You may have seen the story a week or so ago concerning the man who is suing the BBC over who first came up with the idea of Davros, chief of the Daleks in children’s programme Dr Who.
In short, he (he being Steven Clark, aged 51) is alleging the BBC copied the concept and design of Davros from a drawing he entered into a competition run by TV Action magazine three years before the dodgem car-dwelling dictator made its first appearance on screens.
The man’s proof? A copy of the aforementioned sketch he says he has only just rediscovered but which, given it predates Davros’ debut, can only mean he is right and the Beeb is very much in the wrong.
Well, we were quite struck by this revelation here at TVC Towers. So struck, in fact, that we began to wonder what else the BBC may have plagiarised during its televising of the good Doctor’s intergalactic adventures.
Imagine our amazement when, after just five seconds of wondering, we discovered a number of shocking similarities between some of the most recognisable motifs of the show and some of the most recognisable motifs of, well, life in general.
Take Dr Who’s spaceship Tardis. We think it bears more than a passing resemblance to a certain kind of telephone box (below left) prevalent in Britain a whole FIVE YEARS before Dr Who as an early evening entertainment TV series was born:
Not convinced? How about this pair of images. The Dalek is the one on the right:
Still not sure? Well here’s the clincher. The image below right is taken from the Dr Who adventure The Web of Fear, broadcast in 1968.
But the image below left is taken from a tunnel on the London Underground, the first section of which opened for the public ONE HUNDRED AND FIVE YEARS EARLIER!
Good grief, is there anything in Dr Who not lifted from an aspect of popular culture and society dating back a century and a half?
Heavens, even Colin Baker’s “totally tasteless” frock coat was almost identical to a fancy dress outfit TV Cream wore in a primary school pageant in 1979!
But wait. It gets worse. For it seems that the very bricks and mortar of Auntie Beeb herself do not escape a change of copyright theft, as witnessed by this piece of paper drawn by none other than TV Cream’s great uncle during the winter of 1947!
Rest assured we have already been in contact with our lawyers, whose whoops of laughter on hearing our case show just how much they are looking forward to pursuing this action unto the highest court in the land.
Yes, it’s time to put Dr Who on trial – for its life!