DOCTOR WHO CHRONICLES

THE SUMMER OF LOVE AND MONSTERS

As messages of peace and love swept youth culture in 1967, the Doctor was taking up arms against a succession of the show’s most recognisable enemies.

THE DIARY OF Doctor Who

A month-by-month account of 1967 – the year in which the Daleks were replaced by a parade of all-new monsters, and the viewing public gradually came to accept a new leading man.

FRAZER HINES

Although he was only 22 years old when he embarked on his record-breaking run of Doctor Who episodes, Frazer Hines was already something of a showbusiness veteran.

THE HIGHLANDERS

The Doctor, Ben and Polly recruit a new TARDIS traveller in the aftermath of the bloody Battle of Culloden.

Getting THE PICTURE

In the 1960s, the gap between studio recording of Doctor Who episodes and their subsequent transmission gradually shortened. By 1967, episodes were being taped just one week before they were broadcast

THE UNDERWATER MENACE

A deranged scientist dreams of raising sunken Atlantis above the waves… even if it means destroying the world.

THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR

Stories broadcast in 1967 included some intriguing clues about the Doctor’s supposed surname. What prompted the apparent confusion over the Doctor’s name? And can we be sure that the references in The Highlanders and The Underwater Menace were made in error?

THE MOONBASE

In the year 2070, the weather is controlled by a device on the Moon. So whoever controls the Moonbase, controls the Earth…

FROM THE ARCHIVES

BBC paperwork shows that the first six months of 1967 were a difficult time for Doctor Who, with a multitude of production challenges and the series’ future in jeopardy…

STATE OF THE ART

The TV Comic stories published in 1967 pitted the new Doctor against Daleks and Cybermen for the first time. Despite this, the scripts remained so disconnected from the television series that at one point the Doctor Who production office had to intervene...

THE MACRA TERROR

Everything in the Colony is good and beautiful. There is no such thing as Macra. Macra do not exist!

WHERE WERE THEY THEN ?

At the beginning of 1967, Doctor Who had done something remarkable for a show that was only three years old – it had replaced its entire regular cast. (Indeed, in 1966 alone the show had three different female leads, with only two weeks’ overlap between them.) Some of those who’d left had experienced problems moving on from the show, thanks to their close identification with it. So let’s catch up with Doctor Who’s former regulars to see how they were faring.

THE FACELESS ONES

Thousands of holidaymakers fly out of Gatwick Airport every day… but not all of them reach their destination

SPECIAL EFFECTS

The BBC Visual Effects Department had worked intermittently on Doctor Who from the first episode onwards, but it wasn’t until 1967 that they took full responsibility for handling the programme’s special effects.

DEBORAH WATLING

Joining Doctor Who in the landmark serial The Evil of the Daleks, Deborah Watling brought an endearing vulnerability – and a surprising resilience – to the role of Victoria Waterfield.

THE EVIL OF THE DALEKS

Lured into a trap laid for him in 1966, the Doctor is transported to Victorian England… where the Daleks are waiting.

ON LOCATION

An increased use of location filming liberated Doctor Who from the confines of electronic recording studios, transforming the look of the series during its fourth and fifth seasons.

THE FINAL END?

The Doctor described the devastating civil war in The Evil of the Daleks as the creatures’ “final end”. Terry Nation’s subsequent ambitions should have distinguished 1967 as a pivotal year, both for Doctor Who and the Daleks, but things didn’t go according to plan…

REACH FOR THE SKY

Backed by the marketing power of the world’s largest ice-cream manufacturer, 1967’s Sky Ray promotion was by far the most prominent Doctor Who merchandise of the year.

THE TOMB OF THE CYBERMEN

The Cybermen went extinct long ago, but an archaeological expedition has uncovered the entrance to their lost city on Telos…

PAGES OF HISTORY

THE PRODUCTION HISTORY OF THE DOCTOR WHO ANNUAL PUBLISHED IN 1967 OFFERS CLUES THAT HELP TO EXPLAIN THE BOOK’S MORE BAFFLING CONTENTS.

LEGACY OF THE YETI

Although it only spawned one fully fledged television sequel, The Abominable Snowmen proved to be one of most seminal Doctor Who stories of the 1960s.

THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMEN

In a remote part of the Himalayas, a cosmic consciousness uses robot Yeti to do its evil bidding…

LIFE ON MARS

The versatile and prolific writer Brian Hayles was asked to create a new, bipedal monster to rival the Daleks and Cybermen. His solution: armoured reptiles from the Red Planet…

THE ICE WARRIORS

A monstrous find in a glacier beside Brittanicus Base threatens the whole of future Europe.

THE ICEMAN COMETH

Sonny Caldinez’s roles in The Evil of the Daleks and other stories were just part of a varied career that also included work as a wrestler, stuntman and bodyguard

BREAKING NEWS

So far as the British press was concerned, new Doctor Patrick Troughton was the invisible man. So they turned their gaze on more obliging stars: the monsters…

ON THE BOX

The Second Doctor’s face was still new at the start of 1967 – a year full of fresh TV faces, from Simon Dee to Captain Scarlet and Number 6, aka The Prisoner.

FINAL SCORE

Unlike today, when the casting of a new Doctor prompts renewed interest in the show, the very first changeover had little impact on viewing figures. Patrick Troughton’s first full year in the role only made a slight improvement to Doctor Who’s ratings.