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Post by John W King on Jun 7, 2012 8:17:10 GMT
I'll transcribe the first page of my first book just to show how limited those notes were:-
23rd November 1963 Part 1 An Unearthly Child by Anthony Coburn Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright follow Susan Foreman to a scrapyard in Totters Lane> She mysteriously disappears. While searching an old man unlocks a police-box. He enters followed by Ian and Barbara. Inside is Susan. Also the inside is larger than outside. This is the TARDIS. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. TARDIS leaves Earth and lands in the stone-age. Suddenly a shadow appears. Part 2. The Cave of Skulls While exploring, the old man, Doctor Who, is captured by cavemen. On trying to rescue him the others are captured. The cavemen want them to make fire but they can't so they are thrown in the Cave of Skullswhere they see forced open skulls!
Okay, you get the gist. I can see no value in sharing these notes. By the time I got to book 2 and the Tomb of the Cybermen the notes were longer but not much. The notes start getting more detailed around the end of Fury from the Deep....
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Post by John W King on Jun 7, 2012 7:52:03 GMT
Under the "Earliest Memories" thread I mentioned I had made notes of every episode of Dr who from an Unearthly Child. I have been asked to transcribe them for public consumption. I should start by saying I was 9 when the programme started and my early notes were basic. I can see no value in transcribing them. However, I shall kick-off with my recollections of the BBC trailer for an Unearthly Child shown before the first episode was broadcast:- Darkness The start of the opening sequence (the upward moving shaft of light) with male voice over:- Starting on Saturday evening a new adventure series set in time and space Cut to scenes of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright in a classroom at Coal Hill School. They are discussing a strange pupil who knows so much and so little. (presumably footage from the first episode). It then focused on a shot of Susan (head to thigh, wearing dress with black belt as in first episode) Male voice over:- "Why are two teachers at Coal Hill School intrigued by one of their pupils? Who is Susan Foreman and what what mysterious secrets are she hiding? (cut to dematerialisation sequence from Unearthly Child with Dr Who's face superimposed over "time" clouds) Voice over:- "and who is the mysterious Doctor?. An Unearthly Child is the first episode of an exciting new adventure series set in time and Space." Doctor Who begins at 5.25 (next) on Saturday."
The trailer I first saw transmitted after what ever programme was on Saturday 16th November 1963 (Gary Halliday) and repeated after Tonight on Thursday 21st November 1963
I cannot guarantee that the words in the voice over are 100% accurate but I am fairly sure of the images and the overall gist in the above. I would love to see it recreated or even better if any one else shares my recollections or there is official documentation for this trailer.
I have on tape the trailer for Star Trek following the end of the War Games.
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Post by John W King on Jun 7, 2012 7:42:07 GMT
I have been asked by a member to put down my memories of the trailer for an Unearthly Child:- I shall try to remember. Please note I was only 9 and it was a long time ago. The start of the opening sequence (the upward moving shaft of light) with male voice over:- Starting on Saturday evening a new adventure series set in time and space Cut to scenes of Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright in a classroom at Coal Hill School. They are discussing a strange pupil who knows so much and so little. (presumably footage from the first episode). It then focused on a shot of Susan (head to thigh, wearing dress with black belt as in first episode) Male voice over:- "Why are two teachers at Coal Hill School intrigued by one of their pupils? Who is Susan Foreman and what what mysterious secrets are she hiding? (cut to dematerialisation sequence from Unearthly Child with Dr Who's face superimposed over "time" clouds) Voice over:- "and who is the mysterious Doctor?. An Unearthly Child is the first episode of an exciting new adventure series set in time and Space." Doctor Who begins at 5.25 (next) on Saturday."
The trailer I first saw transmitted after what ever programme was on Saturday 16th November 1963 (Gary Halliday) and repeated after Tonight on Thursday 21st November 1963
I cannot guarantee that the words in the voice over are 100% accurate but I am fairly sure of the images and the overall gist in the above. I would love to see it recreated or even better if any one else shares my recollections or there is official documentation for this trailer.
I hope this helps. I have on tape the trailer for Star Trek following the end of the War Games.
I shall start a separate thread for my notes of missing episodes.
