Dr Who Rescues Tanti From The Planet Of The Diddyonions

Dr Who Rescues Tanti From The Planet Of The Diddyonions

The Complete And Utter History Of Dr WHO? (Part Twelve)

With Dr who's grandparents having been locked out of the TARDIST or something (which proves that you should always carry a spare space key just in case!), the next storey saw the timeship make an unexpected fall on the planet Diddyo, wherein dwelt the Diddyonions who was less than numerous due to budgetary reasons.

This swift two-parter saw the introducement of Dr Who's new helper in the form of Vichy who was from future days. She were not always called Vichy, however, as there were an 'Blue Peter' competition to name Dr Who's new friend and the script kept having to be re-written whenever a new entry came in which was confusing for all and sundry.

Hence there is scripts that say 'DR WHO AND TANTY', 'DR WHO AND MILTY' AND 'DOCTOR WHO AND LIKKI' amongst others. This led to the set designists thinking they was working on three or four different stories at once and producing multiple copies of the caves that all looked pretty similar it must be said. Having spent most of the money in this way, that is why there is so few Diddyonions to be seen in the finished product.

These scripts continually turn up on 'The Antiques Roadshow' but are frankly, as common as muck.

Also a problem was that the last few scenes of Episode One ('The Powerfulness Of The Emneys') kept having to be recorded as William Hartley-Hare had a cold and kept sneezing when the roller captions went up. This led to all lines over the picture when peoples names appeared and was technically not allowable. Also they had to send out for some Vicks VapoRub and as it were now after ten o'clock most of the nearest chemists was shut.

The cliffclanger to Episode One saw Doctor Woo and Ewen being manaced by Sandy (a Sandbeast, hence the name). This was actually not a real creature, but was an acting gecko with some bits stuck on.

The main villanous persoanlity in this story was the terrible Kokquiltyarn, who were all spikey (apparently were based on a shrivelled old conker that were lying abandoned on a table in the production office) and had a dangerous tool. His tool had jewels on it too, which was unusual in the 1960s. As a joke Ewen pronounced his name wrongly and called him 'Cocky-Licken' which is a sort of cross between 'Chicken Licken' and 'Cocky Locky' (characters from the popular Adult Game played at parties). Needless to say, the BBCB received several letters of compliants regarding this matter.

Eventually, Vichy was invited on board the TARDIST by The Doctor Who and then he landed on a cliff and they all fell over, albeit at different rates as William Hartly-Hare were on a different rate to his co-stars. He were paid in guineas, apparently, which have a different exchange rate before they was decimatealized in the 1970s.

Where had the TARDIST brung them forth to this time? Stay tuned to this chancel!

Next Episode:

"One of them is..,."

(By Andrew Trowbridge)