I Love... 1972

By Andrew Curnow

I don't lay claim to having any special memories of 1972, if only because I was barely six months old when it started. I was born at the end of June the previous year, ten days too late to catch even the last episode of "The Daemons" which means that the first new Who to air during my lifetime was the ninth season, the batch of episodes that aired in 1972.

But away from the Curnow family, and my poor timing in missing one of the undisputed classics of the Jon Pertwee era, what else was happening in the world in 1972? Well, a crack commando squad was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. (Don't worry, champions of the wrongly-imprisoned - these men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground.) More seriously, there was the Munich Olympics, sadly tainted by the deaths in the hostage crisis, the films in the news were "The Godfather" and "Cabaret", and riding high in the hit parade of the time were T-Rex and The Osmonds (now there's an interesting combination).

As for Doctor Who, well by 1972, there had been eight seasons (or series, as I'm sure we used to call them back then) and we were by now on to Doctor number three. Jon Pertwee had been the Doctor for the last two years, and with a third series under his belt he would draw level (in number of seasons, if not episodes) with his two predecessors. The suggestion that the series might come to an end either after its sixth (Troughton's last) or its seventh (Pertwee's first) year, had by this time faded away (for a decade or so at least...) and perhaps one sure sign of the renewed vigour and public affection for the show is the fact that 1972 saw the release of the first edition of "The Making of Doctor Who".

For a children's show to have lasted nine years was certainly impressive - for it to be considered worthy (both artistically and financially) of a tie-in book recounting the show's history is probably an even greater achievement. Remember, the Doctor Who video releases were still nearly two decades away, and Doctor Who Weekly wouldn't appear until the decade was nearly expired. Even the Target range didn't get started until the following year. So with that in mind, how thrilling must it have been to be a seven year old in 1972, picking up a book that could tell you the history of your favourite show, going back to stories made before you were even born? Up until that point there was no avenue for the average fan to explore to find out about the show - this slim, oversized volume must have been a Godsend.

I actually got a copy of this book for Christmas 2002 (some thirty years later) and it is an enjoyable little read. What comes across to the fact-fuelled fan of the 21st century is the lack of detail, and yet in many ways this shortfall of information is more than made up for by the sheer enthusiasm, and to modern eyes a delightful innocence, that flows from the book. The episode guide of the stories to date is presented, in the main, as evidence from the Doctor's trial - which means that among other gems the two-parter "The Edge of Destruction" is summarised as a tale about, "Passing through the centre of a new galaxy during its creation". The following table is a rather more factual listing of the code, writer, director, and 'enemies' of each story, albeit with no story titles or transmission dates. There's certainly no mention of Kennedy's assassination in this book! This table, by the way, doesn't help us much in understanding "The Edge of Destruction" as the enemy is listed as simply "space"!

But even more important than this breakthrough in the merchandising department, surely THE news of the year, Who-wise, was that the boys were back in town. I don't mean crazy Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and his tightly-knit squad of E.T. fighters. No, I mean THE DALEKS!!! Having disappeared from the TV show back in 1967, it was over four years since the universe had been terrorised by a bunch of tin-plated pepperpots. So for the seven year-old giddy with praise for the gift of a book telling him how it all started, it must surely have been even more exciting to be able to see the legendary Daleks in action for the first time! In fan circles nowadays "The Day of the Daleks" seems to come in for a lot of unfair criticism, its view of a world dominated by three rather squeaky and immobile Daleks living in a cupboard being seen as a little, well, naff. But such carping is surely missing the fairly obvious point that IT HAS GOT DALEKS IN IT!!!

In fact 1972's batch of Who is an interesting mix. It's by now well-known that Producer Barry Letts inherited the UNIT set-up, but didn't like it, and it's clear very early on that the production team of the time were trying to break away from it. Ultimately only a new Doctor would clinch that, but even here, slap-bang in the middle of what we generally tend to think of as the UNIT/Earth years, there is really very little of the Brigadier and his boys on show. "The Day of the Daleks" and "The Time Monster" open and close the season, but although both feature UNIT, they also both feature the Doctor moving to a different time and/or space for at least an episode or two, during which time UNIT is almost totally absent. "The Sea Devils" in the middle of the series could have been a UNIT story, but intriguingly isn't. And "The Curse of Peladon" and "The Mutants" both have the Time Lords (aka Messrs Dicks & Letts) sending the Doctor to an alien world on some mission or other.

Nevertheless, 1972 is a good year for Doctor Who, probably for the very 'format-breaking' reasons I've outlined above. Although hugely popular, and even today incredibly watchable, it could easily be argued that Pertwee's first and much of his second season are almost totally unlike the original set-up for Doctor Who - by 1972 it's an earthbound tale, set in the present day, with the hero (albeit an alien) working for an official military organisation. Given that, then, this year really makes the push to restore the show to its roots - most obviously we have the Daleks, but we also effectively have free movement in time and space, with the TARDIS visiting two alien worlds, and meeting rather more than two lots of monsters in the process.

So it was a good year but was it an important one? Well, arguably yes it was. The Pertwee team had hit their stride and were clearly on a bit of a roll, both in front of and behind the camera. It would have been very easy to stick with the Earth format for another year, making it that much more difficult for the show to return to the stars in later years - and let's face it, if he had remained forever a resident of present-day Earth the show would hardly have kept going for another decade and a half would it?

The period from late 1980 to early 1982 is often cited by fans of the time (well, by me and some other blokes wot I know) as a golden-age, featuring such delights as a visual renaissance in the show, the first regeneration in living memory, the first batch of ye olde repeats ever, the first, last and best spin-off, and a brand-new Doctor on twice a week. Despite having been rather too young in 1972, I nevertheless suspect that it was another such golden age. From 1st of January 1972 onwards, the following year and a bit would see the Daleks return, the working TARDIS return, the Ice Warriors making a comeback, a new book containing more detail than could at the time have been dreamed of, a tenth anniversary special featuring all the Doctors, and the launch of a range of books telling in full those old, long-forgotten stories that "The Making Of..." had only hinted at (albeit it would then be a further fifteen years before one could read that exciting story in which Doctor Who passes through the centre of a new galaxy, battling space in the process). Great days, I'm sure - in fact I'm a little bit sad that I missed them!