iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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ONE WEEK to go until #DoctorWho #TargetBookClub and 16 tickets left. Be there and be square. Tickets: bit.ly/smallbluebox

a spacey poster with "16 Tickets Left" on it

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James Goss @gossjam.bsky.social · 16/10/2026

If you read one #DoctorWho Book before #TargetBookClub, please make sure it's And The Zarbi. You absolutely don't need to to enjoy @robertcrighton.bsky.social's talk, but you'll feel smug as biscuits if you have. #ObservationWindow tickets: bit.ly/smallbluebox

The cover of Dr Who And The Zarbi in which Stern Space Uncle glowers at giant ants while a butterfly looks whimsical

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 20h

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1977: The Sun article may have been dated today but the visit must have been earlier as Tom was in studio recording ‘Underworld’ this week…

October 17 1977
Tom Baker tours hospitals in Blackpool, Blackburn, Liverpool and Preston, visiting sick and injured children. Dressed as the Doctor, his appearance delights the tiny patients and leads to him giving an emotional interview to Liz Prosser of the Sun. ‘I saw dozens of kids, most of them terribly maimed in road accidents, often by drunken drivers. And also children dumped by cruel or inadequate parents. How can it happen that these children are victims? When so many men and woman with love locked away in their hearts, who yearn for children of their own, can’t have them and can’t adopt. Doctor Who has brought me so much, the least I can do is make this romantic hero useful where it really matters. With the less fortunate kids.’

Tom Baker visiting a children’s ward around late 1977

Doctor Who - The Key to Time: A Year-by-Year Record, by Peter Haining

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 20h

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 16/10/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1973: DWM’s 1973 Chronicles says the Special didn’t hit newsstands until 11 December. Highbury Grove school pupils built a test Dalek to measurements from Bernard Wilkie, then these blueprints were based on their results…

October 16 1973
Adding further to the events marking the tenth anniversary of Doctor Who, a Radio Times Special is published, retailing in the shops for 30p. All pages in full colour, the magazine comprises a photo-illustrated guide to the ten seasons, interviews with some of the companions and all three Doctors, a specially written story by Terry Nation, and plans for how to build a Dalek. The plans illustrated, however, are not those used by the BBC nor by Shawcraft but are, instead, the design of two fans, Deirdre MacDonald and Nigel Holmes, and only approximate, not duplicate, the plans drawn up in 1963 by Raymond Cusick.

Opening spread of blueprints for building your own Dalek, with illustration by Frank Hampson

Final spread of blueprints for building your own Dalek

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 16/10/2026

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Jason Thompson, Exemplar of Enjoyable Pedantry @jasonjtt.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

PSA for anyone coming by train and tube: the District and Circle Lines are closed that weekend, which means the closest tube station (St James's Park) won't be accessible by tube, and Westminster station only by the Jubilee Line. It's a short-ish walk from Victoria.

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 13/10/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1979: Baker was on a brief tour to promote the launch of Doctor Who Weekly during his days off between final studio recording of ‘The Horns of Nimon’ and starting location filming for ‘Shada’…

October 13 1979
Tom Baker makes a nostalgic return visit to his home-town of Liverpool which he left ‘as a skinny fifteen-year-old with bulging eyes’ and now comes back to a huge welcome as ‘the idol of millions of kids’. Jenny Knight of the Daily Star, who accompanies him, headlines her report ‘Traveller Tom Returns To Find His Roots’ and notes: ‘The fans weren’t all children in Liverpool’s new city-centre shopping precinct. He was mobbed by housewives and workmen as well. Ironically, one of the few places he wasn’t bothered by cries of ‘Exterminate’ and ‘Look out there’s a Dalek’ was in the once notorious Scotland Road area, where he lived. For the street where he was born no longer exists – another victim of time and social upheaval.’ Tom makes no secret of how much he is enjoying his fame. ‘With a TV programme like Doctor Who, which has entered the national consciousness,’ he says, ‘you become a part of everybody’s life. Even the Prime Minister, Mr Callaghan, recognises me.’

From http://cuttingsarchive.org

Liverpool Echo, 10 October 1979
Dr. Who journeyed back in time over 30 years to-day to visit his old school—St. Matthew’s R.C. Secondary School, Clubmoor—and chat to the 231 pupils including Amanda Barry (above) — 13 to-day. Liverpool-born actor Tom Baker and his scarf are in town to launch the new “Dr. Who weekly” comic.

