Doctor Who Listener Archive - 1969

Note: These are the articles, photos and other Doctor Who related items from issues of the New Zealand Listener. The full text of each item has been transcribed as it is often indistinct on the scanned cuttings. Spelling and grammar have not been corrected. We would like to hear from anyone who can provide better quality copies or scanned originals of any of these cuttings and also from anyone who can identify any additional Doctor Who items from the New Zealand Listener that have not been included here.

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Listener Clippings

[clipping: 1969-02-28]

28 February 1969
Vol 60 No 1533 (3-9 March 1969)
p49: Photo of the First Doctor, promoting The Massacre: Bell of Doom (CHTV-1); The Myth Makers: Horse of Destruction (WNTV-1); Galaxy 4: Trap of Steel (AKTV-2); Galaxy 4: Four Hundred Dawns (DNTV-2, 9/3/69)

WILLIAM HARTNELL is the star of Dr Who, the science fiction serial screening from all channels this afternoon.

[clipping: 1969-05-02]

2 May 1969
Vol 61 No 1542 (5-11 May 1969)
p48: Photo of the First Doctor, Joey, Clara and the Toymaker, promoting The Celestial Toymaker: The Celestial Toyroom (WNTV-1, 11/5/69)

MICHAEL GOUGH as the Celestial Toymaker (left) and two of his creations with a very puzzled Dr Who, played by William Hartnell, in a scene from the new Dr Who story starting from WNTV-1 this evening.

[clipping: 1969-05-30]

30 May 1969
Vol 61 No 1546 (2-8 June 1969)
p49: Photo of Ben and Polly, promoting The War Machines Episode 1 (CHTV-3, 8/6/69)

MICHAEL CRAZE and Anneke Wills play Ben and Polly, Dr Who's new travelling companions in Dr Who and the War Machines, which starts from CHTV-3 this afternoon.

[clipping: 1969-06-06]

6 June 1969
Vol 61 No 1547 (9-15 June)
p53: Photo of Chal, promoting The Savages Episode 2 (WNTV-1, 15/6/69)

EWEN SOLON, the New Zealand actor who was Maigret's assistant in the television series, "appears" as Chal, the leader of the savages in Dr Who and the Savages, screening from WNTV-1 this afternoon.

[clipping: 1969-06-27]

27 June 1969
Vol 61 No 1550 (30 June-6 July 1969)
p49: Photo of the First Doctor and Cherub, promoting The Smugglers Episode 1 (CHTV-3, 6/7/69)

WILLIAM HARTNELL as Dr Who and George A. Cooper as Cherub in the first episode of Dr Who and the Smugglers, which screens from CHTV-3 this evening.

[clipping: 1969-07-25]

25 July 1969
Vol 61 No 1554 (28 July-3 August 1969)
p53: Photo of General Cutler, promoting The Tenth Planet Episode 1 (CHTV-3, 3/8/69)

ROBERT BEATTY as General Cutler in Dr Who and the Tenth Planet (CHTV-3 tonight), a new adventure in the Dr Who series which takes the Tardis to the South Pole in the 1980s.

[clipping: 1969-08-01]

1 August 1969
Vol 61 No 1555 (4-10 August 1969)
p60: Photo of the First Doctor and Jano, promoting The Savages Episode 4 (AKTV-2, 10/8/69)

WILLIAM HARTNELL as Dr Who and Frederick Jaeger as Jano leader of the Elders, in Dr Who and the Savages, screening from AKTV-2 this evening.

[clipping: 1969-08-08]

8 August 1969
Vol 61 No 1556 (11-17 August 1969)
p56: Photo of Polly, promoting The War Machines Episode 1 (AKTV-2, 17/8/69)

ANNEKE WILLS as Polly, Dr Who's new travelling companion in Dr Who and the War Machines, the new adventure starting this evening from AKTV-2.

[clipping: 1969-08-29]

29 August 1969
Vol 61 No 1559 (1-7 September 1969)
p56: Photo of a Cyberman, promoting The Tenth Planet Episode 2 (WNTV-1, 7/9/69)

A CYBERMAN, a member of a strangely humanoid race who appear in Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet, screening from WNTV-1 this evening.

[clipping: 1969-09-05]

5 September 1969
Vol 62 No 1560 (8-14 September 1969)
p52: Photo of the Second Doctor, promoting The Power of the Daleks Episode Three (CHTV-3, 14/9/69)

PATRICK TROUGHTON, who has taken over from William Hartnell in the BBC science fiction serial - CHTV-3 viewers can see Dr Who and the Struggle Against the Daleks this evening.

