Doctor Who: The Early Years

by Jeremy Bentham

On 23 November 1963 a British institution was born. After a ten minutes delay because of news of the assassination of President Kennedy, the BBC launched a new science-fiction series. Designed as a semi-educational programme, it told of the adventures in space and time of a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl and her mysterious grandfather. More than two decades later, Doctor Who has become the longest-running science fiction TV series in the world.

Doctor Who - The Early Years is a detailed and informed account of the origin and the making of the television series. For the first time ever, the blueprints for the original Daleks are reproduced, together with stills from TV episodes that have long since been lost; cast lists and plot breakdowns from the early years are printed, together with interviews and photographs of all those involved in the making of Doctor Who — from the Canadian-born Sydney Newman who instigated the series, to the designers, writers, actors and producers who made the show an unqualified success.

Written with the full co-operation of prominent designers and producers, and packed with behind-the-scenes interviews and rare photographs, The Early Years is an indispensable reference work, and is destined to become a classic work on the early years of British TV science fiction.

Genres: Doctor Who, Nonfiction, Tv

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 18, 1986

About the author

Jeremy Bentham — co-founder of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society in 1976 — was one of Doctor Who Weekly's two original writers. From roughly the end of the Weekly era until 1982, he was the only writer of the publication.

Although his formal title was "associate editor", editors Dez Skinn and Paul Neary gave him a largely free hand to decide what textual content the magazine would have each week — since he would also have to write it. This gave him a kind of influence over the direction of the magazine that was not true of most people who subsequently held the title of "associate editor". However, this also meant that the magazine was entirely dependent on Bentham's ability to write each issue. He left in 1982, some two-and-a-half years after Weekly had morphed into Monthly.

Later, he wrote the reference book Doctor Who: The Early Years and contributed to Doctor Who: A Celebration by Peter Haining.

Reviews

[Jon Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some absolute gold with Raymond Cusick’s design sketches, in depth accounts of sixties tv production. and interviews with of Cusick and Lambert, but it’s marred by an often haughty tone and the intrusion of the author’s subjective opinion of certain stories. It’s also unavoidably aged as we’ve since had the BBC Written Archives and the later work of the likes of Marcus Hearn, Andrew Pixley, Howe/Stammers/Walker, Simon Guerrier, Richard Bignell, Toby Hadoke and Paul Hayes giving us more detail. Still, fascinating as a first stage of the excellent archaeological work fan scholars have done on the early days of the show.

[Tom Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely Doctor Who book dedicated to the wonderful and often overlooked 1st Doctor era.
Covering the Daleks, the creation of the show, stories, budgets, costume designs, concept art of stories and set designs.

A perfect gift for anyone who is a fan of 60s who. Wish they did a sequel volume to this covering the 2nd Doctor era.

[Kevin O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

This large-format paperback does what the title says. It starts with Sydney Newman, the father of Doctor Who, who came from Canada to eventually wind up as Head of Drama at the BBC. He had an idea for a show about a mysterious character who traveled through time and space in a ship that was bigger on the inside than on the outside. When no one at the BBC wanted to be the producer he grabbed a young lady who had been a production assistant for him at ITV, and talked her into being the producer. That of course is Verity Lambert, who went on to a very successful career in TV and film production. Then they had to assemble a cast, and a production team, and get the show going. The book discusses all of this and is a good introduction to this historical material. This is useful, but honestly there is nothing in this that is really unique.
Then the book goes into discussions of selected stories from the run of the first Doctor, played by William Hartnell. It isn't all of the stories, but it mostly picks the ones that are significant to get this attention. It is the illustrations that make this book something you want to have in your library if you are a fan. While there are a few color photos, most are in black-and-white, but then so was the show itself in this time. What you will particularly enjoy are the production drawings and models, and the discussion in particular of Raymond Cusick, the Production Designer for some of the most important stories including "The Daleks". I am rating this 4 stars out of 5 and recommended for the true Doctor Who fan.

[John Parungao · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could soak in minutiae and trivia about Doctor Who and enjoy every minute of it. That's what I enjoyed about this book. It wasn't a dry reading of facts. Jeremy Bentham takes readers on a trip through time to the early years of not just Doctor Who, but of British Television.
Taking us back to the early 60's and the bright minds who saw a gap in the BBC schedule and created a television institution known as Doctor Who.
Highlighting the contributions of Sydney Newman, David Whitaker, Verity Lambert; and especially designer Raymond Cusick. Cusick was the genius who realized the vision of what would become the Daleks. It is his contributions to Doctor Who that are the core of this book.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

In terms of content and scholarship regarding the early days of the TV series, this is the book that set the pattern of all succeeding books, which simply expanded and added to this gift of enlightenment to fandom. My only real complaint is the design: for a book so rich in history and research, the layout feels amateurish, like a rushed out fanzine of the time. It's not worthy of the content.

[Billy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book which analyzes the conception and development of the show in the Hartnell era. Seems to form the basis of some of ‘An Adventure in Space and Time’. Worth reading for anyone interested in early Doctor Who and especially for those interested in the creation of television shows.

[Paul Doody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb and richly detailed account of the early years of Doctor Who.