1962 (production)

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1962 in

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the DWU • production history • vital statistics

1962 was a year in which a number of events important to the production of Doctor Who and its spin-offs occurred.

• March - Eric Maschwitz asked Donald Wilson to have the BBC Survey Group survey the science fiction literature in search of enough material for what he called "a series of single-shot adaptation". Wilson gave the job to Donald Bull and Alice Frick.
• 25 April - Bull and Frick returned their report to Wilson. According to the BBC Archives, this was the spark of what eventually led to the commissioning of Doctor Who.
• 27 April - Wilson passed Bull and Frick's work up to Maschwitz.
• 14 May - Donald Baverstock sent Maschwitz a note of thanks for having been copied the report from Bull and Frick.
• Late May - Wilson asked Frick and John Braybon to prepare a follow up survey of science fiction literature, this time with an eye towards examining specific works which could be adapted for television.
• 25 July - Frick and Braybon gave the second BBC Survey Group examination of science fiction literature to Wilson. This report included the famous recommendation, often falsely attributed by Verity Lambert to Sydney Newman, that any forthcoming BBC science fiction show should not include "Bug-Eyed Monsters". The report also recommended that characterisation was an important goal, and that scientific plausibility be largely present. The duo pointed specifically to Guardians of Time by Poul Anderson and Three to Conquer as possible bases for series. By highlighting these two works, they essentially offered Wilson a choice between time travellers or telepaths. They were clearly more enamoured with the Guardians of Time — later known as the Time Patrol series — which they said would allow for what they presciently called "the Z-Cars of science fiction". The net effect of Frick and Braybon's report was to guide Wilson into thinking about making a show about time travel.
• 12 December - Sydney Newman officially began his tenure as Head of Drama at the British Broadcasting Corporation, though he had accepted the position about a year earlier.