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Licence Denied: Rumblings from the Doctor Who Underground
The untold story of Doctor Who is the story of fanzines: the magazines produced by the artistic and anarchistic culture called fandom. These publications are controversial, intellectual and witty. And often offensive, rude and scandalous. Their story could only be told unlicensed, making this collection of snippets from fanzines unauthorised, uncensored and unputdownable.
Included are a no-holds-barred interview with Tom Baker, set visits to Carnival of Monsters and The Web of Fear and as much satire, analysis and ranting as any fan could want. With contributions from all over the world and from three decades of fandom, Licence Denied is the book that finally exposes the artistry, rudeness and wit of Doctor Who fandom.
Much to his surprise, Paul Cornell has become a television writer, with credits on The Word, Springhill and Coronation Street. His own series, Wavelength, was recently screened on Children's ITV. He's also written lots of Doctor Who books, and co-written a number of volumes on cult television. He lives in London.
Included are a no-holds-barred interview with Tom Baker, set visits to Carnival of Monsters and The Web of Fear and as much satire, analysis and ranting as any fan could want. With contributions from all over the world and from three decades of fandom, Licence Denied is the book that finally exposes the artistry, rudeness and wit of Doctor Who fandom.
Much to his surprise, Paul Cornell has become a television writer, with credits on The Word, Springhill and Coronation Street. His own series, Wavelength, was recently screened on Children's ITV. He's also written lots of Doctor Who books, and co-written a number of volumes on cult television. He lives in London.
206 pages, Paperback
First published October 16, 1997
About the author
Paul Cornell
620 books1,512 followersPaul Cornell is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, comics and television. He's been Hugo Award-nominated for all three media, and has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, and the Eagle Award for his comics. He's the writer of Saucer Country for Vertigo, Demon Knights for DC, and has written for the Doctor Who TV series. His new urban fantasy novel is London Falling, out from Tor on December 6th.
via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...
via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 17, 2023
This collection of pieces from Doctor Who fanzines - I’ve already lost any readers wandering in here by mistake - has inadvertently become a time capsule of Doctor Who fandom in the nineties, although much of its contents are from before then. It’s quite interesting, if you’re predisposed to find it remotely interesting at all.
You can feel, across multiple articles and opinion pieces, certain trends that have died off since (and some that still happen over and over in spirit), like the putting on a pedestal of (followed by lengthy backlash to) the Pertwee era and Pertwee himself; a seemingly irresistible fixation with the Graham Williams era, and defence thereof; fan favourites such as The Deadly Assassin actually being rubbished by fans when they arrived; and a sense of “new fandom” being sort of cool, in its way. (This is best crystallised in an anecdote about a young Who fan dressed as Tom Baker blustering through the fan-haunt Fitzroy Tavern and spotting no apparent kindred spirits - because they were presumably unrecognisable drinking pints and thinking on another level, man.)
There’s a sense of the fans moving away from the stereotypes (or some, at least!) as they’re forced to confront a world without weekly Doctor Who in it, hence filling the gap with fanzines, novels, comics and whatever else. Paul Cornell, prominent fanboy turned proper author, puts it quite well: “Without a show, the island has become, suddenly, a free country.” The convention scene bubbles underneath it all, which further emboldens the sense of fandom as a way of life.
Nonetheless, this is a very loosely curated collection of articles and oddments from Doctor Who fans, so it maintains a pretty scattered level of interest from cover to cover. Some of it is very neat: an argument for The Happiness Patrol being not just a Thatcher parody, but specifically the cruelty of Section 28 is very well put across. Lighter stuff like “does Tegan secretly love the Doctor”, and radioactively fannish bits like Lance Parkin’s view on Doctor numbering (and where the Valeyard might come in, apart from the obvious) tickled me greatly. But then some of it just seems like opinions randomly clattering about, some of those quite mean-spirited, which throws the apparent swagger of New Fandom into slightly twatty relief. Still, I laughed at a very prescient eyeroll over “The classic fannish plot idea, Daleks versus Time Lords.” Russell T Davies sends a wince. (The stuff about Doctor numbering and “was Hartnell the first” has also returned to bite us in the bum, starting arguments that would absolutely fit in here.)
It’s one of those books that knows its audience - often on a first name basis, several of whom are still doing the rounds now, veterans of the strange, apparently quite sociable wilderness years. Not that anyone told ME. I spent those years at home watching Doctor Who videos. But then, I was too young to drink.
