Doctor Who Prop Hunt

Back in August I posted a round up of props from Gerry Anderson’s UFO I’d found in a variety of non Who shows . It was a sort of coda to the many many posts I’d published about these props in Doctor Who. But I was just scratching surface as these props were ubiquitous throughout the Seventies and Eighties. So here is another round up of stuff I’ve come across during the last 9 months. I’ve organised it by prop. So in some cases I’ll return to the same shows/episodes as they feature more than one prop.  UFO’s rectangular panels of flashing lights and buttons came in a variety of configurations in both straight and curved versions. Straight variants appear in The Green Death, The Monster of Peladon, Genesis of the Daleks, The Robots of Death, The Invisible Enemy, Underworld, The Armageddon Factor, Destiny of the Daleks, and Resurrection of the Daleks.  STAR MAIDENS, 1976 This British / German co-production was filmed in the UK at Bray Studios. In this screen grab you can see a ...

Drum roll please, because this week I’m looking at these distinctive storage drums.  The first two months of 1984 turned out to be a busy period for these props. They appear in no less than three stories from Season 21. That’s why I’m calling them - Davo Drums. DESTINY OF THE DALEKS, 1979 But before their star turn in Season 21 they actually first appear here, on Skaro, during Season 17. You can find them lurking directly behind Davros. As you can see they come in a variety of colours. WARRIORS OF THE DEEP, 1984 January ‘84 is the start of their Season 21 run. Unlike the drums in Destiny, here they are all white in colour. They are in the background, more or less in the middle of this picture. FRONTIOS, 1984 By the end of January they are back once again for Frontios. This screen grab features white drums. But Frontios also features the orange ones from Destiny. PLANET OF FIRE, 1984 And finally, one of the white drums turns up briefly in Planet of Fire. Seen if the far left of this...

It’s another topical prop this week as I return to The Daleks Master Plan. Featured heavily DMP’s third episode, Devil’s Planet, are a group of short computer consoles. Their shape reminds me of the smaller versions of arcade machines that I played as a youth. Those smaller game cabinets are called ‘cabarets’ so that’s why I’m calling these - Spar Cabarets. THE DALEKS MASTER PLAN, 1965 Here they are on the set of the Spar with the guvnor, Bill Hartnell.  SPAR SET Here is a clear look at the empty Spar set and you can see six of these cabinets flanking the door way. DALEK PURSUIT SHIP It’s not the only time they are used in Master Plan, they return in Coronas of the Sun in the Dalek ship the Doctor uses to get back to Kembel. Here they are grouped in threes and placed back to back.  THE POWER OF THE DALEKS, 1966 Here they are in Troughton’s debut. They have been augmented with the sort of dials found on many sixties Dalek props. But they are recognisably the same. You can see t...

This one has quite the pedigree. Not only does it feature in classic Who, it takes in that other great British institution - James Bond. And then, ten years after its debut, it appears with the most American of cultural icons - Superman. Ages ago I wrote about another James Bond prop that turned up in Who. Today’s prop is from the same Bond flick and shares some of the same DNA. I’m looking at the control panel on the left below. Next to it is the panel I previously looked at. Both props feature a sliding control with a silver spherical handle.  LIVE AND LET DIE, 1973 And here’s today’s prop in its Bond appearance. Live and Let Die was filmed at Pinewood which maintained a prop store of items left behind from productions. This is how props from major Hollywood movies could turn up in Doctor Who just a few months later. ROBOT, 1974 And here’s that first Doctor Who appearance. THE ROBOTS OF DEATH, 1977 In its second appearance we get this lovely close up. You can see the Designer ha...

A few weeks ago Alan Barnes ( senrabnala.bsky.social ) suggested I take a look at the metal, scaffolding like, frames that appear in a number of Sixties stories. A past Doctor Who Magazine editor and Big Finish script editor, Alan’s credits are so long and varied who am I to refuse 😀. And then Daleks Master Plan 1 and 3 came back and it felt like the Universe was telling me I had to do it. Looking into their use, they seemed to only appear briefly during the mid Sixties. But for a short time in the middle of that decade they were very popular indeed. In fact, had Ian Chesterton been around I’m sure he would have exclaimed - SCAFFOLDING 1965! THE DALEKS MASTER PLAN PRODUCTION DOCUMENT The frames are probably best known as appearing in The Daleks Master Plan. Above is a design document created by Ray Cusick showing the specifications of the frames. However Master Plan wasn’t the scaffoldings first appearance because…. OUT OF THE UNKNOWN : TIME IN ADVANCE, 1965 …beating The Nightmare Beg...