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[[Image:Logo2005.jpg|350 px|thumb|New Doctor Who television series logo]]
{{Infobox Merchandise
:''This is an overview article on the TV series and franchise. For other uses of the title "Doctor Who", see [[Doctor Who (disambiguation)]].''
|image        = Doctor Who logo 1.jpg
|aka          =
|designer    =
|publisher    = BBC One
|type        = {{il|TV series|Multimedia franchise}}
|price        =
|release date = [[23 November (releases)|23 November]] [[1963 (releases)|1963]] - present
|trailer      = Doctor Who The Home of Classic Doctor Who BritBox
|trailer2    = The Adventure Begins - Series 1-8 Trailer - Doctor Who
|clip        = Doctor Who in five languages - BBC Worldwide Showcase
|bts          = Regenerating Doctor Who Doctor Who Series 11
|bts2        = Russell T Davies on Doctor Who - Mark Lawson Talks to - BBC
}}{{dab page|Doctor Who (disambiguation)}}
'''''Doctor Who''''' is both a British television series and a global multimedia franchise created and controlled by the BBC ([[British Broadcasting Corporation]]).


'''Doctor Who''' is a science-fiction television programme that originally ran on the [[BBC]] from [[1963]] to [[1989]]. A [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie|television movie]] was co-produced with Universal Pictures in [[1996]], after which the series itself was revived starting in March [[2005]] in the United Kingdom and Australia, and in March [[2006]] in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel. It is still in production as of 2009.
It centres on a time traveller called "[[the Doctor]]", who is often depicted as — but certainly not ''always'' — coming from a race of beings known as [[Time Lord]]s. They travel through space and time in a [[time machine]] they call [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]]. This ship — which looks like a small, [[London]] [[police box]] on the outside — has nearly [[dimensionally transcendental|infinite dimensions on the inside]]. It has become such an iconic shape in [[British]] culture that it's currently the intellectual property of the [[BBC]] rather than its actual makers, the [[Metropolitan Police Service]].


''Doctor Who'' is about the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known as [[the Doctor]]. The Doctor travels through space and time in a craft known as the [[TARDIS]], an acronym for "Time and Relative Dimension in Space". The Doctor is usually accompanied by one or more [[list of companions|companions]], who are often attractive females. The tone of the programme varies from serious to comic, from gothic horror to pantomime camp. The original ''Doctor Who'' series is fondly remembered among the general public both for frightening monsters (such as the [[Dalek]]s and [[Cybermen]]) and pioneering use of both electronic music and low-budget [[special effects]].
Since ''Doctor Who''{{'}}s revival in 2005, its production has been primarily based in [[Wales]] by [[BBC Wales]], with its soundtrack regularly performed by the [[BBC National Orchestra of Wales]] since [[The Christmas Invasion (TV story)|that year’s Christmas Special]].


==History of ''Doctor Who''==
In order to accommodate cast changes, the narrative allows [[the Doctor]] to [[regenerate]] into an essentially new person on occasion. The cast is rounded out by one or more "[[companion]]s", often females. On average, the main cast completely changes once every three or four years — a significant factor in the longevity of the programme.
===Milestones===
====Origins====
A number of individuals share credit for establishing ''Doctor Who'' in 1963, but it is generally accepted that the original impetus for the series, as well as the establishment of certain aspects such as the concept of the [[the Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]], the basic character of [[The Doctor]] and the title ''Doctor Who'' itself belong to Canadian-born [[Sydney Newman]], who is also credited with creating another iconic series, ''The Avengers''. Others involved in piecing together the puzzle that became the series include [[Donald Wilson]], writer [[C. E. Webber]], script editor [[David Whitaker]] and the show's first producer, [[Verity Lambert]], the first woman to hold such a position at the BBC. (Decades later, a line of dialogue paid tribute to Newman and Lambert's role in creating ''Doctor Who'', when the [[Tenth Doctor]], in disguise as human [[John Smith]], named his parents as Sydney and Verity in the 2007 episode, ''[[Human Nature (TV story)|Human Nature]]''.)


Two other notable participants in the birth of the series were [[Anthony Coburn]] and [[Waris Hussein]], the writer and director, respectively, of the first four-part serial, ''[[An Unearthly Child]]'', the first episode of which aired on [[23rd November|23 November]], [[1963]]. (The version of the first episode that was broadcast was in fact the second mounting of that episode; an early version (called ''[[The Pilot Episode]]'' by fans), was taped some weeks earlier, but rejected due to a number of issues. The BBC, however,allowed a second mounting of the pilot to proceed. The first episode aired the day after the assassination of [[John F. Kennedy]], and had to be rebroadcast a week later due to power failures disrupting the first broadcast.
It has had two — some argue ''three'' — major production periods. The original run of the programme was from 1963 to 1989, and is often called the "classic series" or "classic ''Doctor Who''". A failed revival, in the form of a [[Universal Studios|Universal]]-BBC co-production, came in [[1996 (releases)|1996]] — but the resulting [[Doctor Who (TV story)|one-off telemovie]] is often considered a part of the classic series. The current form of the programme — sometimes called the "new series" — has been produced by [[BBC Wales]] and aired on [[BBC One]] since 2005.


Also influential in creating the atmosphere of the early series was composers [[Ron Grainer]] and [[Delia Derbyshire]]. Grainer composed the basic melody of the "[[Doctor Who theme]]", while Derbyshire, along with the [[BBC Radiophonic Workshop]], transformed it into a pioneering piece of electronica music. Although there have been a number of arrangements used of the "Doctor Who theme" the basic melody has remained unchanged (i.e. no new piece of music has ever been commissioned as a theme), making it one of the longest-serving theme songs in television history.
Though the classic series is fondly remembered by fans of a certain age, the new series has been far more consistently popular with the [[British]] public,{{fact}} and is usually the highest-rated scripted drama — outside of perennially popular soap operas — in the weeks that it is on the air.


The first episode broadcast, ''[[An Unearthly Child]]'', introduced the [[First Doctor|first incarnation of the Doctor]], played by character actor [[William Hartnell]]. Supporting him here [[William Russell]] (known worldwide at the time for starring in the 1950s action-adventure series ''The Adventures of Sir Lancelot'') and [[Jacqueline Hill]] as [[Ian Chesterton]] and [[Barbara Wright]], respectively, and [[Carole Ann Ford]] as the Doctor's granddaughter, [[Susan Foreman]]. This group would form the core cast of the series throughout its first season and into the second.
The franchise spawned by the main television programme includes dozens of distinct ranges of spinoffs in televised, audio and print media.


====The [[Dalek]]s====
== History of ''Doctor Who'' ==
After the first episode introduced the characters and concept, the remaining three episodes of ''[[An Unearthly Child]]'' encompassed a modest storyline involving a group of cavemen in prehistoric times. The series really began to find its voice as a science fiction series with the second serial, ''[[The Daleks]]'' by [[Terry Nation]], which introduced the [[Dalek]]s, the single most iconic recurring enemy of the franchise. The series began to really take off in popularity with this serial, which helped launch "Dalekmania" in the UK, leading to toys, the first novelisation ''[[Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks]]'', the movie adaptation ''[[Dr. Who and the Daleks]]'', and many televised sequels, beginning with ''[[The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]''.
=== Origin ===
Several individuals share credit for establishing ''Doctor Who'' in [[1963 (production)|1963]], but it is generally accepted that the original impetus for the series, as well as the establishment of certain aspects, such as the concept of [[the Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]], the basic character of [[the Doctor]] and the title ''Doctor Who'' itself belong to [[Canadian]]-born [[Sydney Newman]], who is also credited with creating another iconic series, ''[[The Avengers]]''. Others involved in piecing together the puzzle that became the series include [[Head of Serials]] [[Donald Wilson]], [[writer]] [[C. E. Webber]], [[script editor]] [[David Whitaker]] and the show's first [[producer]], [[Verity Lambert]], the first woman to hold such a position in the drama department at the [[BBC]].
[[File:Ppganuneartlychild 012.JPG|thumb|[[Junkyard]] set and [[police box]] for ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]''.]]
Two other notable participants in the birth of the series were [[Anthony Coburn]] and [[Waris Hussein]], the writer and [[Director (crew)|director]], respectively, of the first four-part serial, ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]'', the first episode of which aired on [[23 November (releases)|23 November]] [[1963 (releases)|1963]]. The version of the first episode that was broadcasted was in fact the second mounting of that episode; an earlier version (called "[[The Pilot Episode]]" by fans), was taped some weeks before, but was rejected for several issues. The BBC allowed a second mounting of the pilot to proceed. The first episode aired the day after the [[assassination of John F. Kennedy]], and had to be rebroadcast [[30 November (releases)|a week later]] when power failures disrupted the first broadcast.


====Early cast changes====
Also important to creating the atmosphere of the early series were [[composer]]s [[Ron Grainer]] and [[Delia Derbyshire]]. Grainer wrote the basic melody of the [[Doctor Who theme|''Doctor Who'' theme]], and Derbyshire, with the [[BBC Radiophonic Workshop]], transformed it into a pioneering piece of electronica music. There have been several arrangements used of the theme, but the basic melody has remained unchanged throughout the show's history. No new piece of music has ever been commissioned as a theme, making it one of the longest-serving signature tunes in television history.
''The Dalek Invasion of Earth'' was also notable for featuring the series' first cast change as Carole Ann Ford left the series; she was replaced the following week by [[Maureen O'Brien]] as [[Vicki]], establishing the concept of the Doctor's companions changing from time to time. The other original companions, William Russell and Jacqueline Hill, left the series a few months later at the conclusion of ''[[The Chase]]'', making way for another new companion, [[Steven Taylor]], played by [[Peter Purves]]. Over the decades, the amount of time spent on the series by the different companions has ranged from as little as a few weeks (with some being considered companions even while appearing in only a single episode), up to several years, with some actors returning to reprise their roles years and even decades later (most notably [[Elisabeth Sladen]] as [[Sarah Jane Smith]]).


====A Change of Identity====
''An Unearthly Child'' introduced the [[First Doctor|first incarnation of the Doctor]], played by character actor [[William Hartnell]]. Supporting him were [[William Russell]] and [[Jacqueline Hill]] as [[Ian Chesterton]] and [[Barbara Wright]], respectively, and [[Carole Ann Ford]] as the Doctor's granddaughter, [[Susan Foreman]]. These four would form the core cast of the series throughout its [[Season 1 (Doctor Who 1963)|first season]] and into the [[Season 2 (Doctor Who 1963)|second]].
The next major turning point in the series occurred in [[1966]] when the original actor to play the Doctor, [[William Hartnell]], decided to leave the series, which was still riding the heights of popularity. Rather than introduce a new leading character or replacing Hartnell without explanation (a situation that would be faced a few years later by the American situation comedy ''Bewitched'' when it had to recast its male lead), or cancelling the series outright, the producers, with input from Sydney Newman, chose instead to establish the Doctor's ability to [[regeneration|regenerate]] when injured or near death (although it would take years to finalize elements of this process). This led to the dramatic - and successful, for the series - transition to [[Patrick Troughton]] as the [[Second Doctor]] at the conclusion of ''[[The Tenth Planet]]'' (a serial that was in itself notable for introducing the franchise's second most popular recurring villains, the [[Cybermen]]).  


The experiment of regenerating the Doctor occurred again in [[1970]] with the introduction of onetime comic actor [[Jon Pertwee]] as the [[Third Doctor]], a move that also coincided with the series changing to colour production. Once again, this was successful and ''Doctor Who'' continued to establish itself as a British TV institution, although it remained virtually unknown in American markets.
From very early on, the television show spawned a sub-genre of the franchise in the form of short stories in various shapes and forms from small one-paper issues to short novels to even telling a story on a set of cards. This genre has developed throughout the years into massive shorts and anthologies and is still holding up in the [[21st century]].


====[[Target Books]]====
=== The Daleks ===
In [[1973]], [[Target Books]] reissued a trilogy of novelisations from the mid-1960s, and then in [[1974]] began publishing its own adaptations of televised episodes. Produced in the days before home video recorders and commercial release of TV series on tape and DVD, and during a time when rebroadcasts were rare and many old episodes were considered lost, the Target line becomes a popular and valued aspect of the growing Doctor Who franchise; the books would continue to be published into the mid-1990s. A unique feature regarding the Target line (and in fact this dates back to the initial novelisations published by [[Frederick Muller]]) is that many of the books were written by either the original scriptwriters or by individuals with strong behind-the-scenes connections to the series, such as [[Barry Letts]], [[Terrance Dicks]], [[David Whitaker]], etc., all of whom worked in script editing or producing capacities on the series. In the late 70s, about a dozen of the Target novels were republished in American editions by Pinnacle Books, with introdutions by noted SF author Harlan Ellison, who added to the franchise's prestige by placing it higher in his estimation than ''[[Star Trek]]''.
After the first episode introduced the characters and concept, the remaining three episodes of ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]'' encompassed a modest storyline involving a group of cavemen in [[BC#Prehistory|prehistoric]] times. The series began to find its voice as a [[science fiction]] series with the second serial, ''[[The Daleks (TV story)|The Daleks]]'' by [[Terry Nation]]. It introduced the [[Dalek]]s, the single most iconic reoccurring enemy of the franchise. The series began to really take off in popularity with this serial, which helped launch "[[Dalekmania]]" in the [[UK]], leading to toys, the first novelisation ''[[Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (novelisation)|Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks]]'', the movie adaptation ''[[Dr. Who and the Daleks (theatrical film)|Dr. Who and the Daleks]]'', and many televised sequels, beginning with ''[[The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)|The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]''.


====The [[Tom Baker]] years====
=== Early cast changes ===
The series, meanwhile, continued throughout the 1970s, with [[Tom Baker]] taking on the role of the [[Fourth Doctor]] in [[1974]]. Baker became the most iconic, and arguably most popular, actor to play the role, due in part to the widespread rebroadcasts of his episodes in the United States, which began during his tenure, as well as the fact he was the first "young" Doctor and held sway over the role for more seasons (seven) than any actor to date (although other actors have been considered the "current" Doctor for longer, they were so without regular television appearances). Near the end of the Tom Baker era, the BBC attempted to produce a spin-off series, ''[[K-9 and Company]]'', but it never went beyond a pilot episode, ''[[A Girl's Best Friend]]''.
''The Dalek Invasion of Earth'' was also notable for featuring the series' first cast change. Carole Ann Ford left the series. She was replaced the following week by [[Maureen O'Brien]] as [[Vicki Pallister|Vicki]], establishing the pattern of the Doctor's [[companion]]s changing. The other original actors, William Russell and Jacqueline Hill, left the series a few months later at the conclusion of ''[[The Chase (TV story)|The Chase]]'', making way for another new companion, [[Steven Taylor]], played by [[Peter Purves]]. Over the decades, the length of service of different companions has ranged from as little as a few weeks (with some being considered companions after appearing in only a single episode), up to several years. Some actors have returned to reprise their roles years and even decades later (most notably [[Elisabeth Sladen]] as [[Sarah Jane Smith]]).


The US broadcasts of ''Doctor Who'' were initially syndicated, with some broadcasters airing a version with narration explaining the plot. By the late 1970s, however, the series was firmly entrenched in the stations of the [[Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS), which would air the show repeatedly over the next three decades and later also begin airing the revived series after 2005.
=== A change of identity ===
The next major turning point in the series occurred in [[1966 (production)|1966]] when the actor playing the [[First Doctor]], [[William Hartnell]], left the series. Rather than introduce a new leading character, replace Hartnell with no explanation or simply cancel the series, the producers, with input from [[Sydney Newman]], chose to establish the Doctor's ability to [[regeneration|regenerate]] into a new person when injured or near death. This led to the dramatic — and successful — transition to [[Patrick Troughton]] as the [[Second Doctor]] at the conclusion of ''[[The Tenth Planet (TV story)|The Tenth Planet]]'', a serial that was in itself notable for introducing the franchise's second most popular recurring villains, the [[Cyberman|Cybermen]].


====The [[John Nathan-Turner]] era====
The intro for the [[1967 (releases)|1967]] serial ''[[The Macra Terror (TV story)|The Macra Terror]]'' was iconic for incorporating the current Doctor's face to the sequence as a permanent instalment.
[[Peter Davison]] succeeded Baker in [[1981]] as the [[Fifth Doctor]] with new [[Producer]] (who had joined in the [[Season 18|previous season]]), [[John Nathan-Turner]]. Aged only 29 at the time he was cast, Davison was until the appointment of [[Matt Smith]] as the [[Eleventh Doctor]] in 2009 the youngest actor ever to officially play the Doctor. The TARDIS crew of the Fifth Doctor skewed younger than most, and was notable for featuring the first long-term companion's death when [[Adric]] died at the end of ''[[Earthshock]]'' (several companions had died previously, but none had been on the show more than a few weeks, as opposed to Adric who was on the series for about a year).


Davison's era was marked by ongoing experimentation by the BBC in terms of broadcast scheduling, with the series moving to being aired twice a week on weeknights, away from its traditional Saturday showing. Initially, this appeared to be a successful gambit, as the ratings for Davison's early stories were on par if not higher than Tom Baker's later stories. It was during Davison's era that the series marked its landmark 20th anniversary with the feature-length episode ''[[The Five Doctors]]'', which featured, in some fashion, all the actors who had played the Doctor to that time (although Hartnell and Tom Baker were represented via stock footage).
The Doctor's race was not established as being [[Time Lord]]s until the last of Troughton's stories, ''[[The War Games (TV story)|The War Games]]'' in [[1969 (releases)|1969]]. This story also featured the Doctor's home planet for the first time.


[[Colin Baker]] (no relation to Tom) followed Davison as the [[Sixth Doctor]] in [[1984]], at which point the BBC further experimented with the format by changing it from 25-minute episodes to 45-minute episodes. Nathan-Turner also experimented with the characterization of the Doctor, intentionally making the Sixth Doctor initially unlikeable in order to create a new dynamic. Neither experiment was successful, and Colin Baker's tenure was marked by a serious threat to the show's survival when the BBC, citing low ratings, announced it was ending the series after the [[1985]] season, its 22nd; following immediate outcry, this decision was soon modified to become an 18-month hiatus, although fans were still not placated. During the hiatus, fan efforts were launched in order to get the show back sooner, including the recording of a charity record called "[[Doctor in Distress]]" recorded by numerous cast members. [[BBC Radio]] tried to fill the void by producing the first made-for-radio ''Doctor Who'' serial ''[[Slipback]]'', starring Colin Baker.  
The experiment of regenerating the Doctor occurred again in [[1970 (releases)|1970]] with the introduction of one-time comic actor [[Jon Pertwee]] as the [[Third Doctor]], a move that also coincided with the series changing to colour production. Once again, this was successful and ''Doctor Who'' continued to establish itself as a British TV institution, although it remained virtually unknown in American markets.


The series returned in [[1986]] with a season-long story arc entitled ''[[Season 23|The Trial of a Time Lord]]'', but with greatly reduced screen time due; 14 episodes were allotted for the season, up from 13 the previous season, but with episode lengths reverted back to 25 minutes this was roughly half the storytelling time enjoyed by recent seasons.
In [[1973 (releases)|1973]] the show celebrated its tenth anniversary, notably in its [[Season 10 (Doctor Who 1963)|10th season]], with the story ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'', which also brought back former actors [[William Hartnell]] as the [[First Doctor]] and [[Patrick Troughton]] as the [[Second Doctor]] alongside Pertwee, in what would establish the Doctor being able to meet himself.


