Dear Woodsy,
As one of the newer visitors to the site feedback had not seen Mechanoids from Dr Who, I'm enclosng this in case of use.
Mechanoids appeared in the eary adventures of Dr Who, from the Hartnell era. As I recall they were robots sent from earth to help prepare a landing area for humans (quite how they could do this I have no idea - like the daleks, they seem badly adapted for any practical work!). When the humans never arrived, they built their own civilisation, including a city on stilts. I beleive the episodes are lost, but what may survive is one of the TV21 records which featured a recording of this adventure. The climax was a battle between Daleks and Mechanoids - Mechanoids being armed with a sort of flame-thrower.
The Mechanoids featured in the "Dalek World" annual, circa 1965, when they became an alien race encountered during the Daleks' exploration of space. A copy of the first black and white frames included. I think the small half-oval creatures with them were some sort of maintenance robots.
An alternative origin of Mechanoids was given in The Daleks strip in TV21. Once again, this is an alien race which comes across the Daleks. One of Ron Turner's dramatic frames enclosed of this.
In both cases, the strips elaborated slightly on the simple "geodesic dome" shape of the original TV Mechanoids.
All the best,
Andy B.
Wow! I like that "World That Waits" artwork. Thanks for showing that, Andy.
ReplyDeleteAnd good news: the episodes for the Mechanoids do still exist. The story is "The Chase", the one where Barbara and Ian leave. I think it was released on DVD last year as part of a box set.
And you'd like is too, Woodsy, cos it has Count Dracula and Frankenstien's monster in it too.
The geodesic shape of the Mechanoids reminds me of The Control in the forgotten UK tv scifi classic (at least for me), Slim John. Produced by the BBC and the British Council, this language programme was aired widely in Europe in 1969-1970 - except for, quite obviously, the UK.
ReplyDeleteThe series ran for 26 episodes (an important number in the fabric of the story). Each half-hour long episode consisted of 15 mins of a marvellous scifi-b-serial, starring Simon Williams as Slim John, plus another 15 mins of learning.
The story which involved a rebellious Robot 5, Slim John, climaxed with the arrival of the Brains behind the villainous invaders, called The Control. Visualized simply as a white geodesic ball, he had it coming: one zap of a raygun and down it went like a burst football!
The series shared some writers with Dr. Who so there might be a further connection. There is an excellent website (also in English - lesson learned!) http://www.tuonpuoleinen.com/slim-john/index.htm
Oops, geodesic sphere, that is.
ReplyDeleteVery cool, thanks, Andy! That was neat...
ReplyDeleteGood! I'm glad the serials for The Chase still exist. I've read ... PAINFULLY... about the lost episodes. Although I do understand the Beeb's needs...clearly no sense that posterity might have wanted those episodes...
Very cool link, Arto! Thanks, another new batch of info... Yes, I tend to think that writers who were involved in multiple projects besides the Doctor occasionally intertwined their stuff in some way, even if it is 'merely' something that could have happened in the background of Earth history in the Doctor Who series.
And I'm fascinated by the British Rocket Group and the space program history in Doctor Who as well.
Gordon Long
Facinating...I always thought the Mechanoid by Cherilea was a poor attempt at a NASA landing module! Obviously spent too much time cowering behind the sofa...Haha!
ReplyDelete'Fahsiver'...Early-evening TV-induced fright!
When the mechonoids didn't sell they were reused with injection molded spacemen. As space pods diaramas.
DeleteInteresting that Paul. Do you have any pictures of the reused Mechanoid sets?
DeleteI was too scared of the sofa .... I cowered behind the TV so it couldn't see me.
ReplyDeleteWow, Arto! I am now full of curiosity about Slim John. I want to see this. It sounds like some of the old UK schools' programmes, such as "The Boy From Space" ... but for adults.
Thanks for mentioning this!
Thanks Gordon & Philo, glad to bring this to your attention!
ReplyDeleteSome years ago I was able to see a couple of episodes on blurry VHS, and it still was enough to send chills down my spine. It would be a treat to see the whole story again. I even contacted the BBC years back to find out about access to the series, but (surprise) never got an answer. I think this would be something for the Doctor Who fans to discover, too.
I have collected both of the books (in green covers for lessons 1-13, and blue for lessons 14-26), plus both accompanying LP's which are really hard to find. Will send pics if interested.
I'm interested. Very much so. Pics please, Arto.
ReplyDeleteDid you by any chance transfer the LPs to a digital format?
Hi Phi, sorry to say I do not have the tech to transfer. Will return later with the pics -
ReplyDeletePity about the lack of tech, but don't worry, Arto. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics though, when you have time. Thank you.
ReplyDelete