Entering the Dr. Who-volution: The Doctor Who/Fanger Plot Episodes

In 1981, I had immediately acquired my first crash course into social cliques. The rule for this in Alief was this: unless you somehow belonged to such a class, you weren't allowed liking the same things as the class. For instance, Doctor Who (now aired occasionally on the Sunday Channel 2 Movies) was now considered an exclusive-only item to the Aliefians. Meaning they felt only they had the privilege accessing it, and no commoner was permitted in viewing it. Worse than that, most of them were also the worst snoops, invading one's privacy for the sheer torture of it.

Jon Mitchelson had once gone through my private notebook and found a copy of the BBC-Oriented tale. Consequently, Jon had wasted no time trashing my work, stating Doctor Who was completely off-limits. (Hey, it was typical. I even had a guy scream my name was S***head, because we had the same nickname.) Adding insult to injury, Jon had claimed Fanger was too stupid to be anything but a Toon Companion.

Angered and embittered by the malicious act, I had expediently begun making serious overhauls upon the character itself. In all honesty, I had never planned on Fanger being a mere Companion to The Doctor. Conducting some extensive research upon the show itself, I had learned despite the BBC's meticulous world of the Time Lord, they had grossly overlooked one minor detail: Gallifrey's Ancient Past. Even on occasion, one of the Doctors would make a brief comment about the planet's obscure history. However, nothing was ever really pursued on the subject. With this infomation at fore, I had elected Fanger would not be just a simple basis upon The Doctor's life, but rather an intricate component, or extension, within The Doctor Whoniverse and possibly beyond.

The Doctor Who/Fanger Plot Episodes

Allowing my emotions to subside momentarily, the first talk I had acknowledged the natural reality I couldn't simply utilize the same Fanger for all Four Doctors (during this time, Tom Baker was still going strong in the US, while Peter Davison would be taking over the role in England). So first I had needed to re-evaluate Fanger's character. Although his remarks were cruel, Jon had established a substanial point. Upon re-reading the BBC-Dalek episode, I had realized I hadn't actually integrated the character with Doctor Who, but instead, had stuck Fanger in like a Colorforms character. In other words, Fanger had literally no real substance to him, making it difficult for hardcore fans to enjoy him. Taking this into account, I had needed to learn exactly how and why The Doctor had left his homeworld, and somehow applying that towards Fanger.

Fanger's Background Concept
About the Third Doctor's (Jon Pertwee) Season, we finally learned one of the reasons why he had left Gallifrey in the first place. According to the Time Lord, The Master had engineered a bloody coup on their world as a means for overthrowing the High Council. Consequently, all the infamous renegade had accomplished was creating a deadly bloodbath and near destruction of the Capitol.

Taking this into account, I conjured forth the ancient race I referred to as the Paranormal Wolf-Beings, who once existed long before Gallifreyan Man. As with their counterparts, the Wolf-Beings also had felt the physical and psychological scars of The Master's bloody coup (which the Wolf-Beings would later refer to the incident as The Onslaught).

In the original concept, Fanger was only a child when he had witnessed this disaster and was mysteriously rescued. Unintentionally, The Doctor and Susan had fled in the same, exact TARDIS in which Fanger was placed in for safekeeping. Another item was The Doctor knew Fanger's family, and was the character's Godfather. Realizing he couldn't simply leave Fanger behind, The Doctor had reluctantly taken the frightened being with him and Susan.

In the process, I had also done something with Fanger, which was never, ever permitted with Toon characters, serious and otherwise: Fanger unwittingly had become an addict to a medicinal drug. The reason behind this was demonstrating Fanger also had a normal vice despite his intergalactic, supernatural background. Even though Barbara had helped Fanger overcome his dangerous addiction, the trauma of The Onslaught would remain burned in his mind, as he privately vowed to help other cultures from entering such horrors.

Powerful stuff, one might say, and it was. But surprisingly, creating Fanger's background was just the easy tip of the iceburg, the real fun came into literally splitting the character into three personas.

The Three Fangers
Remembering how Fanger--like most famous Toons do--had regenerated into three slightly altered forms in his Past lives, it was only fitting these multi-Fangers would be integrated into The Doctor's life as well. The only obstacle I had come into contact with was which Fanger would go with whom, and how explaining why the character's physiognomy (physical appearance) was only altered slightly, whereas The Doctor's form kept changing dramatically.

Since Fanger originated from an ancient race, I had immediately formulated a theory about how his culture could utilize variated techniques upon specialized talents such as Regeneration. In one of the Second Doctor episode plots, the phenomenon of Mental Regeneration came into play, as The Doctor indicated Wolf-Beings possess the unique ability of maintaining their original shape while their minds undergo a transitional change. Establishing the hows and whys down, I had then simply divided the Fangers into three distinct personalities:

The First Fanger - Eliminating the original obnoxiousness from Phoomy Man!, F1 possesses the innocence and curiosity of a child, while always attempting to help others in the process. Rarely using magic, F1's powers were still growing, and he usually prefers using his wits over physical acts as a means of reticifying dangerous situations.

The Second Fanger - Taken from the series, It's Fanger!, F2 has been considered as one of the most-wild Fangers of the lot (of course, before The Seventh Fanger had come onto the scene). Due to an electroplasmatic imbalance, this Fanger possesses Toonesque abilities, and has contacted the annoying habit of puns and wordplay into becoming reality. However, F2 uses this to his advantage by confusing and bewildering his enemies, allowing The Doctor to come up with something. Possessing a Scottish accent (and at the time, sounding like Robin Williams, thanks to Mork & Mindy), F2 always tries looking on the brighter side of life, rarely thinking about The Onslaught.

The Third Fanger - Sounding like Mickey Dolenz (of Monkees' fame), F3 was the split difference of F1 and F2. The Third Fanger tends on relying more on his wits and superspeed rather than using his Paranormal skills in solving problems. Wisecracking, Fanger doesn't like it when he's bullied by anyone, good or evil, and tends to let those know his feelings at times. Now mechanically inclined, F3 can also invent the most remarkable items out of even the most commonplace items.

After surgically separating the three Fangers, I decided which Fanger would go with the correctly-matched Doctor, determining when it was time for a Regeneration to occur. The actual setup went like this:

The First Fanger - First and Second Doctors; The Second Fanger - Second and Third Doctors; and The Third Fanger - Third, Fourth (and eventually) and Fifth Doctors.