====End of an era====
The name of the Doctor's planet, [[Gallifrey]] came in the [[1974]] story ''[[The Time Warrior (TV story)|The Time Warrior]]'', the term "regeneration", however, wasn't coined until the ending of Pertwee's era, ''[[Planet of the Spiders (TV story)|Planet of the Spiders]]'' in [[1974 (releases)|1974]].


Although the show's return garnered sufficient ratings for the BBC to grant a stay of execution and renew it for a 24th season, Colin Baker's contract as the Doctor was not renewed and he subsequently (and against his will) ceded the role to [[Sylvester McCoy]] as the [[Seventh Doctor]] in [[1987]]. The series had survived the hiatus, but never managed to regain ratings levels necessary for ongoing survival, constantly being beaten in the ratings by ''Coronation Street'' and, towards the end, garnering ratings barely in the 3 million range (compared to 11 millions during the height of the Tom Baker era). Attempts were made to refresh the aging series by darkening the character of the Doctor through what was later called the [[Cartmel Masterplan]] (named for then-script editor [[Andrew Cartmel]]). It was during McCoy's era that the series celebrated its 25th anniversary on TV, with one of the serials produced during the anniversary year, ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks]]'', returning the Doctor to [[76 Totter's Lane]], where it all began back in 1963. Following production of the 26th season, Nathan-Turner learned that the show would not be renewed for a 27th season, and after having McCoy record a series-ending monologue, the final episode -- part 3 of the ironically titled ''[[Survival]]'' -- aired on 6 December 1989, bringing ''Doctor Who's'' marathon 26-year run to a close.
=== Target Books ===
In [[1973 (releases)|1973]], [[Target Books]] reissued a trilogy of novelisations from the mid-1960s, and in [[1974 (releases)|1974]] began to issue its own adaptations of televised episodes. In a time before [[VCR|home video recorders]] and commercial release of TV series on tape and [[DVD]] and when rebroadcasts were rare and many old episodes were thought lost, the Target line became a popular and valued aspect of the growing ''Doctor Who'' franchise; the books would be published into the mid-1990s. A unique feature of the Target line (in fact dating back to the first novelisations published by [[Frederick Muller]]) is that many of the books were written by either the original scriptwriters or by individuals with strong behind-the-scenes connections to the series, such as [[Barry Letts]], [[Terrance Dicks]], [[David Whitaker]], etc., all of whom worked in [[script editor|script editing]] or [[producer|producing]] capacities on the series. In the late 70s, about a dozen of the Target novels were reprinted in American editions by [[Pinnacle Books]], with introductions by noted science fiction author [[Harlan Ellison]], who added to the franchise's prestige by placing it higher in his estimation than ''[[Star Trek]]''.


====The wilderness years====
=== The Tom Baker years ===
The end of active production (made official in [[1990]] with the closure of the Doctor Who Production office, even though the BBC never officially cancelled the series; it simply didn't commission any new episodes) led to the launch of a veritable cottage industry of spin-off productions, ranging from the first long-term range of original fiction (the [[Virgin New Adventures]] series) -- made necessary as Target Books exhausted all available remaining serials to novelise; the Target brand was finally retired in [[1994]] -- to a plethora of independent video productions featuring characters and creatures from the series (but never the Doctor himself) - many of which featured actors, writers and directors who would later become involved in the main ''Doctor Who'' series, including [[Nicholas Briggs]] and [[Mark Gatiss]]. In [[1993]], the BBC made a half-hearted attempt at marking the 30th anniversary of the franchise by first commissioning, then cancelling, a planned multi-Doctor special called ''[[The Dark Dimension]]'', and instead greenlighting a brief, poorly received pastiche called ''[[Dimensions in Time]]'' which aired as part of a [[Children in Need]] fund-raiser and as a dubious crossover with the soap opera ''EastEnders''.
The series continued through the 1970s, with [[Tom Baker]] taking on the role of the [[Fourth Doctor]] in [[1974 (releases)|1974]]. Baker became the most iconic, and arguably most popular actor of the classic series. This was due in part to the frequent rebroadcasts of his episodes in the [[United Kingdom]], which began during his tenure. He was the first "young" Doctor and played the role for more seasons (seven) than any actor to date. Other actors have been considered the "current" Doctor for longer, but without regular television appearances. Near the end of the Tom Baker era, the BBC attempted a spin-off series, ''[[K9 and Company (TV series)|K9 and Company]]'', but it never went beyond a pilot episode, ''[[A Girl's Best Friend (TV story)|A Girl's Best Friend]]''.


In the line of original fiction, Virgin's New Adventures picked up where ''Survival'' had left off and over the next five years greatly expanded the world of the Seventh Doctor, and ''Doctor Who'', by featuring stories with more adult storylines than was possible on TV. The books also introduced the character of [[Bernice Summerfield]], who was initially a companion of the Seventh Doctor's, but over time became the heart of her own mini-franchise which continues to this day. Virgin also launched a similar series of books called the [[Virgin Missing Adventures|Missing Adventures]] featuring past Doctors. One New Adventures novel, ''[[Damaged Goods]]'', was written by a young writer who would later play a major role in the history of ''Doctor Who'' - [[Russell T Davies]] - while another future producer of the series, [[Steven Moffat]], contributed short stories to Virgin's third line of ''Doctor Who'' fiction, the [[Virgin Decalogs]]. Around this time, Moffatt also made his ''Doctor Who'' TV writing debut by penning the parody serial ''[[The Curse of Fatal Death]]'' which aired as a fund-raiser for [[Comic Relief]] and starred [[Rowan Atkinson]] (among others) as the Doctor.
The [[US]] broadcasts of ''Doctor Who'' were initially poorly done, with some broadcasters airing a version with narration explaining the plot. By the late 1970s, however, the series was firmly entrenched in the [[Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS), which would air the show repeatedly over the next three decades and air the revived series after [[2004 (releases)|2004]].


The franchise's so-called "first interregnum" on television ended in [[1996]] with an attempt at launching an American-UK co-produced ''Doctor Who'' series. A telemovie was produced for the American Fox Network, ''[[Doctor Who (1996)|Doctor Who]]'', in which McCoy handed off to [[Paul McGann]]'s [[Eighth Doctor]] - rather than being a reboot or reimaginging, the film was a continuation of the original series. While relatively successful (if controversial for taking liberties with the canon) on the BBC, it failed to garner sufficient ratings in the US to warrant a new series. McCoy, in a later interview with ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'', postulates that the film failed in the US in part because viewers unfamiliar with the history of ''Doctor Who'' were confused by the fact the first part of the film dealt with regeneration.
The [[1974 (releases)|1974]] serial ''[[Robot (TV story)|Robot]]'' began featuring [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] in the intro sequence, a feature that lasted until ''[[The Leisure Hive (TV story)|The Leisure Hive]]'' in [[1980 (releases)|1980]].


The "second interregnum" that followed saw more novels (now published by the BBC itself under its [[BBC Books]] branch, and featuring the Eighth Doctor), more independent productions, the launching of a separate series of Bernice Summerfield novels and, in [[1998]], the start of a prolific series of officially licenced audio stories by [[Big Finish Productions]] which, unlike the independent made-for-video productions, were free to use Doctors and companions from the series; with the notable exception of [[Tom Baker]] and earlier Doctors now deceased, the audios featured many of the original actors, and in particular led to a long-running series of programs continuing the adventures of McGann's Eighth Doctor. Big Finish also produced a prolific series of audio dramas featuring [[Bernice Summerfield]] (and began publishing novels featuring her once Virgin ended its series of books) as well as additional spin-off series featuring the [[Dalek]]s, [[Davros]], [[Sarah Jane Smith]] and [[Gallifrey]], among others. Many of the writers, directors, and voice actors involved in this project also went on to work on the TV series proper (including a young actor named [[David Tennant]]).  
In [[1976 (releases)|1976]], [[Season 13 (Doctor Who 1963)|season 13]] episode 5 ''[[The Brain of Morbius (TV story)|The Brain of Morbius]]'' aired, which saw a [[mindbending]] contest take place between the Doctor and evil [[Time Lord]] [[Morbius]] in which no less than 8 faces appeared meant to be faces of the Doctor prior to [[William Hartnell]]'s [[First Doctor]]. While [[Philip Hinchcliffe]] would go on to state that he intended to imply that Hartnell wasn't the first, many fans of the show blatantly dismissed this, concluding that it either wasn't valid, that they were the faces of Morbius amongst others. Indeed, multiple other stories would back these statements by firmly continuing to put Hartnell's version as being the original Doctor.


The BBC also created ''Doctor Who''-related new media projects during this time, creating several original webcast productions in conjunction with Big Finish (including one, ''[[Scream of the Shalka]]'', in which [[Richard E. Grant]] was introduced as the Ninth Doctor, though [[Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka)|his version of the character]] was quickly related to non-canon status), and making several Virgin-era Doctor Who novels available as e-books on its website.
In [[1979 (releases)|1979]], ''Doctor Who'' saw its first [[DWM comic stories|comic strip story]] released in ''[[Doctor Who Weekly]]'' (later ''Doctor Who Magazine'') with ''[[Doctor Who and the Iron Legion (comic story)|Doctor Who and the Iron Legion]]''. This tradition has been constant with every issue of the magazine, except two.


====The triumphant return====
=== The John Nathan-Turner era ===
Around the time ''Scream of the Shalka'' was webcast in late 2003, the BBC stunned fans by announcing that its Welsh production office, [[BBC Wales]], had been given the go-ahead to produce a brand-new series of ''Doctor Who''. The series would be produced by [[Russell T Davies]] and [[Julie Gardner]]; Davies, since his days writing ''Doctor Who'' fiction for Virgin, had gone on to create the critically acclaimed series, ''Queer as Folk''.
[[Peter Davison]] succeeded Baker in [[1981 (releases)|1981]] as the [[Fifth Doctor]] with new [[producer]] [[John Nathan-Turner]]. Only twenty-nine when he was cast, Davison was, until the appointment of [[Matt Smith]] as the [[Eleventh Doctor]] in [[2009 (production)|2009]], the youngest actor ever to play the Doctor officially. The [[TARDIS team|TARDIS crew]] of the Fifth Doctor skewed younger and featured the first long-term companion's death when [[Adric]] died at the end of ''[[Earthshock (TV story)|Earthshock]]''. Two short-term companions had died earlier in one serial, ''[[The Daleks' Master Plan (TV story)|The Daleks' Master Plan]]'', but they had not been on the show more than a few weeks; Adric was on the series for about a year.


In the months that followed, details emerged about the new series, although fans still harboured questions as to whether the new series would be indeed a continuation of the original series (a 27th season), or a reimagining (as had recently occurred to great effect with ''Battlestar Galactica''). The question as to whether the Paul McGann movie or ''Scream of the Shalka'' would count was also asked, but not immediately answered. There was some initial controversy when pop singer [[Billie Piper]] was cast as the new companion, and the new series logo riled some fans to the point that BBC News reported that some on the production team had received death threats over it.
Davison's era was marked by experimentation by the BBC in terms of broadcast scheduling. The series moved to airing twice a week on weeknights, away from its traditional Saturday slot. Initially, this appeared to be a successful gamble. The ratings for Davison's early stories were on par with - if not higher than - Tom Baker's later stories. It was during Davison's era that the series marked its 20th anniversary in [[1983 (releases)|1983]] with the feature-length episode ''[[The Five Doctors (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]''. This featured all the actors who had played the Doctor to that time (although Hartnell and Tom Baker were shown in stock footage). It also was a first in the act of recasting the main actors as [[Richard Hurndall]] was cast in the role of the [[First Doctor]], enabling this incarnation of the Time Lord to have an active role in the storyline, due to original actor Hartnell falling ill and dying in [[1975 (people)|1975]].


In the spring of [[2005]], ''Doctor Who'' returned to television. [[Christopher Eccleston]] took over from McGann as the [[Ninth Doctor]] (after some initial uncertainty, it was soon established that the new series was a continuation of the old, although to date the circumstances leading to the Eighth Doctor's regeneration have never been definitively revealed). The new episodes returned ''Doctor Who'' to levels of popularity not seen since the 1970s, and also began to garner awards and nominations the likes the original series never saw. Eccleston's brief era marked the return of the Daleks and UNIT to television, as well as the introduction of [[Jack Harkness]].
The year 1983 also saw the release of the first ever ''Doctor Who'' [[video game]], ''[[The First Adventure (video game)|The First Adventure]]'' made for [[BBC Micro]].


Audiences embraced the new series, with Billie Piper's [[Rose Tyler]], in particular, becoming one of the most popular companions in years.
Davison did [[Season 21 (Doctor Who 1963)|another season]] in [[1984 (releases)|1984]] before [[Colin Baker]] followed as the [[Sixth Doctor]]. With him the BBC further experimented with the format, moving from twenty-minute to forty-five-minute episodes. Nathan-Turner also experimented with the characterisation of the Doctor, intentionally making the Sixth Doctor initially unlikeable in order to create a new dynamic. Neither experiment was successful. Colin Baker's tenure was marked by a serious threat to the show's survival when the BBC, citing low ratings, announced it was ending the series after the [[1985 (releases)|1985]] season, its [[Season 22 (Doctor Who 1963)|22nd]]. Following immediate outcry, this decision was modified to become an eighteen-month hiatus. During the hiatus, fan efforts were launched to get the show back sooner. These included the recording of a charity record called "[[Doctor in Distress]]" by cast members. [[BBC Radio]] tried to fill the void by producing the first made-for-radio ''Doctor Who'' serial, ''[[Slipback (audio story)|Slipback]]'', starring Colin Baker.


The show stumbled slightly with the announcement days after its premiere that Eccleston was leaving after a single season, but his replacement, [[David Tennant]]'s [[Tenth Doctor]], has proven to be the series' most popular Doctor since Tom Baker. Tennant's tenure was dominated by the relationship between the Doctor and [[Rose Tyler]], a relationship never before attempted between a Doctor and his companion. Tennant's era also saw the return of [[Sarah Jane Smith]] in ''[[School Reunion]]'', the episode most often cited as the one that established once and for all that so-called "nuWho" (as the series was dubbed by some viewers) was a direct continuation of the 1963-89 series. This was followed by the [[Children in Need]] mini-episode ''[[Time Crash]]'' in which Peter Davison reprised his role as the Fifth Doctor.
Following that, the BBC released another BBC Micro game, ''[[Doctor Who and the Warlord (video game)|Doctor Who and the Warlord]]''.


Tennant's era also saw the reintroduction of the [[Cybermen]], but an alternate universe version called the [[Cybus Cybermen]]. Related to this, the series began delving into the multiverse concept with ''[[Rise of the Cybermen]]'', a topic that would dominate the final episodes of the fourth season in 2008.
The series returned in [[1986 (releases)|1986]] with a season-long story arc, ''[[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|The Trial of a Time Lord]]'', but with greatly reduced screen time. Fourteen episodes were allotted for the season, up from thirteen the previous season, but with episode lengths returned to twenty-five minutes. This was roughly half the storytelling time of recent seasons.


Since the show's return to TV, ''Doctor Who'' has become a veritable TV franchise, spawning two successful spin-off series in short succession: ''[[Torchwood]]'' and ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' (both centered around the adventures of former companions); as of 2009 a third spin-off is planned, ''[[K-9 (TV series)|K-9]]'', but this is not a BBC production. Two documentary series were also launched in conjunction with the return of ''Doctor Who'' - ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'' (still in production since 2005) and ''[[Totally Doctor Who]]'' (2006-2007). The latter series also produced the first animated-for-television ''Doctor Who'' serial, ''[[The Infinite Quest]]'', which aired in 2007 and featured Tennant. Also, [[BBC Radio]] 7 began airing a specially commissioned series of radio serials featuring the return of [[Paul McGann]] as the [[Eighth Doctor]].
Along with that a third video game was released, now also created for [[computer]], called ''[[Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror (video game)|Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror]]''.


The Tennant era also saw the start of a new tradition in late 2005 - the Doctor Who Christmas Special; special holiday-themed episodes aired separately from the regular seasons. As of 2008, four such specials have been aired. The series has also contributed several mini-episodes (such as the aforementioned ''Time Crash'') to both the [[Children in Need]] Appeal and the BBC Proms concert series (''[[Music of the Spheres]]'').
Although the TARDIS did not show up in the original [[title sequence]], the [[2019]] special edition of ''[[Terror of the Vervoids (TV story)|Terror of the Vervoids]]'', released with ''[[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 23: The Collection]]'', added the TARDIS to its title sequence.<!--If someone can make it fit better with the statement at the end of McCoy's section below, feel free.-->


The conclusion of the fourth revived season in 2008 -- which linked all three series together and featured the return of Rose and other companions -- saw ''Doctor Who'' garner its highest ratings in nearly 30 years. It was followed by a the 2008 Christmas special, ''[[The Next Doctor]]'' which included a scene -- the first of its kind -- in which all 10 Doctors, including the debated Paul McGann Eighth Doctor, were shown, firmly establishing the Tenth Doctor's place in his personal history.
=== End of an era ===
Although the show's return garnered sufficient ratings for the [[BBC]] to grant a stay of execution and renew it for a [[season 24 (Doctor Who 1963)|twenty-fourth season]], Colin Baker's contract as the Doctor was not renewed and he ceded the role to [[Sylvester McCoy]] as the [[Seventh Doctor]] in [[1987 (production)|1987]].


====The future====
The series survived the hiatus, but never regained ratings needed for ongoing survival, constantly being beaten in the ratings by ''[[Coronation Street]]''. Towards the end, it garnered ratings barely in the three million range, compared to eleven million at the peak of the Tom Baker era.
''Doctor Who'' is currently in the midst of a "gap year", in which no full-length season has been commissioned. (This was to allow David Tennant to participate in a production of ''[[Hamlet]]'' which was scheduled during what would normally have been the production time of a regular season, although Davies recently revealed in his book, ''[[Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale]]'', that the plan to take a year off and do specials actually predated Tennant's decision to do Shakespeare by more than a year). Instead, four one-hour specials have been planned (beginning with the special ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'') airing between Easter 2009 and either Christmas or New Year's 2009. (A Christmas 2008 special, ''[[The Next Doctor]]'', was also produced, but this is considered an extension of Series 4 rather than one of the specials - as such, Series 4 featured two such holiday episodes.)


This announcement was followed by the news that Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner would be stepping aside as executive producers of ''Doctor Who'' following the production of the specials. [[Steven Moffat]], who won the Hugo Award three years running for his ''Doctor Who'' scripts, was appointed new head writer and executive producer for the series once it returns in 2010. Also appointed executive producer was [[Piers Wenger]].
Attempts were made to refresh the ageing series by darkening the character of the Doctor through what was later called the [[Cartmel Masterplan]] (named for then-script editor [[Andrew Cartmel]]), and by introducing [[Ace]], a companion with an edginess never before seen in an assistant.


In October 2008, David Tennant announced that he would be leaving the series after the production of these specials. After several months of speculation, it was announced on 3 January 2009 that 26-year-old [[Matt Smith]] would join the series in 2010 as the [[Eleventh Doctor]], in the process smashing [[Peter Davison]]'s decades-old record of being the youngest Doctor ever.
The same year that McCoy took over, a fan-produced independent film, ''[[Wartime (home video)|Wartime]]'', was released. Taking advantage of a loophole in licensing that allows characters other than the Doctor to be licensed direct from their creators, this film featuring [[John Benton]] was the first of what would be a series of fan-made productions that would help keep the [[Doctor Who universe|''Doctor Who'' universe]] alive after 1989.


