Transmat:Doctor Who: Difference between revisions

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 49: Line 49:
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
{{reflist}}
{{cache clearer}}
{{cache clearer}}

Revision as of 00:09, 16 January 2019

Russell T Davies was responsible for the revival of Doctor Who, as well as the creation of several spin-off series, like the fictional Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, and the factual Doctor Who Confidential and Totally Doctor Who. He is the single most prolific producer of televised entertainment in DWU history. His position is virtually unassailable, due to the fact that he was producing six different programmes in the franchise simultaneously. His decision to base Doctor Who production in his native Wales turned Cardiff into a major hub of British television production, and radically improved the local economy.

The women who gave Doctor Who back to us
JaneTranter.jpg
Click for video

Think Doctor Who is just for boys? Don't you believe it. Not only was the show's very first producer a woman, but it would never have come back without the fierce advocacy of Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner. Considering her importance to Doctor Who it's somewhat ironic that Tranter's only on-screen credits are for Torchwood: Miracle Day. But Gardner, her "partner in crime", is tied only with Russell T Davies as the most prolific producer in Doctor Who history.

Industrial action

Paintbox.jpg

Click for a video of a 21st century geek as he takes delivery of one of the two Paintboxes used by the BBC in the 1980s
The Quantel Paintbox was a graphics workstation that allowed Doctor Who to have a primitive form of colour grading in the 1980s. To find out more about the "business of show", go to category:production information, where you can read about colour separation overlay, low loaders, telerecordings, vidFIRE, rostrum cameras, 2" quad tape, Ealing Studios and tons more.
Surprising guest star
Cleese-up.jpg
Click to watch Cleese respond to Twitter
John Cleese appeared in Doctor Who's highest-rated televised story, City of Death, around the time of series 2 of Fawlty Towers. He was joined by the then-famous Eleanor Bron — the woman Paul McCartney once said was partial inspiration for the song "Eleanor Rigby". Find out more about the thousands of actors who have been on Doctor Who by exploring Doctor Who guest actors.
Ex-Doctors never die, they just make audios

The careers of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors are significantly longer in audio than on television. Check out their latest works at category:2024 audio stories

The relevance of comics

Officially, only The Lodger has been explicitly adapted from a comic strip — also called The Lodger.

10MickeyFootball.jpg

However, several stories have clearly taken material from comic strips — often those in Doctor Who Magazine. The Shakespeare Code contains a good amount of material from A Groatsworth of Wit, and the notion of the Doctor absorbing the time vortex in order to spare a companion was explored in both The Parting of the Ways and The Flood.

The first of the "money men"

Donald Baverstock was the BBC executive who set the the wheels in motion that eventually led to the creation of Doctor Who. Essentially the original commissioner of the programme, he hired Sydney Newman and later imposed a sense of financial responsibility upon producer Verity Lambert.

But Baverstock wasn't the only BBC executive to have a profound impact on the development of Doctor Who. Make sure you read about Lorraine Heggessey, Mark Thompson, Danny Cohen, George Entwistle, Tony Hall, Shaun Sutton, Sydney Newman and others.
Things released on 3 November


Did you know…


  1. Exile is (Almost) Here.... Big Finish, via Internet Archive. Retrieved on 14 December 2003.
3 November births and deaths
Production history for 3 November