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SON OF SPIRAL STAIRCASE - part 1?

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Over the last couple of weeks premier Doctor Who podcast Radio Free Skaro has given this humble blog a few shout outs. Steven Schapansky of RFS has been discussing his passion for the spiral staircase I covered ages ago here and here . Well, I thought I’d look a look at another staircase, this time from the 1980s. It’s a staircase that featured a few times in 80’s Who and also turned up a lot in the final season of Blakes 7. I’m tentatively calling this post part 1 as I suspect there are more appearances out there that I have not yet found. MEGLOS, 1980 This is the earliest I have been able to find these stairs. They can be identified by their rather minimalist design with flat wedge shaped steps and straight unadorned supporting poles.  RESCUE, 1981 This episode of Blakes 7 is the premiere of Series D. In the episode Avon and Co establish a new base of operations on Xenon. This base appeared throughout the season and, of course, featured a familiar white staircase. HEADHUNTER, 1...
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UNEARTHLY CHATTELS

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Happy birthday Doctor Who! This week I’m taking a look at a few of the items found in the original console room. Most of the information for this post has been cribbed from the forums of tardisbuilders.com  and the sharp eyed obsessives who post there. There are a couple of chairs in the Hartnell console room. One of them is this wavy wooden number. This chair is actually a replica of an ancient chair from Knossos, dating from 1900BC   AN UNEARTHLY CHILD, 1963 And here is that Knossos chair in the console room in a colourised picture from Clayton Hickman THE MASQUE OF MANDRAGORA, 1976 The chair makes a reappearance in the secondary console room of season 14. Probably the best known props of the original interior are a pair of large bronze pillars. The guys over at Tardis Builders describe them as Syrian Candles. I’m not sure I’ve heard that description anywhere else but I assume that’s what they are. AN UNEARTHLY CHILD, 1963 Here is another colourised picture showing one of th...
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RESPECT YOUR ELDAs

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This week on Instagram I posted pictures with a ‘seating’ theme. One of them featured this designer chair  This is an Elda chair designed by Joe Columbo in the Sixties. I normally shy away from posting about ‘real world’ items that you could conceivably buy (if you happened to have a spare 10K). Partly because when you see it in multiple shows it’s unlikely to be the same prop. And partly because other people have covered this very well elsewhere. When it comes to chairs the absolute key source is Tim Dickinson’s sublime Pink For Your Actual Pterodactyl . I’m indebted to Tim for the information in this post. Other blogs Film and Furniture and catacombs.space1999.net also proved to be invaluable. THE WHEEL IN SPACE, 1968 Here’s that picture I mentioned at the top. It’s a really familar image of Zoe in a massive chair. But I’d never noticed how much that chair turns up elsewhere.  THE WHEEL IN SPACE, 1968 Here’s another image from Wheel so you can see the whole thing. DAY OF T...
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A LOOK AT CARNIVAL

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Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with Carnival of Monsters. Tomorrow I’m recording an episode of A Hamster With a Blunt Knife  where I’ll be talking about this third Doctor classic. So naturally, I also wanted to check out the props to see if I could find anything of interest. But sadly, I completely drew a blank! Luckily friend of the blog  Zoe’s Feather Boa was on hand to point a couple things out.  CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS, 1973 The opening of Carnival features this model shot. A space ship carrying Vorg and Shrina arrives on Inter Minor. And that space ship is none other than… THE SPACE PIRATES, 1969 …. LIZ 79! ******************************************* CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS, 1973 Beyond that space ship model, there isn’t a great deal of stuff that reappears elsewhere. The cloak worn by Plectrac (Peter Halliday) is probably the most well travelled item. Below are a couple of classic who appearances. I’m told it also pops up in Bla...
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NOVEMBER UPDATE

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Hello folks! It’s time for another quick update covering new finds of props I have already looked at. Let’s jump straight in.  The Prop Hunt blog turned one in October. One of the earliest props I looked at was The Master’s Iron Maiden TARDIS. In that post I mentioned I had found the Iron Maiden in The Avengers series 5 episode Murdersville. Well, I’ve noticed it’s also in the series 6 episode Fog.   THE AVENGERS : FOG, 1969 I covered this toast rack shaped prop here  , here  , and even one here  . So I thought I had it pretty well covered. But it seems I missed an appearance as no less than six of them turn up in The Dominators. THE DOMINATORS, 1969             In this post I looked at the computer from the International Electromatic Company computer. There turned out to be a few variants of that prop that appear in The Ambassadors of Death and other places. Well, here’s one more variant I missed, this time from The Tenth Planet....
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THE HELMETS *twang* OF DEATH!

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Hello folks! This week on my Instagram I have been posting pictures of Classic Who space suits. And whenever I thinking about spacesuits and astronauts I will always consult the excellent blog Say Hello Spaceman  This prop hunt entry is very much indebted to Steve of SHS and his excellent research into the helmets used in The Ambassadors of Death.  MOON ZERO TWO, 1969 The helmets from Ambassadors started life in the Hammer Films science fiction movie Moon Zero Two. Pictured here are James Olsen and Catherine Schell (a very beautiful women, probably) THE AMBASSADORS OF DEATH, 1970 A year after their big screen debut they are pressed into service for Doctor Who. Unlike many of the other appearances listed here, Who only used the helmet and not the completed suit. It is mainly identifiable by the raised area at the chin. HERE COME THE DOUBLE DECKERS!, 1970 The same year several of the colourful Moon Zero Two suits appeared in this British/American co-produced kids show.  SPA...
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