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Post by John W King on May 31, 2012 14:29:05 GMT
I am working on my notes. I also have episode synopses produced once a month by the RNID not only of Dr Who but many many BBC shows like Dixon of Dock Green, Hereward the Wake, Doctor Finlay, Triton, Pegasus, Doomwatch etc. Although I wasn't deaf I was very naughty and applied to RNID to have them sent to me from 1966 to 1973. (i.e from episode 1 of Daleks Masterplan to Planet of the Daleks ? - I think). There must be many synopses of now missing programmes. The interesting thing is Many of these synopses were based on production notes, not the broadcast programmes as sometimes the titles are working titles. I kept every issue sent to me even though they are on very fragile paper. As to my tapes - the first Dr Who I recorded was the Savages part 4 but it was horribly affected by foreign interference that used to afflict us every summer. Other episodes I had but were erased were the Space Wheel, the Space Pirates, . I did put together a tape of theme tunes taken "live" from broadcasts that had Dr. Who - Seeds of Death, Troubleshooters, Doomwatch, Paul Temple that I still have. Interestingly I recorded the theme and a segment from Adam Adamant - A Slight Case of Re-incarnation that is currently available, uncredited to me, on the Adam Adamant DVD package. I also recorded a lot of the BBC live broadcasts of Apollo 11 that I have preserved. I know I'm now going a bit off beam from Dr. Who - earliest memories but listening to my tapes of the landing with James Burke and Patrick Moore and no music is absolutely electrifiying.
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Post by John W King on May 30, 2012 15:31:42 GMT
Richard, Similar recollection on the first Dalek story. It was a cold frosty saturday afternoon. My family, Mum, Dad and my two brothers two brothers were walking down Bridge Street in Abingdon. We popped into Bridge Street newsagent to get the Radio Times. I started to read it and turned to Saturday's page. My favourite programme had ended last week with the time travellers in a strange metallic city. Barbara was confronted by - what? - and screamed. The entry for Dr Who was sadly not very revealing but did mention these "cast members" called Dalek Operators. I turned to my Dad and asked "what are Dayleks? (that is how I pronounced it - DAYLEK)" My Dad looked at the radio Times and said "I have no idea. You'll just have to watch it." And so we did. Found out the word was DARLEK and yes, for me Hartnell WAS IS and ALWAYS will be the Doctor. He was brilliant (closely followed by the amazing Patrick Troughton)and the Daleks first story remains my absolute favourite whether as the original TV story, David Whitaker book or even the Peter Cushing film.
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Post by John W King on May 30, 2012 8:22:30 GMT
In answer to George D:-John...I think those notes would be amazing reading.. Any chance of having them available? It would also be a great tool for those who are working reconstructions such as LC.
May 25, 2012, 10:18am, John W King wrote:My earliest memory is from Saturday 16th November 1963 (yes - a week before the very first episode) . I was 9. Fllowing the end of Deputy Dawg ?) there was a trailer saying:- Starting next week - An Unearthly Child. There was a series of clips centering on Susan with voice overs from Ian and Barbara questioning who she was and why did she seem highly knowledgeable in some areas and not in others (I think short extracts from an Unearthly Child). It finished by saying Doctor Who starts next saturday. The trailer was repeated again through out the week. I seem to recall the last repeat was on thursday evening around 18.00 or 18.25. And then, we as a family sat down to tea. The news about president Kennedy and then it started. I was entranced and immediately hooked. The following saturday i was at a friend's house. The television was on and to my surprise the first episode was repeated immediately followed by the second. By the time Marco Polo started I began to write simple notes to remember each episode usually a brief synopsis of the cliff hanger. As rhe years went on the notes become more detailed. However the impact of seeing that first episode was so great I was able to write a detailed synopsis years later. Before videos, books, magazines etc. Then came the Five faces of Doctor Who and for the first time I was able to relive that first episode and yes, my synopsis was pretty accurate. Amazing. And now we stand on the verge of the 50th Anniversary. The only problem with putting my notes out in any format is that they are hand written and a little difficult to read (except by me!) My earliest notes were no more than a couple of sentences. Later I confined the notes to half a page, then a page. Round about the time of the repeat of Evil of the Daleks I was sat with notebook in hand making notes as the show was being broadcast.This was a difficult time domestically as my Mum was often in hospital and Saturday afternoons was visiting time. It was then that I would get my older brother to record the soundtrack on to open reel tape. My brother had wired a phono socket to the speaker wires so the recording quality was excellent and with out extraneous sounds. Sadly the only recording from those days that was kept was Troughton's last ... the War Games! Any way I'll dig out my notebooks and see what's there.
