Not Who but Poo...

OK, so now we are getting to the bottom of Who parody here, with Doctor Poo from Monster Fun Comic (1976). Haven´t been able to find any more info about this, more´s the relief.


This image is from the Cuttings Archive.

VIZ magazine did a Doctor Poo story in the June 1996 issue of the comic, and there is a flash animated version online, but I don´t have the sense of humour to look at this any further... if you do a quick web search I´m sure you´ll find it...

The Art of Who (Part 2) : Frank Bellamy

During in the early seventies, one of Britain´s most successful comic artists provided Who illustrations to support the program listings in the Radio Times. Frank Bellamy´s work was made famous to a generation through the Eagle and TV21 comics, among others.

His first Radion Times Who contribution appeared in 10 April, 1971, a two and a half page comic strip introduction (two of which were in full colour) based on episode one of the story ´Colony In Space´ (main frame of which below).


From January, 1972, Bellamy started an intermittent run of small illustrations to accompany the episode details in the magazine, the majority of which were only slightly larger than a postage stamp, appearing throughout the rest of Pertwee´s portrayal of the third Doctor.

However the highlight of this period was his full colour cover illustion for ´Doctor Who - Day of the Daleks´ (RT 1st - 7th January 1972) and now a very collectable issue, if you can find one. He is one of only two artists to illustrate Who covers for the RT (the other being Andrew Skilleter for the ´Five Doctors´ anniversary issue)


With the beginning of Tom Baker regin, larger illustrations accompanied the start of some stories, the last being 'The Planet of Evil' in July 1976, the year in which he died.

His work as 'the' Dr. Who artist was reprinted in a book edited by his son David in "Dr. Who Timeview: The Complete Doctor Who Illustrations of Frank Bellamy”, published by Who Dares in 1985.


You can find listings of his complete works here (from which the following list is edited), and a detailed blog here. There´s not much of his work available online, although a gallery of his dalek illustrations can be seen here.


Doctor and Dalek, for episode 2 of Planet of the Daleks

I haven´t found full page scans from any of the Radio Times issues showing Frank Bellamy´s work in context. It would be a nice collection to have, especially for the larger illustrations, so if anyone has them...

Frank Bellamy Radio Times Doctor Who Illustrations Listing

Colony in Space (10 - 16/04/1971) Page 14 one quarter page B&W comic strip, Doctor, Jo (“What is it?”) & shadowy figure. Pages 53-55 Two full colour pages, Dr (“We´ll just have a look around and then I´ll try and get you back to earth”) & Jo and two-thirds B&W illustration

The Daemons (22 - 28/05/1971) Page 15 B&W Doctor and Jo Grant in Bessie screeching to Devil's End with Miss Hawthorne

Spearhead from space (03 - 09/07/1971) p.41 B&W Doctor
Spearhead from space (10 - 16/07/1971) p.43 B&W Doctor [Reprint of 3-9/7/1971]

The Daemons - omnibus edition (18 - 31/12/1971) p.75 B&W The Master and Doctor

Day of the Daleks (01 - 07/01/1972) Colour cover - Doctor and Daleks

The Curse of Peladon (29/01 - 04/02/1972) p.17 B&W Aggedor
The Curse of Peladon (05 - 11/02/1972) p.15 B&W Alpha Centauri
The Curse of Peladon (12 - 18/02/1972) p.17 B&W Izlyr, the Ice Warrior
The Curse of Peladon (19 - 25/02/1972) p.17 B&W Arcturus
The Sea Devils (04 - 10/03/1972) p.19 B&W The Master
The Sea Devils (11 - 17/03/1972) p.15 B&W submarine
The Sea Devils (18 - 24/03/1972) p.20 B&W Sea Devil
The Sea Devils (25 - 31/03/1972) p.5 & p.19 B&W Doctor [repeated image]
The Sea Devils (01 - 07/04/1972) p. 15 B&W Jo
The Mutants (08 - 14/04/1972) p. 15 B&W spaceship
The Mutants (15 - 21/04/1972) p.17 B&W Jo
The Mutants (22 - 28/04/1972) p. 15 B&W Doctor
The Mutanta (29/04 - 05/05/1972) p.17 B&W The Tardis
The Mutants (06 - 12/05/1972) p.15 B&W guard
The Mutants (13 - 19/05/1972) p. 17 B&W Solonian mutant
Time Monster (20 - 26/05/1972) p. 15 B&W Doctor ¨[Reprint of 22-28/4/1972]
Time Monster (17 - 23/06/1972) p. 17 B&W The Master [Reprint of 4-10/3/1972]

The Sea Devils [Omnibus edition] (16 - 29/12/1972) p.82 B&W Doctor (“The whole place will go up in approximately ten minutes, enjoy your revenge”), the Master and Sea Devil

