Encyclopedia
Doctor Who is a long-running
British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC about a mysterious
time-travelling adventurer known as "The Doctor", who explores time and space with his companions, fighting evil. It is also the title of a
1996 television movie featuring the same character. It is common to see the show's title abbreviated as
Dr. Who, even sometimes by the BBC, although purists consider this form incorrect.
The programme is one of the longest-running science fiction television series in the world and also a significant part of British popular culture. It has been recognised for its imaginative stories, creative low-budget special effects during its original run and pioneering use of electronic music . In Britain and elsewhere, the show has become a cult television favourite on a par with
Star Trek and has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. It has received recognition from critics and the public as one of the finest British television programmes, including a BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series in 2006.
The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. A
television movie was made in 1996, and the programme was successfully
relaunched in 2005, produced in-house by BBC Wales. Some development money is contributed by the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , which is credited as a co-producer in overseas markets, although they do not have creative input into the series.
A Christmas special,
The Runaway Bride, will air in December 2006 with a third series, starring
David Tennant as the Doctor and
Freema Agyeman as his
Martha Jones, to follow in 2007 on
BBC One.
History
Doctor Who first appeared on BBC television at 5:15 p.m. on November 23 1963. The programme was born out of discussions and plans that had been going on for a year. The
Head of Drama,
Sydney Newman, was mainly responsible for developing it, with contributions by the Head of the Script Department , Donald Wilson, staff writer C. E. 'Bunny' Webber, writer Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and initial producer,
Verity Lambert. The series' distinctive, haunting title theme was composed by
Ron Grainer and realised by
Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
The BBC drama department's Serials division produced the programme for twenty-six seasons, broadcast on
BBC One. Falling viewing numbers, a decline in the public perception of the show and a less prominent transmission slot saw production suspended in 1989 by Jonathan Powell, Controller of BBC One. Although it was for all intents and purposes cancelled , the BBC maintained the series was merely "on hiatus" and insisted the show would return.
While in-house production had ceased, the BBC was hopeful of finding an independent production company to re-launch the show.
Philip Segal, a British expatriate who worked for
Columbia Pictures' television arm in the
United States, approached the BBC about such a venture. Segal's negotiations eventually led to a television movie. The
movie was broadcast on the
Fox Network in 1996 as a co-production between Fox,
Universal Pictures, the BBC, and
BBC Worldwide. However, although the film was successful in the UK , it was less so in the
United States and did not lead to a series.
Although
licensed media such as novels and audio plays provided new stories, the programme remained dormant until 2003. In September of that year, BBC Television announced the production of a new in-house series after several years of unsuccessful attempts by BBC Worldwide to find backing for a feature film version.
The new programme debuted with the episode
Rose, and the flower [i] of this shrub. ...
on BBC One on March 26 2005 and the show has since been sold to many other countries . The programme debuted on the American Sci-Fi Channel on 17 March 2006, one year after the UK showings. The BBC subsequently commissioned two more series and Christmas specials. Series 2 has finished its run in the UK and will be followed by
The Runaway Bride in December.
Format
Doctor Who originally ran for 26 seasons on the BBC, from November 23, 1963 until December 6, 1989. During the original run, each of the weekly episodes formed part of a story of several parts — usually four to six in earlier years and three to four in later years. Three notable exceptions were the epic
The Daleks' Master Plan is a serial [i] in the British [i]...
, which aired in 12 episodes ; the 10-episode serial
The War Games is a serial [i] in the British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
; and
The Trial of a Time Lord is the name used on screen for all fourteen episodes comprising the 23rd se...
, which ran for 14 episodes during Season 23 .
The programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule. Initially, it alternated stories set in the past, which would teach younger audience members about history, with stories set either in the future or in outer space to teach them about science. This was also reflected in the Doctor's original companions, one of whom was a science teacher and another a history teacher.
However, science fiction stories came to dominate the programme and the "historicals", which were not popular with the production team, were dropped after
The Highlanders . While the show continued to use historical settings, they were generally used as a backdrop for science fiction tales, with one exception:
Black Orchid , set in 1920s Britain.
