World Distributors The 1985 Annual

Published	1984
ISBN	7235 6719 0

Starring the sixth Doctor, Peri, the Master and the Time Lords

• A Review by Finn Clark

A Review by Finn Clark 18/4/04

Rather tragically, this year's best story is the historical (The Real Hereward). I say "tragically" because the historicals in Doctor Who annuals have always sucked, right back to Troughton's day, and this one isn't particularly good either. It's okay, I suppose. Unfortunately that makes it better than everything else you might read in the 1985 annual.

I guess I should praise the things I liked. The non-fiction articles are great, especially the behind-the-scenes photos of sets and special effects. You can see inside the Myrka! (It's actually quite scary as a shaven-headed bloke in a wire-frame suit.) Meanwhile I loved the set designs from Keeper of Traken, Four to Doomsday, Warriors of the Deep and Black Orchid, which are simply beautiful. You might even end up thinking better of Warriors of the Deep!

The art is fun too. It's bright, colourful and has good likenesses of Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant. It's perhaps a bit simplistic at times, but I can forgive that for its aliens' comedy value. The Debans in Battle Planet are merely quite amusing but Vorton and his chums in Vorton's Revenge are a whole galaxyful o' fun. It's like the revenge of the garden gnomes. We need more aliens like that!

Unfortunately the stories are rubbish. They're not even loopy enough to be entertaining, but merely seven unimaginative ploddings that seem to be aimed at someone who's slightly retarded. Their author has Time Lords on the brain, with The Time Savers starting with three godawful pages of the Doctor on Gallifrey being briefed on his latest mission. ["What?" said the Doctor in a tone of mild surprise. "The Twenty Four admit another into their circle? The need must be great." Gee, how spine-tingling.] Needless to say, the mission itself makes The Mutants look thrilling.

There are a couple of relative highpoints. The Real Hereward is that rarity in the annuals, a historical that actually feels historical. It also contains a surprise and a funny bit where the Doctor scares Normans. The Deadly Weed has an intriguing idea for its villains... and I think that's about it for the good stuff. Battle Planet, Vorton's Revenge and The Mystery of the Rings are dumb and bland. (The aliens in the latter are laughably stupid, foiling their own plans for invasion because the Doctor and Peri shouted at them and they got confused.) Day of the Dragon is silly garbage. And The Time Savers is the most boring story I've read in any Doctor Who annual, summoning the Doctor to Gallifrey for assignment to a special mission... and then sidelining him for pages and pages until the problem resolves itself. Everyone talks too much and no one does anything. It's ten pages long, but it feels like fifty.

The Doctor and Peri aren't bad, managing to bicker while also being fond of each other in a manner the TV series couldn't manage until Season 23. They even get a few nice moments together. [Mind you, I raised my eyebrows during Battle Planet at "You know me, Doctor, I'll try anything once!" If only, Peri, if only...] Strangely, The Time Savers has its 6th Doctor at the beginning wearing a hat. I wouldn't have minded an illustration of that.

The 1985 annual was dumb and not in a good way. The artwork's fun but there's little entertainment to be had from the stories and their myriad plot problems. In Battle Planet we're not even sure whether the Doctor helped the good guys...