With this proper setup, Fanger could safely interact with the appropriate Doctor and his Companions, preventing the Colorforms Syndrome from cropping up.

The Foundation Plot/Episodes
Finally after much time and effort in getting Fanger properly re-tooled for Doctor Who, the next item was creating some Dr. Who and Fanger episodes which would serve as a basic foundation for Fanger's enigmatic history with the Time Lord. Consequently, the only thing which remains of these episodes are the plot synopsis below.

Due to my constant battles with the Aliefians, and (like the incident with the earlier Fanger series) bad plumbing in 1983, I had lost most of the actual, story content. Fortunately, experience taught me in sagely making plot sheets for these episodes, whereas they miraculously survived the fateful perils of which their ancestors had perished. The plot/episodes are here as follows:

1981 - Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor)

The End of Time (aka Chronopolis)
More fantasy than Science Fiction, the Time Lords send The Doctor, Fanger and their Companions (Ben, Jamie and Polly) to Chronopolis--the Mystic City of Time--for assisting Father Time in saving the city from an evil wizard, Anachron. Anachron ends up placing Fanger under his spell, but The Doctor and his Companions rescue Fanger. They defeat the wizard in a Chronoduel--where famous Historical armies battle each other in fierce combat. However, armed with some Toon knowledge from a famous rabbit, Fanger and The Doctor easily defeat Anachron and rescue Chronopolis.

It's here we learn Fanger's identity as a Gallifreyan Paranormal Wolf-Being. Although here we don't officially make the connection between the planet and The Doctor. Fanger's now referred to as a Legendskeeper, meaning he's essentially responsible for recording all the sacred Legends and History of Gallifrey and the Universe.


Space Station Invaders (aka Reptilitron Invasion)
Despite the B-Movie title, The Doctor, Fanger, Jamie and Zoe end up on the planet Zantron-7 in 5214. There a Meglacorp Installation is being invaded by the Reptilitrons--who want to destroy the installation. Except after Fanger loses a life (entering his First Regeneration), The Doctor then discovers it's Meglacorp--and not the invaders--who are the true enemy. Thus, Fanger, The Doctor and their Companions must attempt in preventing the devastation of the planet's ecosystem, while quelling a possible intergalactic war.

Interestingly enough, Meglacorp would later become one of Fanger's most dangerous thorns. In FANGARIUS, Fanger usually ran into the infamous, intergalactic corporation more than once. Fanger even stated they made the Usurians (economic invaders from The Sun-Makers from Pluto) look like angels, due to Meglacorp's nefarious, business-like tactics.

1982 - Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)

Shadows of the Night (Dark Shadows Crossover)
After The Doctor's Exile to Earth, UNIT's American branch contacts him and Fanger to go to Collinswood, Mass., after a bizarre series of vampiric murders have plagued the small town. As they investigate, Fanger encounters Barnabas Collins. Although Fanger knows about Barnabas' vampiric affliction (due to Angelique, a rogue witch), the Paranormal Wolf-Being suspects Barnabas' innocence in the murders.

Mainly because Fanger and The Doctor notice the victims haven't been drained of blood, but instead, cerebral fluid. Determining the cause, The Doctor realizes an Ancient threat, known as the Ceræbions are responsible. The Ceræbions are phantasms which can assume the shapes of others after consuming their victims' brain fluid. Fanger discovers their shape-shifting only lasts for about five days, depending upon the strength of the brain fluid.

After giving Barnabas some Synthblood, Fanger makes peace with the local vampire. Barnabas doesn't like the unearthly intruders any more than Fanger, nor The Doctor, and decides on helping them rid Collinswood of the invaders. Fanger discovers the reason the Ceræbions are here is because they plan on establishing a colony here on Earth. Collinswood was selected because these beings are attracted to the negative emotions of humans, such as hatred, suspicion and fear. Auspiciously, the investigators discover infared light is the invaders' Achilles' heel, thus Fanger and The Doctor, with Barnabas and Dr. Hoffman, develop a special strobe light.

Naturally, they use it for vanquishing the Headlordsman of the Ceræbions, but not before Fanger is brutally, mentally assaulted by the High Priest. The result forces the Wolf-Being to undergo his Second Regeneration.

1982 - Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor)

Dominatrix One
In this Stephen King-esque tale, Fanger, Sarah Jane Smith and The Doctor stumble upon a small, vacant town, Williamshire--where the inhabitants are being controlled by some unknown force. The Doctor senses a renegade Time Lord at work, while Fanger suspects otherwise. Basically because most Time Lords rarely implement the Mystic Arts as a means for conquest. Sarah gets captured by a group of psionic apparitions--The Spiritrals, who have been enigmatically entering the RealDimension.

During a rescue attempt, Fanger and The Doctor locate the renegade Gallifreyan Paranormal, The Dominator, who plans on using an Ancient Dimenspell for conquering the Earth, during the Moon's eclipse. Afterwards, The Dominator plans on invading and conquering the Universe as well. Auspiciously, The Doctor, Fanger and Sarah remedy the situation by altering some of the incantation's words. The result plunges the Spiritrals and The Dominator into a closed Dimension--trapping them there for at least 2000 years.

Dominatrix One also brought some more inscruitable information about Fanger. One interesting aspect is Sarah Jane Smith being a blood relation to Fanger (Earth cousin). Not to mention, the Fourth Doctor now acknowledges Fanger as being a Demi-Time Lord.

1982 - Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)

The Satellite Connection (aka The Starscan Project)

By pure coincidence, this episode started the same way the Peter Cushing/William Hartnell Dalek Episodes had. When Logopolis had aired here on PBS, my friends had complained about the way this particular episode was produced. As I was thinking up a way for Fanger entering his first physical Regeneration, I had started re-inventing the tale. As you read the episode synopsis, you'll also notice I poke fun at the current fads and innovations of the early 80s: Satellite TV, Radio telescopes and Atari Cartridges.