The Three Doctors (06 - 12/01/1973) p.15 B&W Patrick Troughton
The Three Doctors (13 - 19/01/1973) p.17 B&W William Hartnell
The Three Doctors (20 - 26/01/1973) p.17 B&W Jon Pertwee
The Carnival of Monsters (03 - 09/02/1973) p.13 B&W Pletrac (guard)
The Carnival of Monsters (10 - 16/02/1973) p.15 B&W Drashig
The Carnival of Monsters (17 - 23/02/1973) p.15 B&W Doctor
Frontier in Space (24/02 - 02/03/1973) p.17 B&W Draconian
Frontier in Space (03 - 09/03/1973) p.17 B&W Ogran
Frontier in Space (10 - 16/03/1973) p.15 B&W guard
Frontier in Space (17 - 23/03/1973 p.19 B&W the Master
Frontier in Space (24 - 30/03/1973) p.17 B&W Draconian
Frontier in Space (31/03 - 06/04/1973) p.15 B&W Doctor
Planet of the Daleks (07 - 13/04/1973) p.15 B&W Tardis
Planet of the Daleks (14 - 20/04/1973) p.14 B&W Doctor and Dalek
Planet of the Daleks (21 - 27/04/1973) p.15 B&W Jo and Dalek
Planet of the Daleks (28 - 04/05/1973) p.17 B&W Dalek
Planet of the Daleks (05 - 11/05/1973) p.16 B&W Doctor
Planet of the Daleks (12 - 18/05/1973) p.15 B&W Doctor
The Green Death (19 - 25/05/1973) p.17 B&W Doctor
The Green Death (26/05 - 01/06/1973) p.17 B&W of Jo in miner's helmet
The Green Death (02 - 08/06/1973) p.17 B&W maggots
The Green Death (09 - 15/06/1973) p.15 B&W Doctor and exploding mine mechanism
The Green Death (16 - 22/06/1973) p.17 B&W Jo and maggots
The Green Death (23 - 29/06/1973) p. 19 B&W Doctor and Bessie

Ark in Space [Omnibus edition] (16 - 22/08/1975) p.34 B&W landscape illustration, small snip of Doctor (Tom Baker), the ark, and the Wirrn

Terror of the Zygons (30/08 - 05/09/75) p.6 Two-thirds page colour illustration of the Doctor (“Whe´re dealing with a monstor of no ordinary flesh and blood”) and Loch Ness monster. p.17 B&W Oil Rig illustration to accompany the programme listing

Planet of Evil (27/09 - 03/10/1975) p. 19 Part reprint of Ark in Space 16/08/1975 - 22/8/75

Genesis of the Daleks (20/12 - 02/01/1976) pp 60-61 B&W Landscape comic tryptic - Doctor and Davros and Daleks (below)

The Seeds of Doom (31/01 - 06/02/1976) p. 55 B&W Sarah Jane and The Doctor

The Planet of Evil (03/07 - 09/07/1976) p. 26 B&W landscape illustration

Who in Futurama

Here´s a few more crossover Who ´cartoons´, this time from ´Futurama´ comic and featuring Daleks, cybermen and K9. I´ve collected these from random sources, and can´t remember where, and the only information I have indicates that they are from a Who parody story called ´Doctor What´ which appeared in Futurama comic No 32 (US publication, June 2007) and in No 49 (UK publication, Jan 2008).


There is a short synopsis of the story here. Professor Farnsworth creates the world's greatest porta-potty. When it flushes, it teleports to a random place in space and time. Whilst Farnsworth is being interviewed by ´Straight Poop´, Dr Zoidberg goes into the porta-potty to poke around and ends up breaking the teleports switch...


According to wikipedia, Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Fururama, is a Doctor Who fan and one of the main characters in Futurama is named Leela after the Fourth Doctor companion. Not a lot of people know that.

If anyone has scans of the full story please get in touch - I´m not convinced the above panels are all from the same story, or that its the story I´ve identified!

See here for reference to Doctor What from the 1960s.

First Doctor Cartoon - Captain Pugwash?!

Following my last post, I´m wading my way through the Radio Times clippings in the Cuttings Archive (link), and I found something which I´d not seen before, an appearance by the first Doctor, together with a Dalek an Zarbi, in the Captain Pugwash cartoon from the Radio Times (Cover date 27 March to 02 April 1965). This accompanied the screening of episode one of The Crusade.


The frist Who comic strip had appeared in TV Comic in November 1964, so it´s not the first comic appearance of the Doctor, but it maybe the first cross-over appearance, or first ´official´ cartoon appearance if we classify it as such (and seperate from comic strips).

The first ´unofficial´ appearance goes to Boys World magazine, which from May 1964 included a cartoon called ´Doctor What´, a spoof strip in which inventor and William Hartnell impersonator Doctor What gets up to all sorts of trouble.

Does anyone out there has any more first Doctor comic/cartoon information to add to this? I´ll put up more information on Who in comics soon...

The End of Time

Hiya, sorry, I've been a bit busy moving half way across the world and stuff... now back in the UK, re-united with my Who collection (although I have no idea where my TARDIS cookie jar has dematerialised too!) and generally grumbling about the snow and ice.

So for the first time in several years I was able to watch Who live on tellie! No waiting for international download versions or frustrations with broken internet connections... and my how nice it was too.

Generally speaking I was ready for The End of Tennant... as well as Davies. I love them both, and what they have done for Who, but for me it was definately time for a change, and I'm really looking forward to the New Series.

But an excellent two part story with some great moments... Simms must have revelled in the opportunity to create such an unstable and manic Master, if not in stuffing his face with all those burgers. Big thumbs up to one and all.