From http://cuttingsarchive.org

Advert from The Sun, 6 October 1979
SEE DR. WHO IN PERSON
TOM BAKER will visit the following newsagents signing copies of the NEW Dr WHO WEEKLY from MARVEL COMICS.
MENZIES Arndale Centre Stretford Manchester 4.00 Wed Oct 10th.
BUCKLES Main Store, Merrion Centre Leeds (car park entrance) 6.30 Wed Oct 10th.
PREEDY’S Acocks Green Birmingham 4.00 Thur Oct 11th.
STARS NEWS Queens Street Wolverhampton 6.30 Thur Oct 11th.
FORBOUYS Snakes Lane Woodford Grn London 4.00 Fri Oct 12th.
MARTINS Arndale Centre Wandsworth London 6.30 Fri Oct 12th.
Dr WHO Weekly on sale from October 11th 12p – features, comic strips, competitions.
THE FIRST EVER REGULAR Dr WHO WEEKLY
Published by Marvel Comics Distributed by Comag
Tavistock Road, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 7QE Telephone: West Drayton 44055

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 13/10/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 04/09/2026

Out now: SCREEN PRINTED, the definitive guide to the exciting adventures based on the popular BBC television serial. 199 titles, 1,100 editions, 800 cover images. Fully revised listings and details of the Doctor Who novelisations from Target and beyond. More at www.wonderfulbook.co.uk/screenprinted

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 11/10/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1975: The monster, setting and Jekyll-and-Hyde theme were all presented to the writer as elements to include. Not sure how “unique” this was, certainly during the Hinchcliffe era but even before and definitely since…

October 11 1975
‘Planet of Evil’ becomes unique among Doctor Who stories as the adventure in which the monster was invented before the story. Philip Hinchcliffe explains: ‘We wanted to get away from the usual monster which is an actor inside a monster suit. So I asked our special effects department what we could do, and they came up with this shapeless creature idea which is all done by electronic wizardry. It was when we knew we could do this sort of creature that we asked Louis Marks to write a story incorporating it.’ The story also provides a remarkable performance from actor Frederick Jaeger as a scientist who becomes an ‘outer-space version of Jekyll and Hyde’ to quote one report. Jaeger himself says later: ‘It is eleven years since I was in Doctor Who, and it will probably be as long again before viewers get over what happened to me. It took eight hours in the make-up chair to transform me into that mixture of Piltdown man and Guy the gorilla!’

The anti-matter monster on Zeta Minor – strong vibes of the id creature from Forbidden Planet

Frederick Jaeger devolves into a brute from prolonged proximity to anti-matter

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 11/10/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 10/10/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1979: Actually published on the 11th (the cover date was to tell newsagents when to take it off the shelf ahead of a new issue), now-Doctor Who Magazine, and its comic strip, are still going…

October 10 1979
The Doctor gets a magazine wholly devoted to his adventures after years of being just the star of comic strips. Doctor Who Weekly, the brain-child of Dez Skinn, one of the most innovative comic men in Britain, is launched by Marvel Comics and offers a mixture of feature articles and comic strips. The publication is to run for 43 issues as a weekly and then become the Doctor Who Monthly in September 1980. The magazine has appeared in a constantly developing format to this day, and the continuation of the Doctor Who comic strip gives it the world record for being the longest-running strip adaptation of a film/TV concept.

Cover of the first issue of Doctor Who Weekly featuring Fourth Doctor Tom Baker with a Dalek

Doctor Who Magazine's latest issue, 634, features an interview Anneke Wills who played 60s companion Polly

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 10/10/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 09/10/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1965: The absence of the regular cast was not due to their unavailability but to avoid extending their contracts for a week. The extra episode is because ‘Planet of Giants’ was edited down from four to three…

October 9 1965
The most curious of all Doctor Who stories is screened – a complete-in-one adventure, ‘Mission to the Unknown’, written by Terry Nation, in which neither the Doctor nor the companions appear! It is not, though, some fiendish plot by Nation to get rid of the Doctor, but rather a prelude to what will be (and still remains) the longest Doctor Who story ever, ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, which is to bridge Christmas and the New Year in twelve episodes.
This prelude, which is known by the BBC title, ‘Dalek Cut-away’, has come about as a direct result of instructions from Sir Huw Weldon, Director General of the BBC, to Verity Lambert’s team to produce a ‘monster length’ Dalek story, because – said later newspaper stories – his mother was a great fan of the Daleks! As well as this unprecedented move, the programme is granted an extra episode for the season, and Verity Lambert decides on using it as a trailer for the Dalek special. The only trouble is that the regular cast are on holiday during the only recording dates – the first week of August! The situation is resolved with the story of Dalek activity on the planet Kembel, where they are planning an invasion of Earth.

