Before the First Episode: Publicity

 

Considering the years that it takes a modern tv show to get made, the genesis and production of Doctor Who happened in less than a year. In early August, William Hartnell had his first costume and make-up tests and filming of the opening credits took place before the end of the month. Publicity photos of the four regulars at Television Centre took place mid-September and, by the end of that month, the first episode had been recorded and was re-recorded in mod-October. (Shannon Patrick Sullivan has written a great summary of how the show was created.)

The energy put into production doesn't appear to have also been put into promoting the new programme. Publicity started at the end of July with a meeting with the Radio Times at Televsion Centre (plans to have Doctor Who on the front cover of the Radio Times in November were unfortunately dropped in favour of the return of the radio series, Beyond Our Ken). In early Autumn, some of the television trade papers reported that the show was forthcoming. There was a TV trailer broadcast at 5.40pm on Saturday 16th November - now, sadly lost - which, according to those who saw it showed clips from the first episode. A second trailer was broadcast on Friday 22nd November - though it's unclear whether this was just a repeat.

There was also a brief radio trailer broadcast on the Thursday 21st November on the BBC Home Service in which Hartnell explained:

My name is William Hartnell and, as Doctor Who, I make my debut on Saturday the 23rd November at 5.15. The Doctor is an extraordinary old man from another world who owns a time and space machine. He and his grand-daughter, Susan (played by Carole Ann Ford) have landed in England and are enjoying their stay, until Susan arouses the curiosity of two of her school-teachers (played by William Russell and Jacqueline Hill). They follow Susan and get inside the Ship and Doctor Who decides to leave Earth, starting a series of adventures which I know will thrill and excite you every week.

Again, the recording no longer exists.

Supposedly, the decision not to feature Doctor Who on the front cover of the Radio Times - which would have been the primary means of publicity - was made by Kenneth Adam, Director of Programmes at the BBC, who was meant to be skepitcal about the success of the programme. The inside feature on page 7 still ran. describing the Doctor as a "mysterious exile from another world and a distant future". There are brief hints of future adventures: "a distant galaxy where civilisation has been devastated by a neutron bomb" (what would become Skaro) or "journeying to Cathay in the caravan of Marco Polo".

I find the way in which the programme is described - in a detatched, formal manner - far different to the manner in which modern shows are written as if the characters and events are real.