Odd Doctor Who VHS Tape Cover

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In my early teen years, I used to watch Dr Who on our local PBS affiliate on Saturday afternoons. I haven't seen it in years, but for some reason I was reminded of it one day this week. Later that same day, a co-worker mentioned it to me, and then a day or two later someone else brought it up. I thought it was kind of funny that this TV show I hadn't watched since I was a teenager was now frequently popping up. This, in turn, reminded me of a particularly odd VHS tape cover I'd seen when I was still a teenager.

The third actor to play Dr. Who was a gentleman named Jon Pertwee. It seems like everyone's favorite Dr. Who is Tom Baker, who was the fourth actor to play the part, but I never saw much of Tom Baker's work, and my personal favorite is Jon Pertwee. And at some point, a VHS release of some of his best work was released, but it had an extremely odd photo of Mr. Pertwee on the cover:

 

I'm not sure what they were thinking when they chose this photo. It's hardly a heroic photo for the series' protagonist, and the expression on is face is just goofy. But I recently found that there is a slightly different photo for this release. Here's a side-by-side comparison:


In the photo on the right, his facial expression is slightly different (and less goofy), and the position of his right hand is different as well. It's almost as if the two photos were taken within milliseconds of each other. It's like someone said to him "Jon, we're gonna take your VHS cover photo now!" and surprised him by whipping out a camera, to which Mr. Pertwee held up his hands and said "Wait, wait, I'm not ready!" For the DVD release, a different photo was (wisely) chosen.


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