Never officially advertised, Who’s Next… was the first tapezine ‘pilot issue’ produced by Paul Chandler, the second being ALBOE – further tapezines that hailed from what was fast becoming the centre of the Doctor Who tapezine universe, Salisbury in Wiltshire.

Who’s Next… was very much a solo project for the editor, then 15 years of age, with all its content and presentation being his own, other than the occasional musical item, such as versions of the Doctor Who theme tune. “I can only think that there were no collaborators in Who’s Next… because I probably had a sudden urge to produce it and didn’t want to wait for help,” Paul Chandler commented in 2022. “Distribution-wise, I shared it with some of my 50 pen pals of the time. I didn’t really have the money then to place an ad for a more general release.”

Paul would go on to contribute regularly to Rayphase Shift and Spotlight, and when the master tape of Who’s Next… came to light as part of a project to digitise his recordings, Paul was a little surprised to find it. “My memories regarding why I did it are a bit vague now. I was surprised to learn that I was recording a tapezine in May 1989, some five months before Rayphase Shift started, as my memory is that I followed RPS editor Nick Goodman’s lead. Obviously not!”

Since Paul Chandler’s early attempts at tapezines, he has moved on to other creative pursuits – writing many unpublished scripts and stories whilst still at school. Once at University, he moved into improvised video projects such as the spoof soap opera, Sutton Park, which ran for eight years from 1992 to 2000 and more than 3,200 episodes. Around this time, he was also an actor for hire, appearing in many of Nick Goodman’s video projects. In the first decade of the new millennium, Paul focused on verse, self-publishing his poetry collections, and also writing novels and short stories about The Mouse of Commons. By the early 2010s, Paul was a regular performer at Covent Garden’s renowned Poetry Café, making over one hundred recordings of his performances. He has posted these, along with videos of his worldwide travels, on his MrShyYeti YouTube channel. He also published three series as scripted novels: The Beast of Friends, Hot Stuff and Kensington Gore (see www.lulu.com/spotlight/shyyeti). Since 2016, he has been an avid podcast producer, releasing to date over 650 episodes of The Shy Life Podcast, a show that covers all manner of topics, features many returning guests, and an intriguing ongoing fictional subplot! He also regularly contributes to a number of other podcasts such as Round the Archives, The Smellcast, Vision on Sound and Big Fatty Online. In 2020, Paul contributed to Nick Goodman’s Life After Magnet Memories book and in 2022 published a script novel, A Woman for All Reasons, also with Nick Goodman.

One of the highlights of the Who’s Next... pilot issue is Paul’s review of the Space Adventure Doctor Who exhibition, then to be found on Tooley Street near London Bridge. The feature includes Paul’s impressions of the attraction and a description of what could be found there, which from a 21st century perspective is of interest as this has proved to be one of the less well-documented Doctor Who exhibitions, despite it being open during the pre-internet boom in Doctor Who fandom.

Also of note are two fan fiction stories, Colony of Fools and Invasion of Sanity, both performed and written by Paul. These stories had originally been written for Revelations fanzine. The first is a complete adventure featuring the Fourth Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, while the second is a story for the Third Doctor, Jo Grant and UNIT. The regular characters of the UNIT years are mentioned but the major focus is on Corporal Bell (Fernanda Marlowe), who appeared in two stories only, The Mind of Evil and The Claws of Axos. Colony of Fools and Invasion of Sanity are punctuated at natural breaks with incidental music stings sourced from Doctor Who stories including The Sea Devils and Earthshock. Invasion of Sanity was intended to be included as a complete story, but was curtailed at a cliffhanger due to tape space becoming an issue. The concluding part would have been included in the second issue, though the follow-up cassette ultimately did not come to fruition.

Alan Hayes