Fanzines Reviewing Fanzines - Telos Unearthed

Although Telos came to something of a messy end with issue 15, it got a far more fitting send off a year later with Telos Unearthed, a fanzine edited by Telos (and later RTP!) contributor Peter Adamson. RTP! reviewed the special issue back in issue 4:

Telos Unearthed is classy. From the side splittingly funny Saucer Smith to the creative Cydonia, there is something for everybody. However, I found the sum up of each issue the most satisfying, as there are few copies of each issue around. The majority is new material, but even the reprinted material has been turned upside down and reworked to give a better look.
The Radio Times comic commentary was most worthwhile as I knew of several people who would like to know more about these—and perhaps even see the damn strips as well. Most intriguing were the reader's memories, including Graham Muir's eulogy and Paul Scoones' frank thoughts. These are several things to which RTP! people would be familiar with, including work from Jeff Stone and illustrations by Sir David Ronayne.
Peter Adamson is to be congratulated for assembling most of the old cast of contributors which almost looks like an RTP! roll call. A fine one-off publication and a much better send off than issue 15 could ever have been. If RTP! ever gets to the end of its tenure, then you can be sure we'll be draggin' Peter out to do it, eh Peter?!
Was my 'reader's memory' really that bad, everybody?

- Wade Campbell

Wade's comment about the 'RTP! roll call' makes one wonder if RTP! would have existed had Telos not folded, or if they had co-existed side-by-side would they still have had the same contributors?

Hmmm, that's Interesting!

Peter Adamson made his first contribution to the fanzine in 1998 with this little illustration. Matt Kamstra and Wade Campbell weren't too sure what to make of it, or do with it for that matter, and thus it got a page of it's own rather than accompanying a written article. The Editors asked for suggestions from readers as to what is going on in the picture and I'm not sure if they ever got any responses. If they did, I don't recall them being shared with myself. Still, perhaps now that is on the blogsphere where a greater number of people can see and appreciate it, someone might put forward a guess. Make of it what you will!

Fiction - Short and Sweet

Not the first piece of fiction published by the fanzine (that honour goes to my work of fiction Fetch in issue 1), yet a short and simple way to start posting older fiction from the fanzine. The illustration that accompanies it doesn't really marry up well with the fiction, but is a rare piece from Matt Kamstra.


"Short and Sweet"
by David Ronayne

Dorothee glared at the old Time Lord over the monitor, this current body must be nine hundred if it's a day. She had pleaded with him, she had argued with him, she had even put on her universal translator and tried speaking in English (slang: variation45: British Isles circa 1980s CE), just in case she had missed some subtle nuance of the consonant heavy sentances of the local language. She had tried all these things on the Pydronian Keeper of the Record, but she had been unable to extract the Doctor's biodata and personal history from him.
The Keeper had been watching and recording the lives and histories of all the graduates of Gallifrey's most prosidious colleges for over two thousand years now and was one of the most knowledgeable and respected beings on the planet, he was also very deaf and quite absentminded. She had been curious when she had first heard of him, wondering if this was finally the way to learn the secrets of her erstwhile mentor.

The elder looked up with a start.

'Are you still here? Hmmm? Go away, I'm busy. What do you want?'

'The Doctor, I want all your data on the Doctor!'

The old Time Lord's brow furrowed. 'No, never heard of him, go away!'

The white head delved back to the screen, muttering to himself. She leant forward, forching herself into his view.

'The Doctor - class of '758 - Double Gamma pass.'

The old being frowned. 'A rather unfortunate year, Capitol or Country?'

Dorothee shrugged. 'I don't understand.'

The Keeper scowled, finally giving her his full attention. 'His family house and membership to the Academy - What was it?'

She thought back to the long shadowy corridors and empty cloisters of the almost deserted household she had seen six months ago.

'He lived in a house. A really big house in the country. It was called 'Lungbarrow'.'

'Never heard of it,' he snapped. 'Was his membership from the Capitol or the Country?'

The woman who was Dorothee remembered the rolling hills of southern Gallifrey, the vast chasm the twisted house fell into, and the girl who was once Ace screamed, 'THE DOCTOR WAS A COUNTRY MEMBER!!'

She watched the old man's face twist from shock, to horror, to sudden recognition, before she realised her translator was still on.

'Oh yes,' he said. 'I ... remember ... the Doctor.'

END.

The Original Logo

Above is the original logo for the fanzine, one that graced just the first three issues. In the end it was quickly retired because I (by this stage acting as a soon-to-be Assistant Editor) had pointed out that it was practically unreadable when printed on the covers of the fanzine (especially issue 3!).

The logo was realised by Jamie Campbell (no relation to then Editor Wade Campbell) from ideas of Matt Kamstra's. I believe that the Daleks may have even been drawn by Matt himself.

It would be replaced in issue 4 with a new logo, once again realised by Jamie Campbell.

Pleading the Fifth

And so it began. With issue 5 I was suddenly promoted to co-Editor alongside Matt Kamstra, he and Wade Campbell having fallen out in the three months between this issue and issue 4. I guess I should have seen the split coming having become Assistant Editor the previous issue during which Wade was absent a lot of the time. The issue has a whole twenty pages devoted to the end of Pulp Who - The Doris Situation, but still manages to squeeze in some other things like the first interview with an NZ fan, in this case artist Alistair Hughes.

