TALL BLUE

As promised last week, this one is a return to the props of Gerry Anderson’s UFO. Back in March I published several posts covering the many props from that show that ended up in episodes of Doctor Who. One prop I covered was a squat, wide bodied, blue computer. It appeared in The Green Death, The Time Warrior and other stories. Well, that prop has a taller cousin that so far I haven’t looked at. So here are the Doctor Who appearances of tall blue.

TALL BLUE ON THE LEFT, WIDE BLUE ON THE RIGHT

Like Ant and Dec, they stand in this order so you can remember which is which.

JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN / DOPPELGÄNGER, 1969

Any time I’ve covered the UFO props I have always referred to them as just that, UFO props. As it was Anderson’s first live action TV show I had wrongly assumed they had originated on UFO. However before he made UFO, Anderson made a feature film. And many of the familiar objects from the world of SHADO actually first appeared there. Known as Doppelgänger in the UK and Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun elsewhere, it was a sci-fi tale of a parallel world beyond the sun.

UFO, 1970

And here is a row of three tall blues in the SHADO HQ. If the camera panned a little you’d see that two wide blues are just to the right, off screen.

THE ANDROID INVASION, 1975

And here is the first of their Doctor Who appearances. Like UFO, it’s a row of three. Found in the scanner room of the Space Defence Station.

UNDERWORLD, 1978

Two tall blues on P7E.

DESTINY OF THE DALEKS, 1979

Two tall blues on Skaro. This set also also has a wide blue and a red computer unit that looks similar to the tall blues. I looked at this set in a previous post. I find it interesting that one set can have several different types of the same prop just thrown together without much thought to an overall design. In fact…..

DESTINY OF THE DALEKS PRODUCTION DOCUMENT

…. here is how those props are listed in the paperwork. At the bottom of this Property & Drape Requirements sheet it lists ‘4 FP computer units free standing type’. So I guess they used whatever was available.  

GREEN CROSS CODE AD, 1976

And finally, and to demonstrate just how widely these Gerry Anderson props were used, here is a screen grab from a 1976 advert to promote road safety. That leads me to next week where I’m going to round up all the Gerry Anderson stuff I have found in the last few months.