Overview
The program's gestation was over twelve months and resulted in the shooting of a pilot that was later to become the first episode. The first episode, An Unearthly Child was broadcast on 23rd November 1963 at 5:15PM on BBC TV (now BBC One). The episode is notorious for having been repeated a week later prior to the second episode due to the BBC's management deciding that blanket coverage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy had affected the new program's ratings. Another cited reason was widespread power blackouts across the United Kingdom.
Newman had envisaged the show as an educational program for children where the Doctor of the title would travel in time to historical events. The second serial, The Daleks catapaulted the program into the public consciousness with the wildly popular monster, the Daleks. The series was rapidly re-worked into a science fiction series and has remained so since.
The title comes from the main character, the Doctor, who travels through time and space in a craft called the TARDIS, an acronym for Time And Relative Dimensions in Space. The Doctor himself is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, a race of people who are able to regenerate their bodies when their health is failing or they are mortally wounded.
Different Formats and Eras
The Classic Era, 1963-1989
Doctor Who has taken on a number of formats. The Classic television program was broadcast as serials of two, three, four or six episodes of twenty-five minutes in length. Notable exceptions are the twelve epsiode The Daleks' Masterplan (1965) and the ten episode The War Games. For Season 22 it was broadcast in 45 minute episodes before reverting to 25 minutes for the remaining seasons of the program's Classic era, Seasons 23-26.
Two Dalek movies were made in the 1960s, starring Peter Cushing as Doctor Who: Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 AD (1966). The films are not considered canonical as there are a number of inconsistencies with the television program, the obvious being the use of the name 'Doctor Who' rather than just 'Doctor'.
The 1996 Telemovie
The program made a brief, ill-fated appearance as the telemovie Doctor Who in 1996, a BBC joint-venture with Universal and Fox with Paul McGann playing the Eighth Doctor. The movie was considered a 'back door' pilot by many fans and despite a positive reception in the UK market, the US market was lukewarm and nothing further happened.
The movie also featured a cameo appearance by the Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy.
The New Series, 2005-present
In 2005, BBC Wales relaunched Doctor Who on BBC One, with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, accompanied by Rose, played by Billie Piper. The first episode of the new series, Rose was broadcast 26th March, 2005 on BBC One in its traditional Saturday evening timeslot. David Tennant assumed the role of the Doctor at the end of that Season and remains in the role. The new series was masterminded by Russell T. Davies and is largely shot in Cardiff, Wales.
The New Series, while remaining faithful in a number of areas to the original series, introduced a number of concepts deemed unthinkable in the Classic series. One major difference is the introduction of sexuality to the program, something that had never before been entertained by Doctor Who producers. In The End of the World (2005), the Doctor is attracted to a tree-like being Jabe, who dies trying to save the Doctor, and the entire space station they are on. In The Empty Child (2005), Captain Jack Harkness is introduced, a character who is openly bi-sexual and who makes advances on both the Rose and the Doctor. The Doctor is jealous of his advances on Rose as Rose is of Jack's advances on the Doctor. Sexual tension between the Doctor and Rose develops over the remainder of the first series of the New Series and culminates in a tearful goodbye at the concusion of Season Two in Doomsday (2006).
The Doctor is also attracted to Madame de Pompadour in The Girl in the Fireplace (2006) and in the 2008 story Silence in the Library, a woman with whom the Doctor will become involved in his future, Professor River Song, is revealed. Martha's doomed attraction to the Doctor during the 2007 season was a prominent element of the character's story arc and the primary reason for her leaving the TARDIS at the conclusion of The Last of the Time Lords. In School Reunion (2007), Sarah Jane Smith also confesses that the only man in her life had been the Doctor, somewhat undermining the portrayal of the fraternal relationship in the classic series.
