I, Robot (1977)

I, Robot (1977)

'Doctor Who' is unusual in that it technically has two Silver Jubilee stories, in the form of lietrally-named 'Silver Nemesis' and the bits in 'Mawdryn Undead' that are set in 1977.

No, don't worry, I'm not going to get in the murky waters of the Unit Dating Controversy (one of my favourite 'Who'-themed teas), but instead run through a few bits and pieces connected with what we did in our village circa June 1977.

I was 8 and that memorable weekend of 'The Talons Of Weng-Chiang' Part Six and 'Whose Doctor Who' was still fresh in my memory.

All the children were going to get a mug, along with a commemorative coin and a pen (I've still got them!) and although the T-shirts seen in 'Mawdryn Undead' were far too elaborate, the village elders did run to the odd plastic flag or two as a bonus.

Although one of the highlights of the celebrations for young local people was a Fancy Dress competition, it never crossed my mind to dress up as the Doctor. But some sort of monster wasn't out of the question, so long as we could cobble together something vaguely convincing.

It wasn't going to be a Dalek, or anything else familiar; we were talking spraying some cardboard boxes and tubes silver (ironically, Mervyn Pinfield's suggection to Raymond Cusick when it came to designing the Daleks). But at least the silver theme tied in with the date - see also the Cybermen in 1988.

Actually, all joking aside, it didn't turn out too bad and the surviving photo perhaps gives some indication of how it scared at least one kid when I lumbered towards it. So, mission accomplished!
When it comes to the details, you can see that the body and head are boxes, with matchboxes for ears. For some reason, I appear to have employed the tops of two spray cans in the chest region, but let's draw a veil over that...

I think the legs were made from thick wallpaper, as they had to be a bit flexible, but without the wider shot to confirm, I cannot be sure. We'd certainly done some wallpapering when we'd moved into the house, so probably had rolls of it left over at the back of a cupboard or shed. I know I wasn't really up to running in the costume, at any rate, as the feet were definitely welly boots sprayed, you've guessed it, silver.

The aforementioned plastic flag is inserted in a thin plastic tube on the head and there's a dial in the middle that goes from 1 to 6, with sadly little effect on my speed, no matter how much people twiddled with it. This possibly was some sort of spinning top / dice thing from a long-forgotten game, but my memory has faded, much like the way the dial did in the bright summer sun.

You might be able to see that I actually won Second Prize with my robot costume, but the thing that rather horrifies me now is the eyes. They are made from the tops of bottles of Matey bubble-bath ("Your Matey's a bottle of fun! You puts me in the bath! I'm loved by everyone! I'm always good for a laugh!"), which is no great stretch of the imagination, but look closer...

There are some small coloured discs of card in the centre of the eyes, with some sort of energy bolt drawn on them. People of a certain age might be appalled to recognise them as part of the board game 'War Of The Daleks'.

Yes, it seems that I was prepared to sacrifice these vital components, thus making my copy of the game (which has sadly vanished into the ether, apart from a couple of stray Daleks) suddenly a lot less playable.

So I might have won Second Prize, but where's my OBE for showing such dedication to Queen and Country, hmm?

(Written by Andrew Trowbridge)