Doctor Who Prop Hunt

I’m back again with yet another reel to reel tape drive that could well be a real computer. However I’ve no info on this one. If you recognise it as a actual bit of tech please let me know. SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE, 1970 Reel to Reel computers first appear in Doctor Who in the Sixties. But their heyday on screen is definitely the Seventies. By Doctor Who’s second decade they had firmly replaced the racks of dials and lights that had come before. This prop is an early example of this change in Doctor Who’s design aesthetic as it appears in the very first story of the Seventies. INFERNO, 1970 And here we have two of them from later in the season. Here you can see the number 400 on the prop. Something that hints at branding and therefore makes me think these must have been real items. You can also see the middle panel in the body of the prop is different in these two examples. The one on the left has a complex pattern of lights while the right hand one features the same green glass as the Spe...

This wasn’t the post I’d planned to make. But this morning I watched Multi Coloured Saturdays on the iPlayer. It’s an old documentary about Saturday morning kids TV in the UK. It was repeated to celebrate the Multi-Coloured Swap Shop turning 50 this week. And couple of things caught my eye. Behind John Craven on the left of the picture is one of the consoles from Invasion of the Dinosaurs. I first posted about them here and this variant is the same one seen in the ‘Hallo My Dalek’ Crackajack sketch mentioned here .  Next to the Dino console is ever ubiquitous rectangular panels from UFO. I first posted about them here . But honestly they feature in about 80% of my posts. Fall down that rabbit hole if you must. The documentary featured a small clip of the Swap Shop gang doing a Star Trek skit. Here I think you can see that control panel from The Ark in Space and Planet of Evil. This prop, of course, has a movie heritage as it was initially from Live and Let Die .  And also in ...

This week I’m looking at a little group of props that, although they are not identical, definitely share a common DNA. My posts typically present the props in chronological order. But on this occasion I’ll be doing it in the order that I found them. THE MIND OF EVIL, 1971 The item of interest here is the short grey console with four tape reels on the front. THE CLAWS OF AXOS, 1971 And here’s what sparked my interest. I spotted in Axos that there are two of these units. You don’t get a good look at them but from what we can see they also have the reels on the front. Where they differ from the Mind of Evil one is the top. All three examples have a different arrangement of controls. THE DOOMBOLT CHASE, 1978 This example from the late 70’s looks like it matches the one on the left of the Axos pic. If you look at the top you can see four circular dials and a small black spinner control. THE WEB OF FEAR, 1968 And here’s my most recent find. I think I must have discounted it in the past as it...

This time it’s another round up of new stuff I have noticed for props previously covered.                        This is one of those weird instances where a show I had looked at in the past had been hiding a prop I have only recently looked at. I’d previously mentioned that Come Back Mrs Noah had featured the blue computers from UFO. Well it also features the slim red computer I’d looked at here . COME BACK MRS NOAH, 1978                                                                                            These ‘ washboards ’ keep turning up. They are in Destiny,       Warriors Gate, and Terminus. I thought I’d seen  all of their  Doctor Who appearances  but he...

The info this week comes from space1999 .net an excellent resource for all things related to Gerry Anderson’s 70’s Sci-Fi show. The prop I’m looking at is the desks found in Moonbase Alpha.  SPACE: 1999, 1975 These desks come in a number of versions but are mainly characterised by their chunky grey frames. Earlier models had slim metal legs but by season 2 the legs were as chunky as the frames. Much like the props in UFO, these desks would quickly be pressed into service for other productions. GREEN CROSS CODE AD, 1975 I’ve posted about these ads before as they also feature some UFO props. Dave Prowse’s Green Cross Code Man has three of the Space: 1999 desks arranged to make one large console. THE NEW AVENGERS, 1977 Two of the desks are seen here in the foreground of this shot from the episode Obsession. COME BACK MRS NOAH, 1977 I love this hokey Molly Sugden comedy. Like a lot of these shows it features a number of UFO props. But here I’m interested in the two Space: 1999 desks. I...

It’s been a few months since I last looked at one of Who’s reel to reel tape drives. This is one I got stuck on for a while. I could only find it in a couple of places and wasn’t sure where it had come from. But thinking a bit more laterally has opened up some info. Let’s take a look. ROBOT, 1974 The tape drive I am looking at is the one to the right of Tom. Unusually, its two tape reels are stacked vertically. It’s also easily identifiable by its red lower half. DESTINY OF THE DALEKS, 1979 And here are two of them in Destiny, their red bottoms are clearly visible. And that’s all I had for ages. I was fairly certain they had come from the Gerry Anderson show UFO, like so many of these props had . But I couldn’t find anything that matched that distinctive red livery. JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN, 1969 But looking again it did seem that there were props that matched in design, if not in colour. The UFO props had actually started life in the film Doppelgänger, AKA Journey To The Far...