Fold - Out Poster Inside!

In the Seventies some kids had posters of footballers or pop stars on their bedroom walls. Other kids though had a poster of a grumpy looking Vorus leader of the Guardians looking like he’d just had a particularly bad day. Or Field Major Styre looking rather pleased to be doused with flour! Fold out poster magazines were a big thing back in the day, the simple premise being that as well as features, the whole thing would contain a couple of A4 sized posters and would also fold out into one or even two massive posters. In the early days of Tom Baker, Doctor Who had two of these the first of which featured the fourth Doctor as its centrepiece and the aforementioned aliens as smaller A4 sized posters.

In recent years, Doctor Who fans had already been treated to some high quality publications. 1972’s book `The Making of Doctor Who` (which was about to be reprinted) and 1973’s Radio Times anniversary special had set the bar high. In terms of regular high street magazines only `World of Horror` had seen the potential for printing colour photos from the series and it was hardly aimed at regular Doctor Who watchers.

The first of the magazines is  produced by the `World of Horror` team (Legend Publishing in London) and cost a rather steep for the time 25p. It was fronted by an art cover from Kevin O’Neill, a renowned comic strip artist later known for his work on 2000AD who'd started his career in the mid 70s on British children’s comics. This cover is not mentioned in resumes of his work and is probably a long forgotten small job but it is striking. It features an Axon, Draconian, Cyberman and a dinosaur while there is a rather boggle eyed photo of Tom in the left hand corner.

The emphasis was definitely on the visual with yellow and pink being the prime colours in use and some red shapes adding an extra adornment. Despite the excellence of the photos and posters, it doesn’t look as if the people behind the magazine knew that much about Doctor Who. The text was minimal and somewhat oddly composed. One random paragraph sitting over a photograph from `Revenge of the Cybermen` declares: “Doctor Who has been on the magic screen for eleven years and with over ten million viewers it looks as though it will be on for at least another eleven.” Underneath we learn that “the adventures of Doctor Who seem to be pure fantasy. But are they?” What do they mean? “Things aren’t always as they appear” it goes on, “In days gone by people thought the world was flat and that a trip to the Moon was impossible. Who knows, some of the many monsters that have crawled, swam, roared and groped across the TV screen may be just around the corner. If they are, rest easy, for it will also mean Dr. Who will be there as well.” Mmm, don’t know about you but to me it sounds like this was written by someone aged about 100. 

Luckily Tom Baker is on hand to send us a message that he’ll be putting  “maximum effort into the job…a job that means I will be saving a galaxy, a universe or a race of people every Saturday.”  The mag also does the inevitable run down of the previous Doctors – “eccentric Victorian septuagenarian”, “zany, extravagant and somewhat a clown” and “a dashing man of action” plus a resume of Tom Baker’s career to date. Elsewhere another random paragraph tells us that Sarah Jane “adds a great deal to the series with her feminine beauty and character.” Yes, definitely a 100 year old man wrote these.

Of course the words do not matter so much when you have some great photos at a time when they were still relatively rare. The two big posters show the Doctor in full costume, one with a yoyo and the other a close up. The aforementioned Vorus and Styre posters are smaller and framed in particularly swirly red patterns. Vorus is probably even more cross because he’s not given his full name being credited as Vogan- Leader of the Guardians.