Perhaps surprisingly, this was a rather lean year for merchandise – although it did introduce a series of books that continues to this day.

By CHRISTOPHER HILL

1 973was a year for both new and returning licence holders – and a year in which traditional types of merchandise co-existed with some of the most unusual items ever to bear the Doctor Who name.

Best known of the returning licensees was World Distributors (Manchester), which had held its Doctor Who licence since 1965 and would continue to do so until 1985. Incorporated in 1949, World soon afterwards made its name with hardback annuals devoted to popular film, television and animation properties; beyond Doctor Who, their stable would include Star Trek, Thunderbirds, Tom and Jerry and many others.

For 1973, however, the company returned to a form that had worked well for them in 1966 – aDoctor Who colouring book. The cover featured a photograph of the Third Doctor from The Time Monster and the book comprised 64 pages of blackand-white line drawings for colouring, and all this for just ten pence. The drawings included the Third Doctor, his assistant (a rather disquieting mash-up of Liz Shaw and Jo Grant), and the

Brigadier, plus various loose interpretations of monsters from the series, of which the Ogrons were the most recognisable. Many of the drawings were based on reference photos from Terror of the Autons, Day of the Daleks and Frontier in Space. Sales figures aren’t known to exist, but the fact that World Distributors stuck almost exclusively to annuals in future may provide an indication of this colouring book’s performance.

A new licence holder, due to issue further items in 1975, 1977 and 1978, was Whitman Publishing (UK), a British subsidiary of a storied American outfit. The company had introduced boxed games and jigsaw puzzles to its range back in 1923 – and 50 years later it produced a set of four photographic Doctor Who jigsaws. This initial set comprised images of the Second and Third Doctors from The Three Doctors, the Doctor with Daleks and Ogrons from Day of the Daleks, and, from The Green Death, shots of the Doctor seated at a desk or holding a mushroom. The jigsaws were 125 pieces each and cost 35 pence.