Doctor Who Prop Hunt

Hey! It’s just a quick one this week as I’ve been away and haven’t had the time to work on anything longer. I was chatting to Zoe’s Feather Boa about the changing fashions in Doctor Who set design. In particular how the tape to tape computer unit that had been a staple of the seventies had become passé by the Eighties. They sent me a screen grab from The Happiness Patrol and I instantly recognised the grey computer units I posted about here . And then I remembered there were a couple of extra appearances I’d left out last time. So here it is, The Grey One part 2. DESTINY OF THE DALEKS, 1979 I used this screen grab the other week to talk about the hubcap. But look! Just below it is our grey computer. CITY OF DEATH, 1979 I had actually intended to include this one in my first post but forgot all about it. Four of these computers appear in Kerensky’s lab. They seem to have had a paint job since their previous appearances as they are white rather than grey. However in all other aspects the...

This one comes courtesy of Zoe’s Feather Boa who posted about it on a thread on Bluesky. It’s a small unit featuring three distinctive chunky levers. As we will see this prop features in several Sixties stories.  THE SENSORITES, 1964 The first appearance of this prop. Here you can see it front and centre being used by Maitland (Lorne Cossette) THE TENTH PLANET, 1966 It next appears at the very end of the Hartnell era. It’s in the very middle of the picture on the set of the Zeus IV. THE POWER OF THE DALEKS, 1966 And then it appears in the very next story. This time it’s wall mounted. THE MOONBASE, 1967 And again, it’s wall mounted in this Troughton Cyber tale.  FURY FROM THE DEEP, 1968 And one last Sixties appearance. Those distinctive chunky levers seem to have been painted a darker hue. 

This time it’s a couple of props that have been on my radar for ages. I’d hoped to find more examples but this is as much as I have ever found. Following my recent appearance on A Hamster With A Blunt Penknife discussing Destiny of the Daleks I found I was back to looking for these props again. Anyway here is what I have for now, I shall of course provide updates if I find them in anything else. DESTINY OF THE DALEKS, 1979 Towards the middle of this screen grab you can see a hubcap catching the light. The Skaro sets in Destiny are full of junk, but for some reason it’s the hubcaps that always stick out to me. In fact there are a bunch of different hubcaps across the various sets.  POWERPLAY, 1980 Naturally for a Doctor Who story from the late 70’s these hubcaps also turn up in Blakes 7. Powerplay is an episode from series C. LUNA, 1983 It’s really hard to see in this blurry screen grab but a hubcap can just about by made out on the left hand side of the screen. As far as I know Lun...

Following last weeks return to the lair of BOSS there was one more prop on this set I wanted to look at. I’ve previously looked at a wide bodied blue computer console, but this time it’s this grey one that I’m looking at.   THE GREEN DEATH, 1973 You can see the grey computer console in the middle of this picture. There is a second one tucked in on the right, hidden from this view. The BOSS set is so full of stuff this prop is actually the tenth object, with total of fourteen props, that I have looked at and there is still more stuff to identify. THE THREE DOCTORS, 1972 The year before The Green Death one of the grey computers was seen in UNIT’s top secret HQ. THE HAND OF FEAR, 1976 By the late 70’s the whirly tape computer had started to look a little passé. For The Hand of Fear Designer Christine Ruscoe took a number of the grey computer units and placed another panel where the tapes would go. THE PIRATE PLANET, 1978 But a couple of years later and the tapes were back. THE DOOMBO...

The inner sanctum of BOSS is a set that is choc full of sci-fi nick nacks. I’ve looked at quite a bit of it already, especially the stuff from UFO and the Flossie computer. But as I trawl the image galleries I occasionally run into some of the small stuff. So here’s a roundup of a few bits from this set. THE GREEN DEATH, 1973 The first thing to look at is this small wall mounted panel featuring a triangle of three circular knobs.  THE MUTANTS, 1972 This panel had appeared the previous year onboard Skybase.  Next up are two larger panels in the ‘seating area’ (for want of a better term). These feature four square dials across the top with one underneath creating a right angle. In the image above the bottom dial is on the right… … and in this view you can see the second panel has the below dial on the left.  DAY OF THE DALEKS, 1972 In this pic from Day of the Daleks you can see both panels (left and right). However, this photo is a bit of a mystery for me. Judging by the ...

I’ve been looking at a few different props recently. But there isn’t anything I’ve found enough of to be worth posting. But what always happens when I’m looking for a certain prop is that I inevitably find stuff I’ve already posted about. So here is a round up of all the extra stuff I’ve found. For the anniversary I looked at some of the items in the original TARDIS console room. I’ve found the Syrian Candles in a couple of Season 2 stories. Check them out below.  THE RESCUE, 1965 THE ROMANS, 1965 This distinctive computer from The Invasion, and its variants, crop up quite a bit. I first wrote about them here  and found an appearance from Out of The Unknown here  . Below are two more appearances, one Who and one OOTO. In The Faceless Ones the four ‘doors’ of the computer can be seen on the right. The Out of The Unknown episode is called Lambda 1.  THE FACELESS ONES, 1967 OUT OF THE UNKNOWN, 1966 When I covered the silver frisbee things from the Dalek capsule in Pow...