You can feel, across multiple articles and opinion pieces, certain trends that have died off since (and some that still happen over and over in spirit), like the putting on a pedestal of (followed by lengthy backlash to) the Pertwee era and Pertwee himself; a seemingly irresistible fixation with the Graham Williams era, and defence thereof; fan favourites such as The Deadly Assassin actually being rubbished by fans when they arrived; and a sense of “new fandom” being sort of cool, in its way. (This is best crystallised in an anecdote about a young Who fan dressed as Tom Baker blustering through the fan-haunt Fitzroy Tavern and spotting no apparent kindred spirits - because they were presumably unrecognisable drinking pints and thinking on another level, man.)
There’s a sense of the fans moving away from the stereotypes (or some, at least!) as they’re forced to confront a world without weekly Doctor Who in it, hence filling the gap with fanzines, novels, comics and whatever else. Paul Cornell, prominent fanboy turned proper author, puts it quite well: “Without a show, the island has become, suddenly, a free country.” The convention scene bubbles underneath it all, which further emboldens the sense of fandom as a way of life.
Nonetheless, this is a very loosely curated collection of articles and oddments from Doctor Who fans, so it maintains a pretty scattered level of interest from cover to cover. Some of it is very neat: an argument for The Happiness Patrol being not just a Thatcher parody, but specifically the cruelty of Section 28 is very well put across. Lighter stuff like “does Tegan secretly love the Doctor”, and radioactively fannish bits like Lance Parkin’s view on Doctor numbering (and where the Valeyard might come in, apart from the obvious) tickled me greatly. But then some of it just seems like opinions randomly clattering about, some of those quite mean-spirited, which throws the apparent swagger of New Fandom into slightly twatty relief. Still, I laughed at a very prescient eyeroll over “The classic fannish plot idea, Daleks versus Time Lords.” Russell T Davies sends a wince. (The stuff about Doctor numbering and “was Hartnell the first” has also returned to bite us in the bum, starting arguments that would absolutely fit in here.)
It’s one of those books that knows its audience - often on a first name basis, several of whom are still doing the rounds now, veterans of the strange, apparently quite sociable wilderness years. Not that anyone told ME. I spent those years at home watching Doctor Who videos. But then, I was too young to drink.
October 9, 2022
My rating of this book is both subjective and specific, but I think it's a magical and vital piece of Doctor Who history. This is a miscellany of items from fanzines, mostly from the '80s and '90s with occasional nods to the '70s. Although it is described as being edited by Paul Cornell, in fact he provides substantial introductions and guidance throughout.
When this book was first published in 1997, it seems there were negative reviews from some quarters. These were put down to Cornell's allegedly preferential treatment of whom he included, of presenting certain views of fandom, and just a general feeling that a book like this didn't present fans at their most erudite or intellectual. The thing is, twenty-five years later, this is exactly what I'm looking for. There are a few other books where writers have taken their own fanzine pieces and republished them with the aim of self-glorification. There are a couple of collections of fanzine writings that seek to present exactly that intellectual edge. (To be clear, most of these zines are long dead and punishingly unavailable online.) But Cornell was providing a snapshot of a key moment in the program's history, and it's as if he could imagine me in 2022 lapping this up.
The show's "wilderness years" (1990 - 2004) are exactly the period of my interest, a time after the already publicly-dismissed program was cancelled (well, "rested") and before it returned to mainstream attention. Fans committed themselves, in those heady days when the internet was a novel way of communicating and shoddy copies of old episodes on VHS were the most effective ways of watching past media, to preserving, protecting, revising, challenging, sharing, debating, dismantling, recreating, and extolling the twenty-six seasons of this program. Not only was this a major factor in why the series ultimately returned, and to such popular acclaim, but it directly influenced the careers of dozens of these fans who went on to work as professional writers, actors, directors, producers, creatives, talent agents, and so on - many of them using those talents directly on Doctor Who. For someone of my generation seeking to better understand how these years unfolded, Cornell's book fits snugly around my desires.
Some of it is silly now, and some of it only makes sense if you have a synoptic understanding of those twenty-six years. But if so, this is the historical document for you.
When this book was first published in 1997, it seems there were negative reviews from some quarters. These were put down to Cornell's allegedly preferential treatment of whom he included, of presenting certain views of fandom, and just a general feeling that a book like this didn't present fans at their most erudite or intellectual. The thing is, twenty-five years later, this is exactly what I'm looking for. There are a few other books where writers have taken their own fanzine pieces and republished them with the aim of self-glorification. There are a couple of collections of fanzine writings that seek to present exactly that intellectual edge. (To be clear, most of these zines are long dead and punishingly unavailable online.) But Cornell was providing a snapshot of a key moment in the program's history, and it's as if he could imagine me in 2022 lapping this up.
