Popular Programmes from the Golden Age of Television the Junkyard

78 EVERGREEN Winter 2013 EVERGREEN 79 leads them to follow her home one evening to what appears to be a deserted scrap merchants at 76 Totter’s Lane. Exploring the junkyard they find an incongruous police telephone box and a strange old man, who claims to be Susan’s grandfather. This is our first sight of the Doctor, whose opening words are “What are you doing here?” when he discovers uninvited guests in Popular programmes from the golden age of television the junkyard. Having discovered their secret y wife is a dozen years certain gravitas to the role, was the two teachers become older than me, although believable (always an achievement in unwilling passengers on M she doesn’t look it. Her the sci-fi genre) and didn’t play it for the next journey of the introduction to science fiction was laughs, unlike some of those who’ve Tardis. therefore Quatermass (1953) whereas followed. Admittedly, he could be Every good serial ends mine was Doctor Who bad-tempered and on a bit of a cliffhanger William Hartnell (centre) facing the Daleks in an early episode. ten years later. I was Dr. Who’s was maybe even a and Doctor Who was no a tad over six-and- bit doddery, but he exception. As the Tardis a-half years of age Half Century was the definitive landed at the end of that first episode, policeman on his rounds in the fog when the Tardis Doctor for this it was on some prehistoric landscape, in Totter’s Lane, ordinary and yet first appeared on our TV screens 50 impressionable youngster. with the shadow of a Stone Age spooky. Most of the episode is slow- years ago, at about 5.15pm on 23rd I can still remember that first man falling across the vessel. For a paced and contains very little action, November 1963. That first episode episode as if it were yesterday. “An six-year-old it was really pushing the but you know something is coming was produced as a “pilot”, which Unearthly Child” was more about boundaries of what was believable. as the tension builds to its climax. conjures up the amazing thought that the Doctor’s supposed granddaughter, The rest, as they say, is history, or It is interesting to reflect on the there could have been no more had Susan Foreman, than about the maybe, in the world of time travel, original inspirations behind what the producer not liked what he saw. Doctor himself. Her teachers at Coal the future. became a phenomenal success story. I don’t know whether it’s because I Hill School, Ian Chesterton and One thing that still strikes me When that pilot episode was aired, was so young, but Doctor Who seemed Barbara Wright, find her an enigma, about that first episode is how it would be no surprise to know that spookier and scarier in those days. someone who knows far more about skilfully the transition from normal H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine had The first Doctor, William Hartnell, both the past and the future than and everyday to the extraordinary played its part. Less obvious perhaps was my favourite. He brought a they would expect. Their curiosity was handled. It begins with a were the parts played by popular 80 EVERGREEN Winter 2013 EVERGREEN 81 graphics. The technology had certainly moved on, which satisfied a new generation of fans, brought up on realistic computer games and big-budget (continued) movies. They could watch the new regeneration BBC TV serials Dixon of Dock Green with their fathers and (the police box as Tardis) and Steptoe grandfathers, who were quick and Son (the junkyard as the Tardis’s to point out that, “it wasn’t temporary home). like this when I was a kid”. Doctor Who ran for 26 series in Doctor Who in its second its first visitation, before falling coming, has run for a audience numbers caused it to be further seven series axed from our screens in December to date and shows 1989. Although the sets often no sign of letting looked as though they were made of up. There may be a polystyrene and some of the aliens finite limit, however, too, the series was nevertheless A favourite foe in the series were the as it has always lauded for its imaginative storylines Daleks. This one was spotted in Yorkshire! been said that the DOROTHY BURROWS and creative low-budget special Doctor can only effects. The Doctor’s most recurring regenerate 12 times, and deadly foe, the Daleks, were so theoretically at quickly launched on an unsuspecting least, he only has public in the second storyline two of his Doctor- and the series was “made”. It was lives remaining. originally conceived as educational, In total there both scientific and historical, dealing have been something with famous events from the past. like 800 episodes, broadcast over 50 Some early This may explain why the Doctor’s years, with viewing figures regularly “Dr. Who” treasures. first two travelling companions were between nine and 14 million during series, which has been inundated teachers of science and history. its Daleks’ heyday of the mid-1960s with BAFTA awards. I like to think Doctor Who devotees, by now and over ten million coming back to that the enjoyment of a second middle aged, were delighted in 2005 or joining the fold when the series childhood played its part; I would when the series was relaunched in was relaunched. not have appreciated the rebirth had a blaze of publicity and computer Although the original series I not spent some of my formative was fondly regarded and recalled, years hiding behind the sofa on a The first episode of “Dr. Who”, starring William Hartnell, is now available on curiously it never achieved the same Saturday evening as that familiar DVD. critical acclaim as the relaunched theme music played. 82 EVERGREEN Winter A 1973 issue of the “Radio Times” featuring the first three Doctors; from left William Hartnell, Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton. The series has also spawned some successful spin-offs, the most notable of which have been Torchwood (an anagram of Doctor Who), which seemed to imply that alien activity in the UK was mostly centred on Cardiff and The Sarah Jane Adventures, which focused on the activities of one of the Doctor’s former assistants. Series that are as popular as Doctor Who and run for half- a-century will often influence popular culture and perhaps the most academic example of this is the appearance of Tardis (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. The 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who — “The Day of the Doctor” — will be screened (continued) simultaneously on television and in There have been 11 different cinemas in more than 70 countries Doctors over the two series (that’s on Saturday 23rd November. including Paul McGann, who played Much anticipated as that may be, the character in a one-off TV film I’m going to take a leaf out of the in 1996). We can make it 12 if we Doctor’s own book and go back in count Peter Cushing, who played the time to the beginning instead. A Doctor in two feature films. I could serial devoted to the concept of time never quite get used to Mr. Cushing travel can only really be honoured in the lead role. I think it was all in one way and that’s by journeying those Hammer horror films and his back 50 years to the very start and run-ins with Count Dracula. I half the fog of a London night. Now, expected him to take a stake to one of where did I put that DVD? the Daleks. STEVE ROBERTS.

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