Television and Cinema Verities #57

“I had played Winston Smith in ’1984′ on television, and the next thing I played ‘Doctor Who’. I was doing it in the cinema while Bill Hartnell was doing it on TV! That’s the way it goes. It was no surprise to me to learn that the first ‘Doctor Who’ film was in the top twenty box office hits of 1965, despite the panning the critics gave us. That’s why they made the sequel and why they spent twice as much money on it. Those films are among my favourites because they brought me popularity with younger children. They’d say their parents didn’t want to meet me in a dark alley but ‘Doctor Who’ changed that. After all, he is one of the most heroic and successful parts an actor can play. That’s one of the main reasons the series had such a long run on TV. I am very grateful for having been part of such a success story.”

The late, great Peter Cushing, on his heroic turn as Doctor Who in Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965).

Television and Cinema Verities #55

"It sounds so gooey, but it was a stupendous privilege, an amazing gift, like something out of a fairy tale. Everywhere I went I was actually loved and adored by children. And now those children have all got children of their own, and they still come and see me. I was at a sci-fi do at Earl's Court the other day, There were several thousand people there, And scores of them showed me pictures of themselves, these middle-aged men losing their hair, sitting on my knee in 1976 or something. It's all very sweet, that."

- Tom Baker, on playing the fourth incarnation of the Time Lord on Doctor Who.

Late Night Blogging: Dr. Who and the Daleks

Collectible of the Week: Doctor Who Tardis Playhouse (Dekker Toys; 1982)

If you saw my Christmas photograph from a few days back, you know that the TARDIS came to visit Joel’s holiday this year...filled with Doctor Who toys, including a bump-and-go-cybermat and a lego-like Cyber-conversion chamber.  

Specifically that holiday TARDIS is the Dekker Toys “Tardis” playhouse from 1982, an officially licensed product from the BBC. 

This TARDIS stands four feet high -- just a little taller than Joel at this point -- but is not alas, bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.  We’re still working on the issue of dimensional transcendentalism.

As you can detect from the images of the Tardis playhouse above, it was produced and marketed in the era of the fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison.  Joel hasn’t seen any episodes of that age, yet.  We started our Whovian survey with Patrick Troughton (“The Tomb of the Cybermen,” “The Mind Robber” and “The Krotons”) but have also now watched “The Sontaran Experiment” and “Revenge of the Cybermen” from the Tom Baker Era.   I'm debating whether I think he'll be freaked out by the giant Wirrn in "The Ark in Space."

The Tardis playhouse is actually something of a tent, one held up by narrow PVC poles at the corners. And inside there is even a control room and view screen…a feature which Joel loves.

When I was a kid, I would have traveled to the ends of the Earth (or Zeti Reticuli, in Whovian terms…) to get my hands on a TARDIS playhouse like this one.  I understand that a full-sized, inflatable TARDIS is also being released soon for further Time Lord adventures.  I think it would look great in our garage when Joel outgrows the playhouse.