The assembled delegates of the Dalek alliance. No, I can’t remember which is which, and nor can you

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 09/10/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 08/10/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1980: Three years to the day after K9’s first appearance in episode two of ‘The Invisible Enemy’. His last scenes had already been recorded the previous Saturday. K9 Mark III would get his day, though…

October 8 1980
K9 is definitely to leave the series next year, John Nathan-Turner announces.’ He is restricting our writers because he never gets anything wrong.’ The Daily Mirror headlines its report ‘K9 Gets The Boot’ and says the time-travelling dog is to go because he is too bright ‘and makes it too easy for the Doctor to get out of trouble’. In a major feature in the Daily Express, Douglas Orgill reports that ‘not since the death of Dickens’s Little Nell has the nation faced such a trauma’, and talks about the horrified reaction to the news among children. To prevent K9’s disappearance, one child suggests, ‘Couldn’t they make him a bit less clever?’, while another recommends giving him some companions: ‘I’d like a lot of them, a pack of them – they could hunt Daleks!’ Out of a class of 23 children at Wimbledon Chase Middle School in London, Orgill finds that 18 of the youngsters would rather see the Doctor and his companions leave the series than K9! He does, though, extract a promise from John Nathan-Turner: ‘There could, one day, be a Mark III K9 . . .’

K9 head off into the void in his last story, ‘Warriors’ Gate’, broadcast 3-24 January 1981

From http://cuttingsarchive.org

Daily Express, 8 October 1980
K9 Gets the boot!
Dr. who’s mechanical mongrel K9 is getting the boot from TV chiefs because he is too bright.
The time-travelling dog with a built-in computer will disappear from the BBC’s long-running series in the New Year.
K9 has been KO’d by producer John Nathan-Turner who said yesterday that the dog made it too easy for Dr. Who—played by Tom Baker—to get out of trouble.
“He is restricting our writers because he never gets anything wrong,” said Mr. Nathan-Turner.
But the Outer Space superdog won’t be going on the scrapyard. He already has a down-to-earth future lined up in a museum at either Blackpool or Longleat.

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 08/10/2026

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James Goss @gossjam.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Which means the line-up now looks, um, crowded. Let's hope someone's train gets delayed, otherwise we're not showing The Krotons at all #DoctorWho #TargetBookClub Tickets: bit.ly/smallbluebox

Gary Brannan - Exterminations In The Library
Steve Cole - The Vampire Mutation
Robert Crighton - Zerbi-Ye-Ye!
James Goss - Young Men Are Dying For It
John Grindrod - Revenge Of The Blurboids
Simon Guerrier - The Six Doctors
Paul Kirkley - The Revolting Rutan Will Not Be Televised
Esther MacCallum-Stewart - The 5-FINGERED BOOKMARK
Jonathan Morris - Literal Targets
Bruce Nicholson - Chapter One
Andrew Orton - The Changing Face of Doctor Who
Phil Pascoe - « Et zut ! Ça recommence ! »
Julian Richards - Father In The Mirror
NIGEL ROBINSON - SPECIAL GUEST
Robert Shearman - Power of Kroll
James Cooray Smith - The Timeless Pieces
Paul MC Smith - Drawing Inspiration
Dr Matthew Sweet - LYLE AND A TIME LORD
Jason Thompson - AND THE MYSTEROUS IMAGERY
STEPHEN WYATT - THE STALLSLADY IS BBC ENTERPRISES

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 05/10/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1983: Peter’s dating for this entry, about a long-running conjecture, appears to be publication of the Doctor Who Magazine 1983 Winter Special, from which Nathan-Turner’s quotes are paraphrased…

October 5 1983
The making of a full-length Doctor Who film is raised again. The project, known as Doctor Who – the Motion Picture, has been several times discussed, John Nathan-Turner reveals. ‘The possibility of a film has come up on a number of occasions in the past four years,’ he says, ‘but each time the idea has fallen through. The BBC were never very happy with the Doctor Who films made in the Sixties and would want to be very closely involved with any such new project. They would also want whoever was playing the Doctor on television to star in the film. I myself wouldn’t want Robert Redford or someone like that as the Doctor! I am determined that it will happen sooner rather than later.’