The Synopsis:
The Master basically plans on enslaving the people of Earth by using a discarded radio telescope in Houston (but, in reality, secretly being used by The Starscan Project) and an augmented television satellite. By doing this, he simply transmits a hyperwave signal to the satellite. Mysteriously, the TARDIS Sensors detect the anomaly, prompting The Doctor and Fanger to go to Earth and investigate. By examining the varying frequences from the satellite's control appartus, Fanger and The Doctor realize The Master has failed for compensating the varying positions as the satellite orbits Earth. (Specifically, The Master forgets satellite self-correcting gyros won't be perfected until about 1984.) As an unexpected result, the controlled slaves become deadly maniacs who set off after The Master himself!

Forced to work with his enemies, The Master learns from Fanger and The Doctor, the only way he can save himself is destroying the control device on the satellite. Fanger and Nyssa devise a plan for positioning the satellite directly over the Starscan Project's radio telescope. By transmitting the correct signal, it will instantly short-circuit the device. While The Doctor positions the satellite into place--via the TARDIS--Fanger and The Master work upon the calculations for transmitting the signal.

In truth, The Master hopes on blackmailing both the Project and Earth Governments, while also ambushing Fanger with a Magnalite staser and fettering the Paranormal Wolf-Being onto the radio telescope itself. However, The Master fails realizing whom he's dealing with, thus ends up blowing out the controls and freeing Fanger. Apparently, Fanger secretly replaced the program cartridge with an Atari cartridge--Galga--which blows out the main controls. As a result, the reversal signal automatically activates, thwarting The Master's plans.

Enraged, The Master recreates the same incident with Fanger as he had with The Doctor, leaving the Wolf-Being hanging for his life. Afterwards, The Master attempts murdering Fanger with the Tissue Compression Eliminator. But in order to avoid the deadly TCE blast, Fanger releases his hold on the satellite, falling to his death. The sudden impact prompts him on entering his Third Regeneration.

The Satellite Connection also made some new revelations: Tegan Jovanka was mentioned as being Fanger's Earth Cousin as well. This was one of the first consecutive episodes which led quickly into the next plot/episode, and brought forth the first Companion from a sitcom: Alex P. Keaton. Who would later end up being a long Companion for the Fourth Fanger, not unlike Sarah Jane Smith is to The Doctor.

Doctran
Taking place after The Satellite Connection, right after Fanger's Third Regeneration, Fanger accidentally appears nude since his new body rips apart his clothes. Nonetheless, The Doctor, Alex, Tegan and Nyssa attempt transporting the disoriented Wolf-Being back to the TARDIS. Mainly to avoid the Houston Police and other authorities. Regrettably, The Doctor gets mysteriously ambushed by a cybernetic duplicate of himself, Doctran, and his Fanger, or F-Clones. Doctran wastes no time capturing the others and taking the newly-Regenerated Fanger to a secret subaqua base in Galveston Bay.

Secretly, Doctran's plot is to deceive Fanger into piloting the TARDIS back to Gallifrey. Once there, Doctran and the F-Clones plan on conquering the Time Lords' Homeworld. Once obtaining the secrets of TimeSpace travel, they plan on conquering the Universe. But as The Doctor is imprisoned by his doppleganger, he learns a disturbing secret about the F-Clones: they originate from the same planet as the Daleks, Skaro. Meanwhile, Alex manages to escape when he meets his own duplicate, AleC, and finds out AleC comes from the Future.

Locating and freeing, Tegan and Nyssa, Alex then helps them locate Fanger. The Fourth Fanger slowly regains his memories, pondering on why Doctran and the F-Clones want to actually conquer Gallifrey. Doctran reveals how the F-Clones plan on ridding the Universe of the Daleks, however, after the Time Lords' interference with both Dalek and F-Clone development, he acknowledges they are a greater threat than the Daleks.

Using The Doctor as hostage, Doctran forces Fanger into piloting the TARDIS to Gallifrey. However, with Alex and Nyssa's help, Fanger reprograms the co-ordinates, sending the TARDIS through an Ionic Voidstorm. The ionic disruption paralyses the invaders, and frees The Doctor from his energon cell. Taking advantage of the situation, the Time Lord uses the TARDIS Defense Systems to teleport Doctran and the F-Clones into the distant future, upon a far away, barren planet. Although they've managed in saving Gallifrey, The Doctor and Fanger have also placed the TARDIS upon another random course. This way, the Time Lords cannot calculate the group's next destination.

Doctran was actually the first episode where I introduced a completely new adversary, The F-Clones. Although here I hinted the fact they had a strange connection with The Doctor's Timeless Nemesis, The Daleks, The F-Clones would later be revealed as their mortal enemies in FANGARIUS.

Now that the plot/episodes had been established the next thing was coming up with a new full name for Fanger as well as starting up an extended, spin-off series of his own. Little did I realize how exactly I was going to do it.

Entering the Dr. Who-volution: The William Hartnell Doctor

Leaving off from the last post, although the Peter Cushing story wasn't quite what I had intended, for awhile it had been considered the correct version. Not only that, like previous Fanger stories, this episode had ended up being a smash with the editors. Before I knew it, Dalek Invasion: Houston 2175 AD had been immediately published by the Gallifreyan Sentinel.

Consequently, the Sentinel had not managed on having an extended run. In 1980, the old Sci-Fi series revival--especially with Star Trek and The Twilight Zone--had brought forth paraphenalia consisting of infinite newsletters, magazines and other forms of publications and clubs. In short, the Eighties had brought forth the 'fanzine,' sort of the equivalent of fanblogs you see nowadays on the Internet.

The problem with fanzines was although many studios favored the publicity over their classic works, others weren't so fond of them. For instance, the BBC had first become disturbed by newsletters which permitted readers into submitting alternate-Doctor Who stories. Mainly because they went under the misapprehension these readers were receiving illegal compensation for their submissions. So by the end of 1980, most local newsletters were either suspended indefinitely (until they obtained legal permission), or ultimately shut-down.

Ironically, I had felt the real reason the Beeb got upset with the Sentinel was not because it was like other fanzines. Instead (as I had later discovered) it was probably due to the fact we accidentally liked the wrong Doctor! After all, it had turned out the BBC had never really fancied the cinematic Incarnate of The Doctor. Therefore, the GS Editors had received a prompt cease & desist order from the Beeb. When this had happened, the result had piqued my interest in watching the televised Doctor Who.