[clipping: 1969-09-12]

12 September 1969
Vol 62 No 1561 (15-21 September 1969)
p14: Review in 'TV Audience' section, 'Stories in Time' by 'R.M.' with two photos, of the First and Second Doctors.

STORIES IN TIME
DR WHO has outwitted an assortment of factual and fictional foes that would make Steed and Tara's adversaries pale by comparison. Like a good cup of tea there's something "refreshingly different" about most Dr Who adventures, but just what makes for this difference is often difficult to assess. Even a quite ordinary tale of smuggling in Cornwall, no different in essence from dozens of similar stories, has more than the usual smack of high adventure. The novelty lies, it seems, in the character of the doctor more than in the predicaments his Tardis lands him in. As a time traveller William Hartnell - who has just relin-quished the role to Patrick Troughton - was very human and warmly appealing; his nervous hesitant laugh hid an ageless and agile mind with a fine grasp of history and a keen sense of human justice. He used this knowledge with an almost arrogant dogmatism that stood him aloof from his companions (who act, often, as little more than butts and balances), and from the many lesser beings whose lives he touched. His Merlin-like appearance, white hair and flowing cape, helped create this illusion of timelessness and agelessness. It is the character of the doctor, rather than the concept of time travel or the strangely comic time-machine, that gives this series its peculiar character. So with the change from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton the very substance of the series lies in the melting pot.
  Time travel, which seemed a fantastic theory when Wells first exploited it, is now accepted as legitimate science fiction territory, to be toyed with as the imagination fancies. In Dr Who however, it assumes a rather mundane nature: time travel is nearly always incidental to the actual stories, little more than a way of jumping from Time A to Time B. The Tardis materialises, the Doctor and his companions step off into the path of adventure, and at the end return to their strange machine. There's very little fiddling with time (none of Star Trek's "warp factors"), and the Doctor has no control over time, or the destination of the Tardis. When past and present converge, the two ages are kept, as far as possible, separate: the scientific achievements of the pre-sent are not used to resolve an incident in the past, nor does the future influence the present. Each story is allowed to develop almost (allowing for the alien presence of the Doctor) as naturally as it presumably happened in its own time, and the Doctor usually manages to integrate with ease.
  Although often in a position to influence the shape of history (be it the St Bartholomew Day Massacre or the Trojan wars), Dr Who's writers skilfully avoid interfering with the broad tracings of history. In the future no such restriction is necessary. The stories, more often than not, resolve themselves as battles of intellect rather than violence, and in this may be seen one of the continuing "morals" of the series, if morals are needed. "The Toymaker" was a classic example: the Doctor's mental prowess was tested to a point beyond which lay immediate self-annihilation. "The War Machines" made superb use of London's Post Office Tower: the theme was the power man-made computers might conceivably come to exercise over the mind of man. In this context it became a quite damning indictment of the brilliant scientific mind geared to ultra-militaristic ambitions. Yet another story, "The Savages", showed how science and technology can, in the wrong hands, create and help sustain racial inequality of the most deplorable nature. But not all Dr Who stories are so devious: the interest of many is purely in their treatment of important historical events. Others, again, such as "The Smugglers", are swashbuckling adventure yarns, no more, no less. - R.M.
WILLIAM HARTNELL (left) as Dr Who "was very human and warmly appealing". With him lay the series' peculiar character. The new Dr Who is PATRICK TROUGHTON (right) and with the change "the very substance of the series lies in the melting pot."

[clipping: 1969-10-17]

17 October 1969
Vol 62 No 1566 (20-26 October 1969)
p29: photo of the Second Doctor, Polly and Jamie, promoting The Highlanders Episode 2 (CHTV-3, 20/10/69)

DR WHO (Patrick Troughton) and Polly (Anneke Wills) find themselves in the Scottish highlands at the time of the Battle of Culloden in this scene from Dr Who and the Highlanders, screening from CHTV-3 this evening.

[clipping: 1969-10-31]

31 October 1969
Vol 62 No 1568 (3-9 November 1969)
p14: Excerpt from 'TV Audience' section article 'Space Goonery' by 'R.M.'

... The robot [from Lost in Space] is a masterful creature, putting the Daleks, Chumbleys and various other automatons into deep shade...

p63: Article 'The New Who' and colour photo of the Second Doctor.

