Napoleon while a green horny thing with green horns shoves Romana into the shadows. What?
The first text story is X-Rani and the Ugly Mutants. The most notable thing about it is it features "Rani" long before Pip & Jane Baker's creation. Apart from that, this story is bewildering and doesn't seem to have a plot. The Doctor and Romana head for Xethra, where hideous mutants are banished. There, they meet the sullen and telepathic X-Rani, who makes the mutants look worse by her unspecified mental powers at the behest of a corrupt controller on the planet Yethra. All in all, it's an unimpressive plot, with the abandonment of first K9 then Romana, and a confusing premise - the TARDIS crew have been sent by powers unknown to solve the situation, but they don't know what the situation is. The art is terrible, with the Doctor's costume changing every page and the so-called beautiful X-Rani looking ugly in the only illustration (though this may be ironic). The only amusing moment is when the X-Rani mutates the Doctor, and giving him a third arm, with which he immediately plays a game of three-handed whist.
A good improvement is the next story Light Fantastic, which begins with the Doctor trying to prove the TARDIS vortex-worthiness to Romana (and also getting mysterious instructions from their mysterious employers in a suitably mysterious manner). I got this annual with the CD of Death Comes to Time and I found a lot of parallels with this story and the final episode: both feature Time Lord missions to dead planets where ghosts roam; the enemy is a Time Lord who failed to make the grade and has found the secret to conquer the universe; the new Time Lady defeats the baddies by blasting them out of existence with a wand... It also ends with the Doctor suggesting he, Romana and K9 settle down on the planet UX80 - but apparently to avoid their masters. Another Romana later, you know he'd mean it.
The first comic strip of the annual is Terror on Xaboi, a nicely drawn black-and-white saga that seems a bit rushed in places. The plot is quick and to the point: after crash-landing on Xaboi after a Cosmic Storm[TM], the Doctor and Romana find a huge King Kong-style monster gruesomely eating the natives and decide to put him down in the name of evolution. K9 is written out on the first page for some inexplicable reason - his role is replaced by a "stun sensor" the Doctor carries in the TARDIS and lives up to its name by not stunning or sensing anything, but blowing up monsters. There is also the curious fact that K9 knows everything about the snow-lined planet except the fact there are giant King Kong-style monsters and the bizarre implication that the Time Lords were there specifically to help evolution along.
Reluctant Warriors is one of the best stories in the annual - clearly someone was trying to make a story that resembled the parent show and this one succeeds. From the moment the Doctor pre-empts Romana and refuses to use the multi-loop stabilizer when piloting the TARDIS, to the wonderful ending where the Gallifreyans argue about which one saved the day, this is a story that could work on television and be a good one at that. It also manages to put the Doctor in battle armor and give him a bloody huge sword while remaining both natural to the narrative and not compromising the Doctor's character.
The second comic strip is the pastel-painted story The Weapon. It looks nice. Okay, that's the positive out of the way, down to the negative. It's badly laid out, hard to follow and clothes keep changing. Romana's tasteful orange jacket and red blouse become a silver dress and fur coat before going back to the red blouse and a white coat; the Doctor spends the story in various versions of the third Doctor's outfit before changing into the Eighth Doctor's clothes on page 44 (a very impressive bit of precognition there, you must admit). The plot concerns the TARDIS making one of its inexplicable random-landings-but-was-actually-sent-there-for-a-reason movements, landing in "medieval times" (which are apparently only a few centuries before 1980) where "the forces of darkness" have given the Black Knight a laser weapon to allow him to win his fight against the White King. The Black Knight kills the White King, K9 kills the Black Knight, the Doctor nicks the weapon and they scarper while the respective sides wipe each other out. Romana points out this isn't exactly a moral victory, but the Doctor is too busy reinforcing the so-subtle-as-to-be-subliminal chess metaphor. Avoid.
Return of the Electrids is a return to the worst DWA cliche - a sequel to an unseen story. The fact that the only TV story to try this, Timelash, is universally despised gives a clue as to why this doesn't work. The scarfless Fourth Doctor and Romana are planning to leave Zeebon, leader of the Zedon race on Zed. It doesn't work, a force-field prevents them from escaping this all-Z-place in the TARDIS. They turn to Zuli for help... and it all goes downhill from there. In a wonderful flashforward to Season 17's XXX moment, Erato makes a guest appearance in front of Romana on page 52.
