Doctor Who Prop Hunt

At Christmas the esteemed YouTube channel Dalek 63.88 released a video about the sets of Classic Who’s infamous holiday special - Feast of Steven. One of the things covered in the video was the spiral staircase I first looked at here . In the background of this picture of Jean Marsh you can just about make it out on the left. THE DALEKS MASTER PLAN, 1965 The spiral staircase has been in the air a bit lately. Between the Dalek 63.88 video and discussion on the Radio Free Skaro podcast it seems to be a topic of some interest. Steven Schapansky of RFS had hinted that I hadn’t found all of the Who appearances of this prop. That prompted me to take another look, and indeed I have found a couple I’d missed.  FURY FROM THE DEEP, 1968 On the veranda at the Harris’ gaff. THE MIND OF EVIL, 1971 A blink and you’ll miss it appearance in this establishing shot of the interior of Stangmoor Prison. The staircase is right on the edge of this set and as a result doesn’t often appear on screen. TH...

Hey! Sorry for the lack of a post last week. However I did use the time to tidy up some stuff on the blog. For instance, for updates like this one I have gone back to the original posts and added a link. That way all appearances of a particular prop are linked and easy to find from which ever post you are on. I’m planning more consolidation like this which should be ready in the new year. In the meantime here is what is likely to be my last post of 2025. Christmas is always a busy time and I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit another one in.  In October I took a look at this wedge shaped console that first appears in The Space Museum . Well, as usual, I missed a Doctor Who appearance.  THE CLAWS OF AXOS, 1971    In my post about the computer from International Electromatic  I mentioned a couple of episodes from the third series of sixties sci-fi anthology Out Of The Unknown. Well there is another episode from that series that features one of these computers. The ...

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...

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...

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...