By David Klaus: The novelization of Doctor Who: Day of the Daleks, given away at IguanaCon (1978 Worldcon) by the publisher as a promotion, was the first full-length story of The Doctor I ever knew of, as the program wasn’t available in St. Louis at the time. I was so new to the Whoniverse that I had only seen a couple of clips with Tom Baker and that was it, not even knowing of Jon Pertwee yet. When I read it, I saw Mr. Baker in my mind as I read, not the late Mr. Pertwee.
Harlan Ellison, as I recall, later described the IguanaCon presentation as having fans out for his blood and ready to riot because he was contemptuous from the podium of other s.f. heroes as empty shells or something similar, particularly Luke Skywalker (as this was the year after the first movie premiered and the convention at which it won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation, back when it was just Star Wars, not Star Wars: A New Hope), in favor of “My hero, Doctor Who!”
I’m glad he liked the program and portrayal (and wonder what he thinks about the post-Baker Doctors or the revival since 2005), but it’s funny how I don’t remember that happening. No riot precursors, no bloodthirsty attempted assaults. But I wasn’t everywhere or saw everything, so what do I know, right?
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All I recall in the way of feeling peeved with Ellison at Iguanacon wasn’t over his well-known contempt for everyone else in the genre but Harlan Ellison. What peeved people was that he had done just about everything he could, as GoH, to make life for the Iguanacon committee impossible. He came “this close” to refusing to come to the con over Arizona not ratifying the ERA, for example. He insisted on staying in a trailor parked on the street rather than contribute to the well-being of the hotel, a business conducted in a politically backward state. The story circulated that a committee member had to go out and drop quarters in a parking meter every couple of hours, though this it was probably hyperbole.