QUESTIONABLE TASTE

DOCTOR WHO

CHRONICLES

Bohemian RHAPSODY

Over five years, Jon Pertwee had succeeded in remaking Doctor Who in his own flamboyant image. So when the producers took the gamble of replacing him with a relatively unknown actor, few could have predicted that 1975 would see the series entering a new golden age…

NOT IN FRONT OF THE CHILDREN

Mary Whitehouse and her National Viewers and Listeners’

MEANWHILE, ON PLANET EARTH IN 1975…

JANUARY Three former members of Richard Nixon’s government

THE DIARY OF Doctor Who

A month-by-month account of the year in which a new Doctor revitalised the series – and the Daleks launched a new invasion of toy shops

TOM BAKER

The career of struggling actor Tom Baker was finally given some stability and direction when he was cast as the Doctor. Baker’s life would never be the same again, and from 1975 onwards Doctor Who would be similarly transformed…

DREAM TICKET

D Baker was enormously popular and saw himself

In May 1981 Baker picked up his stage career exactly where he’d left off.

Top left: Terence Rigby as Dr John Watson

ROBOT

28 DECEMBER 1974 – 18 JANUARY 1975

IAN MARTER

Actor and writer Ian Marter played the hapless Harry Sullivan in seven stories. It wasn’t his first association with Doctor Who, and it wouldn’t be the last

AFTER HARRY

Below left: The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Harry

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Judging by the BBC’s Audience Research Reports of 1975, Tom Baker’s Doctor took a surprisingly long time to impress certain viewers

CHANGED MAN

The Audience Research Report for Part One of Robot ended with a summary of children’s comments and adults’ descriptions of their reactions:

THE ARK IN SPACE

25 JANUARY – 15 FEBRUARY

Getting THE PICTURE

Employing a new system for recording on location was just one of the ways Season 12 broke with Doctor Who tradition

The CSO Blues

D uring the Jon Pertwee era, Barry Letts

THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT

On the blasted future Earth, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry meet a Sontaran with cruel designs on the last of humankind

Beware the Moor

Beaming down from Space Station Nerva at the

THE DESTRUCTORS

The BBC archive retains numerous examples of pre-production artwork for The Sontaran Experiment, prepared when the serial was going under its working title

GENESIS OF THE DALEKS

8 MARCH – 12 APRIL

LATE RETURNS

The Doctor's rematch with the Cybermen reached the screen in a very different version from its first draft. We had to wait 46 years for a production that showed us how things could have been

REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN

19 APRIL – 10 MAY

musical DIFFERENCES

In the early 1970s composer Carey Blyton found allies in producer Barry Letts and several of the show’s directors. However, in 1975 the incoming producer felt that Blyton’s score for Revenge of the Cybermen just added to the story’s problems

SPECIAL EFFECTS

When he became producer, Philip Hinchcliffe was determined to remove unconvincing rubber monsters from Doctor Who and replace them with the stuff of nightmares. Out there in the BBC Visual Effects Department, John Friedlander was waiting for him…

TOY STORIES

With new board games and an innovative talking Dalek, Doctor Who made a welcome return to toy shops in 1975. However, some of the most popular licensed items were only available in supermarkets and newsagents

Dr WHO' S YOUNG REVEILLE!

Given a weekly column in the tabloid newspaper Reveille! during much of 1975, Tom Baker mused on all kinds of eccentric topics…

WHO is DR.WHERE?

In 1975, the popularity of Doctor Who prompted numerous appearances on other shows – including juvenile, surreal and even educational sketches

TERROR OF THE ZYGONS

Something is destroying oil rigs off the coast of Scotland –a monster not of ordinary flesh and blood!

PAGES OF HISTORY

The Doctor Who annual published in 1975 was a surreal, and frequently baffling, smorgasbord of stories and features with only a tenuous link to the television series

A SLICE OF THE ACTION

The mystery of a 1975 audio recording is solved with the help of two fans who were there on the day

PLANET OF EVIL

A black pool at the edge of everything unleashes a terrifying creature from another universe…

TALES OF TERROR

The Dalek annual published in 1975 is a cut above the same publisher’s Doctor Who books of the era, with stories that have endured well into the 21st century. But who actually wrote it?

PYRAMIDS OF MARS

An Edwardian Egyptologist uncovers an ancient alien god – with a gift of death for all humanity…

Tomb Raiding

Photographs, sketches and other items from the collection of visual effects designer Ian Scoones illustrate the meticulous preparations for his favourite Doctor Who story, Pyramids of Mars

THE ANDROID INVASION

Sinister eyes are watching the Doctor and Sarah as they explore a strange village where every day is the sixth of July…

FANTASTIC BEASTS

Author Terrance Dicks couldn’t have predicted that The Doctor Who Monster Book would serve as the foundation for an industry of reference works that continues to this day

BREAKING NEWS

As Doctor Who enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, the press were keen to report on its charismatic new lead…

On the BOX

At the beginning of his reign, Tom Baker’s Doctor faced numerous threats – including a big-budget rival set entirely on the Moon

FINAL SCORE

After making his debut in the last week of 1974, the Fourth Doctor took a little time to grow on viewers. He would, however, soon have a dramatic effect on the series' ratings