Doctor Who Prop Hunt

Hey! Sorry for the lack of a post last week. However I did use the time to tidy up some stuff on the blog. For instance, for updates like this one I have gone back to the original posts and added a link. That way all appearances of a particular prop are linked and easy to find from which ever post you are on. I’m planning more consolidation like this which should be ready in the new year. In the meantime here is what is likely to be my last post of 2025. Christmas is always a busy time and I don’t know if I’ll be able to fit another one in.  In October I took a look at this wedge shaped console that first appears in The Space Museum . Well, as usual, I missed a Doctor Who appearance.  THE CLAWS OF AXOS, 1971    In my post about the computer from International Electromatic  I mentioned a couple of episodes from the third series of sixties sci-fi anthology Out Of The Unknown. Well there is another episode from that series that features one of these computers. The ...

This week on Instagram I posted pictures with a ‘seating’ theme. One of them featured this designer chair  This is an Elda chair designed by Joe Columbo in the Sixties. I normally shy away from posting about ‘real world’ items that you could conceivably buy (if you happened to have a spare 10K). Partly because when you see it in multiple shows it’s unlikely to be the same prop. And partly because other people have covered this very well elsewhere. When it comes to chairs the absolute key source is Tim Dickinson’s sublime Pink For Your Actual Pterodactyl . I’m indebted to Tim for the information in this post. Other blogs Film and Furniture and catacombs.space1999.net also proved to be invaluable. THE WHEEL IN SPACE, 1968 Here’s that picture I mentioned at the top. It’s a really familar image of Zoe in a massive chair. But I’d never noticed how much that chair turns up elsewhere.  THE WHEEL IN SPACE, 1968 Here’s another image from Wheel so you can see the whole thing. DAY OF T...

As promised, this week is a round up of all the props from Gerry Anderson’s UFO that I’ve found in other shows and films. There will be no Doctor Who, but I keep finding these things and felt the need to really wrap up this avenue of prop hunting. The list here is as broad as it is long and really demonstrates just how ubiquitous these items were. I’ve organised it into prop type rather than by time. And I’ll kick it off with a favourite… WIDE BLUE - as seen in THE GREEN DEATH, THE TIME WARRIOR, THE ANDROIDS OF TARA, and DESTINY OF THE DALEKS plus episodes of THE GOODIES and of course UFO. JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN / DOPPELGÄNGER, 1969 As mentioned last week, despite me calling them UFO props they actually come from the earlier Anderson live action feature film Doppelgänger. The wide blue computer unit is on the right hand side of this screen grab. CARRY ON LOVING, 1970 ACE OF WANDS, 1972 BLAKES 7, 1979 From the season 2 episode Killer. On the face of it, this is not the same...

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...