The Wall of Lies

Number 142 Newsletter established 1991, club formed June first 1980 The newsletter of the South Australian Fan Club Inc., also known as SFSA

MFinal STATE Adelaide, May--June 2013 WEATHER: Cold, wet, some oxygen Free Austerity Budget for Rich, Evil by staff writers Australian budget mildly inconvenient for terrible people. The Tuesday 14 May 2013 federal Australian budget has upset miners, their friends and well wishers around the world. Miners have claimed $11 billion in tax breaks, largely for purchasing smaller companies who have spent on exploration. Across Europe, countries suffering severe austerity cuts have looked beyond their own suffering to reach out to the maggots unable to use this scam any more. In Cyprus a protest march of malnourished children wound its way through Nicosia, Greeks self immolated and an ensemble of Latvians showed solidarity by playing The Smallest Violins In The World. “Come on, what else are you going to do with the rocks? Leave them in the ground until someone who’s O ut willing to pay to dig them up comes along?” asked a t N An untended consequence of No bloated mining executive. ow the severe budget involves pets ! unable to afford faces. But then apparently choked on their own bile.

BBC/ABC Divorce, Dr Who Love Child by staff writers

BBC cancels ABC contract, Doctor Who excluded.

News broke on 17 April 2013 via a joint BBC/Foxtel press release that BBC Worldwide (formerly BBC Enterprises) had decided to Chameleon Factor # 80 finish its output deal with the ABC when the current three year O contract expires mid-2014. This had guaranteed that ABC was u S t offered most BBC Worldwide sales prior to commercial or cable So on channels. n!

An ABC spokesperson said they had only been notified the day before and the Corporation had been “disappointed that this deci- sion was taken without any consultation”. Managing Director Mark Scott announced via Twitter that Doctor Who had been excluded from this change.

The Wall of Lies asked why Doctor Who had been singled out Image of and Mark Scott replied; “We knew that there would be particular from the front cover of concern from fans of -- but we had signed a different BBC Worldwide Annual kind of deal on the show a few years ago -- so it is not affected Report 2009/10. SFSA magazine # 30 by recent news. Glad the fans are happy.”

q Continued Page 2 Pan’s People out Martian mystery of the pipes, page 2. solved?, page 2. BBC/ABC Divorce, Dr Who Love Child

q from Page 1

An ABC spokesperson said “When Doctor Who was re-booted, the ABC was very keen to be the home of this iconic show and agreed to a ‘life of series’ deal ... I can confirm that the ‘life of series’ agreement overrides any subse- quent output deal that the ABC negotiates with the BBC which means that

Doctor Who will remain with the ABC for the foreseeable future.” Some content A S

which appears on the BBC in the UK is sold by other distributors. A N

Consequently Grand Designs and QI, as well as children's, arts, news, current :

affairs and natural history programming are unaffected. e c The Foxtel channels are owned by the BBC and include: the unnamed new r u

BBC channel (drama and comedy), CBeebies (children’s) UKTV (general o entertainment), BBC Knowledge (documentaries), and BBC World News. BBC S Worldwide has cited the success of Doctor Who in its last three annual reports November 2007 image of Ptolemaeus Crater, as helping increase global programme sales 7.0% in 2009/10, 7.8% in 2010/1 with candidates for lost Mars 3 probe (right). and 12.3% in 2011/2 and profit 36.5%, 14.7% and 13%, respectively. Sunday ratings for Doctor Who new episodes on ABC1 (series 7b) average 728,000 across five capitals, placing it at tenth most watched programme of Sky Watch the day, and approximately 45th most watched weekly. Mars 3 found after 40 years? Sources: BBC Annual Reports, BBC, Digital Spy, TV Tonight and ABC.

