Tardis Party: Who’s birthday? #1 ~ rare but brilliant images from Doctor Who (1960s)

Monsters vs alien: fans’ favourite The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) seemingly in a moment of truce with iconic villains from the 1960s era of Doctor Who, including a Dalek, a Cyberman and a Yeti

Ah, yes, dear readers, cast your minds back to March 16 2010 and you might well recall coming across this article on the Internets – the very first post offered by this very blog. And cast your mind back to 1963 (few of you out there will be capable of doing this, I appreciate, but stick with me here) and you might well recall that in that year (to be precise late November, but still) debuted a wee, little family-oriented, children-friendly, Saturday-early-evening fantasy drama on the Beeb, namely Doctor Who.

That’s right then, respectively today and this year mark the third birthday of George’s Journal and the golden anniversary of the greatest sci-fi show on telly. What better way then, may I propose, to mark this day than by offering up a post that’s the first of four pictorial-based tributes to The Who Doctor? What better way, indeed. Especially when the three further similar posts to come will come over the next three days.

Up first, though, let’s take a trip down memory lane – through time and space, of course – and revisit The Doctor’s televisual adventures of the 1960s. Cue the Radiophonic Workshop…

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CLICK on images for full-size

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Irascible old rascal: the first Doctor, the centuries-old time and space-traveller from the planet of Gallifrey, was played by William Hartnell and debuted in the serial/ story An Unearthly Child (1963) 

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The Radio Times a-changin’: a preview of the show and the first episode’s – An Unearthly Child – original listing in Radio Times magazine for its BBC1 broadcast at 5.15pm on November 23 1963

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The gang of four: The Doctor and his original trio of companions, William Russell (Ian Chesterton), Carole Ann Ford (his grand-daughter Susan Foreman) and Jacqueline Hill (Barbara Wright) 

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Man with the plan: TV giant Sydney Newman is generally regarded as ‘creator’ of Doctor Who

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Verity and a veritable beauty: the show’s original producer Verity Lambert with Carole Ann Ford

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Exterior…: Ian and Barbara spy on The Doctor as he enters a blue police telephone box, little knowing it’s actually the Time And Relative Dimension In Space (TARDIS) machine, in An Unearthly Child (1963)

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… Interior…: the inside of the TARDIS as first seen by Ian and Barbara – and us – in An Unearthly Child

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… Pre-hysteria: filming the studio-set environment in An Unearthly Child that faces The Doctor’s new companions the first time they step out of the TARDIS – Earth’s Stone Age

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Toy story: Hartnell and co. clown about in a promo shot from The Celestial Toymaker (1966)

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Aztec idol: Hill in The Aztecs (1964), the serial in which Barbara‘s mistaken for a reincarnated high priest

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Ace chase: Hartnell, Hill and company in the roller-coaster adventure of a serial that’s The Chase (1965) – silly it may’ve been, but it did feature the departure of the original companion pair Ian and Barbara 

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Stick ’em up! Hartnell’s Doctor bumps into Wyatt Earp in The Gunfighters (1966)  

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Getting carried away: Jackie Lane as short-lived companion Dodo Chaplet getting literally swept off her feet by a Monoid in the serial The Ark (1966) – not really against her wishes, to be fair

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TARDIS trio: Hartnell with penultimate companions Maureen O’Brien (Vicki) and legendary Blue Peter presenter-to-be Peter Purves (Steven Taylor), whom appeared in Seasons 2 and 3 (1965-66)

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Eye-stalker: a Dalek comes stalk-to-lens with a strangely rather similar looking BBC camera

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Keep your enemies close: a (probably retired) William Hartnell studies with some amusement a quartet of Daleks – either he’s grown to a giant or he’s miniaturised them, it seems…

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Hat-tricks: a couple of classic chapeaux worn by Patrick Troughton’s Second Doctor, whom made his full debut – recorder in tow – in the fourth season’s third serial The Power Of The Daleks  (1966)

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Through the triangle window: Troughton and his first companions Michael Craze (Ben Jackson) and Anneke Wills (Polly) encounter his fast-becoming greatest foe in The Power Of The Daleks

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Pebble dash: Craze and Wills in a publicity photo pursued by the unmistakeable Cybermen

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Hairy escape: the Second Doctor’s second companion pair Frazer Hines’ Jamie McCrimmon and Deborah Watling’s Victoria Waterfield flee a Yeti in a promo shot for The Abominable Snowmen (1967)

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Cagouls and cuppas: Watling and Troughton taking a break while filming The Abominable Snowmen

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Combing the script? Troughton between takes with a Yeti  on location for The Abominable Snowmen

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Brolly folly: Troughton flanked by two beheaded Yeti actors on location for The Abominable Snowmen

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The coach and his young charges: Hines, Troughton and Watling chatting on a cast and crew coach

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Miss Tardis 1966: Doctor Who’s high popularity quickly gave rise to the popularity of Daleks in the mid-’60s – a phenomenon coined ‘Dalekmania – as shown by this dolly bird-in-a-bikini-toting photo

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Jamie and his magic scorch-er: Hines and latest companion, the purple jumpsuited Wendy Padbury (Zoe Herriott), are sucked out of reality with The Doctor in The Mind Robber (1967)

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Console trouble: Padbury and Hines cling to the TARDIS console for dear life in The Mind Robber

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Fant-ass-tic effect: more Zoe-on-the-console-action from The Mind Robber

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An awfully big-screen adventure (or two): Peter Cushing in publicity shots for the cinematically released Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 AD (1966) (left) and, with Roy Castle (Ian), Jennie Linden (Barbara) and Roberta Tovey (Susan), for its far more popular predecessor Dr Who And The Daleks (1965) (right)

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Dalek delirium: a mid-’60s must-have for ankle-biters – an officially licensed wind-up Dalek

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Flame thrower: Daleks first gained this serious hardware in the serial The Daleks’ Master Plan (1965)

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Do you stop at Skaro? in this marvellous mid-’60s publicity shot, the bus conductor and punters look like they’ve waited their entire lives to see a real, live Dalek – and then two have come along at once…

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