Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Profiles Bessie by DJ Forrest



Bessie was the 3rd Doctor's main mode of transport during his time, exiled on Earth. It was given to him by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart for his services with UNIT and made its debut on the Doctor Who story The Silurians. It appeared in the Fourth Doctor story Robot and returned in the Fifth Doctor story The Five Doctors, driven by the Third Doctor as he was 'collected' by the story's bad guy. It returned for the Seventh Doctor story Battlefield where it appeared with the registration WHO 7. Its final appearance came in the 1993 Charity Special Dimensions in Time story.

Bessie was one of 100 cars made in England by an inventor who used Ford 103E Populars as a base with a fibreglass body. These are primarily kit cars made and sold as Siva Edwardian cars, which are two and four seaters.

When the Third Doctor owned the car, it was disappointing not to see WHO 1 as the number plate, but as this was already taken, Bessie's legal number plate was MTR 5. A special number plate (WHO 1) was used for filming sequences only. When the car appeared in the story Battlefield, it sported a new registration number plate WHO 7, presumably because of the Seventh Doctor, but if that's the case, why not have the car with WHO 3 for Pertwee's era?

The cost of building Bessie came to just £500.

Before the Doctor Who Experience closed its doors for the final time, the Bessie car resided there for a while till September 2017 then went on permanent display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, in the section On Screen Cars exhibition.

Links for research


No comments:

Post a Comment