Wednesday, March 18, 2009

What's wrong with unsinkable?

Speaking of Doctor Who: I did a search online for the Unofficial Harry Sullivan Fan Club, and nothing came up. Considering there are eight million factoids out there about eight million silly things, I feel duty bound to post on this subject, just in case any of my long-lost compatriots ever check for evidence of the club's existence.

Harry Sullivan was, of course, a companion of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor (who tended to call him things like "imbecile," but it wasn't really Harry's fault). The fan club was so old school, we used to get our information in THE MAIL. Always a treat, too. The club's leader was writing a novel about the adventures of Harry and Sarah Jane, post-Doctor, which I'd sure be curious to read today, especially now that Sarah has her own spin-off show. (I lost most of my related memorabilia in an unfortunate storage incident).

All I ever really contributed was badly-drawn cartoons of Daleks speaking Latin. Seemed like a good idea at the time...

The only place I've come across much Harry recently is in fan fiction slashing him over with Martha Jones. Inspired! After all, they're both doctors who worked for UNIT. Some of the stories have Martha time-traveling to Harry's youthful heyday, and others are set in the present, with him an older doctor I envision as something like the foxy Wedge (Denis Lawson as John Jarndyce) in Bleak House.

It occurs to me that I'm frequently either speaking gibberish about Doctor Who to the Bollywood viewers, or gibberish about Hindi films to everyone else. Thank goodness I know there's some crossover between the obsessives, or I'd feel even crazier than I do.

So if anyone out there does a search on "Unofficial Harry Sullivan Fan Club" (motto: "What's wrong with unsinkable?"), drop me a line. I still have the t-shirt!

2 comments:

a ppcc representative said...

The only Doctor Who I ever saw were Baker episodes which were broadcast at some ungodly hour (2am?) on PBS back in the 90s. For whatever reason, I would be up and I would always enjoy the slightly surreal tinge they gave an already surreal hour.

"foxy Wedge"? HELLO. You're speaking my language. I think we Wedge fetishists must number in the, what?, DOZENS globally, so it's a wonder we've found each other! Yay Wedge!

Anonymous said...

Well you posted this entry mentioning the Unofficial Harry Sullivan Fan Club a year ago so I'm not sure you'll even notice this note but... I was a member too! I just did a search and found your blog. My favorites among the fanfic was the series of stories continuing Nyssa's adventures with a new member of Buckaroo Banzai's team (DW/BB x-over) - it's been a while since I looked at them but I know where they are. I saw that yours are mia/lost in time, I could xerox [yes, I still live in the quasi-Dark Ages] these & send 'em to you if you want. LMK - rgebrite@lycos.com