Meanwhile, the end of Series 4 and the start of the specials marked a "changing of the guard" with regards to international broadcasts of the series in the US and Canada. In the US, the [[Syfy|Sci Fi Channel]] relinquished first-broadcast rights to [[BBC America]], while in Canada the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]]'s controversial handling of the series came to an abrupt end when the cable network [[Space (TV channel)|Space]] adopted the series. Both began airing the series with ''The Next Doctor'' in the spring of 2009.
During McCoy's era, the series celebrated its 25th anniversary on TV. One of the year's serials, ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]'', returned the Doctor to [[76 Totter's Lane]], where it all began in 1963.


The first gap-year special, ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'' aired at Easter 2009. ''Planet of the Dead'' was the first ''Doctor Who'' episode to be filmed in [[Wikipedia:High-definition television|HD]].
Following production of the [[Season 26 (Doctor Who 1963)|twenty-sixth season]], Nathan-Turner learned that the show would not be renewed immediately for a twenty-seventh. After having McCoy record a series-ending monologue, the final episode — part 3 of the ironically titled ''[[Survival (TV story)|Survival]]'' — aired on [[6 December (releases)|6 December]] [[1989 (releases)|1989]], bringing ''Doctor Who''{{'}}s marathon 26-year run to a close. The ''Doctor Who'' Production Office closed down the following summer.


The second special, ''[[The Waters of Mars]]'' is scheduled for later in 2009, possibly November, but the dates and titles of the remaining specials have yet to be confirmed, although it is known that the last three specials will probably air closer to Christmas, if not going into 2010. In July 2009 a trailer for the two-part finale special was unveiled, suggesting the title might be ''The End of Time''.
It has never been made clear whether the BBC ever actually "cancelled" ''Doctor Who'' in [[1989 (production)|1989]], or simply put the series on hold. One of the first to state outright that the show was cancelled was co-star [[Sophie Aldred]] in the documentary ''[[More than 30 Years in the TARDIS]]''.


Meanwhile, ''Torchwood'' aired its third season in July 2009, now on [[BBC One]], but in a different format - a single five-episode story arc. As of August 2009 a fourth season was under consideration. ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' will air its third season in the fall of 2009.  
''Survival'' also marked the last time the Doctor's face was incorporated into the intro sequence, at least until 2012.


Davies will also continue overseeing production of both ''Torchwood'' and ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' in 2009, but it has not yet been announced whether he will continue in this capacity should the spin-offs return for respective fourth seasons. According to comments made at science fiction conventions in July 2009, however, Davies says he intends to continue working with at least ''Torchwood'' and hopes to see future crossovers between it and ''Doctor Who''.
Although it was the end of an era, the McCoy years reinstated the feature of [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] showing up in the intro sequence.


In other media, both Big Finish and BBC Books have announced their publishing schedules well into 2009 and an American comic book publisher, [[IDW Publishing]] is currently printing a mix of new and reprinted ''Doctor Who'' comic strips. ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'', the longest-running publication based upon coverage of an English-language TV series, will celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2009.
=== "The Wilderness Years" ===
The end of active production was made official in [[1990 (production)|1990]]. The ''Doctor Who'' Production Office was closed. The BBC never officially cancelled the series. It simply didn't commission any new episodes. This led to the launch of a cottage industry of spin-off work. These included the first long-term range of original fiction (the [[Virgin New Adventures]] series). [[Target Books]] exhausted all available remaining serials to novelise and the brand was retired in [[1994 (production)|1994]]. There were numerous independent video productions with characters and creatures from the series but never the Doctor himself, including the ''[[P.R.O.B.E. (series)|P.R.O.B.E.]]'' series featuring [[Liz Shaw]]. Many of their new actors, writers and directors would become involved in the main ''Doctor Who'' series, including [[Nicholas Briggs]] and [[Mark Gatiss]]. In [[1993 (production)|1993]], the BBC made a half-hearted attempt at marking the thirtieth anniversary, first commissioning, then cancelling, a multi-Doctor special called ''[[The Dark Dimension (TV story)|The Dark Dimension]]''. Instead they greenlit a brief, poorly received pastiche, ''[[Dimensions in Time (TV story)|Dimensions in Time]]'', which aired as part of a [[Children in Need]] fundraiser and as a dubious crossover with the soap opera ''[[EastEnders]]''.


Production of Series 5, starring [[Matt Smith]] as the [[Eleventh Doctor]] and [[Karen Gillan]] as new companion [[Amy Pond]], commenced in mid-July 2009.
For original fiction, Virgin's [[New Adventures]] picked up where ''Survival'' had left off. Over the next five years it greatly expanded the world of the [[Seventh Doctor]], and ''Doctor Who'', by featuring stories with more adult storylines than was possible on TV. The books also introduced the character of [[Bernice Summerfield]], who was initially a companion of the Seventh Doctor. Over time she developed her own mini-franchise, which continues to this day.


===The stories===
Virgin also launched a similar series of books called the [[Virgin Missing Adventures]], featuring past Doctors. One New Adventures novel, ''[[Damaged Goods (novel)|Damaged Goods]]'', was written by a young writer who would later play a major role in the history of ''Doctor Who'': [[Russell T Davies]]. Another future producer of the series, [[Steven Moffat]], contributed short stories to Virgin's third line of ''Doctor Who'' fiction, the [[Virgin Decalogs]]. Around this time, Moffat also made his ''Doctor Who'' TV writing debut by penning the parody serial ''[[The Curse of Fatal Death (TV story)|The Curse of Fatal Death]]''. It aired as a fund-raiser for [[Comic Relief]] and starred [[Rowan Atkinson]], [[Richard E Grant]], [[Jim Broadbent]], [[Hugh Grant]], and [[Joanna Lumley]] as the [[Ninth Doctor (The Curse of Fatal Death)|9th]] through [[Thirteenth Doctor (The Curse of Fatal Death)|13th incarnations]] of the Doctor.
*[[List of television stories]]


==Accolades==
=== A false restart ===
In [[2000]], in a poll of industry professionals, the [[Wikipedia:British Film Institute|British Film Institute]] voted ''Doctor Who'' #3 in a list of the [[Wikipedia:100 Greatest British Television Programmes|100 Greatest British Television Programmes]]. Since its return in 2005, the series has received many nominations and awards both nationally (UK) and internationally. This includes BAFTAs, the National Television Awards, the Hugo Awards (in which it has regularly defeated powerhouses such as ''Battlestar Galactica''). American accolades have been fewer and farther between, although in 2007 it broke a barrier by receiving a nomination for the 2008 People's Choice Awards, although it did not win.
The franchise's so-called "first interregnum" on television ended in [[1996 (releases)|1996]] with an attempt at launching an American-UK co-produced ''Doctor Who'' series. A television movie was produced for the American [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox Network]], ''[[Doctor Who (TV story)|Doctor Who]]'', in which [[Sylvester McCoy|McCoy]] handed off to [[Paul McGann]]'s [[Eighth Doctor]]. Neither a reboot or re-imagining, the film was a continuation of the original series. While moderately successful on the BBC, it failed to garner sufficient ratings in the US to warrant a new series. McCoy, in a later interview with ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'', postulated that the film failed in the US in part because viewers unfamiliar with the history of ''Doctor Who'' were confused by the first part of the film, which dealt with regeneration.


==What makes ''Doctor Who'' unique==
The movie made a one-off experiment of featuring a "cold opening", a scene before the intro sequence.


Fans often speak of the "undefinable magic" present in ''Doctor Who''. This can be explained as a combination of several factors:
=== Back to the wilderness ===
The "second interregnum" that followed saw more novels (now published by the BBC under its [[BBC Books]] logo, featuring the Eighth Doctor), more independent productions, [[Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures|a separate series of Bernice Summerfield novels]], a PC game called ''[[Destiny of the Doctors (video game)|Destiny of the Doctors]]'' that saw Fourth-through-Seventh Doctor actors, Courtney and Ainley reprise their roles, and, in [[1998 (releases)|1998]], the start of a prolific series of officially licenced audio stories by [[Big Finish Productions]]. Same year, BBC Books and Big Finish would work together on a series of short books called ''[[Short Trips (series)|Short Trips]]'', and would continue that for years going forward.


*The Doctor can change from serious to satirical, young to old, and change back again. He can go from self-doubting anti-hero to exuberant lover of life, all within the same continuity and he can change back again, remaking himself every couple of years.
Unlike the independent made-for-video productions, Big Finish could use Doctors and companions from the series. With the exception of [[Tom Baker]], who wouldn't join Big Finish until [[2012 (production)|2012]], and earlier Doctors now deceased, the audios featured the original actors. In particular, Big Finish produced a long-running series of programs continuing the adventures of McGann's Eighth Doctor. Big Finish also produced a prolific series of [[Bernice Summerfield (series)|audio dramas featuring Bernice Summerfield]] (and began publishing novels featuring her once Virgin ended its series of books) as well as other spin-off series featuring other parts of the ''Doctor Who'' universe, such as ''[[Dalek Empire (audio series)|Dalek Empire]]'', ''[[I, Davros]]'', ''[[Sarah Jane Smith (audio series)|Sarah Jane Smith]]'' and ''[[Gallifrey (audio series)|Gallifrey]]''. Many of the writers, directors, and voice actors involved in this project also went on to work on the TV series proper.


*The series can range in tone, style and genre, as well as encompassing almost any place and time. The travellers may meet storybook characters in a land of fantasy and the next week land in a credible day-after-tomorrow London.  
The BBC also created new ''Doctor Who''-related media projects during this time, creating several original webcast productions in conjunction with Big Finish, and making several Virgin-era ''Doctor Who'' novels available as e-books on its website.


*No other telefantasy series has, as often quoted, stayed on air for so long. Its longevity enabled it to enthrall (and frighten) new generations of children and teenagers for three decades. Everyone can have "their" own favorite Doctor or period of the series, including those who prefer the novels to the television series.
=== The triumphant return ===
In [[2003 (releases)|2003]] for the 40th anniversary, the [[BBC]] released the 6-part webcast ''[[Scream of the Shalka (webcast)|Scream of the Shalka]]'', in which [[Richard E Grant]] was introduced as the Ninth Doctor. Intended to be an "official" continuation of the television series, [[Ninth Doctor (Scream of the Shalka)|this version of the character]] was soon after ignored by the [[Series 1 (Doctor Who 2005)|2005 series]] revival. The BBC stunned fans by announcing in [[2003 (production)|2003]] that its Welsh production office, [[BBC Wales]], had been given the go-ahead to produce a brand-new series of ''Doctor Who''. The series would be [[producer|produced]] by [[Russell T Davies]] and [[Julie Gardner]]. Davies, since his days writing ''Doctor Who'' fiction for Virgin, had gone on to create the critically acclaimed series, {{wi|Queer as Folk (British TV series)|Queer as Folk}}.


*The evolution of viewer from fan to maker of the series. As early as [[1980]], "[[Full Circle]]", a script authored by a young fan, [[Andrew Smith]], appeared on the screen. In the same story, another young fan, [[Matthew Waterhouse]], made his debut in the series as series regular. A few months later, [[Peter Davison]], who professed to being a fan of the series in his youth, became the [[Fifth Doctor]]. [[Colin Baker]] had been a fan of the series since the first episode, which he had seen when he was a 20 year old. Though not crossing over in large numbers, members of fandom made the odd venture into the production side of the series up until the end of the original series. In [[2005]], the elders of ''Doctor Who'' fandom have grown up into the creators of the new series. And two of the franchise's current leading men -- [[David Tennant]] and [[John Barrowman]] are both lifelong Who fans, to the point of both demonstrating an ability to cite chapter and verse in their DVD commentaries and interviews, a feat rarely demonstrated by participants in other franchises, including ''Star Trek''.
Meanwhile, the BBC released two new video games on their website, ''[[TARDIS Tennis (video game)|TARDIS Tennis]]'' and ''[[Who Trumps (video game)|Who Trumps]]''.
*The flexibility of being able to change the lead actor via regeneration has allowed the series to continually reinvent itself, while maintaining continuity to the past and offering audiences with an easy-to-grasp rationale for the change of actor. Similarly, the continually changing supporting cast of companions and recurring characters also allows new perspectives and new chemistry to be brought into the series frequently.
*Both of the above have also afford the series, at least in its original run, the flexibility to make changes in the event of perceived audience dissatisfaction, such as the decision to replace Colin Baker with Sylvester McCoy (although the rationale in that case remains hotly debated two decades later).


The series is also unique for its longevity. Its original 26-season run places it far beyond the longevity of any other single, uninterrupted English-language science fiction series (a record ''Doctor Who'' retains even if the 1985-86 hiatus is taken into account). Its nearest rival, America's ''Stargate SG-1'', ran for 10 seasons. ''Star Trek'' and its spinoffs amassed more individual seasons, but these were separate series, not one ongoing production. ''Doctor Who'' surpasses the Trek franchise in terms of individual seasons when the revived series, plus ''its'' spinoffs, are added together (33 seasons as of the fall of 2008). The ''Guinness Book of Records'' has officially recognized ''Doctor Who'' as the world's longest-running science fiction television series; in July 2009 Guinness also proclaimed ''Doctor Who'' the single most successful science-fiction series, too.
In the following months, details of the new series emerged. Fans still questioned if the new series would be a continuation of the original series (a twenty-seventh season), or a re-imagining (as had recently occurred to great effect with ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]''). Would the [[Doctor Who (TV story)|Paul McGann movie]] or ''Scream of the Shalka'' count? There was initial controversy when pop singer [[Billie Piper]] was cast as the [[Rose Tyler|new companion]]. The [[Doctor Who logo#Logo nine|new series logo]] riled some fans; BBC News reported that some on the production team had received death threats over it.


==Other media==
The BBC's decision to restart the numbering of the series with [[Series 1 (Doctor Who 2005)|series 1]] in 2005 fuelled the debate over whether the new show would be a continuation. The BBC indicated it was strictly a commercial decision, and part of an overall strategy not to alienate new viewers by suggesting they needed to know twenty-six years of backstory.
Although ''Doctor Who'' originated as a television programme, it has become much more than that. Starting with "[[Dalekmania]]" in the [[1960s]], a great deal of merchandise has sprung out of ''Doctor Who''. Some of that merchandise has continued the story of the Doctor's adventures. Over the decades, ''Doctor Who'' has appeared on [[:Category:Doctor Who stage plays|stage]], [[Doctor Who films|screen]], and [[BBC Radio Dramas|radio]], in a variety of novels, [[Comic strip|comics]], full-cast [[Big Finish Productions|audio adventures]] and [[webcast]]s. Beginning in the late 1980s, independent production companies such as [[BBV Productions]] and [[Reeltime Pictures]] took advantage of a loophole in the BBC's ownership of ''Doctor Who'' to licence individual characters and monsters from the series directly from their creators and build original film and audio dramas around them; this reached its height after the original series ended in 1989. Many of these productions involved original cast members from the series. Meanwhile, since 1991, a prolific series of original novels rivalled only by the ''Star Trek'' franchise in terms of quantity have been published. Many of these productions and novels are highly regarded by ''Doctor Who'' fans, and all of the writers of the 2005 series previously wrote or scripted adventures for the Doctor in other media.


===Parodies and Pastiches===
''Doctor Who'' returned to television in the spring of [[2005 (releases)|2005]]. [[Christopher Eccleston]] took over from [[Paul McGann|McGann]] as the [[Ninth Doctor]]. After initial uncertainty, it was soon established the new series was a continuation of the old. The new episodes returned ''Doctor Who'' to levels of popularity not seen since the 1970s, and garnered awards the original series never saw. Eccleston's brief era marked the return of [[UNIT]], the [[Auton]]s, the [[Nestene Consciousness]], the [[Dalek]]s and the [[Dalek Emperor]] to television, as well as the introduction of [[Jack Harkness]], who would become a recurring character during the Russell T. Davies era. In [[March (releases)|March]] [[2006 (releases)|2006]], the new series was first broadcast in the [[United States]] on the [[Syfy|SciFi Channel]]. Audiences embraced the new series, with Billie Piper's [[Rose Tyler]], in particular. The second episode ''[[The End of the World (TV story)|The End of the World]]'' began a new tradition of featuring a scene before the intro sequence, a "[[cold opening]]".
====Parodies====
*See [[Doctor Who parodies]].


====Pastiches====
The show stumbled slightly with the announcement days after its premiere on [[30 March (production)|30 March]] that Eccleston was leaving after a single season. The BBC [[4 April (production)|later]] apologised for the timing of this announcement. The tenure of his replacement, [[David Tennant]]'s [[Tenth Doctor]], was dominated by the relationship between the Doctor and Rose Tyler, a closer bond than even the "Mentor" type relationship shared between the [[Seventh Doctor]] and [[Ace]]. Tennant's era also saw the return of [[Sarah Jane Smith]] in ''[[School Reunion (TV story)|School Reunion]]'', the episode most cited as the one that established once and for all that "nuWho" was a direct continuation of the [[1963 (releases)|1963]]-[[1989 (releases)|89]] series. This was followed by the [[Children in Need]] mini-episode ''[[Time Crash (TV story)|Time Crash]]'', in which [[Peter Davison]] reprised his role as the [[Fifth Doctor]].
*See [[Doctor Who pastiches]].


=="Doctor Who?"==
In 2005, four online video games were released by the BBC, most notably ''[[Attack of the Graske (video game)|Attack of the Graske]]''.
When the series begins, nothing is known of the Doctor at all, not even his name. In the very first serial, ''[[An Unearthly Child]]'', two teachers from the [[Coal Hill School]] in [[London]], [[Barbara Wright]] and [[Ian Chesterton]], become intrigued by one of their students, [[Susan Foreman]], who exhibits high intelligence and unusually advanced knowledge. Trailing her to a junkyard at [[76 Totter's Lane]], they encounter a strange old man and hear Susan's voice coming from inside what appears to be a [[police box]]. Pushing their way inside, the two find that the exterior is actually camouflage for the [[dimensionally transcendental]] interior of the TARDIS.


Susan calls the old man "Grandfather", but he simply calls himself the Doctor. When he fears Ian and Barbara may alert the local authorities to what they've seen, he subsequently whisks them all away to another location in time and space.
Tennant's era also saw the reintroduction of the [[Cyberman|Cybermen]], albeit a parallel version. Related to this, the series began delving into the multiverse concept with ''[[Rise of the Cybermen (TV story)|Rise of the Cybermen]]'', a topic that would dominate the final episodes of the [[Series 4 (Doctor Who 2005)|fourth series]] in [[2008 (releases)|2008]].


