Data Extract 105
Jun. 1st, 2005 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyTell you something that bugs me to this day.
I edited the Doctor Who Club of Australia's newsletter, Data Extract, for a couple of years in the mid nineties. My first issue was number 105. Before it came out, the outgoing editor, Dallas Jones, played a prank on me - he sent part of the readership a parody issue 105, all about Kate Orman. He even sent a copy to Virgin Publishing.
The problem was that a hell of a lot of people didn't realise it was a parody. There was no disclaimer, and it was done anonymously (there was a bit of a thing for anonymous joke zines in Sydney at the time). Virgin were bewildered - I was incredibly embarrassed and phoned them to explain. More than a few fans were outraged by what they thought was a massive piece of self-aggrandisement. Others were just confused, ringing a bookshop to ask about a non-existent signing by Sylvester McCoy.
AFAIK Dallas never owned up publicly. I did tell aggrieved fans privately who had perpetrated the lark, so the word must have got around. I'm not sure anyone believed me, though. I believe some DE readers cancelled their subscriptions in disgust. Talk about getting off on the wrong foot.
I'm wading through a lot of history as I work on stuff for Inside the TARDIS. I haven't thought about that joke DE 105 for ages, but there's still a trace of a bad taste in my mouth from it.
I edited the Doctor Who Club of Australia's newsletter, Data Extract, for a couple of years in the mid nineties. My first issue was number 105. Before it came out, the outgoing editor, Dallas Jones, played a prank on me - he sent part of the readership a parody issue 105, all about Kate Orman. He even sent a copy to Virgin Publishing.
The problem was that a hell of a lot of people didn't realise it was a parody. There was no disclaimer, and it was done anonymously (there was a bit of a thing for anonymous joke zines in Sydney at the time). Virgin were bewildered - I was incredibly embarrassed and phoned them to explain. More than a few fans were outraged by what they thought was a massive piece of self-aggrandisement. Others were just confused, ringing a bookshop to ask about a non-existent signing by Sylvester McCoy.
AFAIK Dallas never owned up publicly. I did tell aggrieved fans privately who had perpetrated the lark, so the word must have got around. I'm not sure anyone believed me, though. I believe some DE readers cancelled their subscriptions in disgust. Talk about getting off on the wrong foot.
I'm wading through a lot of history as I work on stuff for Inside the TARDIS. I haven't thought about that joke DE 105 for ages, but there's still a trace of a bad taste in my mouth from it.