I'm still a bit confused as to why the Doctor jumped out of an alien spaceship and crashed through the roof before going splat on the floor... did he think he would bounce or something? But anyway, we are used to brushing over such minor details these days. And was Dalton really playing Rassilon? Perhaps some explanation needed there if he was. At whilst we're at it, how did the Master get resurrected with super-powers? Not even a hint of an explanation? Please? However I am sure that all these minor points of detail were detailed in full in the script, but just couldn't be fitted into the show, and I am therefore waiting for the novelisation to explain all. By the way, why is it we don't have any novelisations of New Series Who episodes? Has the Beeb forgetten to flog the rights to these?


There is an excellent detailed review of the 'loose ends' surrounding the story here, as recommended by the one and only combom.

For my money, I like the idea that the 'Woman in White' was the Doctor's mum, but also equally that it's Romana or Susan...(which I hadn't even thought of) so long as the White Guardian is the one pulling the strings behind everything!

More of those little ident clips...

Long before Tennant got power crazed and took over everything that is Who, the job of publicity was shared around a bit more. Even the bad guys got a chance.

The daleks (well, dalek influenced '2's) got a special ident for Doctor Who Night (13 Nov 1999), hosted by Tom Baker, and its popularity meant it went on to join the roster of regular idents. A variant on this ident, named Exterminate, has the sequence opening with the Dalek '2' shouting the familiar phrase.



I've gone for a longer intro version, complete with Tom Baker introducing the evenings shows and edits of all the ins and outs. One thing leads to another, as they say, so here's one of those shows, the comedy sketch with Mark Gatiss.



And another, 'How to build a TARDIS', of note for another couple of Delek idents at the beginning and end.



I couldn't find the other shows...

Merry Whomas

Framegrab from the BBC Xmas 'idents' (one of three done with Tennant and TARDIS).

Watch on YouTube...



Thats the first time I've embedded a video link! Easy. Now to take over the known universe...

You can see them all on the official BBC Who site here

The Doctor beats the Daleks, at last...

So far we´ve looked at the first Who related merchandise, all of which has been Dalek themed, from ´The Dalek Book´ and Cadet collectors cards, to the first novelisation, in which he at least got the headline over the Daleks. However two days after the publication of that first story, the Doctor appeared in his own comic strip, published in TV Comic magazine on the 14 November 1964, and without a Dalek in sight. So far, David Whitaker, series script-writer, had played a key role in writing supporting Who material, but here he is notably absent. The artwork was by Neville Main and later Bill Mevin.


Starting in the 10 part The Klepton Parasites, and joined at the beginning by his grandchildren John and Gillian, the Doctor embarks on a run of stories which would continue in the magazine through to the end of the second Doctors reign, including also Annual and Holiday specials.

Many stories were later reprinted by Marvel UK under the Classic Comics series launched in 1992.


The best place to start getting to know these stories online is the excellent Who website In the Comics, with story briefs and example artwork, and presented to us by Altered Vistas. I´ve also found the odd scanned story to download, but few and far between. Perhaps there´s scans of the Classic Comics out there somewhere.

[UPDATE SEPT 2010: For several months now a blog has been building up a great archive of the early comic strips, scanned from the reprinted and colourised 'Classic Comics', along with all out other Who comics strips. Check out Doctor Who Comic Fun, and show your appreciation!]

I should probably post up as list of the stories, but I think I´ll tackle them Doctor by Doctor rather than all in one go... sooner or later...

Another Dalek ´first´...

Published on 12 November 1964, just in time for the second arrival of the Daleks in the TV series ´The Dalek Invaision of Earth´, was the first ever Who book. A novelisation of their first appearance almost a year earlier, Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, was written by David Whitaker and published in hardback by Frederick Muller. The first edition of 20,000 copies, with pink dustjacket, soon sold out and was quickly reprinted in December (the second, and later third, editions have grey covers).


Twelve internal black and white illustrations were by Arnold Schwartzman (a detail from one was reused on the cover).


A paperback edition was issued on 4th October 1965 by May Fair Books Ltd, under the Armada Paperbacks imprint. This version did not use Schwartzman's artwork, instead having a colour cover and 6 line illustrations by Peter Archer. This was the first Doctor Who novel to be published in paperback.


On 2 May 1973 it was the first Who title published under the Target Books range, renaming it as ´Doctor Who and the Daleks´, although the full title was still given on the inside frontpage, and with the subtitle "Based on the popular BBC television serial". From 1977 onwards reprinted editions, now complete with the arched Who logo, dropped the full title completly. All of the Target editions included the 12 illustrations by Schwartzman.

The now classic cover illustration was by Chris Achilleos, who has acknowledged the influence of Ron Turner's artwork for The Dalek Chronicles comic published in TV Century 21 (more about that soon!), in particular the two Daleks were modelled from Issue 60 (The Rogue Planet, part 2) and the title graphic from Issue 76 (Legacy of Yesteryear) onwards.


In January 1992 it was republished by Virgin, retitled ´Doctor Who - The Daleks´ and released with a new cover by Bruce Pearson.

BBC Audio used the Achilleos artwork on the cover of their 2005 audio CD release as part of the ´Doctor Who: Travels in Time and Space´ collectors tin, with actor William Russell (Ian) reading the novelisation.