The show's "wilderness years" (1990 - 2004) are exactly the period of my interest, a time after the already publicly-dismissed program was cancelled (well, "rested") and before it returned to mainstream attention. Fans committed themselves, in those heady days when the internet was a novel way of communicating and shoddy copies of old episodes on VHS were the most effective ways of watching past media, to preserving, protecting, revising, challenging, sharing, debating, dismantling, recreating, and extolling the twenty-six seasons of this program. Not only was this a major factor in why the series ultimately returned, and to such popular acclaim, but it directly influenced the careers of dozens of these fans who went on to work as professional writers, actors, directors, producers, creatives, talent agents, and so on - many of them using those talents directly on Doctor Who. For someone of my generation seeking to better understand how these years unfolded, Cornell's book fits snugly around my desires.
Some of it is silly now, and some of it only makes sense if you have a synoptic understanding of those twenty-six years. But if so, this is the historical document for you.
June 17, 2010
Nicely-chosen anthology of pieces from various fan-produced magazines devoted to Doctor Who.
September 5, 2013
If you are interested in this book its probably because you are in it.
December 18, 2018
Recently I read Licence Denied: Rumblings from the Doctor Who Underground by Paul Cornell and it has proven to be a rather interesting read. This book is a collection of writings by different fans of the show, primarily from the end of the original series in 1989 to 1996 when the tv movie aired.
I found this book to be quite interesting, and some of the interviews really thought provoking. For example, in an interview with Tom Baker, he discusses how if a machine were to do the job of a number of people, putting them out of work and making them quite sad, is that machine really much good after all? With this, he talks about how he feels technological progress really should go more slowly as a result.
I also liked how this book wasn’t necessarily all positive about Doctor Who. A 1976 essay about the recently aired story The Deadly Assassin - a now beloved story - was hardly positive, criticizing how the story went against so much that had been previously established in the show’s history and making the previously god-like Time Lords seem somewhat more human.
Not all of the contributions to the book are as interesting however, such as one essay where the writer talks about the importance of various beverages - like hot chocolate, tea, and coffee - in television Doctor Who, which felt rather unnecessary.
Overall, this book was quite enjoyable, with only a few weak links. As a result, I definitely recommend reading this if you can get a copy.
I found this book to be quite interesting, and some of the interviews really thought provoking. For example, in an interview with Tom Baker, he discusses how if a machine were to do the job of a number of people, putting them out of work and making them quite sad, is that machine really much good after all? With this, he talks about how he feels technological progress really should go more slowly as a result.
I also liked how this book wasn’t necessarily all positive about Doctor Who. A 1976 essay about the recently aired story The Deadly Assassin - a now beloved story - was hardly positive, criticizing how the story went against so much that had been previously established in the show’s history and making the previously god-like Time Lords seem somewhat more human.
Not all of the contributions to the book are as interesting however, such as one essay where the writer talks about the importance of various beverages - like hot chocolate, tea, and coffee - in television Doctor Who, which felt rather unnecessary.
Overall, this book was quite enjoyable, with only a few weak links. As a result, I definitely recommend reading this if you can get a copy.
May 18, 2020
Theres some really interesting pieces on doctor who in this collection, many written by people who would go on to author doctor who books of their own. It's a shame the fan zines themselves are so inaccessible these days, but this book is a really great start if you're interested in 90a doctor who fandom and all that it entails
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October 21, 2007http://nhw.livejournal.com/913276.html[return][return]Published ten years ago, this is a compilation of the author's choice of interesting or remarkable writing from Doctor Who fanzines, mostly from the period between the show's cancellation in 1989 and the TV movie in 1996, with a few bits from before and after - most notably the infamous panning of The Deadly Assassin by the then president of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society from 1976. There is a certain amount of linking narrative from Paul himself - and having spent much of this weekend talking to him it's impossible not to hear his voice in my head as I read the words (even if it's ten years since he wrote them) - expressing his love for the programme and for fanzines as a genre. There are some lovely pieces - a great Tom Baker interview, a meditation on the place of tea and other hot beverages in the Whoniverse, some of the early analysis by Tat Wood that has culminated in the About Time books. There are some other bit I could happily leave, but that is fanzine writing for you.[return][return]I was a bit surprised that there was no discussion at all of fan fiction, which even in my limited teenage excursions into Doctor Who fanzines was clearly a large part of the subculture, and almost no mention of the internet - Kate Orman, daringly, gives a web address. Fandom was very definitely on-line by this date - indeed, it didn't take much googling to find a usenet discussion of a review of this very book - and while I appreciate that the best bits of the written record were certainly still in hard copy fanzine, it's odd to find the internet so absent from the discussion.[return][return]Anyway, it's a book of its time, and will be of interest to people concerned with the changing (and unchanging) nature of fandom.
August 18, 2011
Uneven but occasionally intriguing collection of fanzine essays dating from the 70s to the 90's.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews