The series’ tenth-anniversary celebrations were already underway by the time 1973 began...

By ALISTAIR McGOWN

+ By 1973, Jon Pertwee was well-established as Doctor Who.

JANUARY

Doctor Who’s tenth season and anniversary year kicked off a couple of days before the end of 1972, when Episode One of The Three Doctors aired on 30 December. This landmark first reunion of different incarnations earned a Radio Times cover and feature, published two days earlier. The weekly billings in the Radio Times this season were accompanied by stamp-sized illustrations from the famed comic artist Frank Bellamy, as they had been towards the latter half of the previous series too.

The serial was widely promoted. Jon Pertwee guested on the light-entertainment show The Generation Game on New Year’s Day 1973, then appeared with Patrick Troughton on BBC1’s lunchtime magazine Pebble Mill at One on 10 January. Most memorably, Troughton impersonated a Dalek, with his coat over his head and one arm outstretched as an eyestalk.

Elsewhere, Dalek creator Terry Nation spoke to Denis Frost on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on the 8th. Following an introduction by presenter Michael Aspel, doing his ring-modulated Dalek impression, Nation revealed the Daleks’ imminent return: “They are coming back in February for four episodes and they’re as nasty and as brutal as ever they were.” In fact, the story would run to six episodes and reach TV screens in April. Radio 2’s Open House, meanwhile, featured Pete Murray interviewing Pertwee on the 12th.

In the week between the third and last episodes of The Three Doctors (15 to 19 January), fans could even catch Patrick Troughton reading an appropriately titled Jackanory story – The Three Toymakers.

The secretary of the Doctor Who Fan Club, recognised by the BBC and supported by producer Barry Letts via his secretary Sarah Newman, was 14-year-old Keith Miller from Edinburgh. In this exalted position, Miller had attended a studio session for The Three Doctors on 27 November 1972, which was duly reported on in issue 12 of his DWFC Monthly (January 1973). Watching the recording from the gallery, Miller had to leave to catch his train home just as Troughton emerged to great applause from the crew.

Miller excitedly assessed The Three Doctors in DWFC Monthly No 13 (February 1973): “A brilliant start to what I’m sure is going to be one of the best series in the history of the programme,” he enthused. “The story, acting, sets, music were all fantastic, the best I’ve seen and heard for a long time. It showed how much the Doctor has changed over the ten years he has been in our homes.”

A weekly comic strip drawn by Gerry Haylock was currently running in TV Action, with the conclusion of the serial The Zeron Invasion appearing on the first two covers of the year. From issue 101, cover-dated the week ending 20 January, a new colour strip called Deadly Choice involved scientists being kidnapped by a mystical abbot.

Keith Miller was enthusiastic about The Three Doctors in DWFC Monthly 13.

FEBRUARY

Top: Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) and Shina (Cheryl Hall) with the body of a fallen Drashing, in Carnival of Monsters Episode Four, broadcast on 17 February.

First aired from 27 January, Carnival of Monsters was broadcast through much of this month. Again, Keith Miller had visited a studio recording the previous year, meeting Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning and Barry Letts. Miller was played Brian Hodgson’s proposed new ‘Delaware’ arrangement of the programme’s theme tune – and declared it “awful”, helping to ensure its rejection.

Reviewing Carnival of Monsters in DWFC Monthly No 14 (March 1973), Miller said: “The acting is getting better by the episode. I don’t know what the writers are doing to make the prog better but whatever it is, I hope it continues! There was no end to the brilliance of the acting and special effects when Jo was being sucked down into the swamp and the Doctor scared the monsters away with those fantastic fire explosions! Great stuff!”

Fans in Nottingham could see their hero, Jon Pertwee, at a Carlton Forum car show on the 10th, organised by PCF Motors. PCF owner Peter Farries was at the time designing a unique futuristic car for Pertwee’s public appearances, a vehicle that was to be unveiled later in the year.