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Post by John W King on May 25, 2012 10:18:27 GMT
My earliest memory is from Saturday 16th November 1963 (yes - a week before the very first episode) . I was 9. Fllowing the end of Deputy Dawg ?) there was a trailer saying:- Starting next week - An Unearthly Child. There was a series of clips centering on Susan with voice overs from Ian and Barbara questioning who she was and why did she seem highly knowledgeable in some areas and not in others (I think short extracts from an Unearthly Child). It finished by saying Doctor Who starts next saturday. The trailer was repeated again through out the week. I seem to recall the last repeat was on thursday evening around 18.00 or 18.25. And then, we as a family sat down to tea. The news about president Kennedy and then it started. I was entranced and immediately hooked. The following saturday i was at a friend's house. The television was on and to my surprise the first episode was repeated immediately followed by the second. By the time Marco Polo started I began to write simple notes to remember each episode usually a brief synopsis of the cliff hanger. As rhe years went on the notes become more detailed. However the impact of seeing that first episode was so great I was able to write a detailed synopsis years later. Before videos, books, magazines etc. Then came the Five faces of Doctor Who and for the first time I was able to relive that first episode and yes, my synopsis was pretty accurate. Amazing. And now we stand on the verge of the 50th Anniversary.
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Post by John W King on Mar 10, 2010 8:47:17 GMT
As with Mr Wall above - I'm also in the process of copying my VHS collection onto DVD and I've found a few things that I didn't know I had. They'd been recorded on the end of a tape and not added to the label. When this first happened I was surprised. Now I'm checking my tapes all the way through to ensure I don't lose anything interesting! Sadly when I moved in 2001 I had to dump my old Video 2000 tapes without fully checking I'd copied them. Luckily I'd transferred the Five Faces of Doctor Who (the reason I first invested in a video recorder). I hear people on this site saying don't throw out your old tapes - sorry but some of us don't have the capacity to physically store "everything". I guess the BBC must have been in this position in the 1970's - hence the purge. And although, like most on this site, I mourn the loss of many programmes I can understand why it happened. And just as I do not have the time to go through allme tapes from start to finish I rather suspect the BBC do not have the resources to do the same with their tapes. So, las, there may be treasures stuck on the end of tapes or mis-labelled that are likely to be overlooked either forever or certainly a long, long time.
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Post by John W King on Mar 10, 2010 8:33:47 GMT
Please look in next week's Radio Times - Thursday 18th March at 22.25 on BBC 4 - Fanny is their in all her raw, monstrous, glory (along with her Johnny). So make sure your box is working correctly, set your recorder and you'll be cooking! This is an enjoyable, entertaining concoction. The drama rises like a souffle with some simmering performances occasionally boiling over with tension. A very tasty production - sit down and savour.
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Post by John W King on Feb 23, 2010 15:08:59 GMT
Absolutely magnificent. What would be great,really, really great if, when all 6 episodes are completely animated it could be officially issued on DVD. And then you could start on Evil of the Daleks.......... Seriously. What you have done so far is the closest recreation of what I can clearly recall seeing when it was transmitted in 1966.
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Post by John W King on Feb 23, 2010 14:58:38 GMT
..... and my top 5 of existing TV:- 1984 (1954/Peter Cushing) Quatermass 4 (John Mills) The Stone Tape (Nigel Neale) The Stranger (1960's Australian series) Paul of Tarsus (1960's BBC series with Patrick Troughton)
..... and my top 5 of part existing TV:- Long Way Home (part 2 is missing) Counterstrike (1969 BBC) Doomwatch The Goodies (the rest of what's left) Freewheelers (what's left of early series) ..... and my top 5 of totally non-existing TV:- Triton Pegasus The Monsters The Big Pull Take Three Girls
Like everyone else I pushed my luck to 15 but then this is only a piece of fun. I doubt if any of this will get released on DVD as others have already said.