The early stories were more serial-like in nature, with the narrative of one story flowing into the next, and each episode having its own title, although produced as distinct stories with their own production codes. Following
The Gunfighters is a serial [i] in the British [i] science fiction television [i]...
, however, each serial was given its own title, with the individual parts simply being assigned episode numbers. What to name these earlier stories is often a subject of fan debate.
Writers during the original run included
Terry Nation,
Henry Lincoln,
Douglas Adams, Robert Holmes, Terrance Dicks, Dennis Spooner,
Eric Saward, Malcolm Hulke, Christopher H. Bidmead, Stephen Gallagher, Brian Hayles, Chris Boucher,
Marc Platt and Ben Aaronovitch.
The serial format changed for the 2005 revival, with each series consisting of thirteen 45-minute, self-contained episodes . This includes three two-parters and a loose story arc per season whose elements are brought together in the season finale.
Over 700
Doctor Who instalments have been televised since 1963, ranging from 25-minute episodes , to 50-minute episodes for a single season in 1985, to two feature-length productions . It is expected that
Doctor Who will surpass the number of individual instalments of the
Star Trek franchise during the 2007 series.
The first two years of the revival were filmed in 576i25
DigiBeta widescreen format and then filmised to give a 25p image in post-production using a Snell and Wilcox Alchemist Platinum. The third series of the new
Doctor Who and the first series of the
Torchwood is a British [i] television science fiction [i] ...
spinoff will reportedly be filmed in HD.
Public consciousness
The programme rapidly became a national institution, the subject of countless jokes, newspaper mentions and other popular culture references. Many renowned actors asked for or were offered and accepted guest starring roles in various stories.
However, with popularity came controversy over the show's suitability for children. The moral campaigner
Mary Whitehouse made a series of complaints to the BBC in the 1970s over its sometimes frightening or gory content. Ironically, her actions made the programme even more popular, especially with children. John Nathan-Turner, who produced the series during the 1980s, was heard to say that he looked forward to Whitehouse's comments, as the show's ratings would increase soon after she had made them. During the 1970s, the
Radio Times is the BBC [i]'s weekly television [i] and radio [i] programme listings magazine [i]. ...
, the BBC's listings magazine, announced that a child's mother said the theme music terrified her son. The
Radio Times was apologetic, but the theme music remained.
There were more complaints about the programme's content than its music. During
Jon Pertwee's second season as the Doctor, in the serial
Terror of the Autons is a serial [i] in the British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
, images of murderous plastic dolls, daffodils killing unsuspecting victims and blank-featured android policemen marked the apex of the show's ability to frighten children. Other notable moments in that decade included the Doctor apparently being drowned by Chancellor Goth in
The Deadly Assassin is a serial [i] in the British [i] science fiction television [i]...
, and the allegedly negative portrayal of Chinese people in
The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a serial [i] in the British [i] ...
.
It has been said that watching
Doctor Who from a position of safety "behind the sofa" and peering cautiously out to see if the frightening part was over is one of the great shared experiences of British childhood. The phrase has become a common phrase in association with the programme and occasionally elsewhere.
The Doctor
The character of the Doctor was initially shrouded in mystery. All that was known about him in the programme's early days was that he was an eccentric alien traveller of great intelligence who battled injustice while exploring Time and Space in an unreliable old time machine called the
TARDIS. The TARDIS is much larger on the inside than on the outside and, due to a chronic malfunction, stuck in the shape of a 1950s-style British
police box.
However, not only did the initially irascible and slightly sinister Doctor quickly mellow into a more compassionate figure, it was eventually revealed that he had been "on the run" from his own people, the
Time Lords of the planet
Gallifrey.
Like all Time Lords, the Doctor has the ability to "regenerate" his body when near death, allowing for the convenient recasting of the lead actor. While a Time Lord can regenerate twelve times, the Doctor has gone through this process and its resulting after-effects on nine occasions, with each of his incarnations having his own quirks and abilities:
- First Doctor, played by William Hartnell
- Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton
- Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee
...
- Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker
- Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison
- Sixth Doctor, played by Colin Baker
- Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy
- Eighth Doctor, played by Paul McGann
- Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston
- Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant
Other actors have also played the Doctor, though rarely more than once .
Despite these shifts in personality, the Doctor has always remained an intensely curious and highly moral adventurer, who would rather solve problems with his wits than through violence.
Throughout the programme's long history certain controversial revelations about the Doctor have been made. For example, in
The Brain of Morbius is a serial [i] in the British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
, it was hinted that the
First Doctor may not have been the Doctor's first incarnation; throughout the
Seventh Doctor's era it was hinted that the Doctor was more than just an ordinary Time Lord, and in the 1996 television movie it was revealed that the Doctor is actually half-human on his mother's side. By the time of the 2005 series, the
Ninth Doctor had become the last known surviving Time Lord.
Companions
The Doctor almost always shares his adventures with up to three . The idea of the companion is to provide a surrogate with whom the audience can identify and to further the story by asking questions and getting into trouble. The Doctor regularly gains new companions and loses old ones; sometimes they return home or find new causes — or loves — on worlds they have visited. Some have even died during the course of the series.
There are some disputes as to the definition of a companion, but fans mostly agree that at least thirty meet the criteria for "companion" status in the television series, with
others being established in the various spin-offs. For further details, see the notes in List of Doctor Who supporting characters.
"Companion" is more generally used as a technical term in fandom; the press normally refers to them either as companions or assistants. The series does not apply the term consistently to those travelling with the Doctor, with him just as often introducing them simply as his friends. In the 2005 series, the
Ninth Doctor states he "employed
Rose as his companion" and then was promptly asked if it was sexual.
Despite the fact that the majority of the Doctor's companions are young, attractive females, the production team for the 1963–1989 series maintained a longstanding taboo against any overt romantic involvement in the TARDIS: for example,
Peter Davison, as the
Fifth Doctor, was not allowed to put his arm around either
Sarah Sutton or
Janet Fielding . However, that has not prevented fans from speculating about possible romantic involvements, most notably between the
Fourth Doctor and the Time Lady
Romana . The taboo was controversially broken in the 1996 television movie when the
Eighth Doctor was shown kissing companion
Grace Holloway. The 2005 series played with this idea by having various characters think that the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler were a couple, which they vehemently denied .
Previous companions have reappeared in the series, usually for anniversary specials. One former companion,
Sarah Jane Smith , together with the robotic dog K-9, appeared in an episode of the 2006 series more than twenty years after their last appearances in the 20th Anniversary story
The Five Doctors was a special movie-length episode [i] of the British [i] ...
.
Freema Agyeman will play
Martha Jones, the Doctor's next companion after Rose. Apart from her name, the casting of family members and the information that she will be a medical student, no details are currently available about her character. She will not appear in the 2006 Christmas special.
Adversaries
- See also: List of Doctor Who monsters and aliens, List of Doctor Who villains
When Sydney Newman commissioned the series, he specifically did not want to perpetuate the cliché of the "bug-eyed monster" of science fiction. However,
monsters were a staple of
Doctor Who almost from the beginning and were popular with audiences.
Notable adversaries of the Doctor include the
Autons, the
Cybermen, the
Sontarans, the
Sea Devils, the
Ice Warriors, the
Yeti, the Silurians, the
Slitheen and the Master, a rival Time Lord with a thirst for universal conquest. Of all the monsters and villains, the ones that most secured the series' place in the public's imagination were the
Daleks. The Daleks are lethal mutants in tank-like mechanical armour from the planet
Skaro. Their chief role in the great scheme of things, as they frequently remark in their instantly recognisable metallic voices, is to "Exterminate!"
Davros, the Daleks' fictional creator, also became a recurring villain after he was introduced.
