Don’t Know What You’ve Got Till It’s Gone

Yesterday I heard that Country & Western legend Glen Campbell has announced he’s in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, and that he’s embarking on a farewell tour. Now, I can’t say I’m all that familiar with his work (although I have loudly sung Rhinestone Cowboy in the past), but the news still hit me somehow. Maybe it’s because the situation is similar to Terry Pratchett’s, an exceptionally talented man facing an incredibly cruel and monstrous disease.

Meanwhile, Doctor Who Magazine has published its tribute to Nicholas Courtney, and is preparing a tribute to Elisabeth Sladen. They were two giants in the DW community and their passing has hit hard, a mixture of sadness and shock and regrets at what could have been.

So it was nice to see Twitter celebrating Ray Harryhausen’s 91st birthday yesterday, acknowledging his contribution to filmmaking and our childhoods while he’s around to know how much he’s appreciated. I vividly remember the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts, and the steampunk owl from Clash of the Titans, and so it’s nice to acknowledge Harryhausen, especially when modern CGI can sometimes be so lifeless.

It’s part of a wider issue, I think: you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, as Joni Mitchell sang. I guess it’s an impetus to never leave anything unsaid, to keep in touch with the friends you’ve been seeing less and less, to ask and give forgiveness before the chance is gone forever. I’ve been in that situation and it’s still a lingering regret, even if deep down I know the unspoken thoughts would have remained that way. Sometimes you don’t get to say goodbye; best to say and do all the other things instead.

Just in case.

Reverse the Polarity! Jon Pertwee and the Third Doctor #doctorwho

Doctor Who Magazine has tweeted that today is the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Jon Pertwee, the Third Doctor. Thinking back, I remember the news breaking; certainly I remember someone at the BBC being thoughtful enough to dedicate the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie to Jon, fitting because elements of it owed a lot to the Pertwee years.

I’ve mentioned here before, probably to the point of boredom, that I got into Doctor Who through the novelisations. I’d figured out that there were various Doctors, and Jon became my favourite. I think that was due to the set-up of his era; the Third Doctor had been exiled to Earth, the TARDIS disabled, and so the aliens were always coming to contemporary Britain. As a sci-fi heretic, I always preferred that; alien invasions of an unknown planet or a spandex-clad future have never interested me as much as when the monsters are stalking modern council estates or familiar histories, looming out of the fog in Victorian London. Same goes for Jon, who one said that a Yeti is scarier if you find it in a loo in Tooting Beck.

The Third Doctor was the action hero, getting involved in car chases and martial arts, something that you can’t imagine either of his predecessors doing. This was backed up by his supporting cast; the Doctor ended up working for the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, the UN’s response to all those alien invasions, and so there was plenty of running and shooting. There’s an element of nuWho that seems to be reacting against this, and I’m not sure I like it; sure, the Doctor should be against brainless militarism, but I can’t help reading it as a dig at the Third Doctor and the Brigadier (who I wrote about here). The writers don’t intend it like that, I just get a bit defensive of my favourite characters.

Oh, and anyone who talks about loving nuWho because of the Doctor’s almost-romantic relationship with his friends should watch the end of ‘The Green Death’, where sidekick Jo leaves to marry someone who’s basically a younger version of the Doctor; tell me the Third Doctor wasn’t in love with her. It was just more unrequited and stiff-upper-lip in those days.

Jon’s tenure of the Doctor was bound up with two other characters/actors who passed away this year: as mentioned earlier, there was the Brigadier, played by Nicholas Courtney, and Elisabeth Sladen’s Sarah Jane Smith, introduced in the Pertwee era before going on to become the defing companion of the Tom Baker years; heck, the defining companion of all time. Seventies Who has taken a beating this year, and it doesn’t seem right remembering Jon and not Nick and Lis as well.

In some ways the Third Doctor was my Doctor, even though he left before I was even born, and Jon’s love and commitment to the role meant that he became one of the best ambassadors the show has ever had. Somewhere out there in British pop culture, UNIT is still fighting the monsters and it’s the Third Doctor who is leading the charge.

Thank you Jon.

Nicholas Courtney 1929-2011

I’ve probably mentioned this before, but I didn’t become a Doctor Who fan through the TV series, at least not at first. No, I came to the show through the novelisations that lined the shelves of my local library, and later my own collection. Because of this, I’ve got fond memories of stories and characters that were shown on TV long before I was born. Chief among these was Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, commanding officer of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.

Some Doctor Who history. Back when Jon Pertwee took on the lead role it was decided to revamp the series. The Doctor was exiled to contemporary Earth and found himself working for UNIT, a branch of the military dedicated to tackling alien invasions. His boss was Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, making a full-time return after a couple of guest appearances in the Patrick Troughton era. The character became a favourite of mine, and so, when I started watching videos and repeats, I focused on the Pertwee ers outwards. That’s when I discovered Nicholas Courtney’s portrayal of the Brigadier and, several years down the road, why waking up to hear of his passing was so sad.

I never met him, not being much of a convention goer, but it’s clear from those who did just how loved and respected he was, practically an honourary Doctor in his dedication to the show and its fans. So much so that he’s been trending on Twitter today, not just in the UK (which would be understandable) but worldwide – that’s a heck of a tribute and one that, I confess, brought a lump to my throat.

(And, I guess, it’s a testament to fandom and its extended community – sure it’s often virtual and strange and dysfunctional and hard to define but it is a community; that’s why, when David Tennant’s mom died, Fans were almost immediately raising money for her hospice, why we call actors we’ve never met Matt and Karen and Nick, and why Mr. Courtney trended today throughout the world, alongside Bieber’s haircut.)

So why the popularity? Part of it is his place in geek culture, fandom’s kindly grandfather (compared to Tom Baker’s crazy old uncle). Part of it is how he could make the Brigadier so loveable, even when the character made some dubious decisions.

But. I think a lot of it is in Nick’s portrayal of the sort of man who is present at every major conflict: the charismatic leader, fearless in battle, who’d never ask his troops to do something he wasn’t prepared to do himself. Doctor Who’s relationship with the military has always been ambiguous – maybe even hypocritical – but somehow The Brigadier rose above all that, Nick playing him as a very British archetype, brave, honourable, chivalrous, stiff-upper-lip (that’s something that gets to me – yes, I shed a tear at The King’s Speech).

And so when, in the 1989 story ‘Battlefield’, all about Arthurian myths, sleeping heroes and the futility of war, the Brigadier delivers a line that, in retrospect, is a great epitath for the character and for Nick. The Brigadier is facing the Destroyer, an armoured demon-like creature come to bring war to the Earth. Only an old soldier stands in his way. The Destroyer sneers: “Can this world do no better than you for its champion?”

“Probably,” replies the Brigadier. “I just do the best I can.”

Rest in Peace, Sir Alistair.

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RIP Dwayne and Nick

There’ll be proper tributes later today but just for now, rest in peace Dwayne McDuffie and Nicholas Courtney. It’s been a rough 24 hours for the geek community…

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