Probably one of the best Who related websites, On Target, has jacket details and cover examples, including a section on foreign editions, complete with scans of inside illustrations by varying artists. Definately a site to booknmark!

Smokin´ Who

Hot on the heals of ´The Dalek Book´, Dr. Who and the Daleks sweet cigarettes were produced by Cadet in mid 1964, with artwork heavily inspired by the Dalek Book, and each packet containing a free collectors picture card.


Produced back in the days when smoking was cool, confectionery known as ´sweet cigarettes´ were popular for kids who wanted to emulate their parents' addiction. In this politically correct era they are now marketed as ´candy sticks´...

The series of 50 cards were split in half into two stories, illustrated by different artists. The likeness (and character) of the Doctor is hard to match to the TV version, in the first story having white hair, and in the second dark, but neither looking much like Hartnell.


The first story features the Doctor and the Daleks visiting Marinus and the Voord, created by Terry Nation in the TV story ´The Keys of Marinus´. Notably the Daleks are in search of magic mushrooms to make them invincable... The second story features the Doctor on an equally bizarre rescue mission with the Daleks.

Apparently there are two imprints of the cards, first by Cadet and then Goodies, which are much rarer. There are also two versions of the box, with different back panel illustrations - the common one being a space rocket (above), and the rarer version a ringed planet.

Unfortunately there was no special album produced to accompany the cards. although you could send off for a generic album.

There´s not much about these on the net, although I know I have found stuff before, I can´t find anything worth linking here at the moment. I do have a downloaded collection of the complete set, but again I can´t remember where I found it! It contains a banner page listing it as a "Receptacle Presentation", and a notes page from which much of the info presented here has been edited. If you search around you´ll certainly find the odd card scan (eg. ebay and other collectors sites), and card number 50 is show above.

The Beginnings of Dalekmania!

As most of us know, the Daleks featured in the second ever Who story, ´The Mutants´ (or ´The Dead Planet´, or even ´The Daleks´!), in late 1963 and early 1964, and were an instant audience hit. Terry Nation knew he had something big on his hands, and controlled the branding, marketing and promotion of the Daleks in a manner to which even Davros would be proud.

´Dalekmania´, as it became known, was driven by the huge commercial promotion of Dalek merchandise that took place from the mid 1960s and which followed the huge commercial influence of ´Beatlemania´. There were other manias to follow (Batmania in 1966, Monkeemania in 1967) but Dalekmania was probably the first TV grown merchandise boom. It was not until late 1964, when ¨The Dalek Invasion of Earth¨ arrived, that the tills really started ringing. From clockwork Daleks to Dalek soap, the shops were full of wierd collectables, many of which remain the most highly sought after items for Who fans with more money than sense (purely a mathematical equation, no disrespect to Who collectors, of course!).


One of the very first items of Dalek merchandise, and indeed Who merchandise, was ´The Dalek Book´. Published by Souvenir Press (Panther Books) on the 30 June 1964 this 96 page hardback annual was the first time The Daleks appeared in comic strip form. The Dalek Book contained both colour and black & white comic strips and illustrated text stories and told the story of the Dalek invasion of our solar system and their ultimate, and apparent, defeat. It also featured a new photostory with Susan and the Daleks using images from the first Who Dalek story. There´s no Doctor in any of these these stories.

The book was said to be "Based on the Dalek Chronicles discovered and translated by Terry Nation" and was co-written by TV Who script editor David Whittaker and Dalek creator and writer Terry Nation. The illustrations were by Richard Jennings (including the cover artwork), John Woods and A.B. Cornwell. [Jennings was also the first artist chosen to illustrate the regular weekly Dalek strip on the back cover of the new comic TV Century 21 which started in January 1965.]

The book showed the Daleks in flight over 40 years before they would gain the ability on TV - a major improvement in Dalek technology which BBC special effects (and budgets) couldn´t match at the time. Although in the comics they flew by means of ´transolar discs´, flying platforms which allowed the Daleks to fly through space, the imagery of a flying Dalek armada clearly inspired similar scenes in the New Who story ´Doomsday´.


The story was recently used as the vague basis for the backstory of the Dalek Empire audio series produced by Big Finish.

If you are lucky enough to find The Dalek Book you can expect to pay over 50 quid for it in good condition. If, like me, you´re still waiting to win the lottery, then settle for the downloadable scans which you can find here (along with most of the Dalek annuals from the 60s and 70s).

Stories


Invasion of the Daleks - comic strip
Red for Danger - text story with illustrations
The Oil Well - comic strip
The Message of Mystery - photo story
The Secret of the Mountain - text story with illustrations
City of the Daleks - comic strip
The Humanoids - comic strip
The Small Defender - text story with illustrations
Monsters of Gurnian - comic strip
Break-through! - text story with illustrations
Battle for the Moon - comic strip


Features

The Dalek Planetarium
The Dalekode
Anatomy of a Dalek
Dodge the Dalek
Dalek War Machines
Dalography of Skaro
The Dalek Dictionary

Those Radio Times (Part 1) : Classic Who covers

The Radio Times is a weekly TV listing magazine published by the BBC in the UK. Over the years it has included many articles on Who, and most notably, many covers (no other TV programme has had nearly so many). The Who covers are very collectable, and cover many years of the programme.