The introduction of the sexuality into the series is seemingly at odds with one of the reasons the producer of the New Series 1-4, Phil Collinson, says he was a fan of the program because it basically ignored sexuality. In a 2007 interview with Shout!, Collinson stated, 'For me as a young boy, growing up in the North of England, in a world where I could never imagine a being a gay man...I think Doctor Who was asexual. There were programs like The Sweeney which were very much about men chasing women...whereas with Doctor Who, you had a show that never really dealt with that.'[1]
Despite the introduction of a number of new concepts and themes, the fan base is largely happy with the successfully relaunched series. The BBC is also pleased, with ratings regularly topping 10 million viewers and the program regularly featuring in the in the top programs for the week in the UK.
The New Series has attracted funding from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and is shown in the US on the Sci-Fi Channel and BBC America. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation have also enjoyed success with the program enjoying ratings above what is considered the 'magic million' mark after rescheduling to Sunday nights.
The program has also spawned audio books produced by Big Picture featuring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors, all played by the original actors. More recently, the offical Doctor Who website has hosted webisodes starring Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper, David Tennant and Freema Agyeman. Uniquely, the untransmitted Fourth Doctor story, Douglas Adams' Shada, was remade as an animated story for BBCi, with the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) and Romana II (Lalla Ward) and made available online in 2003.
Novelisations
Many Doctor Who stories have been the subject of novelisations, the most prolific producer of these being writer Terrance Dicks. By the early nineties, nearly every Doctor Who story that had been broadcast had been adapted to a novel, published under the Target brand (now Virgin Publishing) or WH Allen.
Following the cancellation of the series in 1989, new stories were produced by Virgin and proved extremely popular, with novels written by the likes of Russell T. Davies and Mark Gatiss. The new novels were published under either the Missing Adventures or New Adventures labels.
The Doctor
The Doctor has been played by these ten actors and are regarded as canonical by fans of the series:
- William Hartnell 1963-1966
- Patrick Troughton 1966-1969
- Jon Pertwee 1970-1974
- Tom Baker 1974-1981
- Peter Davison 1981-1984
- Colin Baker 1984-1986
- Sylvester McCoy 1987-1989
- Paul McGann 1996 & 2003
- Christopher Eccleston 2005
- David Tennant 2005-present.
Peter Cushing played Doctor Who in the 1965 and 1966 films, Rowan Atkinson portrayed the Doctor in a Comic Relief special penned by Steven Moffat called The Curse of the Fatal Death. Richard E. Grant played an alternative Ninth Doctor in the BBCi production Scream of the Shalka and also appeared in the Curse of the Fatal Death. Many fans consider the Shalka special as non-canonical since Russell T. Davies announced Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor.
Paul McGann also portrayed the Doctor in the BBCi web version of what was originally a fourth Doctor story, Shada.
In Season 23, a series of four stories with the umbrella title, The Trial of a Time Lord, the Doctor is on trial, the prosecutor known as the Valeyard. During the series, the Master appears and informs the Doctor that the Valeyard is in fact the dark side of the Doctor, between his twelfth and final incarnations. There is some argument among fans as to whether the Valeyard, played by Michael Jayston, can be considered as a portrayal of the Doctor.
Characteristics
The Doctor is enormously intelligent, resourceful and capable of impressive feats of strength and endurance, partly due to his two hearts. Each of the Doctor's incarnations has its own quirks, foibles and mannerisms. The first Doctor was characterised by his grandfatherly appearance and noble bearing, the second by his clown-like sense of humour and so on. Various acts constantly remind the viewer that while the Doctor admires humans, he is not one of them.
The Doctor's compassion and strong sense of justice are his overriding traits. The Doctor does not carry any weapons and is very rarely seen holding a gun. His pacifism is reinforced in the New Series, declaring that he destroyed a weapons factory, happily recounting the land is now host to a banana plantation. He is, however, capable of incredible acts of destruction, such as destroying Skaro in the Seventh Doctor adventure Remembrance of the Daleks (1988).
The Practical Origin of Regeneration
As William Hartnell's health began to fail, he announced his departure as the Doctor. The program itself was still enjoying solid ratings and the decision was made to introduce the concept of renewal, which became known as regeneration. This risky move has paid huge dividends as it has allowed what was normally an awkward or unconvincing process of changing the leading actor of a series to become an anticipated event. It has also granted the show unprecedented longevity and flexibility.
In the 1999 BBC television special, Doctor Who: Adventures in Space and Time, the last producer of the Classic series, John Nathan-Turner, praises the idea of regeneration as extremely brave.
"It was a very bold move in 1966 for a television company to decide to come up with an idea of replacing the leading actor. I mean, in the eighties we got used to Miss Ellie being played by fourteen different actresses a year in Dallas and nobody seemed to mind at all. But I'm talking about 1966, pretty bold for then for someone to say, well, we can come up with this little idea of keeping the show on the air." - John Nathan-Turner, Doctor Who: Adventures in Space and Time (1999)
Gallifrey
The Doctor has a troubled relationship with his homeworld and its people. The Doctor stole a Type 40 TARDIS and became a renegade, roaming through time and space as a sort of peaceful vigilante. On a number of occasions the Doctor was co-opted by the Time Lords to interfere in events of great concern that could affect the Universe. The Doctor was captured and tried by the Time Lords at the conclusion of the epic The War Games, convicted of breaking the Time Lords' law of non-interference. He is convicted and exiled to Earth, his knowledge of the TARDIS wiped from his memory and the dematerialisation circuit removed from the TARDIS controls.
The Doctor's exile was ended in The Three Doctors where he was united with his first and second incarnations to battle Omega, the mythological Gallifreyan who gave the Time Lords their immense power by detonating a star. The Doctor's victory sees his knowledge and the TARDIS dematerialisation circuit returned to him.
The Doctor was again summoned to Gallifrey in The Deadly Assassin where he is arrested for the assassination of the outgoing Lord President of Gallifrey. As a way of preventing his execution, the Doctor nominates himself for election as the new Lord President. Chancellor Goth lured the Doctor into the Matrix in an attempt to kill him but the Doctor emerged victorious. It was then revealed that the Master, now past his twelfth and final regeneration, had orchestrated the entire situation in attempt to gain access to the Eye of Harmony, the Time Lord's power source, in an attempt to prolong his life. He failed, due to the Doctor's presence and the Doctor is elected Lord President. Predictably, the Doctor disappears to avoid taking up the post.
Returning to claim his Presidency, the Doctor foils a Sontaran invasion in the story Invasion of Time (1978). For the first time, the Doctor willingly brings a companion, in the form of Leela and K9, who both remain on Gallifrey at the conclusion of the story.
Gallifrey was again the setting of Arc of Infinity and also saw the return of Omega, last seen in The Three Doctors (1973). The Doctor is again embroiled in the politics and imminent destruction of Gallifrey which sees him chasing a replica of himself through the streets of Amsterdam, the replica being Omega who has finally gained a new body, but one that rapidly decays.
Not long after, at the end of the twentieth season, an anniversary special, The Five Doctors saw the Doctors and their companions kidnapped from time and thrust into an old game world that the Gallifreyans had created called the Death Zone. The Master is again involved, as is Gallifreyan politics, the end of the special seeing the Doctor expected to take up office as Lord President again. Naturally, he quickly absconds.
During the first season of the New Series, it is revealed that Gallifrey, and the entire Time Lord race excepting the Doctor, have been wiped out in a Time War with the Daleks, leaving the Doctor as the only Time Lord in the Universe.
Time Lords
The Time Lords are from the planet Gallifrey. What is certain about them is that they have two hearts, are able to regenerate their bodies either under stress or at will (as Romana did in Destiny of the Daleks) and almost all of them reside on their home planet.
