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part of a small rebellion | by maryann johanson

Doctor Who thing: the announcement of a new Doctor didn’t used to be a big deal

Wed Aug 07 2013, 11:01am | 8 comments

Actor/Dalek operator @NicholasPegg dug this up from 1981:

newdoctor1981

Did you notice it? Up in the top right corner:

newdoctor1981a

It reads:

THE CHANGING FACE OF DOCTOR WHO

The new Doctor is 29 year old Peter Davison, most famous for his role as Tristan in the BBC television programme, All Creatures Great and Small. He has done a variety of stage and television work but also lists songwriting amongst his talents and has a television theme tune to his name!

The youngest Doctor to date has also a new companion — twenty-three year old Janet Fielding who will play the part of Tegan, an air hostess from Australia in the last story of the season — Logopolis.

Pegg says this is from Doctor Who Magazine, though I wonder about that. But whatever publication this is from, some “controversy” over K-9 was considered more important than the new Doctor. He doesn’t even warrant a photo! Weird.

(If you stumble across a cool Doctor Who thing, feel free to email me with a link.)


posted in:
daily doctor
  • jakob1978

    It’s definitely from Doctor Who Magazine, issue 48 (Jan 1981). Readers had to wait until Issue 55 (August) for a full article about Peter Davison.

  • RogerBW

    Being fair, the programme itself wasn’t a Big Thing the way it is now. In those days it was very much a minority interest; now it’s one of the BBC’s flagship shows.

  • Matthew Kilburn

    Just to back up jakob1978, in case you had any doubts, this really is from Doctor Who Magazine – or ‘Doctor Who – A Marvel Monthly’ as its cover styled it. Gallifrey Guardian was still evolving into a news section then.

  • Der Bruno Stroszek

    And when they did, they infamously spelled his name “Peter Davidson” on the cover!

    In fairness, the magazine was going through a big change at the time, from being essentially a children’s comic with the odd feature to a magazine that catered for every age group watching. The news must have taken a bit of time to work out how to present it. Even so, weird lack of enthusiasm there.

  • Matthew Kilburn

    The ‘Davidson’ spelling was on issue 61 (February 1982); issue 55, covering his press launch, manages to spell his name correctly.

  • singlestick

    It’s interesting that Davison was then “the youngest Doctor to date….” Reminds me of the minor hoopla over Matt Smith being the youngest to play the Doctor.

  • Danielle

    I remember seeing in a documentary that when the announcement was made about Peter Davison becoming the new Doctor, it was second on the news after Ronald Reagan’s election. I’d say that’s pretty much the big time.

  • R. I.

    At least they didn’t give his name as Peter Moffitt …

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