May 21, 2007

Doctor Who Audiobooks – Doctor Who And The TARDIS

In the early days of television in the United Kingdom, The BBC were looking for an idea for a science fiction show to broadcast to a family audience on Saturday nights.
 
The Head Of BBC Drama, Sydney Newman,considered many different kinds of story for the peak time show, eventually deciding on the idea of time travel within a time machine.
 
Not only did the series go on to become the longest running TV science fiction show in history, many of the characters, both human and otherwise, and even some of the fixtures and fittings, became world famous as well. 
 
There is no greater example of this than the TARDIS. The TARDIS first appeared in the very first episode broadcast on November 23rd 1963.
 
In that episode two schoolteachers were getting very concerned about the behavior of one of their pupils, Susan Foreman.
 
On night after school, they followed Susan back to her home, to find it was a junk yard. They could not find Susan when they searched the yard, instead stumbling upon an old man in Edwardian clothes. This man turned out to be the grandfather of the girl.
Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks & Exploration Earth
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Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks & Exploration Earth

Written By : Various
Narrator : Full Cast Production
Published By : BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Length : 1 hour 20 minutes
Categories : Sci-Fi
TV
Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Magic
Download Price - $10.99
Buy Now…

"We're talking about the Daleks, the most evil creatures ever invented. You must destroy them — you must complete your mission for the Time Lords!'

Genesis of the Daleks

Tom Baker narrates an abridged version of this 1975 television adventure in which the Doctor. Sarah and Harry are sent to Skaro, home world of the Thais and the Kaleds. As a thousand year war of attrition reaches its climax, the crippled scientist Davros has created protective casings for the genetic mutations which his race will become. Only the Doctor knows what fear and misery these 'Daleks' will inflict upon the Universe - but with time running out, can even he prevent the birth of such evil?

Exploration Earth

In this special BBC schools radio episode, not heard since its original 1976 broadcast, the TARDIS takes the Doctor and Sarah back in Time to witness stages of the Earth's development. However, as the planet evolves from a mass of heat and gas, Megron the High Lord of Chaos has his own designs on our homeworld. If his threats to endanger the stability of Earth have any substance, the existence of Mankind itself is in question!

FIRST TRANSMITTED
Genesis of the Daleks
BBC1(6 episodes)
8 March 1975 to 12 April 1975

Exploration Earth
BBC Radio 4
4 October 1976

Linking script and original LP realisation for Genesis of the Daleks by Derek Goom

Incidental music for Genesis of the Daleks composed by Dudley Simpson

Title music by
Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Special sound by Dick Mills

 On reaching the junk yard, the two schoolteachers discovered an old police box, in which they initially thought the old man may be trying to kidnap the girl. When she shouted out to them, and they rushed inside, they found that this was no ordinary police box.
 
The girl, and her grandfather, had been born on another planet, and were in fact travelers through time and space.
 
The apparent police box is, in fact, a time machine known as the TARDIS. This machine has become just as famous as the characters in Doctor Who. What is not so well known is that TARDIS actually stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space.
 
This is the police box that was to be the source of legendary adventures for over forty years to come.
The TARDIS made its first journey on our television screens in that first episode, taking Doctor Who, his granddaughter, and the two schoolteachers away to the Stone Age, where the secret of fire has been lost.
Following this, the TARDIS made trips to many parts of the world, in many different periods of history. Not only that, but it has also made many a journey to other planets in other solar systems, and seen Doctor Who in combat with many gruesome, evil enemies.
A good many of these episodes, collected over forty years, are now available to be enjoyed in your own home, and even in your car, or out walking, in the form of downloadable Doctor Who Audiobooks.
Some of these Doctor Who Audiobooks are soundtracks from episodes lost from television, and many have not been heard since their initial broadcast.

Doctor Who - Marco Polo
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Doctor Who - Marco Polo

Written By : John Lucarotti
Narrator : Full Cast Production
Published By : BBC Audiobooks Ltd
Length : 2 hours 55 minutes
Categories : Sci-Fi
TV
Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Magic
Download Price - $17.75
Buy Now…

'A caravan that flies! Do you realise what that will mean to Khan?'

When the TARDIS breaks down on the Roof of the World, Central Asia in 1289, its occupants are met by the explorer Marco Polo. His mammoth undertaking is to cross the desert to Peking, and before long he has set his mind on presenting the TARDIS to the emperor Kublai Khan as a gift on his arrival. Unless they can persuade Polo otherwise, the Doctor and his companions will lose their only means to escape this moment in history. However, Polo isn't the only one with designs on the TARDIS.

The warlord Tegana will go to any lengths to steal the magical blue box - lengths which endanger the lives of the whole travelling party as they are beset by drought, bandits, and the merciless desert. And when the Doctor finally meets Kublai Khan himself, the precious Ship is his only collateral in a high-stakes round of backgammon - and the Khan is a master of the game…

William Russell, who plays Ian in the story narrates the soundtrack to this classic adventure which, long missing from the television archives, has itself gained legendary status as an example of Doctor Who at its finest. Hailing from the programme's first season (1963-4), it also stars Jacqueline Hill, Carole Ann Ford, and Mark Eden as Marco Polo. An exclusive full-colour map, showing the route taken by Polo and company, is also included.

Written By
John Lucarotti

First Broadcast
BBC1
22 February 1964

NUMBER OF EPISODES
Seven

Last Broadcast
4 April 1964

Producer's note:

The quality of the recording reflects the age of the programmes and the off-air nature of the source material. Whilst every attempt has been made to clean up and remaster these recordings using the latest technology, the sound quality may vary.

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