The Daleks were created by writer
Terry Nation and BBC designer Raymond Cusick. Nation also wrote for 1960s telefantasy like
The Avengers. He later created the 1970s
science fiction programmes
Survivors was a British [i] television series devised by Terry Nation [i] and produce ...
and
Blake's 7 was a BBC [i] science fiction television [i] series created by Terry Nation [i] that ran f ...
and was a writer for the popular American series
MacGyver is an American [i] adventure [i] television series [i] about a laid-back, ext ...
. The Daleks' debut in the programme's second serial,
The Daleks is a serial [i] in the British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
, caused a tremendous reaction in the viewing figures and the public, putting
Doctor Who on the cultural map. A Dalek even appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture in 1999, photographed by
Lord Snowdon.
Music
The original 1963 arrangement of the
Doctor Who theme, as composed by Ron Grainer and realised by
Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, is widely regarded as a significant and innovative piece of electronic music, working from tape loops of an individually struck piano string and individual test oscillators and filters. The Derbyshire arrangement served, with minor edits, as the theme tune up to the end of Season 17 .
A more modern and dynamic arrangement was composed by Peter Howell for Season 18 , which was in turn replaced by Dominic Glynn's arrangement for Season 23's
The Trial of a Time Lord is the name used on screen for all fourteen episodes comprising the 23rd se...
. Keff McCulloch provided the new arrangement for the
Seventh Doctor's era which lasted from Season 24 until the series' suspension in 1989. For the new series in 2005, Murray Gold provided a new arrangement which featured samples from the 1963 original with further elements added.
In the early 1970s,
Jon Pertwee, who had played the
Third Doctor, recorded a version of the
Doctor Who Theme with spoken lyrics, titled, "Who Is The Doctor". In 1988 the band
The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu released the single "
Doctorin' the Tardis" under the name
The Timelords, which reached No. 1 in the UK. Others who have covered or reinterpreted the theme include Orbital, the Australian string ensemble Fourplay,
The Pogues,
Pink Floyd and the comedians
Bill Bailey and Mitch Benn, and satirised on
The Chaser's War on Everything is a satirical television comedy series broadcast on ABC-TV [i] ...
. The theme tune has also appeared on many compilation CDs and has made its way into
mobile phone ring tones. Fans have also produced and distributed their own remixes of the theme.
A soundtrack CD of Gold's music for the new series is currently in production. A release date has not been set.
Viewership
Doctor Who has always appeared on the BBC's mainstream
BBC One channel, drawing audiences of many millions of viewers. It was most popular in the late 1970s, with audiences frequently as high as 12 million. During the
ITV network strike of 1979, viewership peaked at 16 million. No first-run episode of
Doctor Who has ever drawn fewer than three million viewers on BBC One, although its late 1980s performance of three to five million viewers was seen as poor at the time, and was according to the BBC Board of Control, a leading cause of the programme's 1989 suspension. Some fans considered this disingenuous, since the programme was scheduled against the
soap opera Coronation Street is Britain [i]'s longest-running television soap opera [i] and its ...
, the most popular show at the time. The BBC One broadcast of
Rose, and the flower [i] of this shrub. ...
, the first episode of the 2005 revival, drew an average audience of 10.81 million, third highest for BBC One that week and seventh across all channels. The 2005 series had an average audience of 7.95 million viewers, and the 2006 series achieved an average audience of about 7.71 million in the context of declining year-to-year viewership for all television channels. The episode
Rise of the Cybermen is an episode [i] in the British [i] ...
managed sixth place in the charts across the week with 9.22 million viewers. The all-time highest chart placing for an episode of
Doctor Who is fifth, for episode two of
The Ark in Space is a serial [i] in the British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
in 1975.
The programme also gained a strong following in
Australia, possibly as a result of the close connection between the BBC and Australia's major public broadcaster, the ABC. The latest repeat of the classic series in Australia ran from September 2003 to February 2006, and the first episode of the new 2006 series was shown on the ABC, Saturday July 8 2006 at 7:30 p.m..
