Back in the mid-seventies, a lavish stage production of Doctor Who hit the London stage.
Sadly, Jon Pertwee - the then current Doctor - declined to appear, having just announced his departure from the role. And the role was taken by former War Games Time Lord, Trevor Martin in a new adventure with the snappy title 'Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday'.
It's a little known fact that the genesis of the Daleks on stage actually began a year or so earlier with plans to turn the series into a lavish 70s style musical. Pertwee was still interested, Terry Nation had adapted his recent 'Planet of the Daleks' episodes and the talented composers/lyricists - Leslie Bricuss & Anthony Newley- had begun penning the songs.
Sadly. as with all of these ventures I've uncovered over the past year or so, it was not to be.
The reasons are too complicated to go into now but involved a legal dispute by members of the Dalek operators union who demanded danger money and a matress in the orchestra pit for working on a raked stage.
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With part one of Doctor Who's series nine safely on the bookshelf, here's the breath bending sequel in which the Doctor confronts his deepest shame, Davros opens his eyes to mercy, the shit hits the fan in more ways than one and we finally find out just who the Magician's Apprentice is...
Not.
You can see the equally mesmerising prequel here!
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The US publication of the Men from UNIT spin-off novels are as rare as the UK ones.
This much is true!
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The BBC have decided to release a special VHS compilation of the Doctor Who series nine opening episodes - The Magician's Apprentice and The Witch's Familiar.
This is a special hour long spoiler-free edit - as demanded by fans of the series in countries other than the UK. Hopefully this will prevent key plot elements being discussed and spoilered on the world wide interweb.
I was asked to produce the cover for this bold new piece of official merchandise and put my skills to heavily researching and sourcing images and information from the aforementioned cyberspace community.
I hope it captures the intense drama of the final product!
Happy viewering!
Let's hear it for Dudley Simpson - the music supremo who ruled the scales during 70s Doctor Who.
Liberace knew a good tune when he heard it.
That's why he teamed up with the Australian composer to record a selection of the latter's more famous tunes.
What's not know is why this splendid compilation was never really released. At all. Anywhere.
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Well Doctor Who is back!
And so are my retro Target book covers.
Again, I make no apology for altering the titles of some of the stories. Target did this a few times back in the early days - usually to make the title more dynamic.
Me, I tend to change the title willy-nilly, just for the fun of it. For The Magician's Apprentice, I felt I had to change it just so that it actually had something to do with the story...
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Thimbles!
Aren't they great?
A conical piece of plastic, metal or porcelain designed to protect fingers from needles and pins whilst carrying out sewing duties. And people collect them as well...
Why?
Because companies have hit on the idea of putting pretty pictures on them and selling them as 'collector's items'.
And now, fans of TV's Doctor Who can join in the fun.
With all that money you still have left after buying all those books, magazines, bookazines, CDs, DVDs and part works, you can now have the pleasure of forking out for thimbles featuring your favourite classic series directors.
Now you can finally have Douglas Camfield protect you from all those pricks!
Buy now!
Just a few more I put together to bring the number up to ten....
You can see the previous five here.
Back in the mid-seventies, a lavish stage production of Doctor Who hit the London stage. 
