@3Beginings of Who
================
@1
Hi All,

If you're interested in the true origins of Doctor Who then I'd recommend
you have a look at the First Doctor Handbook (ISBN 0-426-20430-1). I've
just been reading the "production diary which follows, almost day by day,
the origins of Who until the end of the Hartnell era. 

You may think you know about the beginnings of Who, we all know about
Sydney Newman and Donald Wilson, but the book presents some information
unheard of before. I thought I'd type a few facts up for those of you who
are interested.

* The earliest origins of a SF serial seem to have been thought of by Eric
  Maschwitz, Head of light entertainment in spring 1962, when he asked
  Donald Wilson to have the survey group investigate the Genre of SF.

* A report prepared by Wilson's staff members Alice Frick and Donald Bull
  is followed by another by John Braybon and Alice Frick.. where they
  mention that " we consider two types of plot are reaonably outstanding,
  namely those dealing with telepaths... and those dealing with time
  travelling..This latter one is particularly attractive as a series since
  individual plots can easily be tackled by a variety of script-writers;
  it's the Z-Cars of science-fiction".

* March 1963; Sydney Newman discusses idea of a program to go between
  Grandstand and Juke Box Jury... the SF idea is decided upon.

* Donald Wilson said series should be based on a group of regular characters

* C E "Bunny" Webber, another staff member produces outline with
  recognisable character format on 29/03/63; "THE HANDSOME YOUNG MAN HERO", 
  "THE HANDSOME WELL-DRESSED HEROINE AGED ABOUT 30" and "THE MATURER MAN
  35-40 WITH SOME `CHARACTER TWIST"

* May 1963 - Character names given; Bridget (Biddy) is the young girl, Miss 
  McGovern (Lola) is the female teacher and Cliff is the male teacher.
  In the same document the idea of Doctor Who (as the program is now
  known)'s ship of being invisible is mooted as is the idea of it being an 
  ordinary object such as a workman's hut that when entered is a high-tech
  workshop. This again comes in C E Webber's outline.

* Anthony Coburn invented the Police Box idea and the name TARDIS

* Bridget became Mandy then Sue, Susan, Suzanne and back to Susan again

* The makers of a puppet show, "Time Travellers" alleged that Doctor Who 
  was based on their idea, and a legal argument between the BBC and the
  writers of this show sprang up!

* A french pop group were considered for the theme tune!

I thought some of this might be of interest to some of you.. there's a
*lot* more in the book - the production diary is over 150 pages!

Paul Moore