The series also has a fan base in the
United States, where it was shown in syndication from the 1970s to the 1990s, particularly on
PBS stations .
New Zealand was the first country outside the UK to screen
Doctor Who beginning in September 1964, and continued to screen the series for many years, including the new series from 2005. In
Canada, the series debuted in January 1965, but the CBC only aired the first twenty-six episodes.
TVOntario picked up the show in the 1976 beginning with
Inferno and aired it through to Season 24 in 1991. TVO's schedule ran several years behind the BBC's throughout this period. In the 1970s TVO airings were bookended by a host who would introduce the episode and then, after the episode concluded, try to place it in an educational context in keeping with TVO's status as an educational channel. The airing of
The Talons of Weng Chiang is a serial [i] in the British [i] ...
resulted in controversy for TVOntario as a result of accusations that the story was
racist. Consequently the story was not rebroadcast. CBC began showing the series again in 2005.
Only four episodes have ever had their premiere showings on channels other than BBC One. The 1983 twentieth anniversary special
The Five Doctors was a special movie-length episode [i] of the British [i] ...
had its debut on November 23 on the
Chicago PBS station
WTTW in the United States and various other PBS members two days prior to its BBC One broadcast. The 1988 story
Silver Nemesis is a serial [i] in the British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
was broadcast with all three episodes edited together in compilation form on
TVNZ in New Zealand in November, after the first episode had been shown in the UK but before the final two instalments had aired there. Finally, the 1996 television movie premiered on May 12 on
CITV in
Edmonton, Canada, fifteen days before the BBC One showing, and two days before it aired on
Fox in the USA.
A wide selection of serials is available from BBC Video on
VHS and
DVD, on sale in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. Every fully extant serial has been released on VHS, and BBC Worldwide continues to regularly release serials on DVD. One disc of episodes from the 2005 series is available on
UMD, with more releases planned.
As of September 2006, the new series has been, or is currently, broadcast weekly in
Australia ,
Belgium ,
Brazil ,
Canada ,
Denmark ,
Finland ,
France ,
Hong Kong ,
Hungary ,
Israel ,
Italy ,
Malaysia , the
Netherlands ,
New Zealand ,
Norway ,
Russia ,
Spain and
Latin America ,
South Korea , the
United States , Style UK for the
Middle East,
North Africa, and the
Levant territories. The series has also been sold to, but not yet shown in,
Germany ,
Greece ,
Sweden ,
Romania and
Japan . A special logo has been designed for the Japanese broadcast with the
katakana "????·??".
The 2006 series has been purchased by the CBC but has not yet aired. The 2005 series episodes aired in Canada a couple of weeks after their UK broadcast, a situation made possible by the cancellation of the 2004-2005 National Hockey League season which left vast gaps in CBC's schedule. For the Canadian broadcasts, Christopher Eccleston recorded special video introductions for each episode and excerpts from the
Doctor Who Confidential documentary were played over the closing credits; for the broadcast of
The Christmas Invasion on December 26 2005, Billie Piper recorded a special video introduction.
CBC Television is scheduled to begin airing the 2006 series on October 9 2006 at 8:00 p.m. local , immediately after that day's Canadian Football League
Thanksgiving doubleheader in much of the country. The first series is currently being rebroadcast late Tuesday nights/early Wednesday mornings at midnight. Old episodes of
Doctor Who are shown nightly on the Canadian station
BBC Kids.
In the United States,
The Christmas Invasion will debut on the Sci Fi Channel on 29 September 2006, and will be followed by Series 2.
Fandom
Doctor Who has amassed a large number of fans from all over the world. The series is a more mainstream part of popular culture in its native UK, where it is regarded as a family show and is shown on the main public service broadcasting channel,
BBC One.
The term Whovian, is used by the press to refer to
Doctor Who fans, although the term is not often used by fans.
Celebrity fans include comedians Jon Culshaw,
David Walliams, Mitch Benn,
Peter Kay,
Mark Gatiss and
Matt Lucas 