Extract from the Special’s interview with John Nathan-Turner: “The possibility of a film has several times over the last four years reared its head but has so far fallen through. I think one of the problems is that because the BBC got its fingers burned with the Doctor Who films in the Sixties, which the corporation was not, as I understand it, artistically happy with, my head of department is very keen that if there is ever a movie I am to be very closely involved, to the point where I would be an Associate Producer. As well, before parting with the option of a film one of my main reservations is they would have to have whoever is playing the current Doctor on television – even if it is American money that is financing it or not. I don’t want Robert Redford as the Doctor, it must be the current actor. Inevitably this has put some people off, but it is a thing I am determined will happen sooner rather than later.”

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 05/10/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 05/10/2026

Adore Daryl's work- instant purchase. www.kickstarter.com/projects/bli...

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James Goss @gossjam.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Didn't get Glastonbury Tickets? Why not come to #DoctorWho #TargetBookClub on October 24th. We've a line-up of talks, readings, interactive prose poetry and Free Tea. bit.ly/smallbluebox

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 04/10/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1963: Thanks to subsequent access to production documentation, we now know Newman viewed the ‘pilot’ on 1 October, with changes made by story editor David Whitaker, not Webber…

October 4 1963
The pilot for Doctor Who is screened for Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson – but both have immediate reservations. There are several flaws in the actual production, and the two men are agreed that the character of the Doctor must be ‘softened’. Because Anthony Coburn is not available to amend his script, David Whitaker brings in a BBC staff writer, C. E. Webber, to revise certain scenes and change some of the dialogue. Satisfied that these changes will make Doctor Who a workable series, Newman and Wilson approve the almost unparalleled action of remounting the production for ‘another go’. As Verity Lambert is later to recall of this time, ‘We were all very nervous because we were doing things that had rarely been done before, and certainly not by the BBC.’

The countdown clock for the first recording of ‘An Unearthly Child’ on 27 September 1963

The Doctor and Susan in the first go at recording ‘An Unearthly Child’. Their characters would be adjusted slightly for the remount on 18 October 1963

David Brunt’s Production Diary is the definitive history of the series’ production. Buy volumes 1 and 2 now at https://telos.co.uk/product-category/doctor-who/

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 04/10/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 04/10/2026

Three weeks till Target Book Club 26 and an intriguing line-up of talks. If you feel the need to gen up before the day, there'still time to get hold of Screen Printed, the definitive guide to the Target novelisations www.wonderfulbook.co.uk/screenprinted/

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 04/10/2026

2026 is the 21st anniversary of Doctor Who’s revival. When the Classic Series was 21, WH Allen published The Key To Time: A Year-by-Year Record by Peter Haining, in which he “explored the history of the series through key dates in its many life-cycles”. Let’s revisit what OCTOBER dates he picked…

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 03/10/2026

Coming very soon, latest issue of Canadian fanzine Whotopia. Includes location filming report from 1996's TV Movie and contemporary interview with the legend that is Sylvester McCoy. whotopiamagazine2.wordpress.com

Whotopia issue 47 cover: flame-throwing Daleks in the jungle of Kembel (art by William Holmes, https://www.deviantart.com/presidentholmes), headline "Saved From the Flames: The nightmare begins again with the recovery of two more episodes from The Daleks' Master Plan"

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Monstermaker @monstermaker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It's live! The prologue from Malcolm Hulke's Target novel Dinosaur Invasion - animated! youtu.be/aNRfScgskFY?...

youtu.be

Dinosaur Invasion: London Alert

YouTube video by Doctor Who Literature Podcast

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 30/09/2026

Rodders must be regenerating then!

Stien (Rodney Bewes) throws himself onto the self-destruct controls, with the same visual effect used as for the Fifth Doctor's later regeneration

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 30/09/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1978: Read @jamiehailstone’s look at Douglas Adams’ time on Who in Doctor Who 70-79, available from www.dwasonline.co.uk/dw7079

September 30 1978
‘The Pirate Planet’ marks the writing debut in the series of an author destined for world-wide fame, Douglas Adams, who was offered the commission after completing his radio series The Hitch‑Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, later to become an enormously successful television series and best-selling book. Once again, though, it is Mary Tamm’s playing of the redoubtable Romana that catches the critics’ eyes, Keith Baker of the Belfast Telegraph calling her the Doctor’s equal, ‘with a deferential bow towards the Bionic Woman, Wonder Woman and Women’s Lib all at once’.