In the first episode, Ian addresses the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman," as the junkyard in which they find him bears the sign "I.M. Foreman". When addressed by Ian with this name in the next episode, the Time Lord responds, "Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?" Later, when Ian realizes that "Foreman" is not his name, he asks Barbara, "Who is he? Doctor who?" Although listed in the on-screen credits for nearly twenty years as "Doctor Who", the Doctor is never really called by that name in the series, except in that same tongue-in-cheek manner. For example, in ''[[The Five Doctors]]'' when one character refers to him as "the Doctor", another character asks, "Who?" The only real exception has been the computer [[WOTAN]], in the serial, ''[[The War Machines]]'', which commanded that "Doctor Who is required."
Since the show's return to TV, ''Doctor Who'' has become a major franchise. It spawned two successful spin-off series in quick succession: ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]'' and ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]''; both centred around the adventures of former companions. There was a third, non-BBC spin-off, ''[[K9 (TV series)|K9]]''. Two documentary series were launched with the return of ''Doctor Who'': ''[[Doctor Who Confidential]]'', ([[2005 (releases)|2005]]-[[2011 (releases)|2011]]) and ''[[Totally Doctor Who]]'' ([[2006 (releases)|2006]]-[[2007 (releases)|2007]]). The last series also produced the first animated-for-television ''Doctor Who'' serial, ''[[The Infinite Quest (TV story)|The Infinite Quest]]'', which aired in 2007 and featured Tennant. A second animated serial, ''[[Dreamland (TV story)|Dreamland]]'', aired in [[2009 (releases)|2009]].


In ''[[The Gunfighters]]'', the First Doctor uses the alias [[Wikipedia:The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari|Dr. Caligari]]. In ''[[The Highlanders]]'' the Second Doctor assumes the name of "Doctor von Wer" (a German approximation of "Doctor Who"), and signs himself as "Dr. W" in ''[[The Underwater Menace]]''. In ''[[The Wheel in Space]]'', his companion [[Jamie McCrimmon|Jamie]], reading the name off some medical equipment, tells the crew of the Wheel that the Doctor's name is "John Smith". The Doctor subsequently adopts this alias several times over the course of the series, often prefixing the title "Doctor" to it. This has continued through to the [[Tenth Doctor]], and was famously referenced to in the [[1996]] [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie|television movie]], where even though the Doctor is unconscious a complete stranger knows enough to write John Smith on his hospital admission papers.
The year 2006 had the pleasure of welcoming 17 new online games, many of them featuring some of the newly introduced aliens, amongst them ''[[Daleks v Cybermen (video game)|Daleks v Cybermen]]'', ''[[Ood Escape (video game)|Ood Escape]]'' and ''[[The Wire (video game)|The Wire]]''.


In ''[[The Armageddon Factor]]'', the Time Lord [[Drax]] addresses the Fourth Doctor as "Theet", short for "Theta Sigma", apparently a University nickname. In the [[1988]] serial ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks]]'', the Seventh Doctor is asked to sign a document, which he does by using a question mark, and produces a calling card with a series of Greek letters (or [[Old High Gallifreyan]] script) and a question mark inscribed on it. The Eighth Doctor briefly used the alias "Dr. Bowman" in the [[1996]] [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie|television movie]]. He has also been mocked by his fellow Time Lords for adhering to such a "lowly" title as "Doctor".
The Tennant era also saw the start of a new tradition in late 2005: the ''Doctor Who'' [[Christmas Special]], holiday-themed episodes aired separately from the regular seasons. {{As of|2017|12}}, thirteen such specials have been aired. The series has also contributed several mini-episodes, such as the aforementioned ''Time Crash'', to the [[Children in Need]] Appeal and the [[Doctor Who at the Proms|BBC Prom]] concert series (''[[Music of the Spheres (TV story)|Music of the Spheres]]'').


In many [[Doctor Who spin-offs|spin-off]] comic strips, books, films and other media, the character is often called "Doctor Who" (or just "Dr. Who") as a matter of course, though this has declined in more recent years. From the first story through to ''[[Logopolis (TV story)|Logopolis]]'' (the last story of [[Season 18]] and also of the Tom Baker era), the lead character was listed as "Doctor Who". Starting from [[Peter Davison]]'s first story, ''[[Castrovalva (TV story)|Castrovalva]]'' (also the first story of [[Season 19]]), the lead character is credited simply as "The Doctor".
The 3-part conclusion of the [[Series 3 (Doctor Who 2005)|third revived season]] in [[2007 (releases)|2007]] saw the inclusion of [[the Master]] in not one, but two different incarnations, not seen since the TV movie in 1996.


''Doctor Who'' writer [[Terrance Dicks]] often expressed the theory that Time Lord names were "jawbreakers," long and extremely difficult to pronounce, and this was why the Doctor never revealed his true name. Some fans have speculated, taking off from the fact that the full name of the Time Lady [[Romana]] is Romanadvoratrelundar, that the first syllable of the Doctor's true name is "Who". It should be noted that, although it is often asserted that "Doctor Who" is ''not'' the character's name, there is nothing in the series itself that actually confirms this. On at least one occasion the Doctor is about to give a name after the title "Doctor..." but is interrupted. Interestingly, the BBC novel, "[[The Infinity Doctors]]" mentions an ancient Gallifreyan god named "[[Ohm|OHM]]". When this name is turned upside down, the result is "WHO." (This idea originated in early drafts of "[[The Three Doctors]]" by [[Bob Baker]] and [[Dave Martin]]. The character of "Ohm" eventually became [[Omega]].)
Ten new online video games were released by the BBC in 2007, with one of them, ''[[Bane Blaster (video game)|Bane Blaster]]'', based on the first ''SJA''-story.


==Continuity==
The [[Series 4 (Doctor Who 2005)|fourth revived season]] in [[2008 (releases)|2008]] saw the return of the [[Sontaran]]s in episodes 4 and 5, ''[[The Sontaran Stratagem (TV story)|The Sontaran Stratagem]]''/''[[The Poison Sky (TV story)|The Poison Sky]]'', for the first time since ''The Two Doctors'' in 1985. The season-conclusion, which linked all four series together and featured the return of [[Rose Tyler|Rose]] and other companions, saw ''Doctor Who'' garner its highest ratings in nearly thirty years. It further saw the first return of [[Dalek]] creator [[Davros]] since ''Remembrance of the Daleks''. It was followed by the 2008 Christmas special, ''[[The Next Doctor (TV story)|The Next Doctor]]'', which included a scene — the first of its kind — in which all ten Doctors, including the debated Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor, were shown, firmly establishing the Eighth Doctor's place in his personal history.
: ''See also: [[canon]]''


A common contention among fans and producers of the series is that a large part of the Doctor's appeal comes from his mysterious and alien origins. While over the decades several revelations have been made about his background - that he is a Time Lord, that he is from Gallifrey, among others - the writers have often strived to retain some sense of mystery and to preserve the eternal question, "Doctor who?" This backstory was not rigidly planned from the beginning, but developed gradually (and somewhat haphazardly) over the years, the result of the work of many writers and producers.  
This year saw the release of 11 new online games as well as one, ''[[Top Trumps: Doctor Who (video game)|Top Trumps: Doctor Who]]'', for PC, PS2 and Wii and DS.


Understandably, this has led to [[continuity]] problems. Characters such as the [[Meddling Monk]] were retroactively classified as [[Time Lord]]s, early histories of races such as the [[Dalek]]s were rewritten, and so on. The creation of a detailed backstory has also led to the criticism that too much being known about the Doctor limits both creative possibilities and the sense of mystery. Some of the stories during the [[Sylvester McCoy|Seventh Doctor's]] tenure, part of the so-called "[[Andrew Cartmel|Cartmel Masterplan]]", were intended to deal with this issue by suggesting that much of what was believed about the Doctor was wrong and that he is a far more powerful and mysterious figure than previously thought. In both an untelevised scene in ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks]]'' and the subsequent ''[[Silver Nemesis]]'' it is implied (to quote an excised line from "Rememberance") that the Doctor "is more than just a Time Lord." The suspension of the series in [[1989]], however, meant that none of these hints were ever resolved, at least on television. The Virgin New Adventure novel, ''[[Lungbarrow]],'' did resolve these hints and explain the Doctor's origins. However, not all fans regard the spin-off novels as canon, and so do not accept the revelations made in that particular story.
=== The transition ===
The year 2009 was a transition year for ''Doctor Who'' in terms of both [[2009 (production)|production]] and [[2009 (releases)|releases]]. The series had only four episodes, aired as specials in April, November and on Christmas Day and New Year's Day 2010. These specials and an animated serial, ''[[Dreamland (TV story)|Dreamland]]'', marked [[David Tennant]]'s final appearances as the [[Tenth Doctor]]. The decision for the series to take a break following series 4 was, according to Davies' book ''[[The Writer's Tale]]'', planned as far back as Tennant's first year. Davies devised the break to smooth the transition between his term as show-runner and that of [[Steven Moffat]], whom he invited to take over his post as executive producer and lead writer when the series returned as a weekly programme in [[2010 (releases)|2010]]. Tennant took advantage of this break to appear in a high-profile stage production of ''[[Hamlet]]'' co-starring ''[[Star Trek]]'' icon Patrick Stewart, which some media erroneously indicated was the reason for the break.


The [[1996]] television movie created even more uncertainty about the character, revealing that the Doctor had a human mother and he remembered his father. Fans, however, seemed to be more upset about the fact that the Eighth Doctor was shown kissing Dr. [[Grace Holloway]], breaking the series' longstanding taboo against the Doctor having any romantic involvement with his companions.
The announcement of the [[2009 Specials|gap year]] was followed by the announcement that [[Russell T Davies|Davies]] and [[Julie Gardner]] would be stepping aside as [[executive producer]]s of ''Doctor Who'' following the specials. Moffat, who won the [[Hugo Award]] three years running for his ''Doctor Who'' scripts, was appointed new head writer and executive producer. Also appointed executive producers were [[Piers Wenger]] and [[Beth Willis]].


The revelation in the [[1996]] [[Doctor Who: The TV Movie|television movie]] that the Doctor was half-[[human]] proved controversial among fans, and some have suggested that only the Eighth Doctor was half-human due to the particularly traumatic circumstances of his regeneration, rather than the Doctor having been half-human all along. (The evidence for or against this in the series is, typically, equivocal.) The Time Lord ability to change species during regeneration is referenced by the Eighth Doctor in relation to [[the Master]] in the television movie, and is supported by Romana's regeneration scene in the [[1979]] serial ''[[Destiny of the Daleks]]''.
The question of whether Tennant would stay on was a hot topic in the UK media for much of 2008. On [[19 October (production)|19 October]] [[2008 (production)|2008]], Tennant, while accepting his [[National Television Awards|National Television Award]] for Favourite Actor, announced he would leave the role after the specials. After months of speculation, it was announced on [[3 January (production)|3 January]] [[2009 (production)|2009]] that twenty-six-year-old [[Matt Smith]] would join the series in 2010 as the [[Eleventh Doctor]], smashing [[Peter Davison]]'s record as the youngest Doctor ever.


While some fans regard discontinuities as a problem, others regard it as a source of interest or humour (an attitude taken in the book ''[[The Discontinuity Guide]]''). A common fan explanation is that a universe with time travellers is likely to have many historical inconsistencies. The revival series has tackled this issue head on by suggesting that "time is in flux" and with the exception of certain fixed events in time, most anything can be changed ([[DW]]: ''[[The Fires of Pompeii]]'', ''[[The Unicorn and the Wasp]]'', et al). As such it's possible to rationalize that some events seen -- for example the events of the 2005 episode ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]'' sparks some minor continuity issues with later events such as ''[[The Stolen Earth]]'', however it's possible to rationalize that the events of ''Dalek'' may now occur differently or not at all, due to the Doctor's actions in later episodes (and later in his lifetime).  
The end of Series 4 and the start of the specials marked a "changing of the guard" for international broadcasts of the series in the US and Canada. In the [[US]], the [[Syfy|SciFi Channel]] relinquished first-broadcast rights to [[BBC America]]. In [[Canada]], the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]'s controversial handling of the series (which had seen a marked decrease in network interest and destructive editing of the Series 4 finale for commercials) came to an abrupt end when the cable network [[Space (TV channel)|Space]] adopted the series. Both began airing the series with ''[[The Next Doctor (TV story)|The Next Doctor]]'' in the spring of 2009 and announced they would air the weekly series in 2010.


There has been much fan speculation centred on exactly which aspects of the television series, books, radio dramatisations, and other sources are considered canon. This has been made more complex by the fact a novel, a short story, and a Big Finish audio have all, to date, been adapted for the TV series (''[[Human Nature (TV story)|Human Nature]]'', ''[[Blink]]'' and ''Dalek'', respectively), and the events of at least one novel have been referenced on screen ([[NSA]]: ''[[The Monsters Inside]]'' in [[DW]]: ''[[Boom Town]]''). For their part, the BBC has never issued a firm edict as to what counts as canon, unlike ''Star Trek'' which, per Paramount Pictures, only counts live-action televised or film productions as canon, or ''Star Wars'' which counts everything licenced by Lucasfilm since the mid-1990s as canon.
The first gap-year special, ''[[Planet of the Dead (TV story)|Planet of the Dead]]'' aired during [[11 April (releases)|Easter]] 2009. ''Planet of the Dead'' was the first ''Doctor Who'' episode to be filmed in {{w|high-definition television|high definition}} and, subsequently, the first to be issued to [[Blu-ray]].


==External links==
Meanwhile, ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]'' aired its [[Series 3 (Torchwood)|third series]] in [[July (releases)|July]] [[2009 (releases)|2009]], now on [[BBC One]], but in a different format: a single, critically acclaimed, five-episode story entitled ''[[Children of Earth]]''. It also aired to acclaim and high ratings on BBC America and Space. ''[[The Sarah Jane Adventures]]'' began its [[Series 3 (SJA)|third series]] in [[October (releases)|October]] 2009, with David Tennant playing the Doctor in two episodes. Work on a non-BBC spin-off series, ''[[K9 (TV series)|K9]]'', also progressed through the year.
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/ The BBC's official "Doctor Who" home page]
*[http://www.drwho-online.co.uk/ Doctor Who Online, News &amp; Information site + popular Forum with stars from the show.]


==Logos==
The second special of the "gap year", ''[[The Waters of Mars (TV story)|The Waters of Mars]]'' aired on [[15 November (releases)|15 November]] 2009, and an animated adventure, ''[[Dreamland (TV story)|Dreamland]]'', was broadcast serialised on the BBC's [[Red Button]] service before being aired as one programme by the BBC proper.
:''[[Doctor who logo|See main article]]''


The same year saw the release of six new online video games, one of which, ''[[The Waters of Mars (video game)|The Waters of Mars]]'', based on the TV story of the same name.


During the [[Christmas]] season, Tennant appeared as [[Tenth Doctor|the Doctor]] in a series of [[2009 BBC Christmas idents|Christmas idents]] for the BBC. Finally, the era of the Tenth Doctor ended with the two-part special ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]''. Part 1 aired on [[25 December (releases)|25 December]] 2009 and the concluding Part 2, with [[David Tennant]] handing over the role to [[Matt Smith]], aired on [[1 January (releases)|1 January]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]]. The finale further saw the return of {{Simm}} and the brief return of the [[Time Lord]] [[High Council]] and [[Gallifrey]] from inside a [[time lock]].


==Footnotes==
That same year, the BBC Books stopped productions of the original format of the ''[[Short Trips (series)|Short Trips]]'' series. Big Finish Productions took full control and resurrected the series as short audio stories going forward.
{{reflist}}
 
[[Category:BBC]]
=== The new man ===
Production of the [[Series 5 (Doctor Who 2005)|first Matt Smith episodes]] commenced in [[July (production)|July]] [[2009 (production)|2009]]. Writers recruited for the new season included [[Richard Curtis]] (co-creator of {{wi|Blackadder}} and writer of {{wi|Four Weddings and a Funeral}}) and [[Toby Whithouse]] (creator of {{wi|Being Human (British TV series)|Being Human}}). Noted fantasy writer [[Neil Gaiman]] was rumoured to be involved in the new season. These rumours proved to be incorrect, but he did end up penning ''[[The Doctor's Wife (TV story)|The Doctor's Wife]]'' [[Series 6 (Doctor Who 2005)|the following series]]. [[Michael Moorcock]], another noted fantasy novelist, also announced he was writing [[The Coming of the Terraphiles (novel)|a ''Doctor Who'' novel]] for publication in 2010.
 
Minor competition for Smith arrived in January 2010 when broadcasts of the non-BBC series ''[[K9 (TV series)|K9]]'' began in parts of Europe. The UK, which had seen a preview of the first episode on Halloween 2009, saw the series debut on [[Disney XD]] on [[3 April (releases)|3 April]] [[2010 (releases)|2010]], a few hours before the start of the fifth series.
 
After months of intense publicity, the Matt Smith/Eleventh Doctor era officially began on [[3 April (releases)|3 April]] 2010 with the broadcast of ''[[The Eleventh Hour (TV story)|The Eleventh Hour]]'' on [[BBC One]]. In a show of international support for the series, broadcasts in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were scheduled within a few weeks, the first time the programme's biggest international markets had coincided their broadcasts in this way.
 
The fifth series ran for thirteen weeks, concluding with ''[[The Big Bang (TV story)|The Big Bang]]'' on [[26 June (releases)|26 June]] 2010, which saw the biggest amount ever of villains gathered in one story, even including spin-off villains. Before the first episode of series 5 was broadcast, the BBC announced that [[A Christmas Carol (TV story)|a Christmas special]] had been commissioned for 2010, and a sixth series of the revived series was scheduled to enter production [[2010 (production)|that summer]] for broadcast in [[2011 (releases)|2011]].
 
Torchwood aired its fourth and final series, ''[[Miracle Day]]'' in 2011. It was a collaboration between BBC & BBCAmerica, exploring the aftermath of a day when nobody dies. It saw the return of [[Captain Jack Harkness (disambiguation)|Captain Jack Harkness]] and [[Gwen Cooper]] as well as the introductions of [[Esther Drummond]] and [[Rex Matheson]]. Episode One aired on 14 July and the series wrapped on 9 September 2011.
 
[[Series 6 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 6]] aired in two parts; the first half aired in the spring and the remaining episodes aired in the autumn. The BBC claimed the split was to accommodate a story arc with a mid-season cliffhanger, the arc being the revelation of the identity of [[River Song]]. Steven Moffat was said to have requested the split. Episode 4, ''[[The Doctor's Wife (TV story)|The Doctor's Wife]]'', also featured the first mention of a [[Time Lord]], [[the Corsair]], being able to change gender between [[regeneration]]s.
 
[[Series 7 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 7]] aired in two parts as well, although this time the first half aired in the autumn and the second half aired in the spring, with [[The Snowmen (TV story)|a Christmas special]] in between. Broadcasts began in [[September (releases)|September]] [[2012 (releases)|2012]], with ''[[Asylum of the Daleks (TV story)|Asylum of the Daleks]]''.
 
This Special reintroduced the concept of the current Doctor's face showing up in the intro sequence, last seen in [[1989 (releases)|1989]]'s ''[[Survival (TV story)|Survival]]''. It also brought back the [[Great Intelligence]] for the first time since [[1968]]'s ''[[The Web of Fear (TV story)|The Web of Fear]]''.
 
The first few years of the 2010s welcomed a plethora of new games for different platforms, some of them featuring major gameplay for the first time, such as ''[[City of the Daleks (video game)|City of the Daleks]]'', ''[[Blood of the Cybermen (video game)|Blood of the Cybermen]]'' and ''[[TARDIS (video game)|TARDIS]]''.
 