The beginning of the TV series was marked only with a cover tag "DR WHO - a new Saturday-afternoon television series of adventures in time and space" (Radio Times 23rd - 30th November 1963). The first Who cover publicised the now lost classic ´Marco Polo´ (RT, 22-28 February 1963).


This was followed by the first Dalek cover promoting ´The Dalek Invasion of Earth´ (Radio Times 21st - 28th November 1964) , with the slightly misleading cover tag: "DR. WHO and the Daleks Saturday TV". A feature depicts the invaders trundling across Westminster Bridge in a classic photoshoot, and mistakenly refers to them as 'robots' throughout. The last first Doctor cover promoted ´The Web Planet´ (RT 13-19 February 1964).

Patrick Troughton´s arrival as the Doctor was marked with another Dalek cover, promoting his first story, ´Power of the Daleks´ (RT 5 - 11 November 1966). Patrick was interviewed the following month for the launch of ´The Highlanders´ (RT 15th - 21st December 1966).


1967 marked the first Cyberman cover, (RT 2-8 September 1967), supporting the ´Tomb of the Cybermen´ story and featuring the cover blurb: "DR. WHO and his companions face their old enemies, the Cybermen. Saturday BBC 1 see page 3". "My instincts tell me that terrible danger awaits us," the Doctor writes in his diary for the story preview. [A copy sold for over £100 on ebay in April 2010].

Another lanmark cover, this time the first in colour, portrays Troughton´s doctor (RT 20-26 January 1968) marked the ´Enemey of the Wolrd´ story, with the cover headline "Monstrous world of Doctor Who - RT talks to the BBC wardrobe and effects people".

From 1970 to 1973, Each of Jon Pertwee's seasons as the Third Doctor were heralded by a Radio Times cover (RT 1-7 January 1970, 2-8 January 1971 (below), 1-7 January 1972 - the highly collectable Frank Bellamy ´Day of the Daleks´ cover - and 30 December - 7 January 1973, with the 10th anniversary story ´The Three Doctors´).

Pertwee´s final cover (RT 15th - 22nd December 1973 - "Who´s your friend") marked an appearance on Parkinson, with a feature looking at the Doctor's popular appeal, together with his appearance on the Five Doctors cover, he achieved six covers.


For ten years, Who was without a RT cover - the show under Tom Baker was deamed so popular that it didn´t need promoting!

The next cover celebrated the 20th Anniversary adventure The Five Doctors (RT 19-25 November 1983), illustrated by Andrew Skilleter. This particular issue was hit by a printers strike that meant a reduced number of copies were available and indeed some regions received no issue.

Another 10 year gap was followed by the 30th Anniversary of Doctor Who, marked by ´Dimensions in Time´ in association with the BBC's annual Children in Need appeal (RT 20-26 November 1993).


Three years later, Paul McGann got his cover promoting the TV Movie (RT 25-31 May 1996). This issue, began a regular page sci-fi feature that included ongoing comic strip adventures for the Eigth Doctor in anticipation of a new relaunch for Doctor Who. The page was later abandoned and the comic strip had its run ended early.

Even after the cancellation of the classic series, a Doctor Who Night, with over three hours of programming presented by Fourth Doctor Tom Baker, provided the excuse for another Dalek cover (RT 13-19 November 1999), featuring a specially commisioned Dalek portrait, shot by Lord Snowdon, which was originally used as a postage stamp design. A readers' offer included a full set of high quality postcards each depicting Radio Times Doctor Who covers to date.


In 2003 a set of four different covers were released to celebrate the series 40th Anniversary (RT 22 – 28 November 2003). Finally Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy all has their own individual Who covers, although on a shared issue, which joined together to form a single image. Tom even got himself a new redesigned costume, for obvious reasons. A 16 Page centre pull-out celebrated the series, containing features and competitions - win a (replica) dalek and also original illustration artwork by Mark Thomas from the 20th-anniversary RT special (I wonder where this is now!).

There have also been two RT special anniversary issues, marking the 10th and 20th anniversaries of the series. The 10th anniversary RT Who special was reprinted and available to order as part of the 40th anniversary issues above. I´ll cover these in a future post.

Radio Times website has a gallery and details of Who covers here. For those of you who want to see inside the RT issues covering Who, visit the Cuttings Archive here, which appears to have the most comprehensive online library of Who related scans, as well as a ´covers´ section here (this site is a mine of information and well worth exploring).

A three page Doctor Who Magazine article, ´Those Radio Times´ appeared in issue 161 (June 1990), highlighting the coverage of Who inside the RT.

Happy Birthday Who

And so it was, on the 23rd November 1963, a TV legend was born. When you look at Who now, 46 years later, it, like its current Doctor, has turned into a bit of monster. There´s the classic TV series, the New TV Series, online animated webcasts, radio audio adventures, the odd movie or two, and merchandise of such a bewildering variety it would take a lifetime´s work to get your head round it.

On occassions like these, we should toast those who have been involved in making the show what it is, and none more so than those people involved in those early days of black and white TV.