Taking all this into account, most people wonder why would we go ga-ga over the films, rather than the better-produced television series. The answer was remarkably simple: Doctor Who was only shown on Late Night TV (pre-Letterman, Leno, or even Arsenio). Of course, I had witnessed snippets from Tom Baker's era, but you couldn't find anything else, and at the time, I rarely could stay up late to watch the show.

The strange reason The Doctor had been shuttled to late-night was this: a private protest made by the public viewers. The BBC had once pulled Sesame Street from British airwaves, claiming it had given off totalitarian views to children. Meaning most kids had never gotten to view Doctor Who. However, if you had a cousin having access to satellite television, that was a completely different story.

Back in the 80's, you didn't have portable satellite television or digital cable, so satellite television was considered a real luxury. Especially since then, dishes were about the size of one's backyard. But on the plus side, one could receive any global broadcast right in your own living room. Remember, folks, in this decade, movie channels--Showtime and HBO--were just coming in.

Nonetheless, while visiting my cousin Rex, one afternoon, his television had recevied a British programme, aptly named Doctor Who. Though the one here I had witnessed had nothing to do with the Tom Baker one on late-night television, I had never suspected I'd get hooked upon the series. Nor would I also be rewriting the Daleks tale and completely reinventing Fanger in the process.

The BBC-TV Doctor Who

1981 - William Hartnell (The First Doctor)

Although the new Dalek tale possessed the similar theme, this one was based more upon the BBC Television programme. Whereas The Doctor's now a Time Lord, and the TARDIS is considered more than just a Time Machine.

Well, that's not quite accurate, for in Hartnell's Era, the Time Lords were never officially mentioned, nor was Gallifrey. Even though The Doctor did indicate he was not exactly from Earth, it wouldn't be until his Second Incarnation we'd learn about his otherworldly origins.

Now for those who've only witnessed The Doctor's exploits from the Tom Baker (Fourth Doctor) Era, here's a bit of exposition upon the pre-Baker characters:

Susan (Foreman) Campbell - Considered The Doctor's only living relative, Susan is his granddaughter. She left with him from the unknown fate of their homeworld. Despite her young, childhood appearance, Susan possesses a remarkably high intelligence, which naturally caught the attention of her two teachers.





Ian Chesterton - Susan's science master (teacher) at Coal Hill Secondary School, who seemed to be the Indiana Jones of the lot. Ian is always resourceful, and yet, always seems to be the cause of trouble (at least, according to The Doctor).






Barbara Wright - Susan's history teacher, who provides vital info on Earth's History, as well as other cultures. She finds Fanger's work as an Intergalactic Librarian rather interesting, since she can learn more about the Universe. Mainly, Barbara provides a mother-figure towards Fanger and Susan, and also tends to differ with The Doctor on certain subjects pertaining to Time and otherwise.





Anyway, as for Fanger, in this story he was first identified as a survivor from a lost race. One which originated on The Doctor's home, until some unknown horrible fate--which had caused The Doctor and Susan to flee in the TARDIS--had presumably destroyed most of his people. Nonetheless, Fanger began as kind of an information keeper as well as helping The Doctor and Susan maintain the TARDIS. Eliminating the possible overusage of magic, Fanger explained at times he was in training before leaving their unknown realm behind, and at times his spells don't always work as planned.

Also the only other notable discrepancy of this Dalek tale came the name of the episode itself:

DALEK INVASION: ASTRODOMIA 2175 AD

Our story unfolds, when The Doctor has Fanger taking inventory and re-issuing the books and periodicals of Earth History. Feeling somewhat put out with The Doctor for giving such a hard task for a little wolf, Barbara, Susan and Ian decide on helping Fanger in the TARDIS Library. With four people doing the job, the errand goes smoothly like clockwork, as Fanger has successfully cataloged each and every written work about the planet Earth and its various cultures. It isn't until Barbara and Ian are finishing up some of the periodicals in the Texas Section. Since neither of them will ever travel to Texas in the near future, Fanger allows the both to handle some of the 1970s newspapers.

Regrettably, the trouble begins due to a major misprint over a prize cattle in the Houston Chronicle and Houston Post, which Barbara and Ian get into a quarrel over who really won. Susan solves the dilemma by logically suggesting they travel to the 1975 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. Both agree and head out to the Main Control Room, while Fanger suddenly realizes something important about the console. Instantly, he attempts to stop The Doctor from activating the TARDIS, but is too late. The Doctor has set the TimeSpace vessel on-course to Earth. Consequently, Fanger tells everyone the TARDIS' Chronovector Unit has blown-out, meaning the TimeSpace controls are slightly off, until he can replace the faulty component.

Upon landing, Fanger makes the necessary repairs with The Doctor's help. Now fixed, the TARDIS' Chronodisplay gives off some rather distressing news. Instead of 1975, the ship had ended up in Houston, Texas...2175 AD! To make matters worse, The Doctor points out until the ship's adjusted to the newly-replaced component, the TARDIS' traveling mechanism won't be operational for at least another three hours. Undaltered, Susan decides they should make the best of it and go exploring, wondering how rodeos have changed during two hundred years.

However, when the group exit the police box, they discover themselves within a Texas wasteland, with the Astrodome remaining as the only surviving structure from some forgotten war. The Doctor and his Companions gingerly enter the famous stadium, not certain of what to expect here. They soon learn the once, well-known, sports arena has been transformed into an underground city, Astrodomia. Astrodomia residents are composed from the remaining people of Texas.

Reassuring the inhabitants they are friendly, the group ascertain how everything ended up in this apocalyptic state. Apparently, about eighteen years earlier (2157), an unexpected, nuclear accident occurred (in later episodes of FANGARIUS--the event is referred to as The Great Fall Out) transmogrifing the Earth into an enormously, radioactive playground. Advantageously, due to public fears upon nuclear weapontry, most of the populated cities had already taken the precaution of constructing subterrainan cities. While they retreated safely into their constructs, the Houstonians entered the Astrodome, for the stadium had been totally reconstructed completely out of radioactive-proof material five years before the incident.

