Letters from the Past (unproduced short story)
Letters from the Past was the collective name for three in-universe letters written by the TV Century 21 team in response to inquiries made by Christopher Etherington.
Produced in 1965, the three letters were released to the general public in 2017 as part of the Lady Penelope Investigates sub-series in a post by Andrew Clements for the Gerry Anderson website. Although the letters were technically distributed to their intended audience (of one) at time of their writing, that does not satisfy this Wiki's definition of an official release and it is doubtful the licenses for the Doctor Who universe elements were obtained for the later online release. As such, this Wiki treats Letters from the Past as an unusual example of an unproduced story.
Just one of the letters to Etherington mentioned DWU elements. It was dated 22 June 1965 and concerned Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward's investigation of the Daleks and William Hartnell. The post encouraged others to share their letters from Lady Penelope in the comments section and this was request was met by a reply from Len Davies. His letter was dated 21 April 1965 and concerned an investigation of Terry Nation, who was a "personal acquaintance" of Lady Penelope.
Summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
Lady Penelope informs Christopher that she and Parker have investigated Dr. Who and the Daleks for him. They were "a little wary" of getting too near the Daleks but were able to find out some information "from a distance".
She reports that the Daleks are silver in colour, about five feet tall, and manually operated. She states the voice is in reality an ordinary man's speaking voice which is put through a lot of complicated electronic equipment that distorts the voice to the one actually heard.
Lady Penelope also investigates William Hartnell, the actor who plays Dr. Who. She tells Etherington he was born in London on 8 January 1908, educated at the Imperial Service College, and served with the Tank Corps., R.A.C., from 1940 to 1941. He entered films in 1932 and has since garnered many credits including Carry on Sergeant, The Mouse That Roared, This Sporting Life and Heavens Above. Penelope concludes her correspondence by saying that, besides appearing in Dr. Who on television, he has also appeared in The Army Game and The Planemakers.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
Story notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Lady Penelope and Parker would later investigate the recently-released film Dr. Who and the Daleks in the TV Century 21 short story Lady Penelope Investigates the stars of the Sensational new film Dr. Who and the Daleks!. In that story, staying consistent with the Etherington letter, they were both aware of the Daleks' reputation.
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