Throughout the series' 45-year history, various explanations for the origins of the Time Lords have been offered. The first story to feature another Time Lord (apart from Susan) was The Time Meddler (1965). The Meddling Monk stated in the story that he left the Doctor's home planet fifty years after the Doctor's own departure, at least confirming he was Gallifreyan. The Monk was also in possession of a Type IV TARDIS with an operational chameleon circuit. The Monk also appeared in The Daleks' Master Plan (1965).
The next appearance of a Time Lord was in the 1969 serial The War Games. The Time Lords capture the Doctor, returning his companions to their own times, and put him on trial for breaking the laws of non-interference. He is banished to Earth, forcibly regenerated and his TARDIS disabled.
While stranded on Earth, the Third Doctor encounters another renegade Time Lord, known as The Master. Played by Roger Delgado, he appeared in the 1971 story Terror of the Autons. The Master made a number of appearances over the next 18 years, with a number of different actors following the death of Delgado in 1973. The Master's appearance had changed markedly and for the worse in The Deadly Assassin (1976) and then again in The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis (both 1981) when the Master absorbs the body of Tremas of Traken (Anthony Ainley). After absorbing Tremas' body, the Master took on a similar look to that of Delgado's Master, again played by Anthony Ainley.
In the 1996 telemovie, the Master is seen on trial by the Daleks (who are only heard) and is executed. Somehow he escapes by taking the form of an oozing sludge, infiltrating the Doctor's TARDIS. After the Doctor (played initially by Sylvester McCoy) is shot by a gang, the Master again absorbs the body of another humanoid, a paramedic played by Eric Roberts.
For the New Series, the Master again changed and was seen again played by Derek Jacobi in the 2007 story, Utopia. The Master had disguised himself as a human, Professor Yana, through the use of a Chameleon Arch, a method whereby a Time Lord could re-write their DNA to appear physiologically human (as the Doctor did in The Family of Blood, 2007). This is regarded as the reason the Doctor was unable to sense the presence of another Time Lord in the Universe. The Chameleon Arch is a fob watch device into which a Time Lord can deposit his essence with his body's DNA re-written to resemble that of a human's.
Once the Chameleon Arch is tripped, The Master reverts to his Time Lord self, is injured in a gunfight, and regenerates to be played by John Simm. The Master is again shot in the 2007 season finale, The Last of the Time Lords and refuses to regenerate, leaving the Doctor inconsolable, to the Master's dying pleasure.
In The Three Doctors (1973), Omega is introduced as a Time Lord. Omega was the solar engineer responsible for much of the power of the Time Lords but as a result of his work, has been banished to an anti-matter universe in a limbo-like state without a physical body. In The Three Doctors, Omega throws Gallifrey into chaos by draining the power from Gallifrey and the Doctor's own TARDIS. The Time Lords allow the Doctor's previous selves to assist in the rescue of Gallifrey through sheer desperation. In this story, the Time Lord President and Chancellor are introduced, as well as a third Time Lord. The Doctor's first three incarnations are required to defeat Omega, which they do despite offering Omega a way out of his situation. Despite his apparent death, Omega returned in Arc of Infinity (1983), eventually creating himself a physical body by stealing the Doctor's own appearance but is again defeated.
In various serials, from The Deadly Assassin through to The Trial of a Time Lord, the Gallifreyan political system is given more detail and refined. The Deadly Assassin details some parts of Gallifreyan government, defense and security and introduces various concepts such as the Sash and the Great Key of Rassilon, the Matrix (pre-dating the movies that utilise a similar concept by some twenty years) and the Eye of Harmony. The Time Lords are also given a Roman-esque look and feel along with familiar titles such as Consul.
Through the various stories set on Gallifrey and over the Key To Time series, the Doctor's frustration with the Time Lord way of life and reticence to engage in the affairs of the Universe becomes apparent. The Doctor vaguely resents the Time Lords leaving him to do much of the work that only the powerful Time Lords could achieve via the Celestial Intervention Agency, often using blackmail. Despite this, the Doctor absconds when he is appointed Lord President of the High Council of Gallifrey at the conclusion of The Five Doctors, preferring to continue his work as he had always done.