=== 50 years and beyond ===
Following the [[Series 7 (Doctor Who 2005)|series 7]] finale, ''[[The Name of the Doctor (TV story)|The Name of the Doctor]]'', ''[[The Day of the Doctor (TV story)|The Day of the Doctor]]'' aired on TV and in cinemas on [[23 November (releases)|23 November]] [[2013 (releases)|2013]] to celebrate the programme's 50th anniversary. This heavily featured a [[War Doctor|new Doctor]], played by [[John Hurt]], who was revealed to be the true ninth incarnation of the Doctor in a mini-episode titled ''[[The Night of the Doctor (TV story)|The Night of the Doctor]]'', which had [[Paul McGann]] return as the [[Eighth Doctor]] and regenerating him. The 50th also featured [[Tom Baker]] himself returning, however as a character known to the Doctor, called [[the Curator]], as well as a cameo of the immediate successor of Smith. It featured the original 1963 intro sequence and a brief one-off departure of showing the Doctor's face and [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] in the sequence, not counting the mini-episode in the case of the former.
 
[[Big Finish Productions]] also celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the show with the audio story ''[[The Light at the End (audio story)|The Light at the End]]'' on the [[23 October (releases)|23 October]], featuring the first eight incarnations of the Doctor as well as a couple of their [[companion]]s with [[the Master]] as the villain.
 
The [[Christmas special]] ''[[The Time of the Doctor (TV story)|The Time of the Doctor]]'' was broadcast a month later on [[25 December (releases)|25 December]]. ''Time ''revealed that the Eleventh Doctor was the final incarnation before he was granted a new cycle of regenerations. It also featured the [[Eleventh Doctor]]'s [[regeneration]] into [[Peter Capaldi]]'s [[Twelfth Doctor|Twelfth]]; Capaldi was announced as the Twelfth Doctor in [[Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor|a live special]] months earlier on [[4 August (production)|4 August]].
 
With the successful release of the 50th anniversary special, the [[Series 8 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 8]] premiere, ''[[Deep Breath (TV story)|Deep Breath]]'', was extended and broadcast simultaneously on TV and theatres on [[23 August (releases)|23 August]] [[2014 (releases)|2014]]. Notably, Peter Capaldi's debut as the lead featured a surprise cameo from his predecessor Matt Smith, the first such occurrence of an immediate reprisal in ''Doctor Who''. Broadcasting its run, now reduced from 13 to 12 episodes, without a split, Series 8 concluded with ''[[Death in Heaven (TV story)|Death in Heaven]]'' on [[8 November (releases)|8 November]], just less than two months before the [[Last Christmas (TV story)|2014 Christmas special]]. ''Death in Heaven'' featured a one-off change in the intro sequence, showing [[companion]] [[Clara Oswald]]'s face instead of the Doctor's as a response to the preceding "[[cold opening]]". The series featured a mysterious woman known as [[Missy]] throughout most episodes, who by the conclusion was revealed as a female incarnation of the Master.
 
Starting just short of a month later in [[2015 (releases)|2015]], [[Series 9 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 9]] began with ''[[The Magician's Apprentice (TV story)|The Magician's Apprentice]]'' on [[19 September (releases)|19 September]] and concluded with ''[[Hell Bent (TV story)|Hell Bent]]'' on [[5 December (releases)|5 December]], only twenty days before ''[[The Husbands of River Song (TV story)|The Husbands of River Song]]'' on Christmas Day. The intro for ''[[Before the Flood (TV story)|Before the Flood]]'' featured rock-guitar play over the [[Doctor Who theme|theme]] while specially filmed "found footage" story ''[[Sleep No More (TV story)|Sleep No More]]'' featured a one-off intro sequence matching the "feel" of the story, getting rid of both [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] and the Doctor's face.
 
[[2016 (releases)|2016]] would see another break for ''Doctor Who'' on TV while the [[Series 10 (Doctor Who 2005)|next series]] was filmed to broadcast in the [[2017 (releases)|following year]], with a [[Friend from the Future (TV story)|unique teaser]] introducing the [[Bill Potts|new companion]] releasing on [[23 April (releases)|23 April]]. [[22 October (releases)|22 October]] marked the [[For Tonight We Might Die (TV story)|premiere]], fittingly on the 10th anniversary as [[Everything Changes (TV story)|that]] of ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]'', of a new but ultimately ill-fated spin-off [[Series 1 (Class)|series]]: ''[[Class (TV series)|Class]]''. Airing exclusively on [[BBC Three]], which had since been relegated to an online service, Class was based at [[Coal Hill School]], the very first setting of ''Doctor Who'', and hosted a guest appearance by the Doctor himself in the first episode. Ultimately, the sole new episode of ''Doctor Who'' itself to air in 2016 would be the annual Christmas special: ''[[The Return of Doctor Mysterio (TV story)|The Return of Doctor Mysterio]]'', the first in five years to preview the upcoming series as ''Doctor Who'' would return to the spring season.
 
Series 10 premiered with ''[[The Pilot (TV story)|The Pilot]]'' on [[19 April (releases)|19 April]]. The series concluded with ''[[The Doctor Falls (TV story)|The Doctor Falls]]'' on [[1 July (releases)|1 July]], which saw the Doctor mortally wounded. The Doctor himself would postpone his regeneration, however, and the finale concluded with the surprise return of the [[First Doctor]] now portrayed by [[David Bradley]], who had previously played [[William Hartnell]] in the 50th anniversary docudrama ''[[An Adventure in Space and Time (TV story)|An Adventure in Space and Time]]'', who would go on to expand the First Doctor's timeline beyond his original final story with the Christmas special ''[[Twice Upon a Time (TV story)|Twice Upon a Time]]'', incorporating footage from ''[[The Tenth Planet (TV story)|The Tenth Planet]]'' by morphing Hartnell into Bradley and vice versa (thereby also showing his regeneration again). Soon after ''The Doctor Falls'', [[Jodie Whittaker]] was [[Meet the Thirteenth Doctor|announced]] to be playing the [[Thirteenth Doctor]], the first female incarnation of the Doctor, who made her debut at the conclusion of said Christmas special. The finale of the series, beginning in ''[[World Enough and Time (TV story)|World Enough and Time]]'', saw the return of [[John Simm]] as {{Simm|n=the Saxon Master}} alongside Gomez's Missy, marking the first televised [[List of multi-Master stories|Multi-Master story]] in the show's history.
 
The mid-2010s saw further video game releases such as ''[[Legacy (video game)|Legacy]]'' and ''[[Infinity (video game)|Infinity]]'' as well as the first multi-franchise [[LEGO]] game, ''[[LEGO Dimensions (video game)|LEGO Dimensions]]''. A [[Bow Tie Game (video game)|mini-game]] on the ''Doctor Who'' [[Instagram]] ''Stories'' game was also released in [[November (releases)|November]] [[2018 (releases)|2018]], with [[TARDIS Game (video game)|another one]] released in [[April (releases)|April]] [[2019 (releases)|2019]].
 
=== A huge milestone ===
With new incoming showrunner [[Chris Chibnall]] taking over, a huge milestone was reached when the first ever woman, [[Jodie Whittaker]] was cast as the Doctor and given a plethora of diversified episodes. [[Series 11 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 11]] was moved to [[Sunday]]s and was reduced to 10 episodes beginning with ''[[The Woman Who Fell to Earth (TV story)|The Woman Who Fell to Earth]]'' on [[7 October (releases)|7 October]] [[2018 (releases)|2018]] and concluding with ''[[The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (TV story)|The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos]]'' on [[9 December (releases)|9 December]], compensating with an extended running time. The new change was met with a large amount of positivity, with majority praising the new Doctor and stories, many celebrities saying it was about time. Some people, however, were not very impressed with the changes made, calling them "too politically correct" and "Social Justice Warrior"-driven. Despite this negativity, the new era ended up very successful. The new series also got rid of the annual [[Christmas Special]], which had been a constant since the return in [[2005 (releases)|2005]], replacing it with a [[New Year Special]] on [[Tuesday]] the [[1 January (releases)|1 January]] [[2019 (releases)|2019]], followed by a gap year.
 
This series also once again got rid of the idea of having the current Doctor's face as well as [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] show up in the intro. It also removed the "[[cold opening]]s" which had been permanent instalments since [[2005 (releases)|2005]]'s ''[[The End of the World (TV story)|The End of the World]]''. The opening story and the Special also didn't have a [[title sequence]].
 
As for first-timers, 2019 saw the release of a fully fledged [[virtual reality]] game ''[[The Runaway (video game)|The Runaway]]'' and the first ever [[escape room]] ''[[Worlds Collide]]'' on the [[16 May (releases)|16 May]] and [[16 January (releases)|16 January]], respectively. It was also the first time a Doctor appeared in expanded media before appearing on-screen.
 
2019 was also the year that [[Big Finish Productions]] celebrated their 20th Anniversary. This was done with a free [[YouTube]] livestream spanning the entire weekend of [[20 July (releases)|20]] and [[21 July (releases)|21 July]] with a plethora of [[Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories|audio stories]] ending with ''[[Lies in Ruins (audio story)|Lies in Ruins]]'', the opening of the 20th anniversary audio box set ''[[The Legacy of Time (audio anthology)|The Legacy of Time]]''.
 
[[August (releases)|August]] saw a third [[Alien Game (video game)|Instagram mini-game]] released to the ''Stories'' section.
 
All throughout the last months of [[2018]] and the first 9 months of [[2019]], students, staff and graduates of the [[University of Central Lancashire]] (UCLan) had worked tirelessly and carefully in collaboration with the ''Doctor Who'' team to recreate the missing [[1965]] single-episode story ''[[Mission to the Unknown (TV story)|Mission to the Unknown]]'' as closely as possible to the original and with the original 60s-era television values. It was released on [[YouTube]] on [[9 October (releases)|9 October]] [[2019 (releases)|2019]], giving fans the opportunity to again enjoy the lost classic.
 
[[17 October (releases)|17 October]] 2019 marked the 40th anniversary of the long-running ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' with its [[DWM 544|544th issue]] being released exactly 40 years after [[DWM 1|the first issue]]. To celebrate, the issue also offered a 32-page ''[[Doctor Who Magazine: The Index]]'' along with it at no additional cost.
 
A [[Doctor Who theme night|''Doctor Who'' theme night]] at the [[Natural History Museum]] in [[Kensington]] as part of their after-hours series ''[[Lates]]'' was held on [[25 October (releases)|25 October]] 2019. A special screening of the [[Series 3 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 3]] opening episode, ''[[Smith and Jones (TV story)|Smith and Jones]]'', was shown during the event.<ref>https://www.nhm.ac.uk/events/lates.html</ref>
 
On the [[12 November (releases)|12 November]] 2019, a second VR game was released called ''[[The Edge of Time (video game)|The Edge of Time]]'', in which the Player got much more freedom to explore [[time]] and [[space]] as well as piloting [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]]. Essentially, the Player gets sent on an adventure of their own.
 
[[Series 12 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 12]] premiered on [[New Year's Day]], [[Wednesday]] [[1 January (releases)|1 January]] [[2020 (releases)|2020]] with ''[[Spyfall (TV story)|Spyfall: Part One]]'', which also marked the first time since ''[[The End of Time (TV story)|The End of Time]]'' that a two-part story had a single title. ''Part One'' also aired on the 10th Anniversary of ''The End of Time: Part Two''. ''Spyfall: Part Two'' was broadcast only four days later on [[5 January (releases)|5 January]] on a [[Sunday]] which continued to be the format established the previous series.
 
Episode 5 of series 12, ''[[Fugitive of the Judoon (TV story)|Fugitive of the Judoon]]''; broadcast on [[26 January (releases)|26 January]], hit another milestone as the first episode to have a black woman, [[Jo Martin]], cast as [[Fugitive Doctor|the Doctor]], albeit adding confusion to the show's history, with this version claiming to be a past version while the [[Thirteenth Doctor]] has no recollection of her. This episode also brought back [[Captain]] [[Jack Harkness]] over a decade after his last appearance on the show, ''The End of Time: Part Two'' and 9 years after his last televised appearance, in ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]: [[Series 4 (Torchwood)|Miracle Day]]''{{'}}s last episode ''[[The Blood Line (TV story)|The Blood Line]]''.
 
The series ended on [[1 March (releases)|1 March]] 2020 with ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'', once and for all establishing to the lore of the show that the Doctor had lived for several millennia before becoming the [[First Doctor]], by not only settling the decades-long debate of [[The Doctor (The Brain of Morbius)|the "Morbius Doctors"]] from ''[[The Brain of Morbius (TV story)|The Brain of Morbius]]'', but also implying vaguely "the Ruth Doctor" to be from the Doctor's past before [[William Hartnell]]'s [[incarnation]] while also giving the character a new background as [[Timeless Child's species|a being]] from another [[dimension]] known as "the [[Timeless Child]]" capable of infinite [[regeneration]] who was brought to [[Gallifrey]] by the [[Shobogan (species)|Shobogan]] [[First Tecteun|Tecteun]], who went on to transfer the regenerative ability to the people of the planet and thus creating the [[Time Lord]]s. This release created a gap between stories with a little over half a year until the following story.
 
Series 12 also saw the "[[cold opening]]" return for the first time since [[2017 (releases)|2017]]'s ''[[Twice Upon a Time (TV story)|Twice Upon a Time]]'', though it was not used consistently across all episodes.
 
2020 saw the release of the ''Doctor Who'' franchise's second [[escape room]] ''[[A Dalek Awakens (escape game)|A Dalek Awakens]]'', launching on [[9 March (releases)|9 March]] 2020.
 
Six months later, the first print-and-play escape room was released on [[8 August (releases)|8 August]], called ''[[The Hollow Planet (escape game)|The Hollow Planet]]'' and intended as a prequel to the previous escape room.
 
A little over half a year later after ''The Timeless Children'', the [[New Year Special]] aired on [[1 January (releases)|1 January]] [[2021 (releases)|2021]], named ''[[Revolution of the Daleks (TV story)|Revolution of the Daleks]]'' and continuing the [[Dalek]]-storyline begun in ''Resolution'' with a [[Defence Drone|a new mutated faction of Daleks]] introduced leading to [[Security Drone Incident|civil war]] between them and [[Death Squad Dalek|a squad of pure Daleks]] similar to [[Imperial-Renegade Dalek Civil War|the war]] fought between [[Imperial Dalek]]s and [[Renegade Dalek]]s in ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]''. The story also saw the return of [[Jack Robertson]] from ''Arachnids in the UK'' as well as the second return of Jack Harkness, also bringing in multiple numbers of creatures from the Doctor’s past adventures.
 
=== COVID-19 ===
On [[25 March (releases)|25 March]] 2020, [[Chris Chibnall]] published a short story to the [[Doctor Who website|''Doctor Who'' website]] titled ''[[Things She Thought While Falling (short story)|Things She Thought While Falling]]'', set between ''[[Twice Upon a Time (TV story)|Twice Upon a Time]]'' and ''[[The Woman Who Fell to Earth (TV story)|The Woman Who Fell to Earth]]''. It was written as a treat to take fans' minds off of the [[COVID-19]] outbreak worldwide.
 
On [[26 March (releases)|26 March]] 2020, [[Russell T Davies]] returned to publish a previously withheld short story titled ''[[Doctor Who and the Time War (short story)|Doctor Who and the Time War]]'', which offered an alternate account on what happened during the [[Last Great Time War]], namely having the [[Eighth Doctor]] destroy [[Gallifrey]] and subsequently regenerating into the [[Ninth Doctor|Ninth]] [[The Doctor's ninth incarnation|Doctor]] completely omitting the existence of a [[War Doctor]]. Later, Davies also released a new audio short story titled ''[[Revenge of the Nestene (short story)|Revenge of the Nestene]]'' set directly after ''[[Rose (TV story)|Rose]]''. Both were part of a ''[[Doctor Who: Lockdown!]]'' event due to COVID-19.
 
This started an era of multiple releases of short stories, webcasts and alternate script-reveals which featured alongside watchalongs of various episodes of ''Doctor Who'' throughout the entire year 2020 as a way for fans to cope with the virus spreading across the world and forcing new restrictions on people constantly, extending its way into February [[2021 (releases)|2021]].
 
The biggest of these stories was the massive multi-media expanding series known as ''[[Time Lord Victorious (series)|Time Lord Victorious]]'', released on [[17 August (releases)|17 August]], and played off of the [[Tenth Doctor]]'s self-proclaimed title in [[2009 (releases)|2009]] story ''[[The Waters of Mars (TV story)|The Waters of Mars]]'', which sent the Doctor down a long path of saving the universe from [[Time Fracture]]s caused by him meddling with time, all while avoiding his own death. While the plot of time fracturing continued later down the line, this series ran until to [[16 April (releases)|16 April]] 2021.
 
On [[19 March]] 2021, an iOS and Android game was released by [[Maze Theory]], called ''[[The Lonely Assassins (video game)|The Lonely Assassins]]'', set around the [[Wester Drumlins]] disappearances and featuring [[Weeping Angel]]s as well as the Player as the hero.
 
=== Post-Lockdown ===
On [[26 May (releases)|26 May]] a new massive ground-breaking [[Immersive Theatrical Adventure]], known as ''[[Time Fracture (stage play)|Doctor Who: Time Fracture]]'', opened its doors in [[Davies Mews]] in [[London]] to the public, promising an exciting adventure where the visitor got to be the hero of the day.
 
This immersive theatre had the entire plethora of [[The Doctor|known Doctors]] as well as some friends and companions returning via pre-recordings to guide the hero through it all while helping to avoid foes along the way such as [[Dalek]]s, [[Cyberman|Cybermen]] and [[Weeping Angel]]s.
 
The experience would be running throughout all of 2021 as well as going well into [[2022 (releases)|2022]], closing down on [[5 June (releases)|5 June]] of that year.
 
On [[25 July (releases)|25 July]] was released a trailer for the upcoming series, which included a link to a "[https://www.doctorwho.tv/mystery ''/mystery'']" page on the [[Doctor Who website|''Doctor Who'' website]] which began a quest on [[13 August (releases)|13 August]] of clue-finding in an ARG known as ''[[FindTheDoctor (series)|#FindTheDoctor]]'' meant to engage fans until the series. The ARG dropped clues on a weekly basis up until [[16 September (releases)|16 September]], as a reward releasing a promo pic of Thirteen and a video revealing a new monster.
 
On [[24 September (releases)|24 September]] it was revealed that [[Russell T Davies]] would be returning to take over as showrunner, with his new reign officially starting in [[November (releases)|November]] [[2023 (releases)|2023]], but unofficially starting [[23 October (releases)|23 October]] 2022. This was accompanied by a new deal between the [[BBC]] and [[Bad Wolf Productions]], which had simultaniously been acquired by [[Sony Pictures Television]], to be co-producing the following era.
 
On [[14 October (releases)|14 October]], a follow-up to ''The Edge of Time'' was released, called ''[[The Edge of Reality (video game)|The Edge of Reality]]'', which functioned much in the same way that the preceding game did, but offered a much more expanded gameplay and saw the return of [[David Tennant]] voicing the [[Tenth Doctor]], alongside [[Jodie Whittaker]]'s [[Thirteenth Doctor]].
 
