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tvmigraine · 9 months

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FORGOTTEN LIVES: Graeme Harper

Before we begin! Remember to get a copy of the Forgotten Lives Omnibus at this link! We're six Doctors in now, if you're interested, then preorder at the link before the end of August - that's only a few more days!

One Doctor is down for the day, we're onto the Doctor I shamelessly admit to find the most fascinating. By this point we've started in a supernatural world and taken a walk back into stories like we'd expect from Doctor Who, returning to sci-fi. Aditya Bidikar takes us back to the fantasy genre that the Barry Doctor started us in through more than just the setting, but through a Doctor that walks in the realm of fables and grandiose concepts... and comic books.

Graeme Harper (1945) is currently the one and only director for Modern and New Series Doctor Who. With his earliest credits being The Caves of Androzani and Revelation of the Daleks before returning for the RTD era for events like Rise of the Cybermen / The Age of Steel and The Stolen Earth / Journey's End, no doubt we're all familiar with their work in some way.

Aditya Bidikar brings a unique side of the Doctor out, I'd argue one of the more standout incarnations overall. While still noticeably and clearly the Doctor, there is a presence that I haven't seen since Sylvester McCoy's portrayal. The Harper Doctor very well may be the other side of the coin that McCoy portrayed - where one is a dark trickster in an unsuspecting from, the other is a wanderer in the unknown that marvels at every step. The pair are the only Doctors that I could picture being able to talk to higher concepts such as Death, which both incarnations prove to do.

While I've focused a lot on the main authors in these posts, I have to give great credit to Cody Schnell and their story - "Scene to Uncover" steps up to Bidikar's universe flawlessly, showing a moment we don't often get to see in Doctor Who while feeling right at home. They take full opportunity of the themes and fairy-tale like stories to paint their own fascinating glimpse of greater beings at work.

Even the TARDIS, designed as always by Paul Hanley, perfectly captures what this era could be. The darker blues and purples of the interior make it feel relaxed and cosy, while the library at the back could practically sum up this entire Doctor. Their adventures feel exactly like what "Forgotten Lives" should be, stories pulled off of a dusty shelf that haven't been read in so long that it's like you're experiencing them for the first time all over again.

One interesting note of design involves the Doctor's ambiguous gender. There are multiple references throughout their era about how this Doctor must be a man because they've got a beard (which may not be entirely accurate). Apart from just adding some well needed variety to the Morbius lineup and unwittingly making Graeme Harper a gender non-conforming icon for the book, this feels very in line with what could've been done at the time. Considering the disgusting reaction that Jodie Whittaker's debut as the Doctor caused from certain corners of the internet, having a woman debut as the Doctor over sixty years ago could've led to an equally gross reaction. One way that it might've been worked around is by simply implying the Doctor had become a woman while presenting as a man, an implication carrying a hundred words and a dozen queer readings as a result (I personally love how older media would get around harsher reactions by simply implying what they wanted, so this detail grabbed my interest quick).

Graeme Harper was a fun roadbump when it came to the Morbius Doctors as his photos wasn't taken with everybody else, instead being retrieved from elsewhere. What went into designing this Doctor is too much for me to shorten and sum up in a single post - Paul Hanley managed to crack the long standing mystery of where Harper's Morbius photo originally came from and you can find that in his post detailing how he made the outfit. Of course, the outfit of this Doctor would've ended up quite different if they had used the one in the actual photo - an Adjudicator costume. So instead, Paul Hanley had the unique chance to design his own outfit befitting of this Doctor specifically. This, of course, leading to the ultimate addition to an outfit - a psychic beard.

For more insight into the creative process of every author that worked on Forgotten Lives, you can go to @forgottenlivesobverse and find interviews from everyone involved across the books. If you're looking for the incredible journey of finding an obscure photo of Graeme Harper, you can go to Paul Hanley's Patreon and find what went into designing each Doctor.

Prepare to watch the Doctor embrace the birth of the known universe and choose to go against Death itself in the following stories.

VALHALLA MUST FALL! by Aditya Bidikar

IN THE LAND BEYOND THE RIVER by Aditya Bidikar

RETROGENESIS (Part Six) by Philip Purser-Hallard

SCENE TO UNCOVER by Cody Schnell

Our next Doctor will be Robert Holmes, with a series of stories that best shows how cruel the Time Lords can really be when they want to. Enjoy a darker period of the Doctor's life when we dive into this next time!

#forgotten lives obverse #forgotten lives #obverse books #doctor who #the brain of morbius #graeme harper

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statementlou · 2 years

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But how could it be Covid when the other shows aren’t postponed? Covid doesn’t just last one day…

I can only assume people have been getting COVID and taking time off here and there throughout while someone fills in for them (even with just the most visible/protected people, the band, we've seen some unexplained brief disappearances). Maybe in this particular case, they actually had enough of a personnel issue they had to postpone but they intend to get back up to speed by hiring other people by the next show?? I VERY MUCH agree that COVID should require a lot longer off but I assume they are taking full advantage of the letter of the CDC guidelines 💀 and allowing workers the bare minimum of time off (5 days max). I mean WHO KNOWS but I object strongly to people being like LOL as if all these cancellations would be COVID HOW SILLY like... guys. The simplest explanation here is not a vast conspiracy where every musician in the world plotted on their shared group chat to somehow get their teams of dozens, hundreds, to cancel shows worth millions, thereby threatening their own standing in the industry and relationship with venues and local teams and on and on and on by being unreliable, plus personally losing huge amounts of money (and they aren't all Harry who can wave that off).

And I really don't see the vast profit driven machine that is Harry's apparatus being like, oh yes a protest let's do that! For sure! Nor does Harry himself refusing to play in the name of protest, pitting himself against his team and label like OH YEAH FIGHT ME I REFUSE TO PLAY, seem even vaguely credible to me.

#blah blah blah

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