Doctor Who 70-79: ‘An infinitely improbable man of ideas’ by Jamie Hailstone

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 30/09/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 29/09/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1979: This scene was recorded on 21 May…

September 29 1979
Start of the Paris-filmed story ‘City of Death’, which confirms Tom Baker’s claim that famous actors like to appear in the series – when John Cleese and Eleanor Bron make unheralded appearances as a couple of art-lovers. Because the close encounter of Doctor Who with Basil Fawlty in the final scenes of the story comes as such a surprise to viewers, it is repeated the following August with, as Patrick Stoddart describes, ‘the BBC trumpeting their coup’. On this re-showing, the new producer, John Nathan-Turner says: ‘I don’t think John took much persuading to do the show. Doctor Who is a bit like The Muppets – everybody likes the idea of popping up in it, if only to impress their children.’

Eleanor Bron (and John Cleese) discuss the TARDIS’s Police Box appearance from an artistic perspective in episode four of ‘City of Death’

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 29/09/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1979: This scene was recorded on 21 May…

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 28/09/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1968: More special effects, this time a well-worn but time-consuming technique. It was more extensively used for the Skarasen in ‘Terror of the Zygons’ (1975)…

September 28 1968
Stop motion animation is used for the Medusa scenes in part three of ‘The Mind Robber.’ Although this is not the first time animation has been used in the series – hand animation being used for the map sequences in ‘Marco Polo’, and rostrum camera animation for ‘The Moonbase’ – this marks the first utilisation of the technique more commonly employed by Ray Harryhausen in films such as Jason and the Argonauts.
The short sequence of animation in ‘The Mind Robber’ – short due to the time and expense involved in using such a technique – focuses on the Medusa’s hair, a nest of snakes which gradually come to life to menace Zoe and the Doctor. The frame‑by‑frame shooting of the Medusa’s hair was, for reasons of controllability, shot on film at the BBC’s film studios in Ealing. To match this film footage of the Medusa to the studio-recorded scenes involving the Doctor and his companion requires the skills of the inlay operator, whose desk, up in the control gallery, has a bank of switches and buttons that can mix two separate pictures to achieve a composite third.

The snakes of the Medusa are brought to life through stop-motion animation

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 27/09/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1980: The full story of Scene Sync can be seen in John Kelly’s short documentary on the ‘Meglos’ DVD/Season 18 Blu-ray Collection…

September 27 1980
Another new special effects process is tried out on Doctor Who, this time the scene-sync equipment which will later be used to even grander effect in the major BBC production of The Borgias. Developed by an outside company, Scene-Sync is a control system allowing a slave camera to follow exactly the movements of a master camera. In the case of ‘Meglos,’ the master camera is a studio camera trained on a group of actors walking about on a totally blue set. The slave camera is set up to shoot a much smaller model stage where the set of the Zolpha-Thura screens has been built. Up in the gallery the two scenes are merged together using CSO. The scene-sync process is thus employed to match the movements of the actors on the big set that have been captured by the master camera, with corresponding camera angles on the model stage shot by the slave camera. Due to the expense of hiring the scene-sync equipment, ‘Meglos’ is the only Doctor Who story to date to make use of this technique.

Setting up the model of the Zolfa-Thuran screens

General Grugger (Bill Fraser) and Lieutenant Brotodac (Frederick Treves) on a blue-screen background and combined with a model shot of the screens, in episode one of ‘Meglos’

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 27/09/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 26/09/2026

Curiously this book was released a month before the Target and Wingate editions of Planet of the Daleks, likely why there are some different edits beyond its abridgement. My essay on the variations can be downloaded here: www.wonderfulbook.co.uk/basedon/

wonderfulbook.co.uk

Wonderful Books - Based On The Popular BBC Television Serial

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Monstermaker @monstermaker.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I'm probably going to be reposting this one a lot. Tell your friends (please).