The new DR WHO
A good Dr Who must have a flair for survival. He can be frozen or gassded, engulfed in horrid substances, become involved with gunfighters of the Old West, bloodthirsty Mongols or mad scientists, Macra men, Quarks, Yetis, Ice Warriors, Cybermen, and, of course, Daleks. Dr Whos in fact are something like old soldiers, never dying, only fad-ing from the scene. This is what has happened to William Hartnell, incumbent Time Lord for three years on our screens. His successor Patrick Troughton has this year re-linquished the role in Britain, taking with him his old asso-ciate Jamie (Frazer Hines). Next January Dr Who will re-turn to the BBC with an en-tirely new cast, from the Doctor through to the yet undisclosed number of compan-ions who will go adventuring in time with him on the Tardis.
  For New Zealand viewers, however, Patrick Troughton will be our Dr Who for many adventures to come. And one can be certain that in any future Who's (Dr) Who of the series, this actor will be remembered for the zany touch he brings to the role, pre-viously played by William Hartnell as a sometimes smug and always querulous old man. Sly fun and a bit of clowning would seem to help provide a fairy-tale atmosphere for the series, without which the science fiction would be occa-sionally frightening and horrible. What law is there, after all, against a tine traveller looking like an original Beatle with frizzy hair and shard-shaped coat tails ... things that have disturbed some viewers devoted to the original Dr Who? It is no more unlikely than the Tardis masquerading as a telephone box.
  Yet it is a fact that most of Patrick Troughton's best known roles have been serious or tough. Just think of a few of them ... the bitter school-master of Tannochbrae in many episodes of Dr Finlay's Casebook, Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop, Paul in Paul of Tarsus, the villainous du Bosc in Sword of Vengeance. In his younger days (he is now 48) Troughton was considered a natural for roles in Shakespeare tragedies. Swashbuckling was another speciality - one of his most successful parts was as Alan Breck in a BBC production of Kidnapped. He has even played Adolf Hitler twice.
  By all accounts it would seem he is equally serious in private life, but information on this subject is necessarily limited by the fact that he never gives interviews, and does not believe that actors should lend themselves to publicity campaigns. "I prefer to be known and judged by my acting," he once explained. "You can either enjoy and appreciate what I am doing, or you can switch me off. I feel my private life and my likes and dislikes have nothing at all to do with my job."
  Patrick Troughton has been in the acting game since he was in his teens, when he left Mill Hill School to train at the Embassy School of Acting under Eileen Thorndike. Then came the war, in which he spent five dangerous years in the Royal Navy's motor gunboats, an experience that left him with a lasting relish for the sea. Sailing alone is still one of his favourite spare-time pursuits, more particularly in a motor cruiser exploring the quieter reaches of the Thames.
  After the war he joined the Bristol Old Vic and since then has played in London's West End, and appeared in films, including Escape (1948) and Hamlet the same year, as the Player King, Treasure Island (1950), The Black Knight (1952), Richard III (1956) and The Gorgon (1964). He has served with the BBC Repertory Company, and appeared in more than 50 television roles. But he still remains unfanatical about acting. "I would have been happy as a novelist or schoolteacher," he has said. "Yes, I'd have liked teaching ... children keep one young."
  Patrick Troughton has three children of his own, and the family live in a bungalow near the railway lines at Kew Gar-dens conveniently close to the Thames. Apart from his sail-ing, he is a keen fisherman and gardener, and fond of reading books on philosophy and com-parative religion ... somehow appropriate to a face that con-jures up images of monks and suffering ascetics, even when he is the cavorting Dr Who.

[clipping: 1969-11-28]

28 November 1969
Vol 62 No 1572 (1-7 December 1969)
p37: Photo of Atlantean fish people, promoting The Underwater Menace Episode 4 (CHTV-3, 1/12/69)

THE ATLANTEAN FISH PEOPLE are the new enemy faced by Dr Who in Dr Who and the Underwater Menace, screening this evening from CHTV-3.

[clipping: 1969-12-19]

19 December 1969
Vol 62 No 1575 (22-28 December 1969)
p25: Photo of the Second Doctor and companions on the moon, promoting The Moonbase Episode 3 (CHTV-3, 22/12/69)

TAKING loss of gravity in their stride are Dr Who and his young companions who may be seen in the adventure "Dr Who and the Moonbase", screening from CHTV-3 this evening.

Clippings for 1967/1968 or Clippings for 1970.