The DNA Of Doctor Who: The Graham Williams Years

Doctor Who in the late seventies. The introduction of Romana and K9, the first ever proper attempt at a series-long ‘story arc’ and some of the best scripts ever seen in the series courtesy of one Douglas Adams. At the same time as all of the above, there’s Tom Baker visibly growing more bored with the role yet less inclined to consider relinquishing it, a marked change in tone towards the comic and against the more horror-aligned direction pursued earlier in the decade complete with the TARDIS making sort of whizz bang Pink Panther falling over sounds, and one of the worst scripts ever seen in anything ever courtesy of The Armageddon Factor. Like or hate Doctor Who under Graham Williams’ tenure as producer, or indeed both of the above, few could realistically deny that it at least gave everyone a lot to talk about. As you might well have noticed if you’ve been following the ongoing series of Doctor Who-chronicling posts on here under the banner title It’s Still A Police Box, Why Hasn’t It Changed?. Ahem.

If you’re someone who has been following the ongoing series of Doctor Who-chronicling posts on here under the banner title It’s Still A Police Box, Why Hasn’t It Changed, or even if you aren’t but would nonetheless like to read my thoughts on the impact that the phenomenal success of Star Wars had on Doctor Who – or didn’t – then you can find just that in a chapter that I’ve contributed to The DNA Of Doctor Who: The Graham Williams Years. In addition to the extended rumination on whether Doctor Who in the late seventies genuinely deserves the unspectacular reputation it seems to have acquired, you can also find out when Star Wars was apparently first mentioned on the BBC, whether Noel Edmonds’ Multicoloured Swap Shop had a more substantial influence on Doctor Who than Death Star Droid, how Bernard Levin was ahead of the Force-slanted pop culture curve, why Jon Pertwee was guilty of The Little Green Man Hypocrisy, who would ‘win’ out of Pigsy and Sandy and The Sontarans, where K9 stands in the league table of robot sidekicks, and how both franchises found themselves in a similar predicament in the late eighties but only one of them is acknowledged by the history books…