I'm currently listening to the iPlayer - and a recording of Fresh Blood from the other night has Kevin Eldroc talking about Doctor Who, it having been the 47th birthday of it, as the continuity announcer.

In it, he rhymed 'Gallifrey' with 'GP' (gal-ee-free). Then he went on to say that he knows the correct pronunciation of Gallifrey, but that the Time Lord Drax in The Armageddon Factor had pronounced it with the 'free' ending.

It got me thinking, are there many instances of mispronunciation - or rather, pronouncing things differently to the norm, or well known ways? I would imagine they would mostly be from the earlier classic serials, as there wasn't the same kind of [fanatic] fanbase as there is now!

When Destiny Of The Daleks was repeated during the summer of 1980 the BBC announcer introduced the show as Destiny Of The "Dayleks". It struck me as odd as I felt sure that, by 1980, everyone had at least heard of Daleks and knew how the word was pronounced. Obviously I was wrong...

Jon Pertwee famously pronounced the word "chitinous" (referring to insect skin in, I think, the Green Death) with the ch as in chat, rather than the correct ch as a k sound as in kite.

"Daemons" pronounced as "DEmons"

No-one seems very sure of the pronunciation in this story do they? Don't the Daemons come from DAmos?

That's they way I pronounce it too! Is that not correct?

phonetically it should be "Day-mons" and presumably "Day-mos"

Barry Letts received a letter 'The reason I'm writin' is to say how to pronounce chitin' or something along those lines.

Nobody appeared to know how to pronounce 'molybdenum' in 'The Sensorites' and the pronunciation of 'Hekate' in 'The Nightmare of Eden' varies from character to character.

It's supposed to be pronounced: kai-tin...

Sorry to have to tell you!

There was a thread about this story a little while ago, which got very interesting and intelligent. I recommend searching for it. Yes, it's daymons, not demons, but that seems to be forgotten, sad to say.

_________

Tom Baker in Robots of Death pronounces terran (ie: people from Earth) as tehran (ie: capital city of Iran), which is distinctly odd.

Does Tom Baker's "sback off" in Destiny of the Daleks count?

I thought it was "spack off" that he said?

You're right. Bizarrely I just came across it on youtuibe in a fan vid of funny moments. Strange coincidence I should find it within 5 minutes of posting

Kaitnous: absolutely correct

Comes from a Greek word for skin which starts with the Greek letter "chi" which is always pronounced with a hard "k" sound.

But what a word to throw at an actor!

It DOES sound like 'Spack off' doesn't it?
The scripted line should have been 'back off' surely? I always imagined that Tom really wanted to say 'sod off' and that it somehow came out mangled as 's-back off', but another listen makes it sound like a 'p' sound in there... Weird.

When stressed, Nicola Bryant always seems to pronounce "Doctor" as "Duktor" which presumably is the genesis of the bath toy I have that glows with multi-coloured light when in water and came in a TARDIS box: Duktor Who (I kid you not)

Brilliant! I want one!

Knock yourself out - makes my laugh every time I use it

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&k...l_8y1hzk9d82_b

Thanks John - I've added it to my Amazon Christmas wish list, though I have a feeling my daughters will steal it...

I'm pretty sure Nicola Bryants already taken!

I've always liked the way in which the villain/monster hissed;

"Doctoooooor"

According to one Doctor Who book I've read, Jon Pertwee used to have his name mispronounced quite a lot over the years. It must have driven him mad to be called Peewee, Pertee, etc!!!

Oh and being called John must have been quite annoying as well!!