Dr Who Memories and Memorabilia

Where were you the day after President Kennedy was assassinated? Well, if you are British, the chances are you were waiting for the first episode of Dr Who, which was delayed by 80 seconds for news about the assassination! The first episode of Dr Who first went out on BBC One at 17:16:20 GMT on 23 November 1963 and I was allowed to watch it all! I can't remember very much about William Hartnell as the Doctor although I can remember the Kennedy assassination. I can remember Hartnell's face and that he travelled with his grandaughter, but it was the second series that hooked me and the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, will be forever imprinted on my memory.

Modified image of the console from the Hartnell series of Dr Who, copyright is believed held by the BBC but this is used and claimed as fair use in the USA by Wikipedia as no higher resolution or free image exists. Set design by Peter Brachacki, capped from an original episode of Dr Who by Khaosworks.

It is good to see that old episodes of Dr Who are being remastered and released. Some of these William Hartnell episodes are absolute classics for Dr Who fans worldwide.

The early series of Dr Who are Sci-Fi classics and many of us love them to this day. It is great that they are still available.

I can't really remember the first series, "An Unearthly Child". It certainly wasn't the intention of the BBC in those early days to produce the "bug eyed monster" show that Dr Who has since become. In fact Mary Whitehouse complained the programme was too scary for young children, but we LOVED it. At school, we were Daleks, putting our arms in front of our faces like demented elephants and crying "exterminate" in raspy, low-pitched voices. (Or at least, as low as our treble voices would go).

We really weren't that scared of Daleks. You could hitch a ride on a Dalek, or better still, in one if you could evict the limp and harmless creature inside one. It was easy to cover a Dalek's eye with something gooey then watch it shoot its fellow Daleks.

For me, the Cybermen were something else, perhaps because they were closer to human. They were scary and they were ruthless. The Cybermen sent me scuttling behind the sofa where my Dad would laugh and reassure me it wasn't real and my Mum would say "I don't know why you watch that silly rubbish!"

What was the scariest Dr Who monster of your childhood? Dalek? Cyberman? Or was it something else...

Even Peter Cushing got in on the Dalek action!

Daleks Invasion Earth Poster

The Dr Who of my Youth - or the first four doctors....

The first four Doctors were the important ones for me. I kind of lost touch in 1981, I had graduated from college and I was working very hard in my first teaching job. For a while there I had no telly, then my grandparents donated their old black and white set but the new Doctors were not so much to my taste and I took up watching old episodes of the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits at unearthly hours instead. I will always fondly remember those first four Doctor Who actors though and I find the new guy Matt Smith rather fun!

Image is TARDIS2 - author Zir - CC-BY-2.5; Released under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Dr Who at the Radiophonic Workshop V.1 [Import, Soundtrack]

For those of us who grew up with Dr Who, the metallic sounds of the first theme are the classic theme music, as are those ring modulated images in the opening credits. Not for us the spinning Tardis and the National Lottery overtones!

Then and Now....

The Dr Who theme was originally composed by Ron Grainer. The amazing whirling psychedelic graphics were produced by using feedback. It was produced with the help of Dick Mills at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. This was done in the days of tape loops and electronic gizmos long before polyphonic synths and computers were invented! An individual piano string created the theme and various oscillators and filters were used along with tape loops! This was radical stuff in 1963 and this Dr Who theme tune was used right up to 1980.

For me, this IS the Dr Who theme, Other arranngements by Peter Howell, Dominic Glynn and Keff McCulloch were used in the 1980s. The kids of today are used to Murray Gold's symphonic version which uses samples from the original and has admirers in the classical music world. For me, it sounds a bit much like the National Lottery music though and I will always have a soft spot for the original which was so technically clever in its day!

Doctor Who Series 5

If the old style Dr Who music seemed a little brutal or had too many rough edges for you, perhaps the modern version is more to your liking?

Doctor Who The Visual Dictionary [Hardcover]

Indispensable reference for the modern Dr Who fan. Learn all about characters, villains, stories and much more!

My Tardis is happier for your presence!