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Nigel - a self-portrait
How RON
GRAINER and his boys inspired me, by
the legendary NIGEL PRETENTIOUS of THE WARDEN HILLS WALKERS
Ron Grainer was a genius, like
Robin Hood. The original Dr. Who signature tune still sounds
fresh. If Fatboy Slim had put it together, it'd have been
acclaimed as being ahead of its time! I loved all the incidental
music, too. Remember, there were no computers to aid Ron and his
pals in those early days.
The Dr. Who sounds influenced a lot of what I do, and my 'The
Master was a Good Guy All Along' was an attempt to get that
scary, sudden, dark synthy sound - whenever the cameras zoomed in
on The M's maniacal visage. Only it wasn't a modern synth, of
course. A moog, maybe. I don't know. Anyway, I loved that sound,
so I just had fun trying to get a similar sound, only
over-exaggerating it, as is my wont. I deliberately conjured the
sound up from memory.
I was influenced by a lot of sci-fi stuff growing up in the '60s
and '70s. Mostly TV, but films, too - 'Dr. Who, Star Trek, and
Sexy Dinosaurs' was my little nod in that direction. There seemed
greater invention then. There's still been a few, good, inventive
sci-fi/fantasy shows in recent years like 'Buffy' and 'The
X-Files', but much is regurgitated. I get a bit tired of humanoid
lifeforms in every thing. It just wouldn't be like that...Y'know,
not every really intelligent lifeform would either be naturally
humanoid, or change into a form to appeal to us. Some wouldn't
bother!
***************************************
Who's
Who
In all there were 26 seasons of
Dr. Who. The first-ever episode was screened on British TV, by
the BBC, on 23rd November 1963, and had the unwieldy title of 'An
Unearthly Child/The Tribe of Gum'. The first episode was shown
the day after President Kennedy had been assassinated, and it was
shown on a Saturday, after the football results.
The memorably weird and wonderful theme tune was by Ron Grainer
(who also composed themes for 'The Prisoner', and 'Steptoe and
Son'). Verity Lambert (early 'Eastenders', 'Eldorado', etc.) was
the producer of the early series.
William Hartnell was the very first Doctor, and his first
assistants were his granddaughter, Susan Foreman (played by
Carole Anne Ford), Ian Chesterton (William Russell), and Barbara
Wright (Jacqueline Hill).
The final show was shown on December 6th, 1989 - a story
inappropriately named, 'Survival', starring comedians Hale &
Pale. Some 695 episodes had been shown, and Dr. Who had been seen
in over a hundred countries.
The most-watched episode in the U.K. was Episode 4 of 'City of
Death' in 1979, which featured John Cleese. 16.1 million tuned
in. The lowest U.K. viewing figures were for an episode of the
1989 story, 'Battlefield', when only 3.1 million watched.
Arguably the most intriguing story came in 1983, with 'The Five
Doctors'. All five Doctors, to date, were mixed into one story.
Richard Hurndall (1910-1984) did a fine job as William Hartnell's
Doctor.
There were two feature films of Dr. Who; 'Dr. Who and the
Daleks', starring Peter Cushing as the Doctor, plus Roy Castle as
his assistant, Ian. Jennie Linden played Barbara, and Roberta
Tovey played Susan (which she reprised in the second film). This
film was made in 1965, and was the first time Dr. Who had been
seen in colour. The Daleks looking even more menacingly metallic.
The film's story was about a gentle race finally standing up for
themselves against the Daleks, thanks to the human time
travellers. This race were strikingly similar to the Eloi in the
classic Wells' novel/film, 'The Time Machine'.
The second film, made in 1966, was entitled 'Daleks: Invasion
Earth 2150 AD'. Peter Cushing again played the title role, and
his assistants were Bernard Cribbins as Tom Campbell, Ray Brooks
as David, Jill Curzon as Louise, and Andrew Keir as Wyler. This
time the action centred around the Daleks attempting to take over
the Earth, and much of the activity is set in Bedfordshire.
In summing up, who can forget the first time they heard
the Daleks utter the dreaded "Exterminate!"? Or the
awesomely-ugly half-Dalek, Davros, or the piercing eyes of the
Master, chillingly and brilliantly played by the late, great
Roger Delgado? Or the bacofoil Cybermen?
Created by Sydney Newman, Dr. Who may return, via Steven
Spielberg. If it does, let's hope he sticks to the parameters of
what made the programme so successful in the first place - good
characters, good stories, and simple but effective special
effects.
This Paul
Rance article is amended from an article which originally
appeared in issue 4 of EASTERN RAINBOW,
in 1994. For more news of this publication, and other PEACE
& FREEDOM PRESS publications, click on the
banner at the bottom of this page.
For
details of Dr. Who, story by story, the DR. WHO EPISODE LIST is
an excellent site.
Some
cracking Doctor sites
DOCTOR WHO - Videos, Real
Player clips (audio and video) and lots more.
Doctor Who Online - Links frenzy.
BBC - Cult Television - Doctor
Who Homepage - From the horse's mouth.
THE
DALEK-TABLE DALEKS!
The Daleks
were invented by comedy scriptwriter, Terry Nation (later to
create 'Blake's 7'). When pestered by journalists as to how the
name 'Dalek' came about, he said he was "inspired" by
the letter coding on an encyclopedia, DAL - LEK, but this was
just a fib, and he couldn't really remember how the name came
about.
There was a Dalek stage show, 'Seven Keys to Doomsday'.
Dalek merchandise ranged from Dalek sweet cigarettes to Dalek
soap! The author still has his evil black Dalek model, and models
ranged from one shilling cheapies (about 5p/7c) to 4 foot
monsters.
The Daleks made their first appearance in a seven-part story
called either 'The Dead Planet' or 'The Daleks' - depending on
who you believe - which was only the second story of the first
series. This story first appeared on December 21st, 1963.
The Daleks came from the planet Skaro.
MEDIA
Dr. Who
has been covered in comics by the likes of Marvel, and in novels
by the likes of Paul Cornell.
There have been radio series, and now audio plays are available.
Dr. Who first appeared in colour, on TV, in 1970.
The first TV show of Dr. Who, to be broadcast in stereo, appeared
in 1988.
Dr. Who now has many fans - who were too young to see ANY of the
episodes when they were originally screened - thanks to BBC
videos and repeats.
A good
resource, for info on actors who have appeared in Dr. Who, is THE
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE.
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Also features pieces on DR. WHO (mostly taken from this page),
STAR TREK and THE PRISONER, and illustrations of various famous
sci-fi characters.
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