The final story of the annual is probably the best: The Sleeping Guardians, which echoes the themes of Season 16 rather than trying to fudge them into a story. Here, the Doctor goes on a "magical mystery tour" not by using the Randomizer but by randomly setting coordinates by the TARDIS crew's lucky numbers. Instead of the Key to Time, there's a search for the activator key to the robots of the title. It's very short, but the artwork's nice, the characterization rocks. This could easily be fitted into one of Big Finish's short story compilations and, together with Reluctant Warriors, make this annual worth looking for.
The rest of the annual is taken up with the usual stuff: factual articles on G-force, a space alphabet, the history of the moon and the size of the planets. Plus a Doctor Who-related crossword, the page-long story of the evil Skaros (not to be confused with the planet Skaro, which the Doctor visits in the next series) using algebra to drive the Doctor insane and a lovely Doctor Who boardgame whose rules take up another page altogether. It even features the Doctor and the Ice Warriors on Mars! In 2001! What more can you possibly want?
My brain hurts by Andrew Feryok 22/4/09
My individual reviews of the stories and comic strips of this book will pretty much give you an idea of how I felt about this volume, but I will give you a few overall thoughts first. It was awful. Oh boy was it awful. It doesn't help that this was my first Doctor Who Annual too. Now don't get me wrong, I could kiss the guys who decided to include the annuals as extras on the DVDs. What other TV show would do that for its fans? Since I live in the US, getting a hold of the annuals is next to impossible.
Anyway, this particular annual is pretty awful. Not only was this very clearly written for ten year olds or younger, but it feels like it was written and illustrated by ten year olds as well. The illustrations, if I could even call them "drawings", are of such variable quality you begin to wonder if they had school contests for illustrating this book as I could not believe that it was illustrated by an adult in any way. The best stories of the book are by far The Reluctant Warriors and The Sleeping Guardians which manage to capture the spirit of the show and tell an entertaining and exciting story. The worst of this volume are the comic strips. Terror of Xaboi's only crime is having a completely un-ambitious and simplistic plot, but The Weapon is completely unreadable by human or Time Lord eyes. Well, maybe Daleks would get a kick out it. Then again, they would probably just fry it with their lasers in frustration.
And now, the stories:
X-Rani and the Ugly Mutants
The first short story of the annual is an average offering. I realize that these stories are geared towards young children, but I couldn't help but feel disappointed at the end of the story. At least it captures the regulars of Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and K9 well. It starts off decently with the interesting premise of a planet of mutants ruled over by a veiled, telepathic woman. Even her manipulating of the Doctor is somewhat entertaining. I guess it's when they reach X-Rani's home world (who on Earth thought up that ridiculous name) that the story falls apart. The conclusion is basically: "Two women fight each other with telepathic powers. The Doctor pops in from nowhere and shoots one and everything is magically better. The end." Huh? Rushed ending? I also have to mention the illustrations. You have got to be kidding me! This was drawn by a professional artist who gets paid good money, and the best he/she (since they don't specify) can do is a crude illustration of publicity stills that look like they were submitted by 5 year olds to the World Book Illustrator's office? Some people have tried to defend it as keeping in the spirit of the story with the mutated Doctor, but I think this is a bit of a stretch. Whoever did those illustrations seriously goofed up. Tom Baker literally looks like a Neanderthal crossed with a moose! 5/10
Light Fantastic
The second short story is a small improvement over the first, but not by much. It opens with some great banter between the Doctor, Romana and K9 which feels right out of Season 16. The idea of Radik is also quite neat. A former Time Lord who has become a monster capable of manipulating radiation. Even the conclusion is nice, as Romana is the one who ultimately destroys Radik with her own powers of deduction. The illustrations are also noticeably much better and relevant to the story! Unfortunately, the story does suffer from the same rushed nature as the first. There is an enormous amount of technobabble and even some continuity gets muddled. No, not series continuity, but continuity of action! One of the worst is a sequence where we think they are inside the TARDIS until they start looking up at the sky. When did they exit the ship? It's sloppy writing like this that makes the story frustrating to read. So, great ideas, but a bit rushed and sloppily written. 5/10
Oh, and who are these mysterious beings the Doctor and Romana keep working for? The Time Lords? The Guardians? Graham Williams? Who!?
