Peel’s Generic Doctor is apparently Pertwee, with Sam defaulting smoothly to Jo Grant. And so with a book in which he’s stuck with an ambiguously characterized Doctor and a new companion he makes a harder swing to Generic Doctor than any previous book. First among them is the simple fact that Peel is not a great writer. Still, since this blog is written for a non-specialist audience, we may as well rehearse its flaws.
That War of the Daleks is a mind-wrenchingly awful book at least mostly goes without saying. While during this month, the Grey Lady goes color, and the BBC gets a new logo. In news, since we last checked in Steve Jobs returned to Apple, Princess Diana died, causing everyone in America to be inexplicably upset, Scotland voted to create its own parliament, as did Wales, and Mother Theresa died too. Answer: The Spice Girls, with “Spice Up Your Life.” The Backstreet Boys, Oasis, Will Smith, Janet Jackson, Aqua, and Chumbawumba also chart, the latter with an unabashed and straightforward execution of The Manual. Elton John is at number one with “Something About The Way You Look/Candle in the Wind ’97.” This gets at one of the news stories we’ll talk about in a moment, and raises the question of what could possibly unseat a cathartic tribute to Princess Diana from the charts.