What If? (feature)

What If? was a piece of fiction with a collection of accompanying images published in Doctor Who Magazine. It explicitly depicted a "what if?", almost unbound situation, showing what a potential world with a different Eighth Doctor was like.

It also showed the set up to the Eighth Doctor’s tenure by depicting the final days of the Seventh Doctor. This feature uses a blend of planned content for the future of Doctor Who and completely made up stuff to create a meta-fictional world.

The title “what if” confirms the idea this is set in a world different to our own. The main illustration doesn’t depict a scene from a planned unproduced story, but instead shows a view into new story named The Last of the Daleks.

While some illustrations were completely in-universe the feature itself was completely meta-fictional. In the same vain as The Thief of Sherwood. The world this takes place is very similar to that of Deadline.

This feature is followed by a non-fiction piece called “27 Up”. Some illustrations of “What If?” are placed on those pages. Those illustrations are covered here, but the non fiction article is not.

Synopsis
Having survived Survival, Doctor Who’s fortunes took an upward turn in the early nineties. Here Dave Owen refreshes our memories of those great days…

The Last of the Daleks
The Eighth Doctor and companion Kate are surrounded by Daleks. The Eighth Doctor stands proud and protective of his friend while hope is lost. Daleks on hoverbouts appear at the edge of the ship.

Feature
Dave Owen tells readers how close Doctor Who came close to cancellation and the show was lucky to continue airing until the 30th anniversary. The latest two season defined the series and without them the show may have been cancelled after Survival with viewers left wanting more as well as audiences being deprived of the crucial story The Last of the Daleks: Part One which the Eighth Doctor and Kate find themselves surrounded by Daleks.

Owen takes us back into the Seventh Doctor era of the nineties. Michael Checkland and John Birt are business minded BBC executives who are seen as what is wrong with British broadcasting in the nineties by corporation employees and rival broadcasters. Yet it was cost politics that persuaded Jonathan Powell to continue Doctor Who for one more year. Even though it was performing poorly to the likes of Coronation Street and cost lost to make, the series paid for itself with merchandise and overseas sales.

Season 27 captured the public’s imagination, but its roots can be found in the failures and successes of the previous two years. The production team realised the Doctor and young female companion was a winning formula, as well as the design of the sets in stories set in the past bringing out the best in the BBC and exploring the dark side of human nature is a safe option without being compared to blockbuster science-fiction films.

Ben Aaronovitch’s three part Earth Aid became the norm with more stories being action based space operas in the Douglas Adams mould. This story’s pre-title sequence got the series’ fourth decade off to a memorable start. Featuring space pirates, the theme of events being in motion before the Doctor got there (with the Doctor having built Stonehenge to send a message) and a data vampire. There were apparently too many themes to fit into three parts.

The insectoid Metaraxi, made by Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel for the unmade version of The Ultimate Adventure, made their debut and their military honour was mocked in a Monty Python way.

Illustration
Julia Sawalha as Kate Tollinger at her Hammersmith Park photocall.

Marc Platt, who penned Ghost Light, penned Ice Time which was like Remembrance of the Daleks as it has two factions of a classic race fighting. This time the Ice Warriors. They battled in sixties London. The story introduced bearded Tom Georgeson as young Sam Tollinger who became a familiar face in Doctor Who. Ice Time saw the departure of Sophie Aldred as Ace.

Ice Time continued directly into Crime of the Century and was the second story by Ben Aaronovitch. An aged Sam Collinger requests the help of the Seventh Doctor when he gets into trouble. This story had drug smuggling, sieges and near enough no science fiction. It was directed by Alan Wareing who made it look like the series Edge of Darkness. Crime of the Century was as significant as Spearhead from Space. It introduced new companion, daughter of Sam Collinger, Kate Collinger. She was a safecracker and lock picker. Her mansion house served as base for the Seventh Doctor where he met new contacts.

Since Survival, Doctor Who had become more realistic taking inspiration from The Bill, Casualty and London’s Burning. Sam Tollinger we’re very nineties characters and reflected real people with real problems. Kate was a little less realistic because of her experience in a Swiss school, rather than Prydonian. Due to her mix of posh and crime she was called the Emma Peel of the nineties by the press. This was thought to be a harmless cliché.

The final story Alixion was written by Robert Mukherjee. Despite it being basic, with numerous chases down corridors on the titular asteroid Alixion, it was considered the darkest story of the year. Bob Monkhouse played a villain, despite that not being his usual field, known as the Manager.

Alixion was the final story to feature Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor. John Nathan-Turner and Andrew Cartmel departed the series to make adaptations of Derek Tanguye novels.

to be added

Title sequence
The Eighth Doctor is depicted in his title sequence.

Magazine
The Eighth Doctor graces the cover of Doctor Who Magazine.

The Other Eighth Doctor
An in character shot depicting Richard Griffiths as the Doctor.

Network
The VHS cover of Network starring Richard Griffiths as the Doctor and Kate O'Mara as the Rani.

New Companion Kate
An in character shot Julia Sawalha as Kate sitting her safecracking exam.

The Doctor

 * Eighth Doctor
 * Seventh Doctor

Companions

 * Kate Tollinger
 * Ace

Other individuals

 * Sam Tollinger
 * The Rani
 * The Manager

Species

 * The Daleks
 * Metaraxi
 * Ice Warriors

Meta-fictional

 * Dave Owen
 * Michael Checkland
 * John Birt
 * Jonathan Powell
 * Ben Aaronovitch
 * Douglas Adams
 * Andrew Cartmel
 * Julia Sawalha
 * Marc Platt
 * Tom Georgeson
 * Sophie Aldred
 * Alan Wareing
 * Robert Mukherjee
 * Bob Monkhouse
 * Sylvester McCoy
 * John Nathan-Turner
 * Derek Tanguye

The Doctor

 * The Eighth Doctor wears red and pink neckwear.
 * The Eighth Doctor wears a question mark pocket watch.

Doctor Who

 * Doctor Who episodes include Survival, The Last of the Daleks
 * Dave Owen states Doctor Who came close to cancellation in the nineties.
 * Doctor Who continued past its 30th anniversary.

Production

 * Michael Checkland and John Birt are BBC executives.

Continuity
Another Eighth Doctor also exists. (TV: Doctor Who)