12-days – day nine

Day Nine

Today on the Twelve Regenerations Of Christmas I have a look back in time to 1978 and how the Doctor Who production crew celebrated the festive season.

In the 1970s, before the rise of It’ll Be Alright On The Night, the technicians of the BBC’s VT department would collect together all the comedic outtakes from the corporation’s output over the year. These were then compiled and shown at the Christmas party to a select audience. As time went by special scenes were shot for specific inclusion in the tape, and in 1978 Doctor Who made its contribution.

It was while recording The Armageddon Factor that Tom Baker, Mary Tamm and John Leeson filmed a brief improvised scene dubbed Doug Who?

Its a little risqué, with The Doctor and Romana apparently sharing an off-screen kiss before plying K-9 with vodka!

The tape did the rounds under the table for many years, until it was included under the title Merry Christmas Doctor Who on the final disc of the Key to Time DVD set released in 2007.

K-9’s Christmas wish for fewer sill irons is a reference to discreet metal bars which braced the bottoms of doorways on sets so they don’t drift apart. These would cause endless problems for K-9 as he couldn’t get over them when entering and exiting scenes.

I have also found one other BBC Christmas Tape which contains a Dalek patrolling the corridors and back rooms of BBC tv Centre.

I can’t see this one ending up on a DVD just yet though . . . . .