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
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