[[Series 13 (Doctor Who 2005)|Series 13]], subtitled ''Doctor Who: Flux'', was reduced to 6 episodes as a result of [[COVID-19]]<ref name="Reduced">https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-chris-chibnall-cuts-news/</ref> and was released on [[31 October (releases)|31 October]] with its first episode ''[[The Halloween Apocalypse (TV story)|The Halloween Apocalypse]]''. On [[5 December (releases)|5 December]] the sixth and final episode of this series, ''[[The Vanquishers (TV story)|The Vanquishers]]'' aired, forming a serial for the first time since [[Season 26 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 26]] in [[1989 (releases)|1989]] and the first time the entire season is a single story since ''[[Season 23 (Doctor Who 1963)|The Trial of a Time Lord (season 23)]]'' in [[1986 (releases)|1986]]. It saw the continuation of the [[Timeless Child]] storyline, uncovered in [[2020 (releases)|the previous year]]'s ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'', revealing the [[Fugitive Doctor]]'s involvement with [[the Division]] in their quest to stop the [[Dark Times]] at the hands of [[Ravager (The Halloween Apocalypse)|Ravagers]] [[Swarm]] and [[Azure (The Halloween Apocalypse)|Azure]] along with her then-[[companion]] [[Karvanista]] and other operatives, hiding time-creatures, [[Mouri|the Mouri]] inside living prisons designated [[Passenger form]]s. It introduced [[Dan Lewis]] as a new companion, after being unwillingly swept away from his love [[Diane (The Halloween Apocalypse)|Diane]], and saw the return of [[Tecteun]] in [[Tecteun (Once, Upon Time)|a new incarnation]] as well as the [[Sontaran]]s, [[Dalek]]s, [[Weeping Angel]]s, [[Cybermen]] and an [[Ood]] and introduced a universe-breaking force known as [[the Flux]], meanwhile a girl named [[Claire Brown]] dealt with [[Extraction Squad|a Squad of Weeping Angels]] and an ordinary man, [[Eustacius Jericho|Professor Jericho]] joined in on a trip of a lifetime. It also saw the return of [[Kate Stewart]] and gave [[Joseph Williamson]]'s [[Williamson Tunnels|mysterious tunnels]] a purpose and saw a lover's story between characters [[Bel (Once, Upon Time)|Bel]] and [[Inston-Vee Vinder|Vinder]] while an evil mastermind [[the Grand Serpent]] secretly infiltrated and climbed the ranks of [[UNIT]], ultimately shutting it down in [[2017]]. It also brought an element from the ''[[Virgin New Adventures]]'' novels to the screen in the form of the [[Eternal]] [[Time (mythology)|Time]].
 
=== A Special era ===
A few weeks after, the [[New Year Special]] aired on [[1 January (releases)|1 January]] [[2022 (releases)|2022]], titled ''[[Eve of the Daleks (TV story)|Eve of the Daleks]]''. It saw the introduction of the [[Dalek Executioner|Dalek Execution Squad]] to the screen, fighting a [[time loop]] to kill the Doctor in revenge for destroying their [[Dalek War Fleet|War Fleet]] in [[the Flux]].
 
As a new first, ''Doctor Who'' teamed up with the massive multiplayer online roleplaying game ''[[EVE Online]]'' on [[13 January (releases)|13 January]] to create a limited time online adventure game called ''[[The Interstellar Convergence (video game)|The Interstellar Convergence]]''. It lasted until [[1 February (releases)|1 February]].
 
On [[17 March (releases)|17 March]], ''Doctor Who'' created an island in the massive multiplayer game ''[[Fortnite]]''. In this game the player would see a lot of familarities such as [[Gallifrey]], [[Kerb!am]], the [[Kerb!am Man]], [[Dalek]]s, [[Weeping Angel]]s, the [[Pting]] and so on, as they would compete in a battle royale. The game was unassociated with ''Fortnite''’s creator [[Epic Games]], but carried the label "Created in Fortnite".
 
On [[1 April (releases)|1 April]] a boardgame was released by [[Gale Force Nine]] called ''[[Don't Blink (game)|Don't Blink]]'' which saw the [[Eleventh Doctor]] and his companions facing off against the [[Weeping Angel]]s on a [[Spaceship (Don't Blink)|spaceship]] while trying to repair the [[TARDIS]].
 
On [[17 April (releases)|17 April]] the second ever [[Easter Special]] ''[[Legend of the Sea Devils (TV story)|Legend of the Sea Devils]]'' aired, and reintroduced the [[Sea Devil]]s to the show for the first time since [[1984 (releases)|1984]] story ''[[Warriors of the Deep (TV story)|Warriors of the Deep]].
 
Immediately following the special, [[BBC Sounds]] aired a new audio spin-off series in 10 parts called ''[[Redacted (audio series)|Doctor Who: Redacted]]'', episode one of which was called ''[[SOS (audio story)|SOS]]'', which dealt with a team of young people running a [[podcast]] called ''[[The Blue Box Files]]'', a show about trying to figure out what the [[The Doctor's TARDIS|mysterious blue box]] showing up throughout history could mean. The show dealt with the mystery of [[Thirteenth Doctor|the Doctor]] and people known to them being "[[Redaction|redacted]]" from history. The series concluded with ''[[Salvation (audio story)|Salvation]]'' on [[19 June (releases)|19 June]], which saw the Doctor return to reality and [[Cleo Proctor]] saving the universe.
 
On [[27 June (releases)|27 June]], [[Eastside Games]] released a new video game for iOS [[mobile phone]]s called ''[[Lost in Time (video game)|Lost in Time]]'', which saw the Thirteenth Doctor, [[Twelfth Doctor]], [[Tenth Doctor]] and [[Fourth Doctor]] and their friends trying to prevent a sinister plot from tearing apart the universe. The game was only a "soft-launch" at that time, with the full release taking place on [[8 March (releases)|8 March]] [[2023 (releases)|2023]].
 
The [[British Broadcasting Corporation]] had its [[Anniversary|100th Anniversary]] on [[18 October (releases)|18 October]] [[2022 (releases)|2022]], celebrating its creation on [[18 October (production)|18 October]] [[1922]] with a [[BBC 100]] event across a week. As part of the celebrations ''Doctor Who'' aired a [[Centenary Special]] on [[23 October (releases)|23 October]] 2022, ''[[The Power of the Doctor (TV story)|The Power of the Doctor]]'', which incidentally also happened to be the end of an era as it was the last episode written by [[Chris Chibnall]] as well as Thirteenth Doctor star [[Jodie Whittaker]]. It saw [[companion]] [[Dan Lewis|Dan]] leaving [[The Doctor's TARDIS|the TARDIS]] early on, and saw [[Yasmin Khan|Yaz]] and the Doctor face off against the combined forces of the [[Dalek]]s, the [[Cybermen]] and [[the Master]] in a battle that ultimately caused the Doctor to [[regeneration|regenerate]]. It saw the return of [[Graham O'Brien]], [[Kate Stewart]], [[Inston-Vee Vinder]], [[Ace]], [[Tegan Jovanka]] and [[Ashad|Ashad, the Lone Cyberman]] as well as brief appearances from [[Melanie Bush]], [[Jo Jones]] and [[Ian Chesterton]]. Also returning were the faces of former Doctors, [[First Doctor|the First]], [[Fifth Doctor|the Fifth]], [[Sixth Doctor|the Sixth]], [[Seventh Doctor|the Seventh]], [[Eighth Doctor|the Eighth]] and [[Fugitive Doctor|the Fugitive]], both as [[Guardians of the Edge]] at the [[Time Lord]]-dreamstate afterlife and as [[Artificial intelligence|AI interfaces]]. It saw the return of [[David Tennant]] as the new [[Fourteenth Doctor]] in a surprise twisted turn of events.
 
On [[25 October (releases)|25 October]], it was officially announced as part of a deal between the [[BBC]]/[[Bad Wolf Productions]] and [[Disney Branded Television]] that future series of the show would be available outside [[United Kingdom|the U.K.]] and [[Ireland]] on the streaming platform [[Disney+]], transforming ''Doctor Who'' into a global franchise.
 
On [[1 November (releases)|1 November]], the cross-platform, massively multiplayer, party royale game ''[[Fall Guys (video game)|Fall Guys]]'' released four new character-skins, available for purchase. These were a [[Dalek]], the [[Fourth Doctor]], the Thirteenth Doctor and the Fourteenth Doctor. The skins were available until early morning [[6 November (releases)|6 November]] (adverttised as [[5 November (releases)|5 November]]).
 
On [[10 November (releases)|10 November]], an "unprecedented" move was made with the then-latest issue of ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'', [[DWM 584|issue #584]], in that it released the first full story of the new incarnation of the Doctor, called ''[[Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)|Liberation of the Daleks]]'', which would be a multi-issue comic strip, covering the gap between ''The Power of the Doctor'' and the next television story.
 
On [[19 March (releases)|19 March]] [[2023 (releases)|2023]] a short webcast was released called ''[[Tomorrow. Doom's Day is coming... (webcast)|Tomorrow. Doom's Day is coming...]]'', which showed a clock ticking in the void. The next day, [[20 March (releases)|20 March]], a new webcast was released called ''[[Meet Doom - the Universe's Greatest Assassin! (webcast)|Meet Doom - the Universe's Greatest Assassin!]]'', which announced a huge multi-media series would begin later in the year in celebration of the [[List of anniversaries|60th anniversary]] of the franchise.
 
On [[7 April (releases)|7 April]] 2023, a new game called ''[[An Unlikely Heist (video game)|An Unlikely Heist]]'' was released on [[Apple Arcade]] by [[Tilting Point LLC]], which saw the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz solving mysteries and unravelling a sinister plot across time and space.
 
On [[3 May (releases)|3 May]], [[Big Finish Productions]] released the first story in what was their celebration of the 60th anniversary of the franchise, ''[[Past Lives (audio story)|Past Lives]]'' in the audio series ''[[Once and Future]]''.
 
On [[5 June (releases)|5 June]], the [[BBC]] released the first story in the ''Doom's Day'' series called ''[[Hour One (short story)|Hour One]]'', written by [[James Goss]]. The story was released on the [[Doctor Who website|''Doctor Who'' website]].
 
On [[15 August (releases)|15 August]] the party royale game ''Fall Guys'' once more released character skins, available for purchase. They were the [[Tenth Doctor]], the [[The Doctor's TARDIS|TARDIS]] and a [[Cyberman]]. Along with them were the previous collaboration's character skins, once again made available. They were available until [[20 August (releases)|20 August]].
 
== Continuity ==
A common contention among fans and producers of the series is that a large part of the Doctor's appeal comes from their mysterious and alien origins. While over the decades several revelations have been made about their background — that they are a [[Time Lord]], that they are from [[Gallifrey]], they can [[regeneration|regenerate]] a total of [[Incarnation|13 times]], among others — the writers have striven to retain some sense of mystery and to preserve the eternal question, "Doctor who?" This backstory was not rigidly planned from the beginning, but developed gradually and haphazardly over the years, the result of the work of many writers and producers.
 
Understandably, this has led to continuity problems. Characters such as [[the Monk]] were retroactively classified as Time Lords, early histories of races such as the [[Dalek]]s were rewritten, unseen versions of the Doctor existed prior to [[William Hartnell]]'s version and so on. The creation of a detailed backstory has also led to the criticism that too much being known about the Doctor limits both creative possibilities and the sense of mystery. Some of the stories during the [[Sylvester McCoy|Seventh Doctor]]'s tenure, part of the so-called "[[Cartmel Masterplan]]", were intended to deal with this issue by suggesting that much of what was believed about the Doctor was wrong and that they are a far more powerful and mysterious figure than previously thought. In both an untelevised scene in ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]'' and the subsequent ''[[Silver Nemesis (TV story)|Silver Nemesis]]'' it is implied (to quote an excised line from "''Remembrance''") that the Doctor is "far more than just another Time Lord." The suspension of the series in [[1989]], however, meant that none of these hints were ever resolved, at least on television. The ''[[Virgin New Adventures]]'' novel, ''[[Lungbarrow (novel)|Lungbarrow]]'', did resolve these hints and explain the Doctor's origins. However, not all fans regard the spin-off novels as [[canon]] or accept the revelations made in that particular story, partly because other parts of the franchise seem to contradict parts of it.
 
The [[1996 (releases)|1996]] [[Doctor Who (TV story)|television movie]] created even more uncertainty about the character, revealing that the Doctor had a human mother and they remembered their father. Fans, however, seemed to be more upset about the fact that the [[Eighth Doctor]] kissed Dr [[Grace Holloway]], breaking the series' longstanding taboo against the Doctor having any romantic involvement with their companions.
 
The revelation in the 1996 television movie that the Doctor was half-[[human]] is often considered to be a continuity error as the Doctor is considered by most to be a full Time Lord, causing fans to attempt to find alternative explanations about why the Doctor claimed to be part human.
 
While some fans regard discontinuities as a problem, others regard it as a source of interest or humour — an attitude taken in the book ''[[The Discontinuity Guide]]''. A common fan explanation is that a universe with time travellers is likely to have many historical inconsistencies.
 
The revived series has tackled this issue head on by suggesting that "time is in flux" and with the exception of certain [[fixed points in time]], almost anything can be changed. Recently, some fan interpretations of the [[series 5 (Doctor Who 2005)|series 5]] finale, ''[[The Big Bang (TV story)|The Big Bang]]'', have suggested a potential reboot of ''Doctor Who'' continuity ''in toto'', but there is also evidence in opposition to this view.
 
In [[2020]], the [[Series 12 (Doctor Who 2005)|12th revived series]] took another bold move to shake up the mythos of the show, by claiming the Doctor's origins are [[Timeless Child's species|a completely different species]] to what was previously established, that they are from [[Timeless Child's realm|a different universe]] and that they can regenerate an infinite number of times.
 
There has been much fan speculation on exactly which aspects of the television series, books, radio dramatisations, and other sources are considered canon. This has been made more complex by the fact that at least one novel, short story, comic, and audio have all been adapted for the TV series. Additionally, the events of at least one novel have been referenced on screen. For their part, the [[BBC]] have never issued a firm edict as to what counts as "canon". Thus, ''Doctor Who'' stands in stark contrast to the more formalised canons of ''Star Trek'', ''Star Wars'', ''Harry Potter'', ''The Lord of the Rings'' — and, indeed, almost every other fictional universe.
 
== "Doctor Who?" ==
When the series began, nothing was known of the Doctor at all, not even their name. In the very first serial, ''[[An Unearthly Child (TV story)|An Unearthly Child]]'', two teachers from the [[Coal Hill School]] in [[London]], [[Barbara Wright]] and [[Ian Chesterton]], become intrigued by one of their students, [[Susan Foreman]], who exhibits high intelligence and patchy, unusually advanced knowledge. Trailing her to a junkyard at [[76 Totter's Lane]], they encounter a strange old man and hear Susan's voice coming from inside what appears to be a [[police box]]. Pushing their way inside, the two find that the exterior is actually camouflage for the [[dimensionally transcendental]] interior of [[the TARDIS]].
 
Susan calls the old man "Grandfather", but he simply calls himself the Doctor. When he fears Ian and Barbara may alert the local authorities to what they've seen, he whisks them all away to another place in time and space.
 
In the first episode, Ian addresses the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman," as the junkyard in which they find him bears the sign "I.M. Foreman". When addressed by Ian with this name in the next episode, the Time Lord responds, "Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?" Later, when Ian realises that "Foreman" is not his name, he asks Barbara, "Who is he? Doctor who?" Although listed in the on-screen credits for nearly twenty years as "Doctor Who", the Doctor is never really called by that name in the series, except in that same tongue-in-cheek manner. For example, in ''[[The Five Doctors (TV story)|The Five Doctors]]'' when one character refers to him as "the Doctor", another character asks, "Who?" The only real exception has been the computer [[WOTAN]], in the serial, ''[[The War Machines (TV story)|The War Machines]]'', which commanded that "Doctor Who is required."
 
In ''[[The Gunfighters (TV story)|The Gunfighters]]'', the [[First Doctor]] uses the [[Aliases of the Doctor|alias]] {{w|The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari|Dr Caligari}}. In ''[[The Highlanders (TV story)|The Highlanders]]'' the Second Doctor assumes the name of "Doctor von Wer" (a German translation of "Doctor of Who"), and signs himself as "Dr. W" in ''[[The Underwater Menace (TV story)|The Underwater Menace]]''. In ''[[The Wheel in Space (TV story)|The Wheel in Space]]'', his companion [[Jamie McCrimmon|Jamie]], reads the name off some medical equipment, and tells the crew of the Wheel that the Doctor's name is "John Smith". The Doctor adopts this alias several times over the course of the series, often prefixing the title "Doctor" to it. This has continued to the [[Tenth Doctor]], and was famously referenced to in the [[1996 (releases)|1996]] [[Doctor Who (TV story)|television movie]], where even though the Doctor is unconscious, a complete stranger, seemingly at random, writes the name John Smith on the Doctor's hospital admission papers.
 
In ''[[The Armageddon Factor (TV story)|The Armageddon Factor]]'', the Time Lord [[Drax]] addresses the [[Fourth Doctor]] as "Thete", short for "[[Theta Sigma]]", apparently a [[Time Lord Academy|University]] nickname. In the [[1988 (releases)|1988]] serial ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]'', the [[Seventh Doctor]] is asked to sign a document, which he does by using a question mark, and produces a calling card with a series of [[Greek]] letters (or [[Gallifreyan (language)|Old High Gallifreyan]] script) and a question mark inscribed on it. The [[Eighth Doctor]] briefly used the alias "Dr Bowman" in the 1996 television movie. He has also been mocked by his fellow Time Lords for adhering to such a "lowly" title as "Doctor".
 
In many [[Doctor Who spin-offs|spin-off]] comic strips, books, films and other media, the character is often called "Doctor Who" (or just "Dr. Who") as a matter of course, though this has declined in recent years. From the first story through to ''[[Logopolis (TV story)|Logopolis]]'' (the last story of [[Season 18 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 18]] and also of the Tom Baker era), the lead character was listed as "Doctor Who". Starting with [[Peter Davison]]'s first story, ''[[Castrovalva (TV story)|Castrovalva]]'' (also the first story of [[Season 19 (Doctor Who 1963)|Season 19]]), the lead character is credited simply as "The Doctor".
 
''Doctor Who'' writer [[Terrance Dicks]] offered the theory that Time Lord names were "jawbreakers," long and extremely difficult to pronounce, and this was why the Doctor never revealed his true name. However, [[River Song]], one of the few people ever to know his name, was able to whisper it in his ear in a very short time. Some fans have speculated, taking off from the fact that the full name of the Time Lady [[Romana]] is "Romanadvoratrelundar", that the first syllable of the Doctor's true name is "Who". It should be noted that, although it is often asserted that "Doctor Who" is ''not'' the character's name, there is nothing in the series itself that actually confirms this. On at least one occasion the Doctor is about to give a name after the title "Doctor..." but is interrupted. Interestingly, the BBC novel, ''[[The Infinity Doctors (novel)|The Infinity Doctors]]'' mentions an ancient Gallifreyan god named "[[Ohm|OHM]]". When this name is turned upside down, the result is "WHO." This idea originated in early drafts of ''[[The Three Doctors (TV story)|The Three Doctors]]'' by [[Bob Baker]] and [[Dave Martin]]. The character of "Ohm" eventually became [[Omega]].
 
