Remember 1989 ?

Ah, it's Eastercon, spring is in the air, and on Saturday night we'll be seeing the first new Dr Who TV serial since 1989. Opinion is evenly divided between "It's gonna be awesome" and "It's going to be all wrong".

1989. Was it only a few years ago? Or ancient history? Here is a brief reminder of what the world of 1989 was like.

THEN	NOW
You got your phone line from BT, your gas from British Gas and your electricity from the Electricity Board	You get your phone from the cable TV company, your gas from the electric company and your electricity from the supermarket for extra Nectar points
Sky TV was launched	Hundreds of channels of crap
Thatcher and Bush	Blair and Bush (not much change there then)
The Simpsons premieres on Fox	The Simpsons is in its 16th season
The World Wide Web was invented	Your Broadband connection still isn't fast enough
Average salary £15,252, and the average price of a pint of beer £1.23	Average salary is £22,411, average price of a pint of beer is £2.25
Average house price is 3 times average income	Average house price is 4.5 times average income
We complained about British Rail	We realise British Rail was a Golden Age
Mobile phones were the size of a sub roll and only yuppies had one	Mobile phones have more functions than a Star Trek Tricorder and your Granny texts you Happy Birthday
Kylie and Jason from Neighbours storm the UK charts	Natalie Imbruglia from Neighbours storms the UK charts
Spam was a tasty tinned meat product	Spam Spam Spam Spam, Spam Spam Spam Spam...
"There are worlds out there, where the sky is burning, and the sea's asleep, and the rivers dream. People made of smoke, and cities made of song. Somewhere there's danger, somewhere there's injustice, somewhere else the tea's getting cold. Come on Ace, we've got work to do."	Expectations run high as the Eastercon main programme room is packed to capacity. Dumba-De-Dum, Dumba-De-Dum, Dumba-De-Dum, Diddeley Dum ...

Give Russell a break. It won't be like it was. Nothing is.