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 26/09/2026

The year according to Peter Haining’s ‘Doctor Who: The Key to Time’ — Today in 1967: This edition of Talkback only survives as an audio clip, included on the CD release ‘Doctor Who at the BBC volume 2’ (transcript at tinyurl.com/2knc57xa). The Daily Express had a follow-up the next day…

September 26 1967
The BBC screens the first Talkback programme, hosted by David Coleman. The show goes out live and features a debate with the audience on Doctor Who. Talkback is designed to be a programme wherein the public can come into the studio and give their views, on air, about BBC Television, so Doctor Who is almost a mandatory topic for inclusion in the opening show insofar that it is currently attracting a lot of criticism over the horror elements in the series. This has happened especially following the Visual Effects Department’s discovery of foam‑generating equipment. By mixing the foamable chemicals with various other ingredients – cocoa powder, wood chippings, paint, etc – different textures of the foam can be achieved. This has, so far, resulted in the slime of the Macra crabs, the fizzing brains of the Dalek creatures and, most recently, the disembowelled innards of a Cyberman. All three of these effects have, apparently, been exceptionally disturbing to younger minds and, for the Talkback prosecution, several mothers are invited by Coleman to give their views on Doctor Who’s content and to suggest solutions to the problem. Acting for the defence is the series’ unofficial scientific adviser Kit Pedler – co-creator of the Cybermen, and a medical doctor in his own right. However, the programme is not at all well handled by its presenters, with many of Pedler’s comments either being shouted down or chopped in mid-sentence by Coleman.
One suggestion put forward for further debate, though, is that Doctor Who, and other programmes of similar ilk, should carry certificates similar to those awarded to cinema films. This is later to be objected to by the Corporation Directors who feel that to impose such classifications would lessen the public’s own right to discern what makes good and bad television.

From http://cuttingsarchive.org

Daily Express, 27 September 1967
Reviewing the programme where viewers get a voice
My grouse? It’s Mr. Coleman
B.B.C.1: Talkback
By James Thomas
Was James Mossman rude to the Prime Minister on Monday’s Panorama? NO, said nine viewers out of 10 in a snap studio opinion poll last night.
Is Simon Dee a symptom of the decline of B.B.C. standards? NO, said another 90 per cent of the 100-strong panel.
Does “Dr. Who” have a harmful effect on children? This split the panel 50—50.
I do not doubt that the B.B.C. has a splendid idea in this forum where viewers air their grouses—it is about time the licensed payers were allowed some voice.
But on this first showing, this somewhat complicated programme revealed (a) it had a long way to go to achieve real impact, and (b) that the voice which is going to be heard most is that of Mr. David Coleman, who as chairman talked “Talkback” off its feet.
The viewers lashed out in a big way at Mr. Mossman (“The country is not yet governed by TV interviewers”) and Mr. Dee (“You are guilty of moral hooliganism”), and “Dr. Who” (“Disgusting, revolting and unsuitable for children.”)
Mossman, Dee, and the “Dr. Who” scriptwriter seemed to be less wary of the viewers than of Mr. Coleman, who reduced the most erudite protagonist to the lowest common denominator by condensing each reasoned argument thus: “What you are really saying is this.…” Half the time, they weren’t at all.
A more irritating performance I cannot remember, one which at once lowered the stature of the whole idea to the level of “Juke Box Jury.”
As it stands, altogether the show is too slow and involved, and the viewers are not getting as much value from this elaborate 40-minute show as they did from the slick five minutes of “Points of View.”
It needs time to shakedown, forget a lot of its gimmicks and realise its basic value will be in immediate confrontation of the public with producers and performers.

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 26/09/2026

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 17/09/2026

www.wonderfulbook.co.uk/screenprinted/ Seems like orders are finally coming through (Lulu can be a little slow). Hope you find it useful (and have strong shelves 😆)

Screen Printed: The Definitive Guide To The Exciting Adventure Based On The Popular BBC Television Serial

Screen Printed: opening spread for Doctor Who and the Enemy of the World

Screen Printed: opening spread for Doctor Who and the Destiny of the Daleks

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 22/09/2026

Yeah possibly. But it's definitely them, right? I'm not losing it?

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 22/09/2026

I *think* it's one from this shoot, maybe without the Box, but Billie in her pink hoodie.

Doctor Who Series 1 promo image, the Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) in front of the TARDIS, against a white background

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 22/09/2026

Not sure if it's that or one of the promos in front of the Police Box.

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Paul MC Smith @wonderfulbooks.co.uk · 22/09/2026

This graphic was on @channel4news.bsky.social tonight, and that silhouette... I can't find the photo I'm thinking of now but... that's Chris and Billie isn't it?

Graphic from Channel 4 News about young people in care

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