In 1973, the series offered newspaper and magazine journalists plenty to write about – including three Doctors, a new assistant and a flying car.

By ALISTAIR McGOWN

A Dalek in Planet of the Daleks;

Ogrons in Frontier in Space;

A Draconian in Frontier in Space;

Giant maggots in The Green Death;

Jon Pertwee as the Doctor in The Green Death;

A Gell Guard in The Three Doctors.

Katy Manning’s new series, Serendipity, is announced in the Daily Mail on 1 September.

Stories about Jon Pertwee’s “space-age car” appeared in Parade (2 October, top left), the Daily Mirror (24 September, above left) and Weekender (13 December, above right).

By 1973, Doctor Who’s flamboyant leading man was a national hero, with Jon Pertwee at the peak of his powers. Speaking to the press at year’s end, on the brink of a record-breaking fifth season, Pertwee seemed almost indistinguishable from the fictional Time Lord he played.

Interviewed by the Liverpool Echo’s Beth Saunders on 12 December, the show’s star admitted that “I may leave Dr. Who behind me in the studio after work, but in a curious way Dr. Who is me. I feel that he’s become an extension of myself – and, therefore, a completely believable character. Just about the only thing I don’t do is arrive home in a blue police box.”

“It’s just me being allowed to wallow in all the fantasies I want to,” he told the Leicester Chronicle’s Val Marriott two days later. “Most of the gadgets and gimmicks are my idea… I’ve had my own Dr. Who car built, with an ejector seat and every gadget I could dream up. It’s jet-propelled and can take to the air when I press a button.”

This futuristic custom car, dubbed The Alien, had been constructed earlier in the year by Peter Farries of Nottingham’s PCF Motors. Fantasy and reality blurred all the more when Pertwee, a natural showman, insinuated it into the programme’s eleventh season as the Doctor’s own space-age vehicle.

As early as 10 February, Parade magazine had featured rough design sketches in its ‘Motoring’ column. “Jon spends a lot of his free time opening functions around the country,” it explained. “He felt he should arrive at them in something that would please the thousands of children who flock to see him whenever he appears.”

The car first appeared in the programme during London location filming for 1974’s Invasion of the Dinosaurs on Sunday 23 September, a press call that was reported in several newspapers the following morning. The Daily Mirror went with Whoosh! It’s Dr Who, while the Daily Express ran a photo piece headlined Daleks don’t stand a chance against this dream machine.

“It’s enough to make the Daleks surrender,” wrote Express reporter Frank Thompson. “What chance have they of exterminating Dr. Who if he can speed away in a space-age vehicle like this?… This car puts him, as usual, light years ahead of everyone. It will probably still be raising rush-hour eyebrows in the year 2000.”

Novelty silver space cars were all very well, but Pertwee’s chief co-star for the last three years had been Katy Manning, playing the Doctor’s plucky assistant, Jo Grant. The press appeared unaware of her departure at the end of the tenth season in June 1973, with the BBC apparently preferring to give the exclusive to their own screen magazine Nationwide on the Friday evening immediately prior to her Saturday farewell at the end of The Green Death.