Newly-released documents reveal Dr Who's origins

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Doctor Who (before the Tardis)

Newly released documents, which reveal the 1960s conception of Doctor Who, show how nervous the BBC was about producing a sci-fi show, writes Tom Geoghegan.

The Doctor without his time-travelling police box is difficult to imagine, but its creators initially proposed he journey through space in an invisible machine covered in light-resistant paint.

When BBC producers were devising the show in the early 1960s, they thought viewers should see no machine at all, only "a shape of nothingness".

The BBC's head of drama Sydney Newman, who commissioned the first series, insisted an invisible machine would not work and the doctor's vehicle should be a strong visual symbol.

Wisely, writers also said a transparent, plastic bubble would be "lowgrade". But a seed of the Tardis idea is sown when they suggest using "some common object in the street" like a night-watchman's shelter.

These discussions are revealed in six previously unpublished documents, now digitised on the BBC Archive website. These include handwritten notes by Mr Newman, regarded by fans as the genius behind the original concept.

The article continues at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7736130.stm