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Editorial

By Paul Scoones and Felicity Fletcher

This month, both TSV and I celebrate our birthdays. TSV is of mid-June four years old, and I'm turning 23, an age by which I swore I'd no longer be involved in Doctor Who fandom, when I gave up TSV after issue six. How times change!

Recently, TSV received a 'Double Gamma' award for the 'Best NZ Produced Doctor Who Fanzine'. The Double Gammas are Australasian awards run by Australian Doctor Who fandom, and in my opinion, the awards are not well organised. For instance, we received the award (an engraved medal), without any explanation as to why we'd won it! A short article on the Double Gamma awards will appear next issue.

Two months from now, and probably before TSV 24 comes out, ShadaCon is due to take place in Hamilton, run by the controversial Doctor Who Society. The organisers admit that there is still much fundraising needed if the event is to take place as planned, and with so little time left to them, it will be interesting to observe the outcome. [Note: It never took place.]

In the last year, a significant number of new Doctor Who clubs and zines have started up in this country - created by members of the NZDWFC. With the comparatively limited amount of material that can be derived from a static television show (as opposed to one in production), it remains to be seen how these new ventures will fare. Good luck to all those involved.

Ever since we took over the NZDWFC, we knew that it would happen some time this year, and now it has been confirmed - postal rates are to go up in July. A standard letter will now cost 45c. With the volume of mail that the club sends out, this represents a sizeable increase in expenditure. For this reason, we ask that if you want a reply to a letter (other than an order), please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. We recently received a few complaints regarding our failure to reply to letters - but the readers concerned had not sent an SSAE, even though I mentioned the need to send one in last issue's editorial. Please only send an SSAE if you actually want a reply to your letter though!

Lastly, I'd just like to apologise to anyone whose submission/s did not appear in this issue - if we'd included everything, weld have had an 80 page issue! Rest assured that what doesn't appear here has gone into the file marked 'TSV 24'.

Paul Scoones

On the subject of [New Zealand] fan fiction, Blake's 7 had Down and Unsafe, Star Trek had Katra, and now Doctor Who has Timestreams. Down and Unsafe started a number of years ago, and ran for at least 7 issues with the page count numbering up to at least 148. Katra has been similarly prolific. By contrast, New Zealand Doctor Who fan fiction is in its infancy, yet the programme has been around for longer, and has had far more episodes than either of the two series mentioned. I was interested in doing an article on the state of Doctor Who original fan fiction in New Zealand, however when I started thinking about it I realised how little has been produced. If anyone has any information or opinions on this topic, I would be interested in hearing from them, especially views on why so little is written and what might impel people to begin writing it.

Felicity Fletcher

This item appeared in TSV 23 (June 1991).