It is interesting to note that, while spin-off media is known to "fill in the blanks" regarding aspects of ''Doctor Who'' lore — for example, several novels "revealed" [[The Master]]'s real name — no officially licensed media has ever seriously attempted to solve the riddle of the Doctor's real name. Notwithstanding early spin-off media that treated "Doctor Who" as his name, of course.
 
The [[Tenth Doctor]], played by [[David Tennant]], has stated that there was only one reason and one time that he would or could reveal his true name. During [[Matt Smith]]'s reign as the [[Eleventh Doctor]], it was revealed that the oldest question in the universe was "Doctor Who?" and considering how desperate [[the Silence]], a religious order devoted to destroying the Doctor, were to keep him from revealing it, the consequences of him telling anyone his real name must be catastrophic.
 
In ''[[The Bells of Saint John (TV story)|The Bells of Saint John]]'', the [[Eleventh Doctor]] asked [[Clara Oswald]] to repeat the question, and stated that he didn't realise how much he enjoyed people asking him "Doctor Who?"
 
The name of the Doctor was a huge topic throughout the entire Eleventh Doctor era, with various aliens throughout the show gathering to imprison the Doctor to prevent him from eventually reaching the [[planet]] [[Trenzalore]] and speak his real name which in turn would restart the [[Time War]] by letting the Time Lords back into the universe before it was safe.
 
== Accolades ==
In 2000, in a poll of industry professionals, the {{w|British Film Institute}} voted ''Doctor Who'' #3 in a list of the {{w|100 Greatest British Television Programmes}}. Since its return in 2005, the series has received many nominations and awards both nationally (UK) and internationally. This includes [[BAFTA]]s, the [[National Television Awards]] and the [[Hugo Award]]s. American accolades have been fewer and farther between, although in 2007 it broke a barrier by receiving a nomination for the 2008 People's Choice Awards, although it did not win. The series' revival found its highest ratings not in the UK but in South Korea.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2010/06/torchwood.html|title='Torchwood' on Starz: Just as before, Capt. Jack will get you bi tonight|author=John Weisman|date of source=7 June 2010|website name=Variety|accessdate=16 April 2012|archiveurl=http://archive.is/i9V0S|archivedate=28 April 2013}}</ref>
The Guinness World Records have recognised that ''Doctor Who'' has broke, accomplished and set many different records. To see a full list, visit the [[Guinness World Records]] article on this Wikia.
 
Even the "gap year" season of 2009–2010, which consisted of only four specials (five if the 2008 Christmas special, ''[[The Next Doctor (TV story)|The Next Doctor]]'' is included), wasn't enough to slow down the train of awards given to ''Doctor Who''. On 20 January 2010 the series won Best Drama and David Tennant won Best Drama Performance at the 2010 National Television Awards.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2010/01/national-television-awards-series-wins.html|title=National Television Awards - series and Tennant triumph|author=Anthony Weight|date of source=20 January 2010|website name=Doctor Who News|accessdate=16 April 2012}}</ref>
== Feature films ==
To build upon the success of [[Dalekmania]] the series had created in Britain in the 1960s, two feature films were produced (''[[Dr. Who and the Daleks (theatrical film)|Dr. Who and the Daleks]]'' and ''[[Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (theatrical film)|Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.]]'') and released worldwide. Although both were adapted from the [[William Hartnell]] television stories ''[[The Daleks (TV story)|The Daleks]]'' and ''[[The Dalek Invasion of Earth (TV story)|The Dalek Invasion of Earth]]'' respectively, they feature [[Peter Cushing]] as a [[Human]] scientist named [[Dr. Who]] who invents a [[TARDIS (Dr. Who and the Daleks)|TARDIS]], and as such are not considered to be canonical.
 
In 2011 it was announced that a new feature film would be released, to be directed by ''[[Harry Potter]]'' director [[David Yates (director)|David Yates]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118046098|title=Yates to direct bigscreen 'Doctor Who'|author=Adam Dawtrey|date of source=14 November 2011|website name=Variety|accessdate=23 July 2012}}</ref> Although initial news reports suggested that the film would "start from scratch" in terms of continuity, [[Steven Moffat]] subsequently clarified that "any Doctor Who movie would be made by the BBC team, star the current TV Doctor and would certainly not be a Hollywood reboot".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/16035022|title=Steven Moffat denies Doctor Who 'reboot' film plan|date of source=5 December 2011|website name=BBC Newsbeat|accessdate=23 July 2012}}</ref> He later reiterated, "There will not come a time when there's a separate kind of ''Doctor Who''. What was talked about there was that there would be a separate Doctor and a different continuity. Of course it won't. That would be silly. Everyone knows that's silly. The BBC knows that's silly, and is not going to do that."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2012/07/dwn220712101008-movie-update.html|title=Movie update|author=Chuck Foster|date of source=22 July 2012|website name=Doctor Who News|accessdate=23 July 2012}}</ref>
== Other media ==
Although ''Doctor Who'' originated as a television programme, it has become much more than that. Starting with "[[Dalekmania]]" in the 1960s, a great deal of merchandise has sprung out of ''Doctor Who''. Some of that merchandise has continued the story of the Doctor's adventures. Over the decades, ''Doctor Who'' has appeared on stage, screen, and radio, and in a variety of novels, comics, full-cast audio adventures and webcasts. Beginning in the late 1980s, independent production companies such as [[BBV Productions]] and [[Reeltime Pictures]] took advantage of a loophole in the BBC's ownership of ''Doctor Who'' to licence individual characters and monsters from the series directly from their creators and build original film and audio dramas around them; this reached its height after the original series ended in 1989. Many of these productions involved original cast members from the series. Meanwhile, since 1991, a prolific series of original novels rivalled only by the ''Star Trek'' franchise (in terms of quantity) have been published. Many of these productions and novels are highly regarded by some ''Doctor Who'' fans. Several of the writers of the 2005 series previously wrote or scripted adventures for the Doctor in other media.
 
In terms of non-fiction works, ''Doctor Who'' ranks among the most intensely chronicled entertainment franchises in history. Since the publication of ''[[The Making of Doctor Who]]'' in the early 1970s, the number of books detailing the production, personnel, and even philosophy behind ''Doctor Who'' has numbered well into three figures. In addition, a growing number of actors connected to the series have published autobiographies (in several cases more than one volume of memoirs), ranging from 1960s-era co-stars such as [[Anneke Wills]] and [[Deborah Watling]] through to more recent actors such as [[Billie Piper]] and [[John Barrowman]].
 
== External links ==
<!--
      This area is NOT for fan sites of any description.
      If we put one fan site, we have no justification for
      denying other fan sites.  It must therefore be for
      the official sites of various national broadcasters ONLY.
 
      -- CzechOut
 
-->
=== Official websites ===
{{official website|www.abc.net.au/tv/doctorwho/}} for the [[Australia]]n broadcaster, [[ABC1|ABC]]
{{official website|www.abc.net.au/tv/doctorwho/}} for the [[Australia]]n broadcaster, [[ABC1|ABC]]
{{official website|tvcultura.cmais.com.br/doctorwho/}} for the [[Brazil]]ian broadcaster, [[TV Cultura]]
{{official website|www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/}} for the [[BBC]]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006q2x0 Another official website] for the BBC
* [https://doctorwho.tv Yet another official website] for the BBC.
{{official website|www.spacecast.com/doctorwho.aspx}} for [[English language]] [[Canada|Canadian]] broadcaster, [[Space (TV channel)|Space]]
{{official website|www.tardishr.blogspot.com}} for the [[Croatia]]n broadcaster, [[HRT]]
{{official website|www.france4.fr/doctor-who/}} for [[France|French]] broadcaster, [[France 4]]
{{official website|www.doctorwho.rai.it/dl/portali/site/page/Page-d3382238-9b8c-4d3f-8993-1ea87f8aae2f.html}} for [[Italy|Italian]] broadcaster, [[Rai 4]]
{{official website|www.primetv.co.nz/Portals/0/DoctorWho/index.html}} for [[New Zealand]] broadcaster, [[Prime (broadcaster)|Prime]]
{{official website|www.axn.com/}} for Central and Eastern [[Europe]] broadcaster, [[AXN]]
{{official website|diema.bg/}} for [[Bulgaria]]n broadcaster, [[Diema2|Diema]]
{{official website|doctorwho.bbcamerica.com/}} for [[US]] broadcaster, [[BBCA]]
{{official website|drama.uktv.co.uk/}} for digital television channel [[Drama (TV channel)|Drama]]
 
=== Social media ===
{{youtube|doctorwho}}
{{facebook|DoctorWho}}
{{twitter|bbcdoctorwho}}
{{twitter|DoctorWho_BBCA|BBCA}}
{{instagram|bbcdoctorwho}}
{{instagram|doctorwho_bbca|BBCA}}
 
== Footnotes ==
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[[Category:Television overviews]]

Latest revision as of 10:26, 14 November 2024

This article needs a big cleanup.

Shouldn't this be split to have a page on the television series and a page on the franchise as a whole?

These problems might be so great that the article's factual accuracy has been compromised. Talk about it here or check the revision history or Manual of Style for more information.

RealWorld.png

You may wish to consult Doctor Who (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

Doctor Who is both a British television series and a global multimedia franchise created and controlled by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation).

It centres on a time traveller called "the Doctor", who is often depicted as — but certainly not always — coming from a race of beings known as Time Lords. They travel through space and time in a time machine they call the TARDIS. This ship — which looks like a small, London police box on the outside — has nearly infinite dimensions on the inside. It has become such an iconic shape in British culture that it's currently the intellectual property of the BBC rather than its actual makers, the Metropolitan Police Service.

Since Doctor Who's revival in 2005, its production has been primarily based in Wales by BBC Wales, with its soundtrack regularly performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales since that year’s Christmas Special.

In order to accommodate cast changes, the narrative allows the Doctor to regenerate into an essentially new person on occasion. The cast is rounded out by one or more "companions", often females. On average, the main cast completely changes once every three or four years — a significant factor in the longevity of the programme.

It has had two — some argue three — major production periods. The original run of the programme was from 1963 to 1989, and is often called the "classic series" or "classic Doctor Who". A failed revival, in the form of a Universal-BBC co-production, came in 1996 — but the resulting one-off telemovie is often considered a part of the classic series. The current form of the programme — sometimes called the "new series" — has been produced by BBC Wales and aired on BBC One since 2005.

Though the classic series is fondly remembered by fans of a certain age, the new series has been far more consistently popular with the British public,[source needed] and is usually the highest-rated scripted drama — outside of perennially popular soap operas — in the weeks that it is on the air.

The franchise spawned by the main television programme includes dozens of distinct ranges of spinoffs in televised, audio and print media.

History of Doctor Who

Origin

Several individuals share credit for establishing Doctor Who in 1963, but it is generally accepted that the original impetus for the series, as well as the establishment of certain aspects, such as the concept of the TARDIS, the basic character of the Doctor and the title Doctor Who itself belong to Canadian-born Sydney Newman, who is also credited with creating another iconic series, The Avengers. Others involved in piecing together the puzzle that became the series include Head of Serials Donald Wilson, writer C. E. Webber, script editor David Whitaker and the show's first producer, Verity Lambert, the first woman to hold such a position in the drama department at the BBC.

Junkyard set and police box for An Unearthly Child.

Two other notable participants in the birth of the series were Anthony Coburn and Waris Hussein, the writer and director, respectively, of the first four-part serial, An Unearthly Child, the first episode of which aired on 23 November 1963. The version of the first episode that was broadcasted was in fact the second mounting of that episode; an earlier version (called "The Pilot Episode" by fans), was taped some weeks before, but was rejected for several issues. The BBC allowed a second mounting of the pilot to proceed. The first episode aired the day after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and had to be rebroadcast a week later when power failures disrupted the first broadcast.

Also important to creating the atmosphere of the early series were composers Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire. Grainer wrote the basic melody of the Doctor Who theme, and Derbyshire, with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, transformed it into a pioneering piece of electronica music. There have been several arrangements used of the theme, but the basic melody has remained unchanged throughout the show's history. No new piece of music has ever been commissioned as a theme, making it one of the longest-serving signature tunes in television history.

An Unearthly Child introduced the first incarnation of the Doctor, played by character actor William Hartnell. Supporting him were William Russell and Jacqueline Hill as Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, respectively, and Carole Ann Ford as the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan Foreman. These four would form the core cast of the series throughout its first season and into the second.

From very early on, the television show spawned a sub-genre of the franchise in the form of short stories in various shapes and forms from small one-paper issues to short novels to even telling a story on a set of cards. This genre has developed throughout the years into massive shorts and anthologies and is still holding up in the 21st century.

The Daleks

After the first episode introduced the characters and concept, the remaining three episodes of An Unearthly Child encompassed a modest storyline involving a group of cavemen in prehistoric times. The series began to find its voice as a science fiction series with the second serial, The Daleks by Terry Nation. It introduced the Daleks, the single most iconic reoccurring enemy of the franchise. The series began to really take off in popularity with this serial, which helped launch "Dalekmania" in the UK, leading to toys, the first novelisation Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, the movie adaptation Dr. Who and the Daleks, and many televised sequels, beginning with The Dalek Invasion of Earth.

Early cast changes

The Dalek Invasion of Earth was also notable for featuring the series' first cast change. Carole Ann Ford left the series. She was replaced the following week by Maureen O'Brien as Vicki, establishing the pattern of the Doctor's companions changing. The other original actors, William Russell and Jacqueline Hill, left the series a few months later at the conclusion of The Chase, making way for another new companion, Steven Taylor, played by Peter Purves. Over the decades, the length of service of different companions has ranged from as little as a few weeks (with some being considered companions after appearing in only a single episode), up to several years. Some actors have returned to reprise their roles years and even decades later (most notably Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith).

A change of identity

The next major turning point in the series occurred in 1966 when the actor playing the First Doctor, William Hartnell, left the series. Rather than introduce a new leading character, replace Hartnell with no explanation or simply cancel the series, the producers, with input from Sydney Newman, chose to establish the Doctor's ability to regenerate into a new person when injured or near death. This led to the dramatic — and successful — transition to Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor at the conclusion of The Tenth Planet, a serial that was in itself notable for introducing the franchise's second most popular recurring villains, the Cybermen.

The intro for the 1967 serial The Macra Terror was iconic for incorporating the current Doctor's face to the sequence as a permanent instalment.

The Doctor's race was not established as being Time Lords until the last of Troughton's stories, The War Games in 1969. This story also featured the Doctor's home planet for the first time.

The experiment of regenerating the Doctor occurred again in 1970 with the introduction of one-time comic actor Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor, a move that also coincided with the series changing to colour production. Once again, this was successful and Doctor Who continued to establish itself as a British TV institution, although it remained virtually unknown in American markets.

In 1973 the show celebrated its tenth anniversary, notably in its 10th season, with the story The Three Doctors, which also brought back former actors William Hartnell as the First Doctor and Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor alongside Pertwee, in what would establish the Doctor being able to meet himself.

The name of the Doctor's planet, Gallifrey came in the 1974 story The Time Warrior, the term "regeneration", however, wasn't coined until the ending of Pertwee's era, Planet of the Spiders in 1974.

Target Books

In 1973, Target Books reissued a trilogy of novelisations from the mid-1960s, and in 1974 began to issue its own adaptations of televised episodes. In a time before home video recorders and commercial release of TV series on tape and DVD and when rebroadcasts were rare and many old episodes were thought lost, the Target line became a popular and valued aspect of the growing Doctor Who franchise; the books would be published into the mid-1990s. A unique feature of the Target line (in fact dating back to the first novelisations published by Frederick Muller) is that many of the books were written by either the original scriptwriters or by individuals with strong behind-the-scenes connections to the series, such as Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks, David Whitaker, etc., all of whom worked in script editing or producing capacities on the series. In the late 70s, about a dozen of the Target novels were reprinted in American editions by Pinnacle Books, with introductions by noted science fiction author Harlan Ellison, who added to the franchise's prestige by placing it higher in his estimation than Star Trek.

The Tom Baker years

The series continued through the 1970s, with Tom Baker taking on the role of the Fourth Doctor in 1974. Baker became the most iconic, and arguably most popular actor of the classic series. This was due in part to the frequent rebroadcasts of his episodes in the United Kingdom, which began during his tenure. He was the first "young" Doctor and played the role for more seasons (seven) than any actor to date. Other actors have been considered the "current" Doctor for longer, but without regular television appearances. Near the end of the Tom Baker era, the BBC attempted a spin-off series, K9 and Company, but it never went beyond a pilot episode, A Girl's Best Friend.

The US broadcasts of Doctor Who were initially poorly done, with some broadcasters airing a version with narration explaining the plot. By the late 1970s, however, the series was firmly entrenched in the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which would air the show repeatedly over the next three decades and air the revived series after 2004.

The 1974 serial Robot began featuring the TARDIS in the intro sequence, a feature that lasted until The Leisure Hive in 1980.

In 1976, season 13 episode 5 The Brain of Morbius aired, which saw a mindbending contest take place between the Doctor and evil Time Lord Morbius in which no less than 8 faces appeared meant to be faces of the Doctor prior to William Hartnell's First Doctor. While Philip Hinchcliffe would go on to state that he intended to imply that Hartnell wasn't the first, many fans of the show blatantly dismissed this, concluding that it either wasn't valid, that they were the faces of Morbius amongst others. Indeed, multiple other stories would back these statements by firmly continuing to put Hartnell's version as being the original Doctor.

In 1979, Doctor Who saw its first comic strip story released in Doctor Who Weekly (later Doctor Who Magazine) with Doctor Who and the Iron Legion. This tradition has been constant with every issue of the magazine, except two.

The John Nathan-Turner era

Peter Davison succeeded Baker in 1981 as the Fifth Doctor with new producer John Nathan-Turner. Only twenty-nine when he was cast, Davison was, until the appointment of Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor in 2009, the youngest actor ever to play the Doctor officially. The TARDIS crew of the Fifth Doctor skewed younger and featured the first long-term companion's death when Adric died at the end of Earthshock. Two short-term companions had died earlier in one serial, The Daleks' Master Plan, but they had not been on the show more than a few weeks; Adric was on the series for about a year.

Davison's era was marked by experimentation by the BBC in terms of broadcast scheduling. The series moved to airing twice a week on weeknights, away from its traditional Saturday slot. Initially, this appeared to be a successful gamble. The ratings for Davison's early stories were on par with - if not higher than - Tom Baker's later stories. It was during Davison's era that the series marked its 20th anniversary in 1983 with the feature-length episode The Five Doctors. This featured all the actors who had played the Doctor to that time (although Hartnell and Tom Baker were shown in stock footage). It also was a first in the act of recasting the main actors as Richard Hurndall was cast in the role of the First Doctor, enabling this incarnation of the Time Lord to have an active role in the storyline, due to original actor Hartnell falling ill and dying in 1975.

The year 1983 also saw the release of the first ever Doctor Who video game, The First Adventure made for BBC Micro.

Davison did another season in 1984 before Colin Baker followed as the Sixth Doctor. With him the BBC further experimented with the format, moving from twenty-minute to forty-five-minute episodes. Nathan-Turner also experimented with the characterisation of the Doctor, intentionally making the Sixth Doctor initially unlikeable in order to create a new dynamic. Neither experiment was successful. Colin Baker's tenure was marked by a serious threat to the show's survival when the BBC, citing low ratings, announced it was ending the series after the 1985 season, its 22nd. Following immediate outcry, this decision was modified to become an eighteen-month hiatus. During the hiatus, fan efforts were launched to get the show back sooner. These included the recording of a charity record called "Doctor in Distress" by cast members. BBC Radio tried to fill the void by producing the first made-for-radio Doctor Who serial, Slipback, starring Colin Baker.