So, if you haven´t found it already, take a look at the BBC Archive and their ´Genesis of Doctor Who´ collection here. There´s a wealth of information and documentation on the pre-production development of the show, including scans of original documents complete with handwritten notes and comments by the lead players in creating the programme.


If the above scan is hard to read, you can find the text here.

Elsewhere, on the BBC Classic Series website (here) you can find detailed notes on the first pilot episode, the first story, An Unearthly Child, and together with all the subsequent stories. They also have some rather obscure original documents online. And a photo gallerey here.

If you look on thr right sites you can even find a pdf copy of the original script to download, for example from here

Or, of course, you can read the Target novelisation (again you can find pdf´s of these to download) if you don´t already own a copy.

We´re also lucky enough to be able to watch the first story, as the Beeb didn´t wipe the mastertapes like they did with so many later Hartnell and Troughton stories. Perhaps they were so far back in the cupboard they didn´t get to them! One wonders why the first story hasn´t been put up on YouTube or MSN for everyone to enjoy (everyone in the UK that is!), as its already been released for some time on DVD as part the ´The Beginning´ box set. Perhaps they´ll save it until the 50th anniversary.

And the Doctor´s first words in the first episode of the first story?

"What are you doing here?"

Scans shown here are from the Cuttings Archive.

Early Radio Times - Hartnell

I´ve been looking back at the early Radio Times issues, and the Cutting Archive has what looks like a complete library of scans for the first Doctor. Every episode has a programme listing (obviously, its the point of the magazine, but they are all on the site to see!), containing cast and crew information, if not much else.

However every new story has a small photo and article introducing it, and at the end of almost every story there´s a teaser for the following week - usually a photo and one line caption. The photos are black and white, often of the Doctor (from the same publicity shoot!), but as the show established itself photos specific to the story were used more often, and I don´t think they´ve been used much since - I wonder if the beeb still has all these tucked away somewhere in its collection. And there´s also a couple of cool Dalek illustrations, which I think are worth showing.


The above illustration, from RT cover date 19 December 1964, accompanied ´The Dalek Invaision of Earth´. No artist is credited.

What I hadn´t realised before is that the RT issues varied from region to region, and only some issues have the photos and story intros, so if you are looking to collect these check your research first before you go buying. Generally speaking it looks that as BBC2 spread across the country (it was introduced region by region) it squeezed out the additional Who content. So in many cases the Who bits are only in the Scottish or Northern Ireland issues...


This one (credited ´CWB´) is from RT cover date 29 October 1966, and accompanied the last episode of ´The Tenth Planet´. It actually looks like the same illustration as above, but just inversed and duplicated, but it shows how Patrick Troughton´s arrival relied on heavy promotion by the already popular Daleks... he´s not even mentioned!

I should also highlight the nice graphic which accompanied ´The War Machines´, but which I´m not putting here... I´ll leave that for you to discover!

Scans shown here are from the Cuttings Archive.

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.

Who online?

A few days back I noticed that the Beeb had done a deal with YouTube to officially stream stories from the classic series. This, I thought was a step in the right direction. But alas, my excitement at finding the stories below was short lived... the all to familiar message "This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions" flashed up on my screen. Now I´m used to this on the BBC Who website, where I can´t watch any embedded clips, and hence have to wait for YouTube reposts and the like. But this time I´d allowed myself to hope YouTube had negotiated worldwide distribution.

The first wave of stories on YouTube are

The Edge of Destruction,
The Krotons
Carnival of Monsters
Planet of the Spiders
The Masque of Mandragora
The Twin Dilemma

Strange that there are two Pertwee stories and no Davison, or McCoy, and why why why would anyone want to watch the Twin Dilemma I do not know, but suit yourselves!

And so it was I nearly overlooked that MSN Video had done a similar deal. Now I normally avoid Microsoft when given the choice, but thought it worth a quick look to see which stories thay had, with no expectation of actually being able to watch them. But what a surprise to find I could... only now I´ve gone back to the site I can´t... "video cannot be played from your current location". T y p i c a l . I again put this down to the technological conspiracy against me.

The Web Planet
Tomb of the Cybermen
Planet of the Spiders
The Talons of Weng Chieng
The Caves of Androzani

And the promise of new episodes every Tuesday and Friday! Watch them here.

I´m so pissed I can´t view these, especially when I thought for a bit that I could! Now I am going to have to keep checking this site in case I manage to get it working again!

Lists, and lists of lists

Way back when Peter Davison was the Doctor, and a young innocent Who fan was beginning a never ending obsession, it was hard to get your hands on Who. Doctor Who Monthly was the only source of information for many. There were no constant repeats, no internet, no videos and no audio stories, so no way of seeing or knowling old stories unless you where mates with a film collector.

When Jean-Marc L'Officier´s ´Programme Guide´ books came out, in 1981, it was a big leap forward for us Whovians who needed to know every detail of our addiction. But for me it still wasn´t enough, and I used to find myself making list after list, of stories, directors, writers, companions, monsters, books and mechandise (which I would illustrate with little sketches), indexing my DWM collection and generally keeping myself out of trouble. If something, or someone, appeared in Who more than once, then it was worth a list. I even tried to put every Who story in order of its date setting, which must have taken me ages.


