Miscellaneous
Television

35th Anniversary

Interviewers: Ross Benson and Carol Keating
Interviewees: Peter Davison and Nicholas Courtney

35th Anniversary         Wed   25.11.1998  10.35am - 10.50am

Details of this programme appeared on ITV's TeleText page 126, written by Simon Spinks:

The word "exterminate!" used to send a shiver down the spine of England.

It was the rasping queue for many a young Dr Who fan to dive for cover behind the living room sofa.
The Daleks were the ultimate terrors - weird wheelie bins armed with sink plungers and flashing death rays.
It's 35 years since the good doctor began his battle to stop their evil bid for power, so TV Plus is taking a fond look at the Time Lord's reign.

Dr Who was the first TV star to suffer from a permanent identity crisis.

Just when you thought you'd got to know the rebel Time Lord - kapow! - he'd have a face and body transplant.
When the good doctor first popped out of nowhere in a wheezing old police box, he was a grey haired grandad.
However, William Hartnell's early sixties incarnation was followed by the likes of Tom Baker, Peter Davison and madcap Sylvester McCoy.

Before All Creatures Great And Small Peter Davison starred as Dr Who.

He dodged Daleks, chilled out wit cool Cybermen and yelled at Yetis for 69 episodes back in the early '80s.
Peter, now 47, played the dangerman doc as a sort of fresh faced upper crust student, in a cricket blazer.
Most of the monsters were too slow and clumsy to be a real threat, but he admits: "The Daleks went like greased lightning, but not up steps!"

Although Dr Who's Tardis stayed the same, the monsters enjoyed makeovers.

Former Time Lord Peter Davison says: "In the early days the Cybermen were strangely comical creatures."
"They used to have a car headlight stuck on top of their helmets, then they became much more frightening."
"Although they were supposed to be deadly, these creatures were so slow you didn't need to run away from them - you could just walk."

Crowds used to flock to Dr Who location shoots - particularly in London.

They cheered when the Daleks decided to exterminate the Embankment and queued to see Yetis take the Tube.
Ex-TV time traveller Peter Davison says: "We caused great interest. The traffic regularly ground to a halt."
In those days he was the fifth and youngest doctor to wield a sonic screwdriver in anger and flirt with a pretty young female sidekick.

Dr Who appealed to dads as much as kids - thanks to the sexy young sidekicks.

Former Time Lord Peter Davison helped rescue them from doom when he took the Tardis controls from 1982-84.
He says: "During my first season both my female assistants were clothed from head to foot. Nothing showed."
"Then one father complained saying: 'What's happened to the fur bikini?' Next season they were running around in boob tubes and skimpy numbers."

Dr Who's Tardis was always landing its time travellers in strange situations.

Former star Peter Davison reveals that the same thing happened to the BBC cast and crew in real life.
He says: "My favourite memory is filming my second to last Dr Who story on a beach in sunny Lanzarote."
"Unfortunately it turned out to be reserved for nudists. By 10am it was crowded with naked Germans, who insisted on walking past the TARDIS."