Book Description

What's a Pirate History? It is the unauthorized and unapproved stories you're not supposed to hear. The stories of the BBC's attempted to cancel the show in 1984, and their subsequent war against their own television program. The emergence of fandom and the rise and fall of John Nathan-Turner. And it's about the unauthorized Doctors, when fans started making their own versions of Doctor Who. It's about the first woman to play the Doctor, Barbara Benedetti, stories starting in 1984. You won't find her in the official histories, but you can still watch her adventures. It's about the Rupert Booth Doctor of the 1990s and his twelve episodes and five stories. It's about the Reign of Turner, Ocean in the Sky, Resurrection of Evil, The Experiment, Spectre From the Past, film adventures almost as polishied as the BBC productions, created, not for profit, but through sheer love of the show and the desire to keep it going even after the BBC abandoned it. Along the way, we explore the way technology like Super 8 cameras, Videocassette Recorders and Camcorders helped shape the evolution of fandom, as well as the emergence of fan culture, and its impact on the show. In subsequent volumes, we explore Doctor Who stage plays, both official and unofficial, the failed professional attempts to create Who audo dramas, and the success and accomplishments of fan audio, how fans found, preserved or recreated lost episodes, the bizarre copyright situation of the Doctor Who universe, and the opportunities it provided/ Let us take you on a journey through histories, stories and adventures in the world of Doctor Who that are overlooked, ignored or erased by the official gatekeepers. It's a world that you may have never suspected. But it's worth your while. Come with us on a journey into new frontiers and buried secrets.