EDITORIAL

The year definitely got off to an auspicious start for us, with a completely unexpected appearance by Fortean Times in the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who! While we were extremely chuffed, it turned out that it wasn’t the good Doctor but none other than (SPOILER ALERT!) the Master – evil Time Lord and nemesis of the Doctor for decades – who not only reads FT but owns a complete set of back issues “in mint condition”.

A screen grab provided by another FT reader shows that the issue on display in the episode is FT68, from way back in April 1993. Opening a copy now (yes, like the Master, we have a complete collection, though not necessarily in mint condition) transports us to another fortean country, where some things were certainly done differently. The editorial page includes youthful-looking photographs of Bob Rickard and Paul Sieveking. The cover story was ‘Cattle Mutilations in America’. Other topics included a horseripping epidemic in the home counties, fortean phenomena in the Philippines, the orgasminducing Russian faith healer Boris Zolotov, airborne manhole covers, Siamese twins, the Croglin Vampire, the Angels of Mons, and the latest conspiracy theories (the Illuminati, the New World Order, Dulce, Nazi cloning experiments!). John Michell surveyed 1992’s harvest of crop circles, Robert Anton Wilson had a pop at the dogmatic ‘religious’ fervour of ‘skeptics’ and Brian Inglis considered the tangibility of apparitions; sadly, none of these esteemed contributors is with us 27 years later. One might say the same about crop circles as a fortean topic, although militant ‘skeptics’ have demonstrated greater longevity.

As well as providing a window onto a vanished fortean world, the appearance of a vintage copy of FT in Doctor Who provoked an interesting and paradoxical discussion on Twitter. @paradbase asked: “I assume there has been at least one article about Doctor Who in FT, so does that mean there isa Doctor Who TV series in the Doctor Who universe?!”

Of course, in FT318 (Sept 2014), Paul Cornell looked back at the long history of fortean themes in the series. So, the answer is yes...

@SMClabby added: “I had a couple of letters published in FT, so does that mean I exist in the Doctor Who Universe?” We can only suppose that we must all now exist in the Doctor Who universe... and have done for some time... Meanwhile, if you were expecting to find Paul Sieveking’s reminiscence of his decades as FT’s newsman in this issue, don’t worry – it will be appearing next time.

ERRATA

FT384:28: Rachel Hazard noticed a geographical error in the caption below the photo of the Little AleInn – Rachel is in Nevada, not New Mexico.

FT386:21: This issue’s MythConception should have been called ‘Can You Smell Burning?”, but instead bore the title ‘Blue Blood’. This was an unintentional repeat from MythCon 326 in FT379.

FT386:26: Paul Mathewson corrected us on a point of RAF history: “In Jenny Randles’s excellent UFO casebook story relating to the RAF Javelin encounter in 1956 she refers to the 46th Squadron. The former Royal Flying Corps Squadron with a proud history is in fact 46 Squadron; a small mistake but one which I couldn’t let go.”

BOB RICKARD

DAVID R SUTTON