Closing the Canon on Jeri's Dr. Who Fiction; Dr. Who; Third Doctor; Jon Pertwee; Liz Shaw; Jo Grant; Sarah Jane Smith; Fan Fiction
Closing the Canon on Jeri's Dr. Who Fiction
What It Means
In 1995, when I started to write serious Doctor Who fan fiction, I wanted to re-create the tone and style of the Third Doctor era for contemporary readers. I was willing to dedicate as many years of my life as was necessary to write 24 Third Doctor stories. And, as it turned out, the task required about six years.
One reader has asked why I am "hanging up the velvet jacket," and I hasten to say I am not declaring a complete halt in my writing of Third Doctor stories. But I have completed the project that I set for myself. I have doubled the canon of BBC stories about the Third Doctor, providing an equal number of stories that are serious Third Doctor adventures, intended to give the reader the same enjoyment, thrill, and sense of adventure that the Third Doctor era gave to me. This web site will continue intact. I love Always the Third Doctor and am very proud of it. I would no more remove it than I would throw away my black belt or tear up my graduate school diploma.
I plan to write any new stories that come to me, and I am now willing to write crossovers, provided they are very unusual crossovers. But these would be separate from my canon---sort of "what if" stories. Additionally, I may also do companion-only stories that feature Liz, Jo, Sarah, or any combination of the three. Writing an annual story remains a nice idea, though I am not able to make a solid commitment to do so.
I am very thankful to the kind and generous readers who have reciprocated my efforts with encouragement, happy e-mails, helpful critiques, extremely thoughtful gifts of DW videos and sound recordings, insights, recollections of Jon Pertwee, and friendship. While some strata of Doctor Who fandom is highly competitive and strident, I have tapped a core of generosity, tolerance, courtesy, warmth, and empathy that has more than repaid my efforts. I treasure this collective body of kind readers. Very few of my stories have dedications to specific people, because most of my stories are meant for the people who love what I love in Doctor Who. I am very glad and thankful for any happiness and pleasure that these stories have provided.
Best wishes
Jeri Massi
jeriwho@pipeline.com
July 2001
