Doctor Who Special (1973)

Doctor Who Special (1973)
Release date:	November, 1973
Format:	Large format 68 pages stapled
Editor:	David Driver, Jack Lundin
Publisher:	BBC Magazines
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The tenth anniversary of the Doctor Who television series, was celebrated by a Radio Times special, published with new short story, We are the Daleks! by Terry Nation.

Cover Tag

The 10th year of BBC1'S great adventure series. Inside: the stars, full background, how to build your very own Dalek and a chilling new Dalek story by Terry Nation.

Contents

The magazine is broadly in two halves; the first has a double-page spread on each season (offering a breakdown by story, giving titles, number of episodes, writer and story synopsis) with articles and interviews between each season. The second half is up mostly of new Dalek fiction by Terry Nation and detailed plans to construct a life-size Dalek as seen on TV, followed by some behind-the-scenes profiles.

• These are the three Dr Whos

William Hartnell

Patrick Troughton

Jon Pertwee

• History 1963/64
• Carole Ann Ford, who played 15-year old Susan
• History 1966
• Peter Purves, who played argumentative Steven
• History 1966/67
• Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling, who played Jamie and Victoria
• History 1968/69
• Wendy Padbury, who played super-intelligent Zoe
• History 1970/1
• Nicholas Courtney and Caroline John, who played the Brigadier and Liz Shaw
• History 1972/3
• Katy Manning, who played screaming Jo Grant
• History 1974/5
• Elisabeth Sladen, who plays self-willed Sarah Jane Smith
• Terry Nation
• ‘We are the Daleks!’ Written by Terry Nation and illustrated by Philip Castle
• Build a Dalek

• Behind-the-scenes people

Including;

Dudley Simpson (musician)

Bernard Lodge (graphics designer)

Roger Liminton (scenic designer)

Terry Walsh (stuntman)

Bernard Wilkie (senior visual effects designer)

John Friedlander (sculptor),

Barbara Lane (costume designer), and

John Scott Martin (monster man)

Original Credits

• Editors: David Driver, jack Lundin
• Interviews: David Gillard
• Photographs: Allan Ballard
• Research: Susan Grant
• Terry Nation Interview: Madeleine Kingsley
• Production: Bill Kingdom
• Editor, Radio Times: Geoffrey Cannon
• Managing Editor, Specials: Russell Twisk

Additional details

• Released prior to broadcast of XXX
• Originally available priced 30p, (UK) this magazine special was reprinted in 2003 and was offered exclusively through Radio Times.
• An insert with all copies stated that;

“Every effort has been made to source the original photographs but regrettably, not all of the originals survive. In such cases, we have either used similar images or have re-scanned from the original magazine resulting in a slightly grainy image.

Following the pattern of the original magazine, the headings in the story guide are those of the first episode in each story, up to The Gunfighters, after which individual names were abandoned.

Please note that the information at the base of page 3 is largely out-of-date, as is the cover price of 30p!”

• “Producer Barry Letts and Script Editor Terrance Dicks are the only full-time members of the Dr Who team. Says Letts: “Dr Who’s success is that it doesn’t have a formula – it’s flexible. The Doctor’s appeal is that he’s a superman – and yet he’s fallible. Supermen are always interesting, but they’re that that much more interesting if they’re a bit human too. And we try and make everything that happens scientifically plausible – like monsters landing in London – and interpret it as logically and realistically as possible. The Doctor is a good strongly moral man, who always searches for peaceful solutions.”
• In 2007 it was reprinted in Australia and New Zealand by the ABC. (ISBN 0-7333-1950-5)
• In late 1973 the outgoing production team of producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks encouraged Nation to explore the beginnings of the Daleks in a new storyline. Nation had contributed a Dalek serial to each of the previous two seasons — Planet of the Daleks and Death to the Daleks — but his initial effort for season twelve had been rejected as too derivative of his earlier works. Starting anew with Letts' and Dicks' suggested approach, Nation crafted a new storyline which veered away from both the TV Century 21 and Radio Times versions of the Daleks' origins (although he made an effort not to contradict The Daleks itself).

External links

The BBC's official Radio Times website with an increasing amount of Doctor Who content including archive material [1]