The latest in our ongoing feature centring on significant Doctor Who occasions sees the show accorded a very special publishing honour - but just like the programme itself, it wasn't without wrangles before and after . . .

In the run-up to Doctor Who starting, hopes had been high that the first episode would be given a prestigious publicity boost by the BBC's much-respected listings magazine Radio Times in the form of a cover feature. This was, after all, a show like no other: it was innovative and ground-breaking, with skills, experimentation and imagination pushed further than ever.

However, it was not to be. After initial interest, the magazine had a change of heart at the last minute, falsely believing that the corporation itself didn't have much faith in the programme, and despite protestations by head of serials Donald Wilson editor Douglas Williams ditched the idea, although the show was granted a mention on the relevant cover and an article was included that gave a taster of what adventures might lie ahead - with one of them being the possibility of a journey "to far Cathay in the caravan of Marco Polo."

And it would be that very journey that would see Radio Times finally give in and award the much-coveted prime spot on its cover to Doctor Who - in all probability helped by the fact that with the arrival of the Daleks a few weeks previously, the show had rapidly seared itself into the national consciousness.

With The Roof of the World going out on 22nd February 1964, the cover of the corresponding week's Radio Times - number 2102, volume 162 - depicted lead actor William Hartnell with guest stars Mark Eden as Marco Polo and Derren Nesbitt as Tegana. It was accompanied by an unbylined feature on page 7 that set the historical scene after a brief recap of the previous two adventures. (It should be noted that back then Radio Times also printed its publication date at the top of the pages, hence the references to "February 20, 1964".)

Although the feature's picture included all the companions, the fact that the three actors hadn't appeared on the cover with Hartnell caused some upset. The day after the broadcast of The Roof of the World, William Russell, who played Ian Chesterton, contacted his agent, T Plunkett Green, with a number of concerns relating to the programme as a whole, one of them being the fact that the co-stars had been bumped in favour of the guest stars on the cover of the listings magazine. This grievance would be relayed to Wilson, who subsequently apologised to the agent, saying it had been "confidently expected" by the production team that one of the photos including all the regulars taken at the photocall would be used as a cover image. Wilson assured Plunkett Green that he would complain about it to the magazine.

From a somewhat hesitant start, Doctor Who and Radio Times would, over the years, continue to have something of a love-hate relationship, ranging from the highs of the stunning artwork by Frank Bellamy gracing its pages during the early-to-mid-1970s, as well as special editions, to the lows of the Tom Baker era when it would merit few articles and no covers at all, back to the embarrassment of riches we have in terms of coverage in the 21st century. Today, though, on the 50th anniversary of the broadcast of the opening episode of the seven-part epic - ironically, the earliest Doctor Who story to be missing from the archives - we mark an auspicious event in that relationship between programme and publisher with Doctor Who's first Radio Times cover . . .

The latest in our ongoing features on special moments within Doctor Who sees the show undergo a major transformation . . .

As five million viewers watched the second Doctor spiral away towards his exile, little did they realise that it would be over six months before they would be able to enjoy the Doctor's travels once more. Changes in BBC broadcasting were afoot; the show had already been using the new 625 line standards since The Enemy of The World, and now the BBC was to commence a full colour service from November 1969. As Doctor Who would be made in this way, the series itself would be effectively delayed to both enable the transition and also provide something familiar to herald in the new year - though this led to its biggest break off air since the show's beginning in 1963.

Behind the scenes, co-producers Derrick Sherwin and Peter Bryant had implemented several changes to the format of the show, with their UNIT organisation introduced in The Invasion coming to the fore and how the Doctor would become the Brigadier's leading expert on "the odd, the unexplained, anything on Earth, or even beyond." However, diminishing ratings, the general audience reaction to the sixth season, and the departure of lead actor Patrick Troughton had put the show at risk, though without a suitable replacement programme the seventh season was commissioned with a new Doctor in the form of Jon Pertwee.

Fears for the show's continuation proved unfounded, however, as when the new series started 44 years ago today, some 8.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the new Doctor arrive on Earth and assist UNIT in thwarting the Spearhead From Space, and the overall audience appreciation of his adventures with Autons, earth reptiles, alien paranoia and an alternative Britain over the next 25 weeks were strong enough to ensure the Doctor's adventures would be safe for another 15 years . . .

And so our Moment in Time today is the arrival of the new, colourful series of Doctor Who!

