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As a Wilderness years fan who found out about the older episodes largely through reading DWM and the large format illustrated guide books, sometimes the details or even misinformation of a given story would lead me to imagining a vastly different story to the one I eventually watched.
When I read the archive for Attack of the Cybermen, before I saw either that or Resurrection, I got a very different impression of Lytton and his story arc. I thought he was actually meant to be a Dalek duplicate trying to rediscover his humanity, and had somehow been vulnerable to being taken in by the story's criminal gang rather than spearheading it. And that the Doctor misjudged him because he assumed he would either always be a Dalek agent, or a criminal. And in that light it seemed fitting and poignant that he ended the story nearly converted into a soulless Cyberman and that the Doctor realized too late he was wrong.
I also remember seeing a picture from Resurrection of the Daleks of the two Daleks destroyed by the Movellan virus by Davros in his laboratory. And I actually assumed this was early in the story and that Davros had done this as a ruthless demonstration to the Daleks who revived him of the consequences of disobeying him. I remember thinking that would've been very in-character and would've been a cool way of showing his nastiness.
The A-Z of Doctor Who gave me a slightly different impression of Warriors of the Deep too. As it mentioned the use of the Silurians and Sea Devils in a Cold War parable. And what I imagined is that this would actually be the Silurians vs the Sea Devils, and set entirely in their domed underwater colonies (I imagined them having a very orange-apple-green coral/shell fin look) with both the marginalized underwater races in conflict with each other over the few bits of territory they had left (a poignant idea of an oppressed people coming to turn on each other), and the Doctor having to mediate peace between them. I didn't know how it would end but I liked to assume it would end with some small peace achieved as a small, belated recompense for the end of the Pertwee stories.
Also, sometimes in the writings of the controversy over the Sixth Doctor, sometimes things got really blurred and confused. When listing the controversial moments of sadistic violence that season, and of the Doctor's violent behavior, when it mentioned Lytton getting his hands crushed,.... because I recall a picture of the Doctor holding a cybernized Lytton's hand I kid you not, I assumed they meant it was something the Sixth Doctor had decided to do to Lytton in a fit of sadism , out of the blue during that scene.
I'm not quite sure why I thought that, but I think I was so inundated with those guide books that I'd assumed it was just like the fanservice moment Steve Lyons described in The Completely Useless Encyclopedia in Keeper of Traken where Tom Baker actually has to lift Nyssa's dress when the wind effect couldn't achieve it.
Anyhow, were there any instances for you were DWM promotional details or misinformation caused you to imagine a story you'd yet to see vastly differently?
When I read the archive for Attack of the Cybermen, before I saw either that or Resurrection, I got a very different impression of Lytton and his story arc. I thought he was actually meant to be a Dalek duplicate trying to rediscover his humanity, and had somehow been vulnerable to being taken in by the story's criminal gang rather than spearheading it. And that the Doctor misjudged him because he assumed he would either always be a Dalek agent, or a criminal. And in that light it seemed fitting and poignant that he ended the story nearly converted into a soulless Cyberman and that the Doctor realized too late he was wrong.
I also remember seeing a picture from Resurrection of the Daleks of the two Daleks destroyed by the Movellan virus by Davros in his laboratory. And I actually assumed this was early in the story and that Davros had done this as a ruthless demonstration to the Daleks who revived him of the consequences of disobeying him. I remember thinking that would've been very in-character and would've been a cool way of showing his nastiness.
The A-Z of Doctor Who gave me a slightly different impression of Warriors of the Deep too. As it mentioned the use of the Silurians and Sea Devils in a Cold War parable. And what I imagined is that this would actually be the Silurians vs the Sea Devils, and set entirely in their domed underwater colonies (I imagined them having a very orange-apple-green coral/shell fin look) with both the marginalized underwater races in conflict with each other over the few bits of territory they had left (a poignant idea of an oppressed people coming to turn on each other), and the Doctor having to mediate peace between them. I didn't know how it would end but I liked to assume it would end with some small peace achieved as a small, belated recompense for the end of the Pertwee stories.
Also, sometimes in the writings of the controversy over the Sixth Doctor, sometimes things got really blurred and confused. When listing the controversial moments of sadistic violence that season, and of the Doctor's violent behavior, when it mentioned Lytton getting his hands crushed,.... because I recall a picture of the Doctor holding a cybernized Lytton's hand I kid you not, I assumed they meant it was something the Sixth Doctor had decided to do to Lytton in a fit of sadism , out of the blue during that scene.
I'm not quite sure why I thought that, but I think I was so inundated with those guide books that I'd assumed it was just like the fanservice moment Steve Lyons described in The Completely Useless Encyclopedia in Keeper of Traken where Tom Baker actually has to lift Nyssa's dress when the wind effect couldn't achieve it.
Anyhow, were there any instances for you were DWM promotional details or misinformation caused you to imagine a story you'd yet to see vastly differently?
