How Many Nimon...?

 

Let joy be unconfined. The next Doctor Who The Collection will be Season 17. Now, the regular reader of this blog will be aware that I LOVE Season 17. It is my favourite Season of Doctor Who. I suspect it always will be. I have watched and re-watched every story several times. I have watched The Horns of Nimon a ridiculous amount of times. That is my comfort Doctor Who story.

Now, I admit that part of this is nostalgia. Season 17 was the first season where I remember watching every story - except Shada. Obviously. I was 8 years old when it was first broadcast. Indeed, if Shada had been broadcast one of its episodes would have gone out on my 9th Birthday. That is the perfect age. You don't notice the flaws - and Season 17 has many flaws - and you enjoy the fear and the fun. 

My perception has always been that Season 17 is an unpopular series among fandom. It's too silly. It's too cheap. No one is taking it seriously, which is something that the Season 18 production team hammered on about. In the DWM 50th Anniversary poll (which had 241 stories on it) the Season 17 stories did not do well, except one.

Destiny of the Daleks was 154th, City of Death was 5th, Creature from the Pit was 211th, Nightmare of Eden was 190th and The Horns of Nimon was 223rd. Shada, for obvious reasons, wasn't rated.* That doesn't imply a great deal of love for Season 17. Except I got the impression yesterday that its reputation is now much improved. Possibly too much improved for some people. A Twitter conversation I had with James Cooray-Smith on Twitter, a man who knows much more about fandom than I do, felt that its reputation started to improve after 1992. I certainly think that the early deaths of both Graham Williams, the producer and Douglas Adams, who was Script Editor had an impact. Perhaps the series is now correctly rated (except by me, obviously.)

This new Collection also has bucket loads of extras: a Douglas Adams documentary, a Lalla Ward interview, new makings of, new DVD commentaries etc. I should pause here to say that Doctor Who fans are spoiled by these kinds of releases. The effort and love that goes into putting them together is far more than a lot of old television series get. The fact that it seems certain that every Season of Doctor Who will get this treatment eventually is astonishing. (My prediction is Season 1 will come in 2023 for the 60th Anniversary.) 

But I don't want to react to the boxed set itself. I wanted to say a little about why I love Season 17. For me it is that the Fourth Doctor and Romana are out there in the Universe using wit, intelligence and sarcasm to defeat evil. Yes, sometimes it feels like they've let Tom Baker off the leash (or Tom has let himself off the leash) but I will take Tom Baker off the leash over a lot of other television. Season 17 also deals with the some heavy issues: The Nightmare of Eden has a plot about drug addiction at its centre for example that is incredibly bleak. 

I think modern Doctor Who has a lot more in common with Season 17 than it looks (and not just City of Death.) It might not be as realistic but the balance of humour to terror is there even if the money spent on each season is vastly different.

Here's another thing. Season 17 also feels to me like the last fling of the 1970s before everything because so serious in the 1980s. The opposite of grimdark. I used to think that when Doctor Who came back I wanted it to be dark and grown-up. Because I was an adult I now wanted Doctor Who to be for adults. I was wrong about that. Now I want Doctor Who to be something that is more like Season 17. Not exactly the same, but with a similar joy and wit about it. Let our TARDIS team not be weighed down with guilt. Let's just have some fun.

I'm aware though that by writing that I'm showing that I know nothing. I remember watching an interview with Mark Gattiss, where he is talking to Richard Herring, when he said (and I paraphrase): "when I talk to people about what they'd like Doctor Who to be. They always want it to be like it was when they were 7 and it can't be." And that's what I'm doing here really. Wishing that it was 1978/1979 all over again.

Whatever. Let me put all sensible adulthood aside - as if I even live like a sensible adult - and say watch Season 17. It's fun. It's not perfect, but you'll have fun. Even if one of the creatures in it looks like a glowing green bollock.  

*Actually, a brief note on Shada for those that don't know. Shada was going to be the 6 part finale to Season 17. However, due to a management lockout the story was never finished and for many reasons it was never re-mounted. Some footage was filmed, but it was never broadcast. It has had a long afterlife though. A version was released on VHS (with the script book included) and there have been several versions since, including animations. Oh, and there's an version where Paul McGann replaces Tom Baker that was made for BBC Digital. The DVD boxed set will feature another version, with improved animation and in six parts. I'm looking forward to it. It is the unfinished story that continues to regenerate. Will this be the last version? Who knows.