On Sad Dreams

I remember one of my dreams from last night. It was so vivid, and I was so happy in the dream…

…and now, when thinking about it, the dream only makes me sad.

I was in a store. I was looking at their DVD section.

And they had Doctor Who‘s “Evil of the Daleks” on DVD.

The Patrick Troughton story! The seven-parter! The Dalek Emperor and “the final end” of the Daleks!

And the cover! It was fabulous. Troughton, the Dalek Emperor, Jamie and Victoria, a whole raft of Daleks. Sort of like the cover on the BBC Audio release of the story, but not.

I bought it. I bought “Evil of the Daleks.”

I bought something else, too, but I have no idea what it was.

But there, in my dream, I bought “Evil of the Daleks.” On DVD.

What’s so sad about this dream?

Only the second episode of “Evil of the Daleks” exists today. There are audio tracks for the entire story, and I own the BBC Audio release of “Evil,” but release of the entire seven-parter on DVD? Impossible.

Which is what made me sad. That I bought something I can never, ever have.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

10 thoughts on “On Sad Dreams

  1. Heehee, that’s adorable. I was expecting something really dramatic or heartfelt. Not that this isn’t, but it’s totally like an episode of “Coupling.”

  2. My version of that dream would involve The Daleks’ Master Plan, if only for the return of The Time Meddler.

    And keeping up the Moffat references: Wouldn’t it be great if he wrote an episode with the Meddler (regenerated, of course)?

    Almost certainly won’t happen given RTD’s destruction of the Time Lords, but it is another nice dream.

  3. Oh, I’d love to see a return of Daleks’ Master-Plan. 🙂

    There’s a Past Doctor Adventure with the Meddling Monk I’d love to tell. There are, of course, major hitches in telling the story — namely, there’s no market for it right now.

    And also, the Meddling Monk, like the Daleks, is one of those characters you can’t just use. I know of at least two writers who have wanted to use the Monk in Big Finish Short Trips volumes, and they haven’t been able to.

    So, it’s an idea, in the files.

    The only thing I’ll say about it, though, is this — it would be a second Doctor versus the Monk story. Because I think they’d get along fantastically well. 🙂

    As for the new series using the Monk, I was one of those who thought that Harold Saxon would be the Meddling Monk. You look at that name, and it conjures up the events of “The Time Meddler.” King Harold, the Saxons, it all fit.

    Oh, well.

    I’m not sure who I’d cast as the Monk. Rik Mayall, maybe.

  4. I don’t know that my story would have been the “most delicious cake ever,” but I appreciate the thought. 🙂

    The Moffat comparisons, by the way, began here; my editor on “The Spindle of Necessity” compared the story to Moffat’s “Continuity Errors.” And now my dreams are being compared to Coupling. Good times, good times. 😆

  5. Well, it had a good set of ingredients at least 🙂

    I’ve just glanced at the first page of “Continuity Errors”, it rings a bell (a rather nice one, probably made out of crystal, and certainly not a dire warning from the Cloisters).

    I think I’ll just pop Decalog 3 on top of my “To read” pile.

    As for dreams and Coupling, all we need now is for the Doctor to find himself trapped in a small village which has a car wash staffed entirely by nurses and policewomen.

  6. Thanks now i realise i am not sad after all, i await the advent of technology to animate and clutch my Loose Cannon recon dvds just one word escapes my twisted mouth ‘preciousss!’

  7. Captain Lockheed, a few years ago I thought about putting together a proposal for a Short Trips anthology. It was a cool concept, one somewhat along the lines of (and predating by a good little bit) literary mash-ups like Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, but Big Finish dropped the anthology license, so this Short Trips idea never very far beyond the “Wouldn’t this be awesome if…?” and a two-page “bible” I wrote for the concept.

    One of the ideas in the “bible” was for a story involving the Ice Warriors and Professor X. The basic idea was that in the 1960s, instead of Whoniverse kids watching Doctor Who, they watched Professor X instead. And, just as our BBC junked Doctor Who episodes from the 1960s, Whoniverse BBC junked episodes of Professor X. But unlike our Mars, the Whoniverse Mars was inhabited by the Ice Warriors.

    And a particularly sad group of Professor X fans hoped that the Ice Warriors (or at least their technology) were monitoring Earth radio transmissions in the 1960s and, perhaps, recording them. Perhaps, these Professor X fans thought, the Ice Warriors had recordings of the junked Professor X episodes. Perhaps they would be able to see, at last, the lost “Evil of the Ladeks.” 🙂

    I didn’t want to write this story myself. It’s not in my wheelhouse. It needs a light, comedic touch, and I don’t think I’m light or comedic. But I threw the idea out there, in the “bible,” in case one of the authors I was going to pitch the anthology to were interested in running with the premise.

    Too bad our Mars isn’t inhabited. Perhaps our Martians would have recorded “Evil of the Daleks” for us… 😉

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