This is my first DS posting. I have been lurking for a very long time on various programme forums but only now plucked up the courage to register. I hope to join in on a number of those discussions.

I have been a "Doctor Who" fan since the start in 1963 when I was nine. In all "Who" discussions it always interests me that no one ever seems to mention the sci fi series that imediately preceded it on TV. It too went out on Saturday teatimes for five or six weeks and then when it finished "Dr Who" followed it the next week inheriting its viewers. It was called "The Chem. Lab. Mystery" and it took place in a secondary school where some children tried and succeeded in experients in alchemy - turning bass metal into gold. There are some details about it in the IMDB. Does anyone remember it ? I remember it to be a really good series and I have often thought it might merit a remake. Memory of it seems to have buried by the arrival of the all-conquering "Doctor Who", but surely someone must remember it and can maybe even ill in my memories of it.

I can't remember that one. Then again I was only 6 at the time. There's something about it on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0423978/ which says it started on 5 Jan 1963 for 6 eps. Therefore it wasn't on immediately before DW.

Bryan

That's interesting. I could have sworn that it immediately preceeded "Dr Who". Just shows how the mind can play tricks. It was the Saturday teatime slot, that is for sure.

Maybe it was repeated later in '63 just before DW began, and that's when you remember seeing it?

The BFI website confirms it was broadcast from 5.25-5.50pm starting on 05/01/1963.

http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/562582

I first watched Doctor Who avidly when it was Peter Davison. And I think I remember a strange kids programme before it, set on a space station, with different levels and different challenges, the final one being trying to get across a grid without being disintegrated. It used the latest "special effects" of the day, very early CGI I guess! Anyone tell me if I'm right and what it was called?

Sounds like "the Adventure Game", a sort of kids forerunner of The Crystal Maze.

I had never heard of the Chem Lab Mystery! Thanks for that! Dandy Nicholls, Peter Sallis, and Krelper from Androzani!

I've heard of Emerald Soup, which wasd on ITV at the time ... I think ...