The Five Doctors also reveals a previous era where the Time Lords had misused their power and created a game where killing for sport was viewed, much like the Roman's own Colloseum, which may explain their apparent indifference. During this story, the origins of Gallifreyan society becomes more clear and the role of Rassilon more apparent. The Second Doctor tells Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, with whom he has been kidnapped, that Rassilon had put a stop to the use of the Death Zone.
The TARDIS
See also main article TARDIS.
The TARDIS is capable of travelling through time and space and can take on any form. In the case of the Doctor's 'Type 40' TARDIS, the chameleon circuit, so-called due to its ability to change the exterior form of the craft, is inoperative. When the TARDIS is discovered by Ian and Barbara in the Totters Lane scrapyard, it is in the form of a 1950s Police Box and changed on only a handful of occasions in the show's first twenty-six seasons between 1963 and 1989.
The Police Box exterior has been little changed, with slightly different treatments to the lantern, signage and roof. The 2005 season also saw the doors used as an integral part of the external and internal sets, the inside of the door carrying a classic telephone that rings for the first time in The Empty Child (2005).
In the classic series, the TARDIS had a number of minor changes to the console until the Fourth Doctor transferred control to a wood-pannelled secondary console room for Season 18. The Doctor is seen refurbishing the console room in The Five Doctors, giving the console a far more futuristic look. The 2005 series saw a major change in architecture to what is termed a 'steampunk' inspired look, a cavern-like structure with a more lashed-together look and feel, similar to the console room briefly featured in the 1996 telemovie. This major change is explained in Time Crash as the rather lame idea of 'changing the desktop theme,' the Doctor joking that a leopard skin version was available but he didn't like it.
The Doctor explains in Journey's End, after a number of hints, that the TARDIS needs six people to fly it properly, which explains his haphazard methods when piloting on his own.
The TARDIS is said to exist in a state of temporal grace, which explains why weapons cannot be used in the craft, although in Earthshock, the Cybermen are able to fire their weapons in the console room. From the outside, the TARDIS is impregnable although there have been a number of close shaves, most notably in The Five Doctors and Journey's End.
In Journey's End, Donna tells the Tenth Doctor that the chameleon circuit isn't really broken and could easily be fixed, although this could have been a result of her mind unravelling after experiencing metacrisis with the Doctor.
A number of stories have used the internals of the TARDIS and the various areas inside. The 1964 serial, Edge of Destruction (which followed The Daleks) was set entirely inside the TARDIS which was crippled. The 1978 story Invasion of Time saw the Doctor and a small entourage chased through the TARDIS corridors by Sontarans and Castellan Kelner. In the 1981 story Logopolis, an area of the TARDIS called the Cloisters was revealed, along with the troubling Cloister Bell, a signal of impending doom.
The 1982 story Castrovalva introduced the Zero Room, an area in which the Doctor could recuperate after his troubled regeneration. Unfortunately for the Doctor, due to the TARDIS being hurled backwards in time to 'Event One' by The Master, it was required that he eject a quarter of the TARDIS to provide thrust but it took the Zero Room with it, leaving only the doors. Castrovalva also took in the fact that each of the companions had their own rooms. Paradise Towers saw the swimming pool ejected due to a leak. A common sight for viewers, particularly early in a new Doctor's tenure, was the wardrobe room where the Doctor would choose his new look.
An Unearthly Child and the Origins of the Title
An Unearthly Child introduced the Doctor (William Hartnell), his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) and Susan's two teachers, Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill).
Susan is followed to the TARDIS by her teachers who are curious about her home life and Susan herself who displays erratic intelligence, as though from another planet. She identifies the Doctor as her grandfather when the two teachers stow away in the TARDIS. When Ian refers to the Doctor as Doctor Foreman, the Doctor replies, 'Doctor Who?'
References
- http://shoutweb.co.u
k/mar07-a3.html
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