Terror on Xaboi
When people make fun of comic books as being mindless, brain-cell-destroying drivel, this is what I think they are referring to. This is a horrible Doctor Who comic strip. Its story is almost non-existent: the Doctor and Romana enter a cave, meet a monster which has trapped some natives, the Doctor has a convenient gun which he blows the monster away with, and then they leave. Absolutely abysmal! The artwork isn't any better. While the illustrations of the Doctor and Romana are well done, the backgrounds are horribly blurred and you either get blurry, stylized backgrounds of whatever the heck it's supposed to be, or you get the Doctor and Romana floating in a white void which is supposed to represent snow. Certainly a really bad Doctor Who comic strip. 1/10
Reluctant Warriors
Now this is more like it! A well-thought-out, imaginative, and well-written story featuring sparkling dialogue, great characterization, and some pretty decent illustrations. By the way, you haven't lived until you've seen the illustrations of "battle-rage" Doctor! The pictures towards the end depict Tom Baker, with his flowing scarf, Arnold Schwarzenegger's body, and Conan the Barbarian's sword striking super hero poses is indescribable. Wow! The story follows the Doctor, Romana and K9 as they become caught up in a society which has been dedicated to leisure. To entertain the people around the clock, the dictator in charge has invented a war between two states and keeps them warring using a "wrath ray." The story is filled with great humor and would have made a decent episode on screen. Definitely one of the best stories in the volume. 10/10
The Weapon
This comic strip is beyond simply bad. Its completely unreadable! The dialogue is atrocious and the composition is horrendous. Bubbles of dialogue pop in from frames that don't belong to them. Numerous characters are talked about, or even talking, but are never in shot of the picture! In fact, an important sequence in the story has K9 zapping the black knight with his laser and WE NEVER SEE IT! We only know about it because the white king refers to it as if expecting us to remember something they never showed us! The comic infuriatingly hides its characters as if it was written by someone who didn't own the copyright to Doctor Who. Most of the story is told by a ridiculous narrator, but when dialogue is actually spoken it is bizarre and totally stupid. I mean, at one point some knights say: "Dressed like a woman. Speaks like one too. It must be a woman." It would be funny if it was a joke, BUT IT'S NOT! The author actually expects readers to find this interesting! And, despite the kindergarten dialogue, the story is needlessly complex and metaphorical about knights and chess that goes absolutely nowhere. Can you believe that I would actually recommend Terror on Xaboi instead of this? My verdict: Avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid, avoid! 0/10
Return of the Electrids
This story puzzles me. It reads like it's fan fiction written by a 10 year old - and yet, after the deplorable comic strip, The Weapon, I found myself getting some enjoyment out of it. The structure is really the awful part. It must have been written by the same person who wrote Light Fantastic because the story once again muddles its own continuity of action. I had to re-read the sequence with the force field around the TARDIS several times to figure out exactly what was going on. You would think with a simple story about the Doctor battling giant electric worms controlled by a madman that it would be at least a little exciting. But they end up being the most boring electric worms in the world. And the madman is so one-dimensional it would embarrass James Bond. At least the Doctor, Romana and K9 still remain in character and are recognizable. I like the idea of an adventure following on at the end of another adventure and I also like the illustrations, especially those of the Zedons. On the whole, a below-average effort, but not the worst of this book. 5/10
The Sleeping Guardian
Finally, a story that's worth reading. While it may not be as good as Reluctant Warriors, it is definitely far better than the stories in the rest of the book. The Doctor, Romana and K9 are once again spot-on with sparkling dialogue as the Doctor uses random numbers from his friends to pick coordinates. The initial setting of a high-tech repository of a robot army which opens up into a mysterious temple makes for an interesting and definitely "Who-ish" opening that has been sorely missing from the other stories. The adventure unfolds at a steady pace, allowing us to get to know the society the Doctor and friends are visiting and make us sympathetic to the villagers they are trying to save on this planet. It appears that the planet turned to pacifism generations ago, but left a robot army with a caretaker in case it should ever be needed. Now that the village is under attack, they definitely need the army, but the key that unlocks it has been lost and the knowledge on how to use it has also been lost as well. The story ends a little oddly. I would have thought the Doctor would have used his sonic screwdriver to open the door that would activate the robots, but instead K9 actually 'sniffs' out the lost key in the midst of the battlefield. On the whole, a good solid story that ends a sub-par book of mediocre stories and awful comic strips. 9/10