Now we have access to so much material on the net and in books (some bright spark even published his list of lists, which I bought twice), we don´t know where to look first. And I´m still making lists - although they are a bit more advanced than my pencil and paper lists of old.

This blog is a tribute to making lists, and lists of lists, but now with links, photos and pics to help find whatever it was you were looking for but forgot when you got distracted by reading this.

I´ve a bit of an addiction with lists, and nowdays I find myself making lists of all sorts of things, even developing databases of useless information in my bid to give organisation and order to the chaos. I guess (in fact I know) it must reflect some mental disposition, but frankly I´m better off not knowing which one, as I might have to start making a lists of those as well.

Perhaps I´ll make a list here sooner or later...

Escapist Control Freak

Meglos, a classic megalomanic (or is it the Doctor? Or a cactus? Pure genius that - in how many shows do you get a cactus trying to take over the universe?!)

I´ve chosen my online blog moniker as it reflects my personality. Just as Magnus, the War Chief, is a megalomanic control freak, so am I. Just as he´s a delusional escapist, so am I. Well, just a bit anyway - despite the apparent contradiction.

I guess this is why Who holds appeal for me. It is pure and simple escapism from everyday life, from the reality we are all constrained by. It´s a chance to fantasize, to daydream of other worlds and civilizations, to hope for something better and give meaning to the meaningless.

I also guess that this desire to escape comes from, or hand-in-hand with, the desire to control. Now I´m not saying that I´d like to control everything and everyone, but it certainly drives me up the wall when I see things being done wrong, or badly, and I want to make it better, just like the Doctor. So perhaps, given the chance, I´d have a go.

For me it´s a search for "Quality", that metaphysical concept core to Robert M. Pirsig's ´Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : An Inquiry into Values´. The classic megalomanic´s desire to control the world, or conquor the universe, is not led by a desire to be evil, to dominate or to opress in itself (although I admit it can be easily percieved as such), but instead to make things better, to manage the unmanagable mass of independent actions and beings which seam to be so random and haphazard in their direction, and to unify them towards a percieved value or greater goal. It is when societies have their backs against the wall that individuals like these are at their most potent and powerful - in the fight to unify and survive. But it can also come out of a desire to improve and evolve.


The Master, here played by Roger Delgado, and the ultimate control freak - although not necessarily very successful at it given the number of chances he´s had and the fact he has a time machine...

For me, it is an essential part of human nature. Without these driving forces I doubt we would have progressed to the lofty levels of civilization which we so value today. Nor would we be in the mess we are in. It is what makes us fight for values that we uphold, to draw lines and say no, this is not the way to go. Turn left, not right...

However total control is totally impossible, and that´s where the desire to escape begins to manifest itself. If you can´t control, then hell, escape - it´s the only option, especially if you´re a control freak. Run away into your delusional world of fantasy and embrace your megalomanic side. It´s healthy. Well, more healthy than drinking yourself drunk or taking drugs. They don´t help at all, and I talk from personal experience.

So praise to Who and its multiplicity of megalomanics... we love them all, and secretly, deep down, despite our love for the Doctor and the values he upholds, we´re all as mad and crazed as any of the megalo´s portrayed in Who. Well, I know I am anyway.

All this is, I think, especially relevant to the current story arch in Who. The 10th Doctor, in his omnipotent rise in power and control, is slowly becoming as mad and bad as the forces which he fights. Bring it on, for we all know a good baddie never dies, but always escapes to fight another day. And lets be honset, the Doctor is the biggest megalomanic of them all. Well, at the moment anyway.

The Art of Who (Part 1) : Chris Achilleos

Growing up with the Target novelisations of the original ´classic´ Who meant that one artist was synonymous with early Doctor Who stories - the one and only Chris Achilleos. Highly styilized, and yet increadibly accurate, often with a pointilist style black and white portrait of the Doctor, Chris´s covers jumped off book shelves and were almost as exciting as reading the books themselves.

Between 1973 and 1977 Chris illustrated the covers of 28 of the first Target books, some of which included back cover illustrations, and a few also included black and white illustrations inside the books as well. Some of these covers were replaced on later reprints and editions (criminally in my view - no disrespect to the subsequent artists).

He also illustrated covers for some special non-fiction books, most noteably the ´Doctor Who Book of Monsters´ and ´The Amazing World of Doctor Who´, both of which feature great colour portraits of Tom Baker with an assortment of monster enemies. The latter title was an annual-style title produced as part of a 1976 TyPhoo Tea promotion, and special boxes also featured his art - now highly sought after by crazed collectors of all things Who. I certainly wish I had an example (I´ll stick up some pics when I get the chance).


You can see all of Chris´s covers, including some special limited editions (for example a 20th Anniversary Five Doctors commorative print and other one-off paintings), on his website. Chris is now a well established fantasy artist, having published several solo books and becoming rather well known for his fantasy female figures. And very nice they are too.

Sadly, some of Chris´s original works where apparently stolen some years back, including Day of the Daleks, the Tenth Planet and The Cybermen. As a result Chris can´t offer prints of these images for sale, which is a great shame not only for him, but also us.

