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Entry tags:
Eyes and Teeth
Mar 2014
The Life & Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner - Richard Marson - Miwk Publishing, 2013
* * * *
Dr Who has had a surprisingly large effect on my life, even though a traumatic early experience (the maggots in The Green Death) meant that I found it much too scary when I was in its primary target age range. I first started taking an interest in the final Tom Baker season, being impressed by the ingenious way in which ideas introduced earlier in the season, such as e-space, Charged Vacuum Emboitments and the Master's return, were all brought together in Logopolis. The following season introduced a new Doctor, Peter Davison, who felt fresh and modern after the hamminess of Baker, and there were some clever storylines such as Castrovalva and Kinda (rubber snake not withstanding), culminating in Earthshock, a story that actually lived up to its name. It is the first time I can remember being profoundly moved by something on television, and it's not an experience I have had very often since.
The fact that I remember the episodes so well shows what a profound influence it had on my imagination. But that was not all. My brother and his friend Richard started putting together tape-slide presentations of favourite Dr Who stories. Then portable video cameras became hireable from a local shop, and with the tacit support of my parents, they made a spectacularly amateur version of Pyramids of Mars, roping me in to play one of the bad guys. After that there was no stopping them. For over a decade they produced at least one film every year, starting with adaptations and then original scripts (I wrote a couple of them). They built up a team of actors and technicians under the name Mattol, derived by combining their surnames. From that group has come some life-long friendships, two professional actors (including one you will probably have heard of) and a TV producer. Not bad for a bunch of teenagers messing around with a video camera.
Sorry - enough reminiscing. John Nathan-Turner was the producer of Dr Who from my inaugural season (1980) up to the demise of the show in 1989. For me and for many others, the trajectory was of a long dying fall. After the ingenious complexities of the Christopher H. Bidmead-inspired Logopolis season, the show became increasingly garish, facile, broad in its acting and cheap-looking, and it comes as no surprise to learn that Nathan-Turner was a great fan of pantomime ("eyes and teeth" was one of his catchphrases). Nonetheless, even at its worst it still had moments of genius and surprise, which also reflect the character of its producer.
Richard Marson has, I think, done a good job of interviewing the people who knew and worked with him, and the portrait that emerges is generally likeable but with some serious flaws. Nathan-Turner had endless energy and enthusiasm, but sometimes poor judgement. Although he stayed with his partner, Gary Downes, for over thirty years until his early death at from alcohol-related problems at the age of fifty-four, theirs was an open relationship and they appear to have solicited teenage males with promises of special access to the show, something that was illegal at a time when the homosexual age of consent was twenty-one. The people concerned do not appear to have found this more than an annoyance and groping and propositioning were, alas, part of the culture of the time, but had he lived, Operation Yewtree would definitely have been asking questions.
Despite errors of judgement and taste, it would be unfair to blame him for the show's cancellation. He was a BBC man through and through, but despite his loyalty was treated badly by senior management, especially the austere and high-brow Jonathan Powell. The last few series looked cheap, but that was because of their tiny budgets. No attempt was made to find something else for him to do after Dr Who, and all his ideas were rebuffed. His descent in alcoholism had a tragic inevitability.
But his lasting legacy was to pave the way for the show's triumphant return. He was ahead of his time in understanding the importance of communicating with fans and generating buzz. He tried and failed to crack America, but laid the foundations for a more successful second attempt. And by inspiring a generation of fans, including Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffatt, he ensured that the show would reach its fiftieth anniversary with no signs of stopping.
I like modern Who. It has some of the smartest and funniest dialog on television and is one of the very few series that bears a second watching. The plots, as Terry Pratchett has observed, are too inconsistent and makey-uppy to be called SF, and it lacks the dizzy excitement that I remember from my teenage years, but every now and again, there is a magical image that re-engages my sense of wonder. And so I for one am grateful for the life of the deeply flawed man who made it possible.
The Life & Scandalous Times of John Nathan-Turner - Richard Marson - Miwk Publishing, 2013
* * * *
Dr Who has had a surprisingly large effect on my life, even though a traumatic early experience (the maggots in The Green Death) meant that I found it much too scary when I was in its primary target age range. I first started taking an interest in the final Tom Baker season, being impressed by the ingenious way in which ideas introduced earlier in the season, such as e-space, Charged Vacuum Emboitments and the Master's return, were all brought together in Logopolis. The following season introduced a new Doctor, Peter Davison, who felt fresh and modern after the hamminess of Baker, and there were some clever storylines such as Castrovalva and Kinda (rubber snake not withstanding), culminating in Earthshock, a story that actually lived up to its name. It is the first time I can remember being profoundly moved by something on television, and it's not an experience I have had very often since.
The fact that I remember the episodes so well shows what a profound influence it had on my imagination. But that was not all. My brother and his friend Richard started putting together tape-slide presentations of favourite Dr Who stories. Then portable video cameras became hireable from a local shop, and with the tacit support of my parents, they made a spectacularly amateur version of Pyramids of Mars, roping me in to play one of the bad guys. After that there was no stopping them. For over a decade they produced at least one film every year, starting with adaptations and then original scripts (I wrote a couple of them). They built up a team of actors and technicians under the name Mattol, derived by combining their surnames. From that group has come some life-long friendships, two professional actors (including one you will probably have heard of) and a TV producer. Not bad for a bunch of teenagers messing around with a video camera.
Sorry - enough reminiscing. John Nathan-Turner was the producer of Dr Who from my inaugural season (1980) up to the demise of the show in 1989. For me and for many others, the trajectory was of a long dying fall. After the ingenious complexities of the Christopher H. Bidmead-inspired Logopolis season, the show became increasingly garish, facile, broad in its acting and cheap-looking, and it comes as no surprise to learn that Nathan-Turner was a great fan of pantomime ("eyes and teeth" was one of his catchphrases). Nonetheless, even at its worst it still had moments of genius and surprise, which also reflect the character of its producer.
Richard Marson has, I think, done a good job of interviewing the people who knew and worked with him, and the portrait that emerges is generally likeable but with some serious flaws. Nathan-Turner had endless energy and enthusiasm, but sometimes poor judgement. Although he stayed with his partner, Gary Downes, for over thirty years until his early death at from alcohol-related problems at the age of fifty-four, theirs was an open relationship and they appear to have solicited teenage males with promises of special access to the show, something that was illegal at a time when the homosexual age of consent was twenty-one. The people concerned do not appear to have found this more than an annoyance and groping and propositioning were, alas, part of the culture of the time, but had he lived, Operation Yewtree would definitely have been asking questions.
Despite errors of judgement and taste, it would be unfair to blame him for the show's cancellation. He was a BBC man through and through, but despite his loyalty was treated badly by senior management, especially the austere and high-brow Jonathan Powell. The last few series looked cheap, but that was because of their tiny budgets. No attempt was made to find something else for him to do after Dr Who, and all his ideas were rebuffed. His descent in alcoholism had a tragic inevitability.
But his lasting legacy was to pave the way for the show's triumphant return. He was ahead of his time in understanding the importance of communicating with fans and generating buzz. He tried and failed to crack America, but laid the foundations for a more successful second attempt. And by inspiring a generation of fans, including Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffatt, he ensured that the show would reach its fiftieth anniversary with no signs of stopping.
I like modern Who. It has some of the smartest and funniest dialog on television and is one of the very few series that bears a second watching. The plots, as Terry Pratchett has observed, are too inconsistent and makey-uppy to be called SF, and it lacks the dizzy excitement that I remember from my teenage years, but every now and again, there is a magical image that re-engages my sense of wonder. And so I for one am grateful for the life of the deeply flawed man who made it possible.