Doctor Who Listener Archive - 1964

11 September 1964
Vol.51 No.1302 (14-20 September 1964)
p7: Article in 'Television Notebook' section, and accompanying photo of Kal and Za, marking the arrival of Doctor Who with An Unearthly Child: An Unearthly Child (CHTV-3, 18/11/64)

Dalekmania
BRITAIN has discovered a new craze - Dalekmania. Its adher-ents are 10 million followers of the BBC's latest space series, Dr Who, which starts from CHTV-3 next week.
  The Daleks are mutant survivors of a neutron war on some distant planet. They live entirely encased in metal machines - space-age pepperpots - and have electronic voices, grope with stick-like arms and have flashing headlights. No portion of their faces is visible. This is their only possible form of existence.
  Sharing this dead planet are the Daleks' sworn enemies, the Thals. They are ostensibly more human - blond, well-built, fashion-conscious, and neither so "way out", nor so well-off. Unable to make clothing from fibre or animal skins, they resort to foam plastic instead. According to BBC-TV designer Daphne Dare, the up-to-date Thal girl wears a perforated plastic skirt, brief cloak appliquéd in black plastic, and has spiky head-dress, bracelet and sandals.
  But the Daleks and the Thals are only some of the "people" Dr Who and his associates - his teenage grand-daughter Susan and two of her schoolteachers - meet on their unusual adventures way out in space and time. ("Way out" camera effects and set designs provide suitable atmosphere). Travelling to such musical accompaniment as "white and pink noise", "wow and flutter" and other technical in-tangibles, the space quartet steers through past and future in the space-time ship Tardis.
  After a four-episode sojourn in Paleolithic times which involves them in a battle between two tribal cavemen, the travellers take a seven-episode jump into the Dalek-Thal country of the future. On resuming their spatial journey the four encounter some unexpected interference from an alien intelli-gence.
  But just who is Dr Who, and how does he come to undertake such adventures? The two teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, soon come to realize that this elderly, frail and slightly be-wildered eccentric is no man of this century, but a fugitive from another civilization and planet who could be 600 years old. They try to solve the mystery of his identity.
  There is no mystery, however, to the identity of the real man behind Dr Who. William Hartnell is in his late fifties; he began acting at the age of 17 and has played rough, sergeant-major roles ever since "It's a change to be frail and a bit bewildered instead of always shout-ing and cursing - though Dr Who does like to get his own way and hasn't much patience with earth people. You can't get more differ-ent than Dr Who," he says.
  Also rather different is Dr Who's grand-daughter, 22-year-old Carole Ann Ford, in real life a house-wife, mother and veteran actress. "She's one of the most natural people I know," says Dr Who's producer, 28-year-old Verity Lam-bert, herself one of the youngest female television producers in Bri-tain. This is her first big assign-ment, and Miss Lambert, a former office secretary, regards it as "a fantastic challenge, but great fun."
  Birmingham-born and bred Jacqueline Hill, who plays the part of the history teacher, Barbara Wright, finds Dr Who not only "great fun" but a stimulus to wider historical reading. William Russell, however, who has the role of the science teacher, Ian Chesterton, admits that science is a completely closed book - "even though I was navigator in the Air Force during the war."
  TWO MEN from Paleolithic times (played by Jeremy Young and Derek Newark), as they appear in "Dr Who".

18 September 1964
Vol.51 No.1303 (21-27 September 1964)
p6: Excerpt from an article, in the 'Television Notebook' section, about television music composers, focusing on Ron Grainer's Doctor Who theme music.

WHAT TUNE IS THAT?
The strangest music that has come from Grainer's pen so far is the title music for Dr Who, the science fiction series which has just been introduced to CHTV-3 viewers. The remarkable thing about this music is that nobody played it. It was constructed note by note from Ron Grainer's score in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop at Maida Vale in London...
  Working off the score, the BBC experts recorded the individual ele-ments from various electronic sources of sound such as sine and square wave oscillators, a white noise generator, and a special beat frequency oscillator known as a "wobbulator". These basic sounds were then filtered and manipulated in various ways on tape machines until finally the separate tracks were ready to be synchronized. The result was the catchy tune that in introduces Dr Who, a composition which, like many of Grainer's other themes, has been recorded commercially.

2 October 1964
Vol.51 No.1305 (5-11 October 1964)
p30: Photo of Ian Chesterton, promoting An Unearthly Child: The Firemaker (CHTV-3, 9/10/64)

WILLIAM RUSSELL, who plays Ian Chesterton in "Dr Who", the BBC space adventure series from CHTV-3 on Fridays.

23 October 1964
Vol.51 No.1308 (26 October-1 November 1964)
p25: Short article with accompanying photo of Ian, Barbara, Susan and the TARDIS publicising the series debut with An Unearthly Child: An Unearthly Child (AKTV-2, 30/10/64)

New Space-Fiction Serial
A SERIES of fantastic adventures, Dr Who, starts from AKTV-2 on Friday. Dr Who has a "way-out" plot - not only because it is space fiction - and for background it has radiophonic title music, electronic camera effects, weird sets and costumes.
  The mysterious Dr Who (William Hartnell) takes off from earth in his space-time ship Tardis with his teenage grand-daughter (Carole Ann Ford) and her two school teachers. They first stop in the Paleolithic age, and for four episodes the travellers are involved in a battle between two cavemen whose tribe has lost the secret of making fire.
  The voyagers escape from one set of problems to find themselves with another - the Daleks, who are mutant survivors of a neutron war on a distant planet, and can only exist encased in metal machines. More adventures follow for the Tardis four.
  RIGHT: A scene from Dr Who, showing the two teachers (played by Ian Chesterton an Barabara Wright) and Dr Who's granddaughter. The London police box is really a space-time ship.

13 November 1964
Vol.51 No.1311 (16-22 November 1964)
p29: Photo of the Doctor and Susan, promoting An Unearthly Child: The Forest of Fear (WNTV-1, 20/11/64)

CAROLE ANN FORD is seen as Susan Foreman and William Hartnell as the strange Dr Who in the BBC space-time adventure "Dr Who". Which screens from WNTV-1 on Fridays.

18 December 1964
Vol.51 No.1316 (21-27 December 1964)
p11: Letters page

The Telegoons
Sir, - I have just seen the first programme of the Telegoons, and I am appalled, to put it mildly. The thought that this revolting show is to be televised for the next few weeks, and following that mediocre thriller Dr Who, makes me literally shudder...
Mrs Te M. McKERROW (Featherston)