Tardis Party: Who’s birthday? #2 ~ rare but brilliant images from Doctor Who (1970s)

Boho hero: arguably the ultimate Doctor, Tom Baker portrayed the legendary Gallifreyan adventurer for seven years and seasons (1974-81), here posing with Daleks outside the iconic BBC Television Centre

For many, Blighty in the ’70s was a decade, well, to forget. Three-day-weeks, streets-strewn-with-rubbish-causing strikes, crap jalopies, and, of course, the rise of Margaret Thatcher ‘Milk Snatcher’. At the same time, though, during those 10 years Brit telly might be said to have hit its stride – Parkinson and Top Of The Pops in their pomp, Morecambe and Wise and Brucie/ Larry Grayson’s Generation Game uniting a divided nation and The World’s Greatest Sci-fi TV Show™ glorying in a golden age.

Yes, thanks to a combination of ever improving writing and plotting, unforgettable monsters, legendary leads Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker and colour TV, Doctor Who‘s popularity soared in this era – beyond Britain itself, in fact. The ’60s Who may have given rise to ‘Dalekmania’, but in the ’70s Baker with his multi-coloured scarf enveloped fans from around the world in his time- and space-travelling bosom.

So, here it is then, the second of four pictorial-tribute posts marking George’s Journal‘s third birthday and this year’s 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Rev up the TARDIS, peeps, because here we go…

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CLICK on images for full-size

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The eyes have it: Jon Pertwee became The Third Doctor in 1970, making his dandyish bow in Auton-introducing serial Spearhead From Space (1970), the show’s very first story to broadcast in colour

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Getting hairy: Pertwee checks out Who’s listing in the Radio Times as a Yeti looks set to act as his barber 

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Arousing trousers: an out-of-costume, yet nonetheless colourfully tailored Jon Pertwee rehearses a scene with Caroline John (companion Liz Shaw in his first season) from her final serial Inferno (1970) 

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Preen(ed) wolf? A victim is inexplicably transformed into a werewolf-like monster in Inferno (1970)

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Bessie bezzies: classic companion actress Katy Manning (Jo Grant) poses with Jon Pertwee on board The Third Doctor’s favourite mode of Earth-bound transport, his beloved vintage car Bessie

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All smiles: to this day, rumours persist that Katy Manning and Jon Pertwee enjoyed an affair during their starring stint together on the show – just what would the upstanding Third Doctor made of that, eh?

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Lunch bunch: Pertwee, Manning and ‘UNIT Family’-member John Levene (Benton) lunch in Bessie

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Three’s company: Roger Delagado (the original Master), Katy Manning, Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart) pose in front of the TARDIS and, er, a camper van

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Three’s company #2: the awesome foursome in Bessie for another publicity pose

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Perfect negative: the best ever Doctor-Master combo – the very first, Roger Delgado and The Pertwee

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Honey, I’ll shrink the kids: Roger Delgado posing as The Master with his devilish miniaturiser

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Move over, Dalek: The Doc’s in a pickle as he’s surrounded by the ole pepperpot menaces in Death To The Daleks (1970) – sartorially-speaking, he does look  super, though, let’s be honest

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Trio of heroes: the first three Doctors (Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee and William Hartnell) posing together in a publicity shot for the 10th anniversary-celebrating serial The Three Doctors (1973)

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Trio of heroes #2: Troughton, Pertwee and Hartnell get chummy in another Three Doctors publicity shot

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Hover lover: gadget enthusiast extraordinaire Jon Pertwee was in his element when able to get behind the wheel of something that moved fast – this one did on water, a hovercraft in The Sea Devils (1972)

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Village people: Jon Petwee and Katy Manning pose with local children and a baby from the village of Albdbourne in Wiltshire during a break in filming of The Dæmons (1971) 

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Monster mash: a cracking confrontation of The Third Doctor, a Dalek, a Cyberman and a Sea Devil

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He’s got wheels: Courtney with Bessie and companion actresses John (l) and Elisabeth Sladen (r)

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Judo chop? Far from getting the chop, Pertwee left the series in The Planet Of The Spiders (1973), as he missed the cast that had left before him – Tom Baker debuted as The Fourth Doctor in Robot (1973)

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Super duo: surely the best loved Doctor-companion pairing, Baker’s Doctor and Elisabeth Sladen‘s Sarah-Jane Smith, got his Who era off to a cracking start and lasted for two-and-a-half seasons

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Salad days on the sands: Baker and Sladen goof around for the camera in sepia-tinted glory as the former ‘directs’ the latter (left) and the pair go for a spin on a motorbike (right)

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Tom, Liz and Harry: Baker and Sladen play around on Bessie with fellow companion actor (from Baker’s opening two seasons) Ian Marter, who played UNIT physician Harry Sullivan

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Advent adventure: Baker, Sladen and Marter switch on Blackpool’s Christmas lights in 1975

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Gripping, the Nation: Baker poses with Daleks creator Terry Nation for a publicity photo for the latter’s cast-iron classic serial Genesis Of The Daleks (1975), which tells how the ultimate TV villains came to be

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Origin story: Michael Wisher as Davros, the Daleks’ (fictional) creator, in Genesis Of The Daleks

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Hitting the spot? Baker’s interpretation of The Doctor, in a marvellous marriage with producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes’ sometimes horror-inspired, other times rollicking adventure-driven, but always well written and engaging serials, certainly did with the public

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Out and about: so popular was Baker’s take on the character, he always drew a crowd when he made public appearances (especially if sporting his Doctor togs) – here he ‘pulls’ some nurses at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (left) and meets locals in Boston, Lincolnshire (right)

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Mirror images: after Lis Sladen left the show, Baker was joined by future EastEnder Louise Jameson as new companion Leela in the computer-gone-haywire-featuring serial The Face Of Evil (1977)

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She: a leather-clad savage from humanity’s far future, Leela’s relationship with The Doctor was inspired by that of Pygmalion/ My Fair Lady’s Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle; her costume was anything but

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One man, a woman and their dog: in the serial The Invisible Enemy (1977), Baker and Jameson were joined by the show’s ‘cuddliest’ companion, the incredibly intelligent, armed-to-the-teeth robot dog K-9

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The Tamm and the ham: come Season 16, Baker gained yet another new companion, Mary Tamm’s Romanadvoratrelundar – Romana for short – a Time Lady from The Doctor’s own planet

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Dubious blue: every one of Season 16’s episodes were connected by a ‘story arc’ – The Doctor and Romana searching for ‘The Key to Time’ – fortunately, their actual TARDIS had a back to it 

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Postcards from Paris: Mary Tamm only lasted a season, but Romana lived on; played in Season 17 (and thereafter) by Lalla Ward, including in the Paris-set, Douglas Adams-written serial City Of Death (1979)

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The Time Lord and his Lady: Baker and Ward became close colleagues, indeed – they fell in love and wed in December 1980. The marriage didn’t last, though; having drifted apart, they divorced 16 months later 

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Intrepid explorer: Baker (and wonder scarf) pose before another wonder of the world, a Giza pyramid

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Stop! In the name of Mov-ellon: Baker and Ward stage a rather brilliant photo with an actress in alien Movellon dress from the Season 17 serial Destiny Of The Daleks (1979) 

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Dreamscape: a mise-en-scène from an episode of the Season 17 serial Nightmare Of Eden (1979) 

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