Preservation Issues AN UNUSUAL use of crowd sourcing has resulted in an Pan’s People Return to Top. ambitious result. Following the 2006 imaging of the Curiosity rover by by staff writers the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Vitali Egorov used Contacts RECORD PRODUCER and collector Ian his Curiosity forum to Levine has turned over 20,000 search for the lost Mars 3 lander. Forum users pored Jamie Stidiford tapes to television research group over a 2007 MRO picture of Ptolemaeus Crater, the (President) Kaleidoscope. While cataloguing expected landing zone. The image comprised some continues on this trove, the first 1.8 billion pixels. Candidates for the lander, its heat [email protected] recovery is a dozen Pan’s People shield, and parachutes were located on 31 December dance numbers. The troupe was 2010. A second image was taken on 3 March 2013, Martin Dunne formed in 1966 and began semi- although neither have been universally accepted. regular appearances on the BBC’s Mars 2 and 3 were launched in May 1971 and took (The Wall of Lies editor) Top of the Pops in 1968. A common advantage of the same Mars launch window as [email protected] component in music shows of the Mariners 8 and 9. Mariner 8 fell back to Earth and era, go-go dancers were used to Mars 2 crashed on Mars, with Mariner 9 and Mars 3 perform to hit numbers where the arriving in orbit in November and December 1971, Tammy Vogel band or a video were unavailable. respectively. Mars 3 detached its lander which suc- (Magazine editor) The performances date from cessfully soft-landed on 2 December, but only [email protected] 1973-5 and feature performances returned data for 14.5 seconds before ceasing. to I Want You Back by Jackson 5 Meanwhile the Mars 3 orbiter and Mariner 9 imaged a and For You by Barry White. Troupe planet wide dust storm. It is assumed the lander was Postal address: member Patricia Wilde said destroyed by extreme winds and dust. NASA used the PO Box 870 "Considering that Pan's People Viking orbiters to scan the planetary surface before danced on Top of the Pops week in, successfully landing in 1976. North Adelaide week out, for so many years, it's Mars 3 followed the same design philosophy of the SA 5006 Australia such a pity that most of our routines then Soviet Lunar probes; a spherical lander with petal have been lost, wiped by the BBC opening panels. Included was a 4.5 kilogram rover, back in the 70s.” attached by a 15 meter umbilical cord to the lander. Mailing list The clips will screen at a Computer processing of the returned data resulted in subscription: Kaleidoscope event in June. Pan’s one image, but the Soviet Academy of Sciences [email protected] People last appeared on Top of the analysis stated the image was unidentifiable. Pops in April 1976. This is a publication of SFSA: the South Australian Doctor Who Fan Club Inc., a non profit organisation. No attempt has been made to supersede the copyright of any holders of trademark or copyrighted 18/5, 15/6, 20/7 images, text, or information. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure that the contents of the newsletter is accurate at the time of printing, SFSA cannot accept any liability for inaccura- cies that may appear. Meeting details are subject to change at short notice.

2 www.sfsa.org.au May-June 2013 Printed by the Federal Printing House Archive

Chamelleon Factor 11, 1983 [misprint as “1982”] Transmission schedule May to June 2013 [Carole Gibbs and Brian Alford]

Sundays 19.30 ABC1 The next meeting is at the T.S Repeated 20.30 Mondays ABC2 hall [Theosophical Hall] on Sat Followed by Doctor Who's Greatest 9th July ... Just a reminder about Moments the Convention, Don’t forget to register, its [SIC] getting dearer ~ 5/5 all the time. ~ The Crimson Horror 6/5 SFSA Magazine 12, June 2003. Parody of The Day the Earth Stood Still cover by Neal Powell. Janet Fielding will be leaving the ~ Doctor Who's Greatest Moments - series sometime in the next Time Travel (21st) season.

~ Nightmare in Silver 12/5 [The convention was Conpanion, ~ Nightmare in Silver 13/5 Events the first ever Doctor Who con in ~ Doctor Who's Greatest Moments - Australia. Janet didn’t go far; Hostile Humans In March we played Cards Against returning as a in the Humanity. Jim’ll Fix it sketch In a Fix with ~ 19/5 , playing a companion ~ The Name of the Doctor 20/5 In April we enjoyed going through club and villain in Sylvester McCoy’s ~ Doctor Who's Greatest Moments - The boxes and splitting up the assets. screen test and representing Paul Aliens McGann as a theatrical agent.] May 18 General meeting 15.00 The SCI-FI and Nickelodeon cable Venue: Adelaide High School channels have no more Doctor Who rights, TEN has yet to schedule June 1 Pub meeting 17.00 Torchwood: Miracle Day and series two Venue: Buckingham Arms of K-9. June 15 Annual general meeting 15.00 UKTV repeats The Sarah Jane Venue: Adelaide High School Adventures series one and plays Davison Who episodes through May on July 6 Pub meeting 17.00 Sunday afternoons with Kinda, Venue: Buckingham Arms , , , Ressurection of the Daleks and The July 16 General meeting 15.00 Caves of Androzani. In June they have Venue: Adelaide High School stories Attack of the , Vengeance on Varos, Mark of the Rani, and Revelation of the Daleks. Janet Fielding leaves Doctor Who. Chameleon Factor 11, June 1983 (misprinted as 1982). Check local and daily program listings

Fandom Club BBC Worldwide Australiasia Membership and Event Cinemas present Annual membership rates are $15. Doctor Who on the This entitles you to one year’s subscrip- big screen, again tion to the club’s publications: bimonthly The Wall of Lies and SFSA magazine, Series seven episodes Asylum of and the Doctor Who themed yearbook the Daleks and The Angels Take Chameleon Factor. Also included are Manhattan in high definition discounted entry fees to SFSA meet- 1 June 2013, Marion Megaplex ings, and discounts at various stores and other locations in Australia around Adelaide. and New Zealand www.eventcinemas.com.au/