Editorial:

Who would know it? A whole year since Reverse the Polarity! first hit the streets! So many things have happened in this past year, both with the zine and in our own lives, that sometimes it seems much longer than that. But you only have to observe the changes that have taken place in that year to see that it has all been worth it. From the design of the pages to the content of it articles and diversity of writers, Reverse the Polarity! has risen from strength to strength.
At this time however we have just experienced our first fallout - we are now officially a fanboy magazine! On a more serious side though, unfortunately we have lost the services of Wade Campbell in the editorship. Wade and I have had our personal and professional differences, and Wade has left to pursue other paths. I hope you all share with me in wishing him all the luck for whatever he plans to do. Alex Ballingall will replace Wade as the new co-editor effectively from this issue onwards. Here's to another year, plus heaps, and thanks to all those who have been involved in getting this zine up and running.
'Goodo,' or so I thought. 'It's the middle of the month, time to go get DWM.' Hmmm, well, yes. Many of you will at least know of, if not have read of, the controversy over Doctor Who Magazine's regeneration of the Paul McGann Doctor into their own Nicholas Briggs Doctor. The regeneration didn't bother me much at all. It was a welcome contrast as I could read the new adventures of both the Eighth Doctor and the Ninth at the same time. But low and behold (WARNING: SPOILERS) if they don't go and do the daftest thing. Issue 269, Wormwood, for those of you who know what I'm talking about. What's up with that? Does that add some spice or what? I won't spill the beans, but I encourage any of you who don't read DWM to go out there and get copies of #266 thru #269 right away!
I would also like to take this opportunity to dedicate this issue to Doctor Who's 35th anniversary celebration. But inside this brand spanking new issue we have the special twenty page conclusion to Pulp Who by Alex Ballingall as well as a new expanded Cyber Guy by Brendon Bennetts (yes, that's what that guy writes)!
Oh well, my time is just about up, and next issue you'll have that nice chap Alex Ballingall chatting to you about, not ferret pudding this time, but perhaps something like talking tomatoes and their recurrence in TARDIS Tales. Keep well everybody, and keep safe.

- Matt Kamstra

Bride of the Guff:

Published: September 1998
The Fanzine of the Christchurch Chapter of the NZDWFC
Editors: Alexander Ballingall, Matt Kamstra
RTP! Logo Design: Jamie Campbell/Alexander Ballingall
Front Cover: Peter Adamson
Back Cover: Brendon Bennetts [part of Cyber Guy comic]
Internal Artwork: Peter Adamson, Alistair Hughes, Garry Jackson, Matt Kamstra, Graham Muir
Letters: Peter Adamson, Alden Bates, Garry Jackson, David Ronayne
Page Count: 48
Print Run: 30
Price: NZ$2.50

~ Contents ~

• [01] COVER
• [02] CONTENTS
• [03] EDITORIAL
• [04] UPDATE
• [05] WHO?! on the Internet
• [06] The BOOTCUPBOARD [Letters]
• [08] REVIEW [Review of The Happiness Patrol]
• [09] FICTION: Short and Sweet
• [10] INTERVIEW: A Brush with the Doctor ... [Alistair Hughes]
  
• [15] Who Farted?
  
• [16] REVIEW [Review of The Space Museum]
  
• [18] ARTICLE: If - The Laird Of McCrimmon
  
• [19] REVIEWS: James' Corner [The Web Planet and Twilight Of The Gods]
  
• [20] REVIEWS: The Scope [Reviews of EDAs, PDAs]
• [22] /full page artwork/
  
• [23] OPINION: Wade's World
• [24] COMIC: Pulp Who - The Doris Situation [part 4 of 4]
• [44] Doctor Who Bullsh*t: BBC Books
  
• [45] CARTOON: Doctor Who meets ... South Park
• [46] OPINION: Julian Vance Says ...
• [47] CARTOON: Cyber Guy

Flashback - End of Part One (RTP! #3)

My memories of issue 3 (March 1998)?

Sitting in Wade Campbell's bedroom as he and Matt Kamstra slaved away on the computer putting the issue together while I worked to finish the last few pages of the second part of Pulp Who before I went home. This situation is what led to the contents page illustration of the Master, something that Wade had felt was needed to fill in the gap (a traditional continued through to issue 18).

Garry Jackson at this stage was still an unknown quantity for myself, despite contributions to the first two issues already, but would come to know him and call him a friend once he made the move from Queenstown to Christchurch. Of the new contributors to the fanzine, only Peter Adamson's name held any immediate reaction. And I've since met the amiable man in person. What a guy! David Ronayne, one of the fanzine's most consistent contributors also appears, but unlike Peter I've not yet had the pleasure of a face-to-face meeting. Jeff Stone was the third of the new writers, and would eventually take over the "Doctor Who Bullsh*t" column (a regular to issue 14), but I've never met him in person and am unlikely to after a falling out in 2003.

Still, this issue was the point where it began to start feeling like a fanzine and not something almost purely the effort of Matt and Wade. Little did I know how much impact I myself would have on the fanzine as 1998 progressed ...

If - Series One

'If', if Tegan would have you believe, is a powerful word. Humans are forever pondering the factor of 'if', whether it be in weighing up future choices or in contemplating past decisions. With issue 4 Peter Adamson began a series of short articles that looked back at proposed Doctor Who stories that never made it in front of the camera. But, in the tradition of 'if' he also took a moment to ponder the impact that each would have had on the larger scheme of the series had they been made. How would Jamie's departure have been changed? Would Gallifrey have been very different? Would the TARDIS be even more alien? These questions, and more, were canvassed in 'If'.

• #4: The Herdsmen Of Venus
• #5: The Laird Of McCrimmon
• #6: The Brain Dead
• #7: The Killer Cats Of Gen-Singh
• #8: The Enemy Within
• #9: Space Sargasso
  
• #10: The Clockwise Cuckoos