Shada cover released

The cover from the forthcoming BBC Books official Who publication of the lost 4th Doctor story, Shada, written by Gareth Roberts, has been released. Suitably 'Douglas Adamsy'.


On sale March 15th 2012.

Source - Combom - for all your Who news.

Doctor and nurses

Get it? Doctor and nurses? Rather than Doctors and nurses? I mean, who wants to play that! From Who Fix, which is very sadly closing down, after only a year... mmm, not sure if we like that, was a great site and source of old unusual photos, but at least I have nine months of back plundering to do.

Robot promo pics

A while back we did some early Baker promo pics, which included this first image, which was helpfully identified by a Blog follower as from Tom's first story Robot. Here's a few more.

Switching on the lights

Tom, Liz Sladen (Sarah Jane) and Ian Marter (Harry) switch on the Blackpool Illuminations in 1975.

Shada promo pics

More pics of Lalla in one of her fancy hats.






Sources: BBC classic series website, here, and there's a Shada gallery here, and the Who Image Archive, here.

Ah Lalla!

A few posts back we looked at a collection of pics from City of Death, so time to do a little look at Romana II, played by Lalla Ward. The 'school uniform' costume she wore in City was apparently her own idea, and she obviously likes hats, so here's a few more...




Lalla Ward originally portrayed Princess Astra in The Armageddon Factor (1979). Romana 'chose' her likeness for her second incarnation, travelling with the Doctor from Destiny of the Daleks (1979) through to Warriors' Gate (1981).

There's a Lalla gallery on the Beeb's classic series website, here, and on the the Who Image Archive, here. Top picture is from The Leisure Hive.

For more information on Lalla, see the Who wiki, here.

Tom's first and last interviews

Here's a great clip of Tom being interviewed during location filming for Revenge of the Cybermen in 1974. The underground caves were shot at Wookey Hole in Somerset.



This was obviously broadcast just before Tom's first season hit the screens, and I guess made for BBC local television.

And here's one of his last interviews whilst in the role, for Nationwide in 1981.

City of Death promo pics

Here's another collection of promo pics, this time relating to Who's first filming abroad, in Paris, for the Baker classic story City of Death, written by Douglas Adams.


Lalla's definately not letting hold of Tom's scarf!


There's a whole lot more higher res pics on the Beeb's classic Who website here.

More Baker promo pics

Hats off to Combom, who's found another image to go with the collection of Tom Baker promo pics we brought you here.

Daleks invade BBC Centre

Collection of Tom Baker promotional pics, with Daleks, outside the BBC Centre in London.

Early Baker Promo Pics

Collection of random early Baker promo and behind the scenes pics.


Maybe the first promo pic after being named as Who? (before outfit was made)


Perhaps during filming of first story, Robot?




Anyone know which stories the last two images come from?? Answers on the back of a postcard please (or via the comments!).

Top Trumps (1978)

Here's something we haven't looked at before, the Jotastar 1978 Top Trumps set.

You can download the set here. The artwork's a bit rough, and the game itself is a bit dodgy, half made up of historical earth characters that have never appeared in Who. And the scores of the cards is a bit bonkers. In fact, you're probably better off making your own game, but anyway!

Amazing World of Doctor Who (1976)

Way back here I did a post on the 'Amazing World of Doctor Who' Annual which was produced at part of the Ty-phoo tea promotion.

Well, surprise surprise, you can download some of it here.

Dalek Omnibus (1976)

Doctor Who and the Daleks Omnibus, edited by Dalek creator Terry Nation, was published by St. Martins Press in 1976 especially for Marks and Spencer. It featured a collection of articles and photographs related to the Daleks as they had appeared in Doctor Who, as well as abridged and illustrated reprints of the novelisations 'Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks' and 'Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks' by Terrance Dicks.

Though the novelisations do take up the majority of the book, the Omnibus is interesting for what else is included. A piece called "The Seventh Galaxy" provided some details about the Dalek's home galaxy. Another called "On Camera" provided photography and script extracts from Genesis of the Daleks. "The Forbidden Planet" described Skaro's two moons, Omega Mysterium and Falkus. A behind-the-scenes feature called "Doctor Who and the Daleks Media History" provided what would have been, at the time of publication, one of the first complete overviews of the various serials, stage plays and films in which the Daleks had appeared. "Invasion - the enemy within", a comic strip, was the lone piece of original fiction. The volume's new material was rounded off with a few diagrams of the anatomy of a Dalek and blueprints of a so-called "Dalek Deep Space Cruiser".


Altered Vistas, on their 'In The Comics' site, suggest the comic strip might be written by Terry Nation. It tells of a Dalek attack on an inhabited planet and the installation there of a huge Dalek army. As the book also contains an abridged version of the novelisation of Planet of the Daleks, this planet may well be Spiridon.

I've got my copy packed away somewhere, and as yet I haven't found scans of this avaiable online.

Worth it just for the cover (artist unknown), but lavishly illustrated throughout, including some quite good stuff. Not to be confused with the other, later, Dalek Omnibus, which contained three stories by Terrance Dicks... I'll do a post on that another time...

TARDIS Tuner

Our favourite Who blog (yep, even including this one!), Combom, has found an old advert for the Tardis Tuner, a classic piece of old Who merchandise.


I think this advert was also used in Doctor Who Weekly magazine, but will have to dig them out to check.

The Tardis Tuner was really a chunky black medium wave radio that also had flashing lights (the arrows on the front lit up) and sounds, and was manufactured by Shortman Trading in 1978.


There are some more photos on RichardWho.

There were a couple in good condition which had sold for just over 50 quid each on ebay a few years ago.

Time for tea?

In 1976 TyPhoo Tea ran one of the best Who promotional offers ever, featuring the work of the great Chris Achilleos on the boxes, 12 photographic collectors cards, and a supporting hardback annual style album called ´The Amazing World of Doctor Who´, with an outstanding cover, again produced by Achilleos. Apparently there´s a wallchart to go with this, although I have yet to find a photo of this. Just a shame the cards are photographs rather than original artwork, but hey, you can´t have everything (not that us power crazed megalomanics listen to such sweeping statements).


You can still pick up the cards for a reasonable price on ebay and the like, and the album is also occasionally found. However the promotional boxes themselves are probably the most sought after and few and far between, after all, who keeps old tea boxes?!


I used a picture of the album on my post about Chris´s work (here), and should again plug Chris´s website where you can order limited edition prints of the cover artwork, and a great Tom Baker portrait, again used in the promotion. You can visit his website here.


Unfortuantely we were a PG Tips family (probably my fault as I was also an addicted collector of the free collectors cards which appeared in these, so my poor mum probably had no choice but to buy PG!) and I have never had the disposable income to buy the stuff second hand since. But as soon as I win that lottery...

When I originally posted this I had lost the source of these images, which I have now rediscovered. Who collector Mike Hall has an excellent site called Dalek-mania which contains a wealth of information on all things Dalek and beyond, including original props. He has marked these images as his own copyright, which we respect, but wonder if the artist and manufacturer (and designer!) also have copyright claims. As the images are in the public domain, and refer to a once publicially available item, we think it´s OK to reproduce them here in this context. However, please respect this copyright if you copy these images for your own use by at least crediting Mike and his site.