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Post by John W King on Nov 16, 2009 11:12:40 GMT
"Woomerang, boomerang this is our song, Merrily, Merrily we sing a long Tingha and Tucker we're two little bears..... Something, and something and something else (I can't remember)" Tingha and Tucker were two koala bears and they appeared on Five o'cluck club and as a link item between children's programme on Midlands television. It was on the link material that they sat behind a desk and read out birthday messages. Didn't the bears have to give a birthday nod or a wave to the kids in question or something bizarre? I can still vaguely see Jean Morton talking to them and on one occasion they wouldn't stop nodding or waving.......
And on to Sexton Blake. I think the dog was deginitely Pedro (Pongo was the dragon on Rubovia). This series arrive with quite a fanfare but I remember it as being largely studio bound and seemed fairly slow - too much talking and not enough action. Didn't the titles appear over illustation cards (a bit like the Sherlock Holmes Strand Magazine drawings or the titles to Upstairs Downstairs). I remember struggling to watch it but I think I lost interest as it wasn't that gripping. There was a series of bubblegum cards based on it. It would be interesting to see any of it that survives to see if it was as dull as I remember.
And yes. Describing a programme or series as "lost" should really be seen as a contravention of the Trades Description Act and any TV organisation using this term should be prosecuted, found guilty and made to re-make said "lost" programmes as close to the original as possible and at their own expense! But I'm just a mealy mouthed liberal......
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Post by John W King on Oct 27, 2009 9:07:03 GMT
I managed to record most of this show onto VHS tape and about a month ago I finally got around to transferring it to DVD. What I have transferred onto approx. 2 x two hour DVD discs. I have a strong feeling that the programme was first shown on a friday night and ran from 19.00 (19.30) to 21.30 before being immediately repeated (hence the apparent running time until the early hours of the morning.) Did I imagine that? It had what one would regard as the best videos/promo films produced up until that time - in effect the best videos EVER as anything after that tended to be similar in style but little was a groundbreaking as - Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields - Bohemian Rhaposdy - Thriller - Ashes to Ashes - Relax/Two Tribes (Please argue amongst your selves on the merits of my above statement on a different thread) Finally - my hand was on my copies of the show the other day with the intent of casting in the bin as I assumed the show did exist in it's entirety.............. ...........................................I put them back on my ready to discard pile.
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Post by John W King on Oct 13, 2009 10:21:29 GMT
Triton - I remeber very fondly both versions and in fact this is one of my most favourite TV programmes and am very sad neither version appears to exist. !961 version - I missed episode 3! 1968 - I missed the last episode but it was repeated in 1970 with a sequel called Pegasus. I did record the soundtrack of the repeat. Alas somewhere along the paasage of time I think it got accidentally erased. I had changed from a two track recorder to a 4 track. Damnation. When the 1968 broadcast came along I though my memory was playing tricks because there were variations between the two. Thanks to this web site I eventually discovered the later version was a complete remake. Why am I so fond of this series? 1. It seemed like a Dr Who historical story without the Doctor (Rex Tucker was involved in both). The costume and atmosphere was similar to the William Harnell's French Revolution epic. 2. It was an exciting series but educational at the same time. It fired me up to read about the history of submarines and Robert Fulton. It was well filmed and acted with some great cliff hangers. 3. The music was by Dudley Simpson of Doctor Who fame. In fact I was reminiscent of the music he composed for The War Games. I would love to be able to see it again or even hear the sound track - any chance of a copyof the soundtrack, please Paul? Some where I do have a plot summmary of both versions highlighting the differences. The 1968 starred Paul Grist and Michael Angelis as Belwether and Lamb. One episode was called "Lamb to the Slaughter". I still have cuttings from the Radio Times. Anyone else got any further information? p.s. Pegasus the sequel was also pretty good (it centred around Robert Fulton again and a balloon. Kids TV didn't get much better. Well .....
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Post by John W King on Jun 29, 2009 7:59:07 GMT
Not exactly missing programmes (yet)....ITV is currently axing several long running but still popular programmes e.g. Heartbeat, The Royle etc.. Why doesn't the BBC pick up the rights to produce them? They did a good job with re-kindling Men Behaving Badly. Just a suggestion. p.s. I have never watched either Heartbeat or the Royle so I have no personal interest but I know how i felt when my personal favourite (Doctor Who) was axed.
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