In the Beginning

I'm an old fashioned kind of guy. I'm only just beginning to pick up the odd Classic Who stories on DVD - I collected them all on video (well, nearly all, at some cost!), before I realised that video really was dead. Rather than buy all the DVDs new, I've decided to give a home to orphaned copies from charity and other second hand shops. All good fun as you never know what you will find and when. Well I was in good old WHSmith the other day, and found The Beginning box set for a tenner. Well I couldn't resist. I've had my eye on this for a while (always a sucker for a box set) and the main reason being the Marco Polo recon. So I'm happily watching all these old episodes and extras, which I probably haven't seen for about ten years, before my video machine broke.

And aren't DVD's great. All the extras and bits and bobs, love 'em. But what am I going to do with the huge box of bloody VHS tapes I have! They are worthless in value these days, and I have contemplated throwing them away and just keeping the paper cover slips, in order to save a bit of space, but just can't bear to part with them all. I mean, what if everyone threw away their videos? Then the ones that are left will be worth more! So come on guys, time to throw out those old videos!

But back to the box set, as this is really just an excuse to post the graphic artwork of the boxset cover, and whilst we are at it, we may was well show you the individual covers as well! I know it's old (released in 2006) but it's new to me. That's the beauty of time travel!

And I'm enjoying the Marco Polo recon. Love that story, I just get so sad that we've lost these old Who episodes! Although I think they've cut too much out of this recon and lost a lot of the magic... shame they couldn't have made it two 30 min, or even 45 min episodes.

Damn, I'm gonna have to go and buy Keys of Marinus now...

48 years ago today...

Last weeks anniversary of the first Who episode, 48 years ago, reminded me of a little series I intended to run on this blog way back when I first set it up. On the 2009 anniversary I posted some clips from the Radio Times from that first Who episode, An Unerathly Child. Here, from the Radio Times 48 years ago today, is episode two, The Cave of Skulls.



Can you imagine watching an episode of Who these days and all you knew in advance was this! A far cry from the information overload we have in advance of episodes these days. Tune in next week for episode three...

[Clippings originally harvested from the Cluttings Archive, a now sadly defunct archive of Who in the popular news.]

Just for old times sake

And why not. Here's another YouTube clip, this time an official BBCWorldwide clip of the TARDIS taking off at the end of that first ever episode...

The Early Years

Here's a nice publication to download (even nicer to own) with lots of info on the early years of Who, obviously. Published in 1986 by W H Allen, and now long out of print I guess. Download it here.

Publishers blurb

On 23 November 1963 a British institution was born. After a ten minutes delay because of news of the assassination of President Kennedy, the BBC launched a new science-fiction series. Designed as a semi-educational programme, it told of the adventures in space and time of a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl and her mysterious grandfather. More than two decades later, DOCTOR WHO has become the longest-running science fiction TV series in the world.

DOCTOR WHO - THE EARLY YEARS is a detailed and informed account of the origin and the making of the television series. For the first time ever, the blueprints for the original Daleks are reproduced, together with stills from TV episodes that have long since been lost; cast lists and plot breakdowns from the early years are printed, together with interviews and photographs of all those involved in the making of DOCTOR WHO — from the Canadian-born Sydney Newman who instigated the series, to the designers, writers, actors and producers who made the show an unqualified success.


Written with the full co-operation of prominent designers and producers, and packed with behind-the-scenes interviews and rare photographs, THE EARLY YEARS is an indispensible reference work, and is destined to become a classic work on the early years of British TV science fiction.