Discounts Plus Doctor Who projections, Pulp Fiction The Wall of Lies 22, June 1993. Customs House at Circular Quay, 10% off comics and graphic novels as part of Vivid Sydney

www.sfsa.org.au May-June 2013 3 Subscription due if a red dot appears The Wall of Lies editorial in this box

Martin Dunne This issue marks a personal milestone; ten years of editing The the new Buckingham Arms pub meeting), after the venue had Wall of Lies. While this may not be particularly notable in fandom cancelled in February and April for asbestos removal. Nuisance, (ERBANIA claims to have published since 1956 and Forrest J but great story. On 3 August ABC issued a press release (embar- Ackerman continued fan activity until his death in December goed for one day) quoting head of television Marena Manzoufas 2008 at age 92), a bi-monthly turnaround across a decade could as repeating the “entire series” for the upcoming anniversary. be a record in media fandom. People tend to go legitimate or News Corporation’s write up claimed it would be “all 700 simply acknowledge it was all a phase if they are willing to ded- episodes” and misspelled her name as Manazou. On the face of icate themselves to someone else's series to this level. it we were now able to ditch the BBC Books and Big Finish schedules in favour of listings for the television show itself. Why Doctor Who? This is more easily defined by why it isn't. Some other media franchises have shown their true colours by If that wasn't good enough, a second and more profound devel- turning on their own fans and threatening them with litigation, opment arose from this incident; original reporting. Instead of and over grey areas of copyright rather than cold hard cash too. partially digesting the press release and then vomiting it back While the BBC is increasingly interested in wringing every last onto the page with added typos and bizarre patronising assump- pound, euro and dollar from Doctor Who and encouraging tions, I wrote to Marena directly and found her pleased to help, regions to buy The Show and associated merchandise directly albeit sorely lacking in first hand knowledge about what would be from them rather than middle men, they have remained both available. I supplied a draft of issue 84 outlining what existed friendly and helpful throughout this decade. There is little they and thus what they could expect the BBC to send. Imagine my have required in turn and have given us authority to use their surprise when I then saw fans on Usenet discussing this undis- logos, information up to the limit of commercial confidentiality tributed copy … now being sent out by ABC Publicity as an offi- and even merchandise to use as prizes. Doctor Who is anarchic cial briefing document. This regional fan newsletter had gone and flys in the face of the usual default militaristic product that from reporting the news to literally being the news. producers seem to expect fans to like. The Marx Brothers in their prime as opposed to endless Lewis and Martin army “comedies” On 26 September Lorraine Heggessey announced new and their even less funny clones. This is as close as fandom gets episodes would be produced by BBC Wales. Doctor Who was to golden age science fiction around here. back and in a big way. A dispute between the BBC and Terry Nation’s agents Hancock’s led to claims that the Daleks would I took over this newsletter from Matthew Fazakerley (and based be absent from the new series, and to most Dalek repeat stories it on a parody of a weekend Adelaide tabloid much known for being skipped on ABC. I contacted Tim Hancock and was sensational headlines and weak reporting) after a year editing rewarded with scoops over the mainstream press for the next bi-monthly SFSA Magazines, and prior to that writing bi-weekly year. When the parties came to an agreement, the media organ- feature columns for student Empire Times (Flinders isations which had the story were (in order): the BBC, the ABC University) and Entropy (University of South Australia). These and the South Australian Doctor Who Fan Club. were killed in the great Jurassic die off of most student activity in the country associated with the then-government passing volun- Running a club table at Inside the Tardis in 2005 I was surprised tary student unionism in 2006. While it wasn't the dawn of print- to be accosted by a wag who declaimed the title “wall of lies” ing with woodcuts or Gutenberg press, it might as well have marked it out as “Taliban propaganda”. I replied that it was been. Faxes were the way press releases were sent and how we episode four of and thus the seventeenth episode of tipped off Media Watch. When SBS wanted to promote Eat Doctor Who, “as any true fan would know.” Reconsidering his Carpet, they sent us a videocassette with previews. position while surrounded by a crowd of suddenly interested fans, he beat a hasty retreat. Fan power. May 2003 was great timing; we had the fortieth anniversary of Doctor Who in November to look forward to. Issue 82 was pre- So here’s to The Wall of Lies, and its 22 year old un-birthday. pared for the Adelaide High School meeting on the 17th (missing

The Wall of Lies 82, May 2003. 4 www.sfsa.org.au May-June 2013