Barbara in Wonderland
Long before Doctor Who had annuals, novels or spin-offs, William Hartnell and two Daleks appeared in a surreal Alice in Wonderland parody for Radio Times - creating the very first colour images of the Doctor.
Barbara in Wonderland
Radio Times Promotion
"Dr Who looked at her steadily. 'Never,' he said solemnly, 'be a slave to time. And never waste it, either.'
Radio Times is a weekly magazine dedicated to the television and radio programming schedules in the UK. It was founded by the general manager of the BBC in 1923, and since then has regularly advertised radio and television programming for over a hundred years. Across its long history, the magazine has featured a wide variety of Doctor Who material, including interviews, comics and short stories. One of the earliest examples was Barbara in Wonderland, published in Radio Times issue 2145.
In this light pastiche of Alice in Wonderland, a young dancer ‘Babs’ makes her way through Broadcasting House in order to find The Beat’s dance studio. Along the way, she runs into weird and wonderful characters from different BBC shows, before she runs into “Dr Who” (in the place of the mad hatter), who is having tea with two Daleks. Dr Who cures her time-nausea with his tea, and explains that the Daleks are harmless as long as they are not insulted. However, when Babs mentions leaving, the silver Dalek becomes upset and she has to flee.
Although the story itself has only a small section featuring the Doctor, it is significant in that William Hartnell posed in costume with two Dalek props for the magazine photographs. These were printed in colour, resulting in the first in-colour appearance of Hartnell as the Doctor. Although perhaps not even being able to be called a full Doctor Who short story, it is a fascinating glimpse into how quickly Doctor Who became embedded within BBC promotional culture during the height of early Dalekmania.
The images in this article were later restored and colourised by Clayton Hickman, available on Twitter. The article itself is available in the Radio Times archive website. It has also been released on The Collection: Season Two as a bonus. The article has been restored and archived with this collection. However, original physical copies are extremely rare.