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...