Commonwealth Stamps Opinion: 320. Dr. Who Down Under.

Monday 28 October 2013

320. Dr. Who Down Under.

Front cover of Pack.

Stamps featuring fantasy characters have come thick and fast from several Commonwealth postal administrations during 2013 - from Canada Post we have had Superman (Blog 305), from New Zealand Post we have had The Hobbit (Blog 316) and from Royal Mail we have had Dr Who; now we find that Dr. Who has materialised his TARDIS down under and that Australia Post has released a special pack consisting of 2 sheetlets, each of 10 x 60c "Australia" greeting stamps se-tenant with labels featuring different characters from the BBC programme, Dr. Who.:-

The labels feature portraits of the 11 different actors who have so far played the role of "Dr. Who" as well as some of his monstrous enemies (I have described all the actors in a previous blog, no. 184, about the British issue which was released on 26 March 2013) but depict all the Australia Post labels which show the Doctors and some of those which depict some of the monsters below:-

William Hartnell (1)

Patrick Troughton (2)

Australia Post produces a number of the these collectable packs on different subjects, often popular culture, which have a wide appeal to the Australian public but this product has appeal also to Dr Who enthusiasts in other countries, particularly Britain and The United States, so I expect that this particular item will be in heavy demand and collectors will want to add these items to their Royal Mail products.

Jon Pertwee (3)

Tom Baker (4) and Davros

Australia Post did however miss a trick with these sheetlets as they could have established an Australian link with Dr. Who by including a portrait of the character Tegan Jovanka, played by the actress Janet Fielding, who was a companion of the 5th Dr. Who, Peter Davison, the character being a rather outspoken Australian air stewardess whom Dr Who described as a "Mouth on legs". She was introduced in the story where the long-running 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, regenerated into the 5th Doctor Who and was around to appear in the 20th anniversary story, "The Five Doctors".

Peter Davison (5)

In just a month's time, on 23 November, the 50th anniversary story will be shown simultaneously on the televisions of over 70 countries around the world, including Australia and New Zealand where enthusiasts will have "The Day Of The Doctor" broadcast to them during the night (so for them it will "the Night Of The Doctor" I suppose!)

Colin Baker (6)

Sylvester McCoy (7)

This is clearly a big worldwide entertainment event so perhaps stamp collectors can not complain too much that postal administrations feel a need to commemorate a memorable television series which has been running for half a century.