Unbeknowest to the Houstonians--or their guests--a Dalek Sentinelcraft patrols the planet and detects the Astrodome, mistaking the unique building for one of their Battle HQs. This news not only disturbs The Doctor and his Companions, but adding the fact the Houstonians are now pacifists doesn't help the situation. Barbara realizes the traumatizing after-effect from the incident has made the Houstonians completely wary of using any type of weapon, nuclear or otherwise. Ian and The Doctor attempt to convince the people when weapons are used in defense, not war, they can play an essential role in survival. The Houstonians are admanant in even considering about using weapons, although, they also don't fancy being invaded by hostile pepperpots from space. Meanwhile, Fanger ponders on why the Daleks have bases set up on Earth, especially around Texas. He fails to see why The Daleks would want to set up shop on a nuclear-ravaged planet until he and Susan start investigating the city itself.

Susan and Fanger's inspection of Astrodomia sends them down into the murky depths of the sub-basement, where they notice strange giant tubes heading towards the city above them. A forgotten worker identifies the tubes as a connection to Texas' new Petrolonite source. Fanger realizes the newly-made element was caused when the nuclear incident had occurred. Susan agrees noting the remaining fossil fuel deposits underground must have fused with some type of silicon-based oil. The result produced an extremely powerful (and mysteriously renewable) energy source. It then becomes clear why the Daleks are now here on Earth. Fanger and Susan rush back to inform The Doctor about their remarkable discovery, when they abruptly discover the Daleks have taken the old man, Ian and Barbara prisoner. The Dalek Leader issues an ultimatium to the Houstonians: either surrender the city and the Petrolonite to them, or be exterminated.

Knowing the Daleks for their treacherous ways, Fanger and Susan rally the Houstonians into forming a rescue party, but to no avail. Completely fed up with their non-aggressiveness, Fanger and Susan start formulating a rescue plan of their own. Meanwhile, The Doctor himself realizes the Daleks might have been the cause of the nuclear incident of 2157. Barbara becomes disgusted with the fact these aliens would endanger innocent lives as a means for creating a whole new energy source. The Dalek Leader berates her, saying they are providing the Houstonians a great service, since Man has always had the nasty habit of exhausting power sources. Apparently Petrolonite seems to be more effective than their Dalekanium. Because of this fact, the Daleks plane on supplementing this element into their plans of Universal domination. While Barbara and The Doctor keep the Dalek Leader distracted, Ian cleverly escapes and manages to return to the Houstonians. Upon discovering Fanger and Susan's rescue attempt, he becomes cross with the people for allowing children to go out and fight these horrible creatures.

Elsewhere, Fanger and Susan take the underground route, in an effort to surprise the Daleks long enough to rescue their friends. Along the way, Fanger becomes rather intrigued with one curious detail: why didn't the Daleks simply invade the city outright, rather than give the Houstonians the option for surrender? Susan understands Fanger's bewilderment with war-beings' uncharacteristic behavior, until she accidentally shocks herself by touching an old electriplate. As the answer comes to him, Fanger has Susan round up some neglected powerlamps while he decides upon how they'll rescue The Doctor, Barbara and Ian.

Acknowledging Ian's escape, the Daleks send The Doctor and Barbara to a more confining place on the other side of Astrodomia. Fortunately, the trip is short-lived when Fanger and Susan hurl the mystically-charged lamps at the Dalek captors. The mystical force electrifies the Daleks, shorting out their systems, which frees The Doctor and Barbara. But as with standard Doctor Who procedures, a group of Daleks chase them throughout Astrodomia and into a dead-end. Just when everything seems bleak, a metallic column comes crashing down upon the Dalek Patrol. Much to everyone's surprise, Ian has led a group of Houstonians to rescue them.

Back within the city, Fanger explains to The Doctor, what he and Susan had learned about Astrodomia, and why the Daleks can't venture into the main complex of the building. The Houstonian Leader comprehends the discovery and realizes how they can expel these invaders without harming his people in the process. Using the stadium's ancient, electrical system, Fanger and The Doctor rig up the metallic areas of the building, producing a harmless, lightning storm.

Although the storm is ineffective upon people, the intense electrical force plays severe havoc upon the Daleks' motor circuits and functions. The result causes the intruders to instantaneously self-destruct along with their Sentinelcraft. Fanger astutely transmits a falsified message to the Daleks' Homeworld, Skaro. This ensures the Houstonians won't be receiving any more unexpected guests.

Before departing, Fanger informs the Leader why the Daleks had come to Texas in the first place, only to receive a mild chuckle from the man. While confusing the time travelers, the Leader explains the problem with Petrolonite is it becomes extremely combustable when exposed to any forms of oxygen. Meaning the Daleks would've ended up destroying themselves if they had made any attempts extracting the substance from the earth itself. Afterwards, the group leaves the future world of Astrodomia, heading back into the TARDIS.

The BBC version had proven more successful with my audience, since this episode was more logical and well-written than its predecessors. Also given the fact, I had a more flexible-deadline, meaning I could develop the characters a bit better now that I knew what I was working with than just grasping at straws.

Regrettably about 1981, I had to move to Alief. In all retrospect, I had believed I'd been better off on the planet Skaro. Mainly because one of my naive delusions was about to be shattered. Going under the misassumption you can be friendly towards anyone, I had expediently discovered this was not so with the Aliefians.

Coincidentally, the same origins behind bringing Fanger to life would be the same cause for reinventing him for Doctor Who.

Entering the Dr. Who-volution: the Peter Cushing Dr. Who

The second most-asked question about Fanger is: Just how did Fanger become involved with Doctor Who? Strangely enough, just like Fanger's debut, the tale behind the Toon Wolf's origins with the Time Lord was purely incidental. Despite other ventures, doing freelance stuff for newsletters and other localized publications, my deep passion for a Time Travel motif desperately resurfaced. Since Fanger seemed well-suited for the particular role, I wanted to do something among the lines of Chronotales, but within a completely different setup.

First off, I didn't have any desire following the typical American-formula: Time-travelers having the misfortune of attempting to return to their proper Timeframe. Mainly because I always felt it was sort of like Gilligan's Island set in the Fourth Dimension. Or a transdimensional Lost in Space, so to speak.

Although you'll note I was later influenced greatly by Doctor Who, I had originally not gone by the British Broadcasting Company's (BBC) televised version. And despite what you may think, I once had no intention of roping Fanger with the Time Lord character.

The Peter Cushing Doctor Who
Amazingly, my first and only exposure to The Doctor was the cinematic Incarnate in the classic film, Doctor Who and the Daleks, which I had viewed at the Porter Matinee Cinema (now commonly known as the Dollar Cinema). For those who've never witnessed anything but the television version of the good Doctor, allow me to summarize the subtle differences:

The Doctor (referred to as Dr. Who) is an eccentric inventor, who lives with his granddaughters, Susan and Barbara in England. During a date with Barbara, Ian meets Dr. Who and is shown the most remarkable invention called the TARDIS.

Unlike its more conventional form, the movie version appears as if someone slapped together bits of World War II machinery with bits of some George Pal scenery for good measure. And the most peculiar way this device is launched is by its plane-like lever control, which Ian (surprise, surprise) trips and falls upon. Thus, propelling the craft through Time and Space, ending up on the planet Skaro.

Noted, the rest is similarly based upon the BBC-Doctor Who episode, entitled The Dead Planet.

At this point, you're probably wondering: where's the incident linking Fanger with Dr. Who? Similar to Fanger's ancestor, Fangdini, it all started with a contest, this time a legitimate one. Despite the movie discrepancies, The Doctor was nonetheless a sensation in Texas, and its popularity had spawned a local newsletter, The Gallifreyan Sentinel.

Due to new FCC regulations, the newsletter had required a children's section, and they needed a new character in which they could use with The Doctor. I forget what I had actually created for my submission to the contest, but due to a bully's unwittingly interference, Fanger had stolen the spotlight.

In this case, the bully I had to deal with had preferred psychological assaults than physical ones. Meaning he liked sabotaging my work whenever the chance had come up. Apparently learning about the contest as well, he had also recalled how I had temporarily lost some of my characters' rights to the school. Deciding to switch my original (now completely unknown) characters with Fanger, he had gone under the assumption the rights would immediately be turned over to the Sentinel. Therefore, I'd lose my precious character to the publication. But as with the Brain, the bully had never thought out most of his plans.

One thing he had overlooked was I always learn from my past mistakes. In doing so, when Fanger debuted in his past two series, I had the sensibility to copyright the character (In those days, if you wanted to unofficially copyright something, you merely drew the © symbol, with the year and the name. In my case, I started using the nom de plume Fangarian Productions, since I mostly did produce Fanger infinitely).

Notwithstanding, the contest judges fell completely in love with Fanger, and before I could realize what had occurred, I had found myself committed in writing the first Fanger/Dr. Who story. Even though the bully had fumed at my success, I was in a quandary. For the rules had stipulated I could only use the characters from the movie, but the location had to be somewhere in Texas, and had to specifically include the Daleks.

Regrettably I had drawn nothing but blanks, since this was the first time, since the days of Phoomy Man!, which Fanger had played second banana. But the real problem was what would be the gimmick for having the Daleks come to Texas. Destroying our oil fields had appeared stupid, since the Daleks have advanced in utilizing nuclear technology. I had conjured up one where the Daleks had taken over NASA, but even that concept had appeared far-fetched. Then an unlikely miracle had arrived in the form of an old movie poster.

Upon heralding the next Dr. Who movie, Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD, my friend, James, had detected an odd peculiarity in its promotional poster. Not shown in the film itself (bad habit with Hollywood, y'know), there in the background were domed-shaped Dalek bases. James had humorously compared these futuristic structures resembling our Astrodome, and out-of-blue, I had begun to instantly formulate the story of how the Daleks had invaded Texas.

DALEK INVASION: HOUSTON 2175 AD

1980 - PETER CUSHING (Movie Doctor Who)

As with the film itself, The Doctor is a famous inventor who lives with his granddaughters, Susan and Barbara, in England. Here, Fanger takes the role of being The Doctor's mysterious assistant. Although Fanger's origins aren't totally disclosed, the wolf hints The Doctor rescued him from a horrible fate pertaining to Earth's far-off future in the 96th Century. Unfortunately, nothing more is said about Fanger afterwards, except that he is a Paranormal and a mechanical genius. Naturally, The Doctor's rescue of his invalued assistant was made possible by his latest invention, the TARDIS.

The story unfolds with The Doctor and his Companions submitting the TARDIS at the Houston Invention Exchange, in hopes the remarkable apparatus can be used as an important tool for NASA. The Doctor believes it could help the space program not only comprehend Time Travel, but the nature of space as well. Inside the intradimensional contraption, The Doctor and Fanger demonstrate the TARDIS' unique facilities to one of the judges (who's strangely enough), known as Ian Smith. Regrettably, before the group can leave the apparatus, a freak lightning bolt strikes the TARDIS. The unexpected energy prematurely activates the machine, causing the TARDIS to enter TimeSpace. The TARDIS instantaneously transfers The Doctor, Fanger, Susan, Barbara and Ian into the late 22nd Century!

Upon arrival, they witness the apocalyptic wasteland of Houston, were every known building and structure has been mysteriously destroyed in some fashion. The Doctor suspects their destination must be after the Third World War, but Fanger rebukes this claim, pointing out the Anti-Hiroshima campaign of 1996 had forbidden the use of nuclear weapons--especially after the Corpus Christi Crisis of 1984. Ian, however, notices one structure completely intact, is the one before them--the Astrodome. Cautiously, the group ventures into the famous Houston stadium.

After some inspection, Fanger and The Doctor theorize the Astrodome has now been converted into an underground city for the last remaining Humans on Earth (or at least, futuristic Texans). The group learns about 2067, the Dalek Wars had occurred, in which these inhuman invaders had decimated almost every major city and metropolis on Earth. Luckily, the Houstonians' ancestors had prevented their deaths by immediately using the Astrodome as a survival shelter for the remaining inhabitants from the wars.

Unfortunately, unknown to the Houstonians, the Earth is now populated by Dalek dome-shaped bases. To make matters worse, the Astrodome itself is mistaken for one of their arsenal bases by The Daleks. In order to save the Houstonians' existence, the intruders are cleverly repelled by The Doctor, and thwarted by Fanger's magic. After destroying the threat, Fanger shrewdly sends a falsified message to the Dalek Leader, claiming the Earth has become highly uninhabitable, and the irradiated atmosphere is lethal to their armor. Surprisingly, the Dalek Leader pulls out the remaining Daleks, deciding on not to destroy the Earth, for it might prove useful to them at a later date. Consequently, Fanger and The Doctor save the future city of Houstontropolis and the Earth from another Dalek Invasion.

Despite its first stupendous popularity, I've always considered this version was always personally considered as a poor one. One major reason was when I had conjured up this tale, it had concentrated more upon The Doctor, Fanger & The Daleks rather than Susan, Ian, Barbara or the Houstonians. Not to mention the blatant overusage of Fanger's mystical abilities for constantly saving the day. Due to this, I've always denoted this version as the Bewitched Dr. Who when referring to it.

The one good thing about this tale, however, it was these flaws educating me on what not to make Fanger: a Universal Problem-Solver.

The Pre-Whovian Fanger Years

Before Fanger obtained his own series, he actually debuted in a one-shot special called 'Fanger's Demented Vacation.' Created as a Spring Break/Summer Special, it had spun the misadventures of our Wolf-Being attempting on having a 'perfect' vacation. As with Murphy's Law, everything--and anything--ends up going wrong for Fanger.

After all is said and done, when Fanger finally gets his paradise, his vacation time from Phoomy Man has expired.

Though there were only about ten strips made of this special, Fanger had ultimately upstaged PM, where his popularity brought about several series and spin-offs with him in it.

It's Fanger!
It's Fanger! turned out in being an extremely short-lived series during my Fourth Grade year (1978-79). The monkey wrench had been my gross oversight when Fanger had been cast in Phoomy Man!, he primarily served as an Alice Kramden sidekick. Therefore, without anyone actually receiving the wisecracks, snide remarks and insults, Fanger had become nothing more than an obnoxious, wolfesque Oscar the Grouch.

Ironically, the off-persona was later transferred for the MadFanger characterization of the Grouse Fanger, in a later Howl-O-Ween Special.

Fortunately, my Fourth Grade teacher had given me another chance on November 1978, for revamping Fanger's

In Toon History, 1978 was more or less known as the year of the OmniToons, or Toons who could metamorph into anything. Inspired by an old cartoon show, Tom Terrific, Fanger swiftly entered into his wacky, unpredictable, second persona, enhanced by an extraordinary, morphing trait.

Tom Terrific was a Terrytoons' show by Gene Deitch, who could transform into anything at will, thanks to a magic funnel-shaped thinking cap. However, Fanger's trait went a little closer to Beetlejuice. For whenever Fanger made a pun, or a figure of speech, he'd undergo a literal transformation of the verbal expression. He also utilized the odd ability for foiling bad guys in fantastic tales.

Regrettably, despite the attitude adjustment, his brand of entertainment went over most of the audience's head. So once again Fanger had entered the limbo dimension of obscurity, as the UltraComix publication had also permanently ended its run.

Nonetheless, this version of Fanger would later resurface as the Second Fanger's personality, metamorphing power and all.

Fanger's Chronoventures/Chronotales
In 1980, the Seventies were long gone now, and so my Elementary days, as I had already been in the Fifth Grade at the end of 1979. About that time, I was noticed by a new publication, The Fifth Grade Express, which was keen on my Toon exploits and creative writing. It was this point in time which Fanger had unofficially entered into his Third Incarnate, which was a split-difference from his two former selves.

Intradimensional travel was now taking over interplanetary travel. Immediately, people were trading their tales of Buck Rogers for shows like Voyagers! and reruns of The Time Tunnel. Nineteen-Eighty now heralded the year of Time Travel, and Fanger had quickly evolved into the Time Travel genre. But unlike previous formulas in the Fangarian Evolution, these series were now a combination of written and illustrated works.

Fanger's Chronoventures (January-March 1980)
In Chronoventures, Fanger took a page out of Mission: MAGIC. Rather than relying on a machine for transversing through the Fourth Dimension, Fanger himself was a Time Warp. Meaning he possessed the remarkable ability of going through Time, allowing him access into Earth's History. Due to strict guidelines, Fanger's adventures were primarily focused on a more historical--rather than pure entertainment--basis, where Fanger was supposed to meet up with famous people like Shakespeare and Leonardo Da Vinci, helping them out of unusual jams.

One strange concept I had given Fanger was this: he had a Time Limit upon how long he could remain with different Time Eras. Fanger had later given a plausible explanation behind this. He had claimed Time itself behaves like a Cosmic stream of living matter. Just as the Human body's equipped with expelling foreign particles from its system, Time performs the same act. Except for the fact Time is intradimensional, it takes awhile for it to precisely locate the intruding element within Reality. Once it does, Time simply transfers it back to a point where the intruder's no longer a threat to its existence. Meaning the time limit serves as a warning to how long one can stay within a different point in Time.

Despite the intrigue and fascination with the series, Chronoventures failed in receiving a long-run. Due to our competition, Porter Pals, using old strips from the ITV series, Timeslip, Fanger was forced into another avenue of Time Travel and upon a much more entertaining note.

Fanger's Chronotales (March-May 1980)
Chronotales had brought Fanger a new-type of transdimensional time machine called The Chronovator (later The Chronolift). As with The Doctor's TARDIS, the Chronovator possessed a bigger interior while its outside resembled that of a Victorian elevator. Many people have inquired why did I select an ordinary device in concealing its true identity.

While in-between series, I was freelancing as a reporter, when I had been given a story to go out into Houston, where an interesting exhibit was being held. The exhibit had dealt which the most unusual Victorian inventions which had never been used. Among one of them, I had come across an elegant-looking elevator. What made this one different than most of its kind was the floor indicator. Instead of the normal clock-like faces or light-up horizontal displays, this one had possessed a glass case with a column-rotary indicator on it.

The owner had claimed this particular elevator had been designed for buildings over ten stories tall. But when British architectural regulations had forbidden any structure to be at least three stories high, the invention was immediately scrapped. Thinking about this, I had decided to use this marvelous apparatus for the image of Fanger's time machine.

The Chronovator proved in being the most fascinating item in Chronotales, since not only did it serve as a means of transport, it also was Fanger's Temporal home. It was also controlled by a Droopy-like android, and contained every type of room imaginable. Taking this new invention into account, the time limit concept was thrown out, as we learned why Fanger traveled through Time in the first place.

