SLIM RED REELS

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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 Side of The Sun. It’s hard to see in this wide shot, but at the back of this set is a row of beige tape drives with the reels in the vertical position. If you look at the props in Doctor Who there is a metal strip to the right of the reels that has a specific sequence of lights on it. This strip can be seen on these Doppelgänger props. If you squint. Really hard.
UFO, 1970

And here they are a year later. Still beige, but at least they now have a red trim. Crucially in this image you get a far better look at that metal strip and the sequence of lights. Comparing it closely to the Doctor Who pics you can see they are identical.
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, 1971

And here we have another colour way. In this James Bond flick the slim tape drives are now grey. And looking at the one to the immediate right of Joseph Furst we get a very clear look at the strip of lights.
JASON KING, 1971

And finally the episode of this Peter Wyngarde adventure series ‘A Deadly Line in Digits’ features the tape drives in the same colours as UFO. And that’s the last appearance I have been able to find. The fact that between 1971 and the end of 1974 they are given a red coloured make over would seem to indicate at least one more appearance in between. But for now that’s it. 


















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