I´ve copied the main illustration on this post from his site, and I sincerely hope he doesn´t mind (I´m writing to him to request his permission for its use in this context, but acknowledge his copyright in the meantime). What I didn´t realize until I first browsed his site is that Chris sells high quality prints of his work. He has even done new commissions, including a special ´Tomb of the Cybermen´ cover and a couple of New Series prints.

Sometime back in the 1980´s (I think - I´ll update this when I get more time!) a portfolio of six of his covers was released, of which I am a proud owner, and I did manage to pick up a signed print of his tribute to the New Series with a 9th Doctor and Rose illustration, complete with Autons and Dalek.

If you can´t afford to get yourself a print from Chris yourself (but it must surely be worth saving up the pennies), or if you´re not loaded enough to commission your own personal painting, then it´s well worth hunting down early editions of these books just for the covers. They can still be found secondhand at reasonable prices, and must surely be a good investment. Check out ebay or greenmetropolis.com (a secondhand book site which donates to The Woodland Trust).


Doctor Who and the Daleks (Cover and interior illustrations)
Doctor Who and the Crusaders (Cover and interior illustrations)
Doctor Who and the Zarbi (Cover and interior illustrations)
Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion (Cover and interior illustrations)
Doctor Who and the Cave-Monsters (Cover and interior illustrations)
Doctor Who and the Day of the Daleks (Cover and interior illustrations)
Doctor Who and the Doomsday Weapon (Cover and interior illustrations)
Doctor Who and the Dæmons (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Sea Devils (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Curse of Peladon (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Cybermen (Cover)
Doctor Who - The Three Doctors (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Dinosaur Invasion (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Ice Warriors (Cover)
Doctor Who - Revenge of the Cybermen (Cover)
Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Web of Fear (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Space War (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Planet of the Daleks (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Pyramids of mars (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Carnival of Monsters (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Seeds of Doom (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Dalek Invasion of Earth (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos (Cover)
Doctor Who and the Ark in Space (Cover)

Non-fiction

The Making of Doctor Who (Cover, Target Books edition)
The Doctor Who Monster Book (Cover)
The Second Doctor Who Monster Book (Cover)
The Amazing World of Doctor Who (Cover)
The Target Book (Cover)


Thanks Chris, your work is a great addition to the world of Who, and an inspiration to aspiring artists.

Life, the Whoniverse and not much else

Now some fans take their Who very seriously. They get upset when stories conflict with one another (continuity errors) and come up with all sorts of explanations of how this could happen (parrallel universes being the most popular). One example is the varying explanations for the destruction of Atlantis which have popped up in the series over the years.

This is particularly a problem when you start looking at "spin-off" stories in books, comics and audio stories, and try to weave them into one big whoniverse of continuity. Fans are also the first to pick plot holes in stories and ask questions that usually have the words "if", "then" and "but" in them. I have a little way of looking at things which helps me get over this and prevent my headaches getting worse.

For me, I prefer to accept the fact that Who is a TV series, written and produced by people. But I also like to pretend that Who is real, and therefore accept that what we see on TV (or read in book and comic versions, and hear in audio stories) is a translation of these events. Just as the Bible is not the word of God, written by him and sent down from above, but was instead written by various people at various times with different perspectives, the Who we watch and read is a translation, made by human hands. And as we know, one of the things humans do best is make mistakes and cock things up.

So sorry boys and girls, David Tennant is not the 10th Doctor, he´s just an actor portraying him, although admittedly a very good one. I like this way of looking at Who as it opens the door to oneday having different actors portraying the varying reincarnations of the Doctor without everyone getting their knickers in a twist. So we can have a whole new 6th Doctor if we want, perhaps even with a tasteful costume. Well, maybe (I said I was delusional!)

And when we have different explanations of the same event, or plot holes or generally anything which we feel is silly or not quite Who enough for our liking, we can just put it down to translation error. This is particularly handy when we have to explain away bad special effects and scientific errors (explosions and fire in space for example, or frequent problems with gravity).

For example the last episode, Waters of Mars, has caused some discussion in fan forums regarding contamination of the robot called Gadget and bringing back the water-bourne infection to Earth. For me this wasn´t an issue - there are many ways to get round that (please think of your own!). What was a bit more worrying to me were the burning flames on the surface or Mars (however I am reliably told that rocket fuel would do this), and as a dramatic tool I always like a big explosion, so I can ignore this without much problem.

What made me cringe most of all was the really silly scene when the Doctor and Adilade whiz down a corridor on Gadget, with flames trailing behind and leaving tracks along the way. WTF?! However you see the reason why our storytellers did this at the end, when Gadget goes zooming off over the surface of Mars, and is shown in long-shot as a dot of flame shooting off to his destination. Without the flames and fire we wouldn´t have seen him, and our producers and directors would have had to come up with some other way of illustrating this, probably not as quickly, costing more money and with an overall loss of dramatic effect. So I´ll sort of let them off - this time.

One image I cant get out of my mind however is from the last season finale, with an abducted planet Earth being towed across space by the TARDIS. Now that really did make me cringe. In fact, thinking about it, the finale of season 3 was just as bad, if not worse, for its cringe factor. It´s so bad I haven´t been able to watch it since... for me that season ends with Utopia!



Let´s hope the two part special which we eagerly await at the end of this year have a lower cringe factor...