While making a momentary pit stop in 1980-Galveston, Texas, Fanger had unwittingly acquired two Companions: Rick Starling (a rock star) and Sara Lang (a race car driver). Apparently, while participating upon a charity scavenger hunt in Galveston, both of them had mistaken the Chronovator for an antique elevator. When Fanger accidentally takes off with them on-board, he explains he's an undercover agent for a group called the ChronoPatrol (later the ChronoAgency). The ChronoPatrol basically focuses on one major task: protecting the sacred flow of Time, by preserving the sanctity of the Past, Present and Future of Earth and the Universe.

Unconventionally, Chronotales only had one story, being seven episodes long, charting Fanger, Sara and Rick's attempts of thwarting a cyberdroid from the 98th Century known as Anachronos. As the name implies, Anachronos' goal is to severely hammering Mankind's development, by altering key moments with Earth's Timeline.

Although Chronotales was a better series than its former, it suddenly came to an abrupt end. This time the fault did not lie within the series, but focused squarely with the school newspaper itself.

The Fifth Grade Express had overlooked a majorly controversial story, and had printed it without the righteous consent of the Editor-in-Chief. Regrettably, the result force the school board to suspend the publication indefinitely until 1982.

The Fangarian Spin-Offs: Robonic Fanger and Super Fanger
Although The Fifth Grade Express had been suspended, Fanger didn't actually vanish from the Toon scene has he had done before with It's Fanger! In fact, I had been so completely seduced by the temporal fame Fanger had brought in with his two series, I had started putting the character into every conceived spin-off I could think of. And out of the endless stream of Fangerized concepts, the most strangest ones I had ever conjured up were Robonic Fanger and Super Fanger.

Robonic Fanger
When George Lucas had produced his hit with Star Wars, then The Empire Strikes Back, he had never envisioned the robot rage he had spawned with his droid characters, R2D2 and C3PO. Most low-budget films (or B-Movies) started cashing in on this fad by creating worlds which were either dominated by robots, or had man and machine locked into fevered battle. Ironically, Robonic Fanger not only came from this, but also a page from Fanger's last series, Chronotales.

As for the character, Robonic Fanger was similar to Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, whereas RF could transform into any kind of mechanical apparatus, while also extending his infinitely-long, telescopic appendages, and sometimes malfunction unexpectedly whenever he got really nervous. The setting, on the other hand, came directly from Anachronos, when in an episode of Chronotales had revealed in the 98th Century, machines had literally ruled Earth. Extracting his intriguing concept, RF lived in an electro-world called Robotropolis (no relation to Robotnik's mechanized city from where he protects everyone from the vile Sonic the Hedgehog),Dr. Monotron and his diabolical Cyberforce. Notwithstanding the basic adventurous genre, the spin-off degenerated into a Tom & Jerry format, where RF's constantly hounded by the Cyberforce. While Dr. M usually wondered why he even constructed these droids in the first place. While this was the more memorable Fangarian spin-offs to appear, the next Fangerization was an extension from Fanger's previous series.

Super Fanger
I've always considered Super Fanger as the full-circle point of the Fangarian Evolution, because as with The Great Fangdini, SF began through a contest. Except this one was a legitimate one by a popular comics company, rather than a phony scam several years ago.

Anthropomorphs (Funny Animals) have always been around since the Twenties and Thirties. The Eighties had instantly revived this generation, where everything practically centered around talking, personified animals. As a result, this had brought about major competition with DC, especially since Marvel had started publishing Hanna-Barbera Comics, and they were searching for new superhero anthropomorphs.

Li Chan had recalled me doing the Super Casper series in Orange You Nuts? and wondered why we couldn't do the same for Fanger. Besides him having supernatural abilities, Fanger was an enigma to work with, since we wondered how could we genuinely make him super. Li had recalled watching many sentai (live-action Japanese programs; think Power Rangers) shows and we had formulated the following premise, inspired a bit from Chronotales:

In the year 3180, Anachronos plagues Future Earth with a fiendishly-new, biogenetic alien cyborg race called Cybernaughts. With the Cybernaughts, Anachronos intends on hampering mankind's developments, as well as launching an all-assault upon Earth's Timeline. Fearing the worst, the ChronoAgency calls upon Fanger to foil this new, impenetrable threat. But this time, they endow the mystical wolf with special TechnoBands, when placed together, transform him into the ultrabeing, Super Fanger.

As the aforemention exposition indicates, we didn't quite have Fanger fall into the typical superhero mode. Fanger had never become SF whenever the Cybernaughts came to threaten such places as MegaHouston and NeutroYork. Due to certain restrictions, such as the TBs only having a power effect for fifteen minutes, Fanger only transformed into SF when the Cybernaught in question would activate its MonstrMetamorph. Thus, whenever the Cybernaught would transform into a typical, giant monster, Fanger would become Super Fanger.

Taking this into account, many wondered why Li and I didn't call SF, Ultra Fanger instead. One of the reasons UltraComix had gotten pulled was, we had discovered (at the time) the adjective was copyrighted by Toho, Inc. (Godzilla and Gamera), which is why after the Silver Age of Comics, you never heard of a superhero using the word in his or her name (with possibly the exception of Ultra Boy in Legion of the Super Heroes, but DC also had a deal with them I believe.). Another reason was we didn't want SF becoming compeltely campy, and we had thought applying a Japanese concept to an Americanized concept appeared original.

However, the real innovation came by the fact Super Fanger's costume didn't opt for the standard red/blue colors. One thing which had consistently bothered us was superbeings were always attempting on using stealth when dealing with villain. Naturally, one knew this was next to impossible, since the hero wore bright, shiny colors which could blind anyone. Therefore, Li and I had elected on having SF wearing special dark goggles and a black costume (sporting his red F-symbol). Thus, Super Fanger came into existence.

Regrettably, we didn't win the contest, but the company did return the sketches and the preliminary storyline back to us. Even though most publishers rarely send back submissions, because they normally end up becoming their property, the editors felt SF was too good to be languishing somewhere in a morgue. Let alone, someone finding it and altering it into something ridiculously worse.

The problem was at the time, I had been doing other projects, so Super Fanger was actually the first Fanger spin-off which never had a strip or series made. Yet, Fanger had once made references to the character. And in FANGARIUS, the Fourth Fanger discovered a Japanese series called Suppa Fanga, which had a similar premise.

Afterwards, Fanger had once again entered a temporal slumber, until he got revived again in an unlikely place, originally being a Companion to a famous character from an existing series.