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I envy you. So that was about 1987, no? I remember thinking it was odd that they where still going so full blown to promote it in the US while the BBC 1 controller was doing everything he could to kill the show in the UK. In fact 1987 was the year the PBS in Oklahoma finally dropped it because the new reduced 14 episodes seasons where just not worth the price they where asking.

Hey and you actually got to sit in Bessie before Sylvestor McCoy's rear landed in it in 1989's BATTLEFIELD! I wouldn't be surprised if Pertwee was on the tour too, the best I recall he finagled his Dr Who contracts so both Bessie and Alien (the Whomobile) wound up as his own personal property when he left the show.

I've only managed to go to one proper Dr Who convention in my life...in 1986 in Florida... but what a line up it had; Colin Baker, JNT (and his life partner Gary Downing... whose name you may recognize as production designer on at least two 80's Whos) , Nicholas Courtney, Ian Marter, Richard Franklin and John Levene (all the UNIT regulars!). I was a shy 11 or 12 year old at the time so I did not mingle much, but I was really impressed about the relaxed atmosphere. Unlike the Star Trek convention I had been to up to that time the Dr Who stars could regularly be found lounging around the hotel pool or lobby and always ready to entertain the fans. Heck they did not even charge for autographs in that simpler age!

The Pinnacle Press books got me through my otherwise Doctor Who less 4th and 5th grades in Saudi Arabia. Only when I came back to the US in the mist of the mid-80's american Dr Who boom did I realize the where reprints of a long running series of novelizations from Britain's TARGET books that ended up covering nearly every episode (For various legal reasons, only the Douglas Adams scripts and one or two Eric Saward scripted shows were never adapted).

A handful of the books made it into a Japanese series of Sci-Fi paperbacks in the early 80's and I sure hope I can re-locate some of the amazing illustrations from them I have seen over the net and post them here. There some sumptious cover and inside cover overleaf color paitnings and some spledid pen and ink illustrations. The TARDIS is rendered as a regular British red public phone booth, the First Doctor (william Hartnell) is drawn as a tall, ominous Christorpher Lee type and the female companions are far more attractive than they ever where on TV!

Thanks for posting those Kolchak! Both those Japanese covers are gorgeous and have frequently served as desktop wallpaper fpr me in the past and shall now again thanks to you! The finnish cover is pretty darn interesting too!

Lucky me, the Oklahoma and Seattle area (Tacoma's) PBS had always shown them in episodic format, but I saw most of the Hartnell, Troughtons and Sylvester McCoy shows in the omnibus form taped for me from by a sister in denver. Especially with the creekier old black and whites it can be quite a detriment... sad to say SEEDS OF DOOM put me to sleep more than once before I ever managed to get through it all. Plays MUCH better in 25 minute bites!

It was quite fun finally seeing where all the episode breaks in the McCoy years and I was at how way off my guesses for some of them had been on some of them. Oddly enough CURSE OF FENRIC seemed to play a lot better in the omnibus version to me and I guess I was not alone as the DVD offers a spuced up special edition in a movie format! It's pretty darn cool!

Up untill BBC World Wide stopped renewing contracts for the classic show last year (in hopes of selling it and the new series to a major US cable network), Tacoma's PBS perpetually played two episodes at 7pm Saturday nights with a midnight repeat, showing all the extant episodes over and over... it was one of the reasons I moved to Seattle!!

Now that the new series has an American home and the classic series was not part of the deal, I sure hope they start offering it again for syndication. If the new show is a hit for Sci-Fi maybe even PBS that haven't played Dr Who since the 80's would be interested again!

I always love hearing eyewitness accounts of Dr Who convention shenanigans!

Speaking of classy people who died to soon, I heared a story of Anthony Ainly actually helping fans out carrying their luggage as they arrived at the hotel! I read he gave Tom Baker a run for his money for being an eccentric. I wish I could had met him.

It was doubly sad when he died (I think it was in 2004) as no press or even the BBCi WHO website took any notice. But I guess he was always publicity shy.

Ainly is pretty subtly scary as the bad egg of U-Boat crew in Amicus' LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. It's a shame he was too often (and apparently on JNT's insistance) directed to camp it up as The Master. In case you have never seen it, he gives an almost completely different performance in SURVIVAL (the very last episode of the original series to be broadcast). Very creepy! If he had been able to play the Master like that throughout his tenure he would have really given Delgado a run for his money as my favorite Master.