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26 THE CLIFFHANGER SCREECH
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Not Bonnie Langford, but that eerie electronic gargle at the end of an episode – or, more often nowadays, a teaser. Even when overlaid on a finale as feeble as “Death To The Daleks” episode three – the Doctor looks down at some coloured floor tiles! – it makes the neck hairs stand to attention. EastEnders ’ drummer-falling-down-the-stairs sounds like a wannabe amateur in comparison.
27 THE QUARKS
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A shameless attempt to coin it in by creating the “next Daleks”, these lumbering robots from Troughton snorefest “The Dominators” looked like something made by Ed Wood out of cardboard boxes, and went on to be regulars in the ’60s comic strips. See also: the Mechonoids, the Krotons and the Chumblies.
28 HOUSEHOLD OBJECTS
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Some people laugh at the fact that the ’60s Cybermen had practice golf balls glued to their joints, or that Daleks had to operate their spaceship controls using a sink plunger. But for us, growing up, it was part of the magic. Every time we had to pull on some cricket gloves for PE, we could pretend we were a Cyberman from “Silver Nemesis”. It almost made cricket seem interesting.
29 ROBERT HOLMES
Pipe-smoking creator of the Autons and the Sontarans, a master of the gothic homage and the double act. Okay, he wrote his fair share of clunkers (“The Space Pirates”, “The Power Of Kroll”, “The Mysterious Planet”…), but he also originated a dense mythology for the Time Lords and authored “The Caves Of Androzani”, recently voted the series’ best-ever story. He doesn’t get enough credit for his rewrites of others’ work, either. Compare and contrast “Genesis Of The Daleks” and “Destiny Of The Daleks” to see the difference a great editor can make to a generic Terry Nation script.
30 ROMANA II’S OUTFITS
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A feminine take on the Doctor’s coat and scarf. A schoolgirl. A fox hunting outfit (complete with riding crop!). An Edwardian bathing costume. June Hudson’s designs for Lalla Ward’s Time Lady may not always have been practical or logical, but they were an awful lot of fun.
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