The next in our ongoing features on special moments within Doctor Who sees the commencement of Season Eight, and the arrival of one of the Doctor's greatest nemeses ...

Up until 1971, viewers had only been introduced to a mere few of the Doctor's own race. Surprisingly this first occurred quite early in the show's history, when the Doctor with his companions Steven and Vicki became involved in the nefarious plans of a fellow time traveller from the Doctor's home planet, but it wasn't until 1969 when the machinations of another of his contemporaries ultimately resulted in the Doctor having to contact his own people, leading to his own 'capture', 'trial', and subsequent exile to Earth by the Time Lords.

With a new Doctor effectively earthbound, protagonists had to come to him rather than vice versa, and the production team envisaged a regular adversary, one to match his wisdom and skills, an intellectual challenger in a similar vein to that between Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. It made sense to make such a person one of his own race, so Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks settled on an old acquaintance from the Doctor's youth, another Time Lord renegade who would be both very familiar with and considered himself to be superior to the Doctor.

There was only one person in mind to portray such a character, and today's Moment in Time focuses on the debut of the Doctor's new "old" adversary in Terror of The Autons, as played so memorably by Roger Delgado ...

In the second of our features on special moments in Doctor Who we head back to 1963, and a familiar menace is about to be revealed in all its glory ...

Last weekend saw the celebration of the first appearance of a Dalek at the end of The Dead Planet; however, as much as a "sucker arm" menacing Barbara would set the audience up in anticipation, it did little to prepare them for the full 'horror' to come!

The appearance of the Dalek was originally devised by Raymond Cusick based on the descriptions given by writer Terry Nation, with history attributing their appearance to being inspired by a visit to the Georgian National Ballet - the long-flowing skirts of the dancers giving the impression of them gliding across the stage. Once the design was settled, the physical props were then realised by Shawcraft (Engineering) Ltd, a look that has served them with minimal modification since.

Little did the production team know that what they were about to introduce would become one of the most memorable icons in British culture, with a National Trust survey in 2008 indicating that nine out of ten children were able to identify them! Their immediate success has led to spin-off films, stage plays, and almost their own series, not to mention the multitude of appearances in Doctor Who itself - culminating in their integral part in "the fall of the Eleventh" just this week in The Time of The Doctor!

However, for today's Moment in Time we look back to this very time fifty years ago, to when the Doctor and the viewing public would first encounter the most enduring foe in Doctor Who ...

The first in a new series of features taking a look at special moments throughout the fifty years of Doctor Who.

Tonight we will settle down at 7:30pm to watch the ninth in what has now firmly been established as a British tradition - Doctor Who on Christmas Day. It is now almost inconceivable that the series should not take pride of place in the festive television schedule, but back in the 20th Century this was to occur only once in Doctor Who's first 26 years.

By December 1965, viewers were following the latest adventure with the Doctor and his companion Steven; the previous weeks had seen the pair once again embroiled in Dalek intrigues, losing two friends in Katarina and Bret Vyon in the process, but then gaining a new in Sara Kingdom. The TARDIS travellers have narrowly escaped from the clutches of the Daleks and their ally Mavic Chen on Kembel, and find themselves arriving a planet with a poisonous atmosphere ...

Conceived as a light diversion to the epic events surrounding it, the Christmas Day episode, The Feast of Steven stepped away from the main plot with the Daleks, instead seeing the Doctor, Steven and Sara dealing with local police station in smoggy Liverpool (originally planned as a cameo for another popular 1960s show Z-Cars), then later arriving in 1920s Hollywood and becoming involved in the ensuing madcap antics alongside "Keystone Cops", "Charlie Chaplin" and Arabian movie-makers. However, we select our first memorable Moment in Time from the closing moments of the episode where the show breaks "the fourth wall" for the only time in the show's history as the TARDIS crew toast Christmas Day:


The episode itself was never considered for international viewing (with The Daleks' Master Plan marketed as an eleven parter), and BBC records indicated that as such it was never tele-recorded - meaning that this episode also has the unfortunate distinction of being the only one that has no possibility of being recovered. Fortunately, the soundtrack does exist, so we are still able to at least enjoy the sound of that first Christmas adventure ...

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Plus, as a bonus reconstruction by the production team of An Adventure in Space and Time, here is a tribute to our chosen scene re-enacted by David Bradley: