Oliver Wake
@oliver-wake
#DoctorWho and old TV. My Black Archive book about 'The Daleks' is out now: Doctor Who blog here:
Contemporary perspectives on early #DoctorWho are always interesting. Here reviewer Peter Quince suggests that on the evidence of its second ever episode the series is “now lost and gone for ever”, despite the promise of its first. Harsh words. From the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, 7 December 1963.
Following that query, I decided to have a go at a War Machines/regeneration cut-and-shunt video. It doesn’t quite work, lacks context for a regeneration and there’s nothing I can do about the magic costume changes! An 80s version would have had remade credits but I’ve tacked the originals back on.
Look at this hilarious credits caption from the 1980s Lionheart omnibus version of The War Machines. Poor Jackie Lane!
Can't say I would recommend being awoken by the sound of your shower door glass spontaneously shattering and distributing itself across the bathroom. Most irksome. I assume it had had enough of the heat. I know the feeling.
Many thanks to the Celestial Toyroom team at @dwasonline.bsky.social and reviewer Nick Smith for the lovely review of my Black Archive book about ‘The Daleks’ in their latest issue. I hope they’ll forgive me for sharing this concluding snippet from the (much longer) full review.
Nice mockup of a 1950s family living room with some Potter family photos on the wall.
A friend and I were visiting the Forest of Dean today so we stopped in at the Dean Heritage Centre to see their Dennis Potter exhibition (amongst other things).
Here’s the first couple of minutes of Century 21’s “The Daleks” EP from 1966 with added visuals. Skip to 17 seconds for the start of the narration by David Graham. It's rather fun.
Sources say the first time a Dalek appeared in a newspaper cartoon was in the Daily Mirror’s ‘The Flutters’ strip in May 1964. But here’s an obscure challenger I’ve just found, from Bristol’s Evening Post in February 1964…
Andrew Pixley kindly shared these thoughts about my Black Archive book on Outpost Gallifrey yesterday. Get the book itself here if Andrew’s words have tempted you (go on!): obversebooks.co.uk/product/82-t...
Just watched a 1962 episode of Z Cars and was pleased to learn from the credits that Dr James was played by Julian Sherrier, more commonly known around these parts as seaweed-head alien Zephon in The Daleks’ Master Plan. Here he is (on the right) in less futuristic guise.
My book about the #DoctorWho story The Daleks (Serial B, whatever you like to call it) came out this week in Obverse Books’ Black Archive range. Here’s a short thread explaining what it covers, in the hope that it might interest a few of you. Link to buy the book and discount code at the end. (1/9)
Look at this gorgeous photo from The Daleks used in the Radio Times. I haven’t seen the original of the image so I assume it’s long lost and this is the only version we have, which is a shame.
This is an exciting day for me. My book has arrived! I hope it's arriving with a few of you too.
I’m loving The Nightmare Begins but – and I hope this isn’t too soon – doesn’t it seem to end in the wrong place? Shouldn’t the cliffhanger have been more like this, 25 second earlier? (this is rough around the edges – I’m no video editor – and I couldn’t be bothered trying to do a roller caption!)
I doubt I’m the first to do this but here’s a fix for that Devil’s Planet sound damage, patching in the off-air audio.
Having rewatched Day of Armageddon today for obvious reasons, I wonder what became of these two ‘Technix’ after they were bundled out of the Spar by Steven and Brett and, it is implied, left tied-up somewhere near the landing pad. I also wonder how much they knew of Chen’s treachery.
A slight re-edit of the opening of Genesis of the Daleks to match the definitive interpretation of the story. Make sure you have sound on or it won’t make sense.
I can’t see this as anything other than the head of a Dalek. Just me? It’s on the back of every South Western Railway train seat. Genuinely not sure what it’s supposed to represent.
BBC4: No, that’s not good enough. You know better. You cropped out the unnecessary black bars top and bottom in the clips you used in the immediately preceding programme, so why show the whole thing like this?
How do we kill off this horrible, disingenuous marketing speak?? They don’t have any idea what I will ‘love’. And ‘love’ is a needlessly strong word to use in the context of plumbing insurance.
Watching The Sea Devils, which is always fun. Edwin Richfield is great as the exasperated Captain Hart. But I can never quite believe it’s also him playing Mestor in The Twin Dilemma…
Here are two brief extracts from the Armchair Theatre play ‘Last Word on Julie’ from 1964. It would have been recorded as-live. Look out for the ABC camera in the background of the first sequence and the racing overhead microphone in the second.