Following that, the BBC released another BBC Micro game, Doctor Who and the Warlord.

The series returned in 1986 with a season-long story arc, The Trial of a Time Lord, but with greatly reduced screen time. Fourteen episodes were allotted for the season, up from thirteen the previous season, but with episode lengths returned to twenty-five minutes. This was roughly half the storytelling time of recent seasons.

Along with that a third video game was released, now also created for computer, called Doctor Who and the Mines of Terror.

Although the TARDIS did not show up in the original title sequence, the 2019 special edition of Terror of the Vervoids, released with Season 23: The Collection, added the TARDIS to its title sequence.

End of an era

Although the show's return garnered sufficient ratings for the BBC to grant a stay of execution and renew it for a twenty-fourth season, Colin Baker's contract as the Doctor was not renewed and he ceded the role to Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor in 1987.

The series survived the hiatus, but never regained ratings needed for ongoing survival, constantly being beaten in the ratings by Coronation Street. Towards the end, it garnered ratings barely in the three million range, compared to eleven million at the peak of the Tom Baker era.

Attempts were made to refresh the ageing series by darkening the character of the Doctor through what was later called the Cartmel Masterplan (named for then-script editor Andrew Cartmel), and by introducing Ace, a companion with an edginess never before seen in an assistant.

The same year that McCoy took over, a fan-produced independent film, Wartime, was released. Taking advantage of a loophole in licensing that allows characters other than the Doctor to be licensed direct from their creators, this film featuring John Benton was the first of what would be a series of fan-made productions that would help keep the Doctor Who universe alive after 1989.

During McCoy's era, the series celebrated its 25th anniversary on TV. One of the year's serials, Remembrance of the Daleks, returned the Doctor to 76 Totter's Lane, where it all began in 1963.

Following production of the twenty-sixth season, Nathan-Turner learned that the show would not be renewed immediately for a twenty-seventh. After having McCoy record a series-ending monologue, the final episode — part 3 of the ironically titled Survival — aired on 6 December 1989, bringing Doctor Who's marathon 26-year run to a close. The Doctor Who Production Office closed down the following summer.

It has never been made clear whether the BBC ever actually "cancelled" Doctor Who in 1989, or simply put the series on hold. One of the first to state outright that the show was cancelled was co-star Sophie Aldred in the documentary More than 30 Years in the TARDIS.

Survival also marked the last time the Doctor's face was incorporated into the intro sequence, at least until 2012.

Although it was the end of an era, the McCoy years reinstated the feature of the TARDIS showing up in the intro sequence.

"The Wilderness Years"

The end of active production was made official in 1990. The Doctor Who Production Office was closed. The BBC never officially cancelled the series. It simply didn't commission any new episodes. This led to the launch of a cottage industry of spin-off work. These included the first long-term range of original fiction (the Virgin New Adventures series). Target Books exhausted all available remaining serials to novelise and the brand was retired in 1994. There were numerous independent video productions with characters and creatures from the series but never the Doctor himself, including the P.R.O.B.E. series featuring Liz Shaw. Many of their new actors, writers and directors would become involved in the main Doctor Who series, including Nicholas Briggs and Mark Gatiss. In 1993, the BBC made a half-hearted attempt at marking the thirtieth anniversary, first commissioning, then cancelling, a multi-Doctor special called The Dark Dimension. Instead they greenlit a brief, poorly received pastiche, Dimensions in Time, which aired as part of a Children in Need fundraiser and as a dubious crossover with the soap opera EastEnders.

For original fiction, Virgin's New Adventures picked up where Survival had left off. Over the next five years it greatly expanded the world of the Seventh Doctor, and Doctor Who, by featuring stories with more adult storylines than was possible on TV. The books also introduced the character of Bernice Summerfield, who was initially a companion of the Seventh Doctor. Over time she developed her own mini-franchise, which continues to this day.

Virgin also launched a similar series of books called the Virgin Missing Adventures, featuring past Doctors. One New Adventures novel, Damaged Goods, was written by a young writer who would later play a major role in the history of Doctor Who: Russell T Davies. Another future producer of the series, Steven Moffat, contributed short stories to Virgin's third line of Doctor Who fiction, the Virgin Decalogs. Around this time, Moffat also made his Doctor Who TV writing debut by penning the parody serial The Curse of Fatal Death. It aired as a fund-raiser for Comic Relief and starred Rowan Atkinson, Richard E Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley as the 9th through 13th incarnations of the Doctor.

A false restart

The franchise's so-called "first interregnum" on television ended in 1996 with an attempt at launching an American-UK co-produced Doctor Who series. A television movie was produced for the American Fox Network, Doctor Who, in which McCoy handed off to Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor. Neither a reboot or re-imagining, the film was a continuation of the original series. While moderately successful on the BBC, it failed to garner sufficient ratings in the US to warrant a new series. McCoy, in a later interview with Doctor Who Confidential, postulated that the film failed in the US in part because viewers unfamiliar with the history of Doctor Who were confused by the first part of the film, which dealt with regeneration.

The movie made a one-off experiment of featuring a "cold opening", a scene before the intro sequence.

Back to the wilderness

The "second interregnum" that followed saw more novels (now published by the BBC under its BBC Books logo, featuring the Eighth Doctor), more independent productions, a separate series of Bernice Summerfield novels, a PC game called Destiny of the Doctors that saw Fourth-through-Seventh Doctor actors, Courtney and Ainley reprise their roles, and, in 1998, the start of a prolific series of officially licenced audio stories by Big Finish Productions. Same year, BBC Books and Big Finish would work together on a series of short books called Short Trips, and would continue that for years going forward.

Unlike the independent made-for-video productions, Big Finish could use Doctors and companions from the series. With the exception of Tom Baker, who wouldn't join Big Finish until 2012, and earlier Doctors now deceased, the audios featured the original actors. In particular, Big Finish produced a long-running series of programs continuing the adventures of McGann's Eighth Doctor. Big Finish also produced a prolific series of audio dramas featuring Bernice Summerfield (and began publishing novels featuring her once Virgin ended its series of books) as well as other spin-off series featuring other parts of the Doctor Who universe, such as Dalek Empire, I, Davros, Sarah Jane Smith and Gallifrey. Many of the writers, directors, and voice actors involved in this project also went on to work on the TV series proper.

The BBC also created new Doctor Who-related media projects during this time, creating several original webcast productions in conjunction with Big Finish, and making several Virgin-era Doctor Who novels available as e-books on its website.

The triumphant return

In 2003 for the 40th anniversary, the BBC released the 6-part webcast Scream of the Shalka, in which Richard E Grant was introduced as the Ninth Doctor. Intended to be an "official" continuation of the television series, this version of the character was soon after ignored by the 2005 series revival. The BBC stunned fans by announcing in 2003 that its Welsh production office, BBC Wales, had been given the go-ahead to produce a brand-new series of Doctor Who. The series would be produced by Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner. Davies, since his days writing Doctor Who fiction for Virgin, had gone on to create the critically acclaimed series, Queer as Folk.

Meanwhile, the BBC released two new video games on their website, TARDIS Tennis and Who Trumps.

In the following months, details of the new series emerged. Fans still questioned if the new series would be a continuation of the original series (a twenty-seventh season), or a re-imagining (as had recently occurred to great effect with Battlestar Galactica). Would the Paul McGann movie or Scream of the Shalka count? There was initial controversy when pop singer Billie Piper was cast as the new companion. The new series logo riled some fans; BBC News reported that some on the production team had received death threats over it.

The BBC's decision to restart the numbering of the series with series 1 in 2005 fuelled the debate over whether the new show would be a continuation. The BBC indicated it was strictly a commercial decision, and part of an overall strategy not to alienate new viewers by suggesting they needed to know twenty-six years of backstory.

Doctor Who returned to television in the spring of 2005. Christopher Eccleston took over from McGann as the Ninth Doctor. After initial uncertainty, it was soon established the new series was a continuation of the old. The new episodes returned Doctor Who to levels of popularity not seen since the 1970s, and garnered awards the original series never saw. Eccleston's brief era marked the return of UNIT, the Autons, the Nestene Consciousness, the Daleks and the Dalek Emperor to television, as well as the introduction of Jack Harkness, who would become a recurring character during the Russell T. Davies era. In March 2006, the new series was first broadcast in the United States on the SciFi Channel. Audiences embraced the new series, with Billie Piper's Rose Tyler, in particular. The second episode The End of the World began a new tradition of featuring a scene before the intro sequence, a "cold opening".

The show stumbled slightly with the announcement days after its premiere on 30 March that Eccleston was leaving after a single season. The BBC later apologised for the timing of this announcement. The tenure of his replacement, David Tennant's Tenth Doctor, was dominated by the relationship between the Doctor and Rose Tyler, a closer bond than even the "Mentor" type relationship shared between the Seventh Doctor and Ace. Tennant's era also saw the return of Sarah Jane Smith in School Reunion, the episode most cited as the one that established once and for all that "nuWho" was a direct continuation of the 1963-89 series. This was followed by the Children in Need mini-episode Time Crash, in which Peter Davison reprised his role as the Fifth Doctor.

In 2005, four online video games were released by the BBC, most notably Attack of the Graske.

Tennant's era also saw the reintroduction of the Cybermen, albeit a parallel version. Related to this, the series began delving into the multiverse concept with Rise of the Cybermen, a topic that would dominate the final episodes of the fourth series in 2008.

Since the show's return to TV, Doctor Who has become a major franchise. It spawned two successful spin-off series in quick succession: Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures; both centred around the adventures of former companions. There was a third, non-BBC spin-off, K9. Two documentary series were launched with the return of Doctor Who: Doctor Who Confidential, (2005-2011) and Totally Doctor Who (2006-2007). The last series also produced the first animated-for-television Doctor Who serial, The Infinite Quest, which aired in 2007 and featured Tennant. A second animated serial, Dreamland, aired in 2009.

The year 2006 had the pleasure of welcoming 17 new online games, many of them featuring some of the newly introduced aliens, amongst them Daleks v Cybermen, Ood Escape and The Wire.

The Tennant era also saw the start of a new tradition in late 2005: the Doctor Who Christmas Special, holiday-themed episodes aired separately from the regular seasons. As of December 2017, thirteen such specials have been aired. The series has also contributed several mini-episodes, such as the aforementioned Time Crash, to the Children in Need Appeal and the BBC Prom concert series (Music of the Spheres).

The 3-part conclusion of the third revived season in 2007 saw the inclusion of the Master in not one, but two different incarnations, not seen since the TV movie in 1996.

Ten new online video games were released by the BBC in 2007, with one of them, Bane Blaster, based on the first SJA-story.

The fourth revived season in 2008 saw the return of the Sontarans in episodes 4 and 5, The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, for the first time since The Two Doctors in 1985. The season-conclusion, which linked all four series together and featured the return of Rose and other companions, saw Doctor Who garner its highest ratings in nearly thirty years. It further saw the first return of Dalek creator Davros since Remembrance of the Daleks. It was followed by the 2008 Christmas special, The Next Doctor, which included a scene — the first of its kind — in which all ten Doctors, including the debated Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor, were shown, firmly establishing the Eighth Doctor's place in his personal history.

This year saw the release of 11 new online games as well as one, Top Trumps: Doctor Who, for PC, PS2 and Wii and DS.

The transition

The year 2009 was a transition year for Doctor Who in terms of both production and releases. The series had only four episodes, aired as specials in April, November and on Christmas Day and New Year's Day 2010. These specials and an animated serial, Dreamland, marked David Tennant's final appearances as the Tenth Doctor. The decision for the series to take a break following series 4 was, according to Davies' book The Writer's Tale, planned as far back as Tennant's first year. Davies devised the break to smooth the transition between his term as show-runner and that of Steven Moffat, whom he invited to take over his post as executive producer and lead writer when the series returned as a weekly programme in 2010. Tennant took advantage of this break to appear in a high-profile stage production of Hamlet co-starring Star Trek icon Patrick Stewart, which some media erroneously indicated was the reason for the break.

The announcement of the gap year was followed by the announcement that Davies and Julie Gardner would be stepping aside as executive producers of Doctor Who following the specials. Moffat, who won the Hugo Award three years running for his Doctor Who scripts, was appointed new head writer and executive producer. Also appointed executive producers were Piers Wenger and Beth Willis.

The question of whether Tennant would stay on was a hot topic in the UK media for much of 2008. On 19 October 2008, Tennant, while accepting his National Television Award for Favourite Actor, announced he would leave the role after the specials. After months of speculation, it was announced on 3 January 2009 that twenty-six-year-old Matt Smith would join the series in 2010 as the Eleventh Doctor, smashing Peter Davison's record as the youngest Doctor ever.

The end of Series 4 and the start of the specials marked a "changing of the guard" for international broadcasts of the series in the US and Canada. In the US, the SciFi Channel relinquished first-broadcast rights to BBC America. In Canada, the CBC's controversial handling of the series (which had seen a marked decrease in network interest and destructive editing of the Series 4 finale for commercials) came to an abrupt end when the cable network Space adopted the series. Both began airing the series with The Next Doctor in the spring of 2009 and announced they would air the weekly series in 2010.

The first gap-year special, Planet of the Dead aired during Easter 2009. Planet of the Dead was the first Doctor Who episode to be filmed in high definition and, subsequently, the first to be issued to Blu-ray.

Meanwhile, Torchwood aired its third series in July 2009, now on BBC One, but in a different format: a single, critically acclaimed, five-episode story entitled Children of Earth. It also aired to acclaim and high ratings on BBC America and Space. The Sarah Jane Adventures began its third series in October 2009, with David Tennant playing the Doctor in two episodes. Work on a non-BBC spin-off series, K9, also progressed through the year.

The second special of the "gap year", The Waters of Mars aired on 15 November 2009, and an animated adventure, Dreamland, was broadcast serialised on the BBC's Red Button service before being aired as one programme by the BBC proper.

The same year saw the release of six new online video games, one of which, The Waters of Mars, based on the TV story of the same name.

During the Christmas season, Tennant appeared as the Doctor in a series of Christmas idents for the BBC. Finally, the era of the Tenth Doctor ended with the two-part special The End of Time. Part 1 aired on 25 December 2009 and the concluding Part 2, with David Tennant handing over the role to Matt Smith, aired on 1 January 2010. The finale further saw the return of the Saxon Master and the brief return of the Time Lord High Council and Gallifrey from inside a time lock.

That same year, the BBC Books stopped productions of the original format of the Short Trips series. Big Finish Productions took full control and resurrected the series as short audio stories going forward.

The new man

Production of the first Matt Smith episodes commenced in July 2009. Writers recruited for the new season included Richard Curtis (co-creator of Blackadder and writer of Four Weddings and a Funeral) and Toby Whithouse (creator of Being Human). Noted fantasy writer Neil Gaiman was rumoured to be involved in the new season. These rumours proved to be incorrect, but he did end up penning The Doctor's Wife the following series. Michael Moorcock, another noted fantasy novelist, also announced he was writing a Doctor Who novel for publication in 2010.

Minor competition for Smith arrived in January 2010 when broadcasts of the non-BBC series K9 began in parts of Europe. The UK, which had seen a preview of the first episode on Halloween 2009, saw the series debut on Disney XD on 3 April 2010, a few hours before the start of the fifth series.

After months of intense publicity, the Matt Smith/Eleventh Doctor era officially began on 3 April 2010 with the broadcast of The Eleventh Hour on BBC One. In a show of international support for the series, broadcasts in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand were scheduled within a few weeks, the first time the programme's biggest international markets had coincided their broadcasts in this way.

The fifth series ran for thirteen weeks, concluding with The Big Bang on 26 June 2010, which saw the biggest amount ever of villains gathered in one story, even including spin-off villains. Before the first episode of series 5 was broadcast, the BBC announced that a Christmas special had been commissioned for 2010, and a sixth series of the revived series was scheduled to enter production that summer for broadcast in 2011.

Torchwood aired its fourth and final series, Miracle Day in 2011. It was a collaboration between BBC & BBCAmerica, exploring the aftermath of a day when nobody dies. It saw the return of Captain Jack Harkness and Gwen Cooper as well as the introductions of Esther Drummond and Rex Matheson. Episode One aired on 14 July and the series wrapped on 9 September 2011.

Series 6 aired in two parts; the first half aired in the spring and the remaining episodes aired in the autumn. The BBC claimed the split was to accommodate a story arc with a mid-season cliffhanger, the arc being the revelation of the identity of River Song. Steven Moffat was said to have requested the split. Episode 4, The Doctor's Wife, also featured the first mention of a Time Lord, the Corsair, being able to change gender between regenerations.

Series 7 aired in two parts as well, although this time the first half aired in the autumn and the second half aired in the spring, with a Christmas special in between. Broadcasts began in September 2012, with Asylum of the Daleks.

This Special reintroduced the concept of the current Doctor's face showing up in the intro sequence, last seen in 1989's Survival. It also brought back the Great Intelligence for the first time since 1968's The Web of Fear.

The first few years of the 2010s welcomed a plethora of new games for different platforms, some of them featuring major gameplay for the first time, such as City of the Daleks, Blood of the Cybermen and TARDIS.

50 years and beyond

Following the series 7 finale, The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor aired on TV and in cinemas on 23 November 2013 to celebrate the programme's 50th anniversary. This heavily featured a new Doctor, played by John Hurt, who was revealed to be the true ninth incarnation of the Doctor in a mini-episode titled The Night of the Doctor, which had Paul McGann return as the Eighth Doctor and regenerating him. The 50th also featured Tom Baker himself returning, however as a character known to the Doctor, called the Curator, as well as a cameo of the immediate successor of Smith. It featured the original 1963 intro sequence and a brief one-off departure of showing the Doctor's face and the TARDIS in the sequence, not counting the mini-episode in the case of the former.

Big Finish Productions also celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the show with the audio story The Light at the End on the 23 October, featuring the first eight incarnations of the Doctor as well as a couple of their companions with the Master as the villain.

The Christmas special The Time of the Doctor was broadcast a month later on 25 December. Time revealed that the Eleventh Doctor was the final incarnation before he was granted a new cycle of regenerations. It also featured the Eleventh Doctor's regeneration into Peter Capaldi's Twelfth; Capaldi was announced as the Twelfth Doctor in a live special months earlier on 4 August.

With the successful release of the 50th anniversary special, the Series 8 premiere, Deep Breath, was extended and broadcast simultaneously on TV and theatres on 23 August 2014. Notably, Peter Capaldi's debut as the lead featured a surprise cameo from his predecessor Matt Smith, the first such occurrence of an immediate reprisal in Doctor Who. Broadcasting its run, now reduced from 13 to 12 episodes, without a split, Series 8 concluded with Death in Heaven on 8 November, just less than two months before the 2014 Christmas special. Death in Heaven featured a one-off change in the intro sequence, showing companion Clara Oswald's face instead of the Doctor's as a response to the preceding "cold opening". The series featured a mysterious woman known as Missy throughout most episodes, who by the conclusion was revealed as a female incarnation of the Master.

Starting just short of a month later in 2015, Series 9 began with The Magician's Apprentice on 19 September and concluded with Hell Bent on 5 December, only twenty days before The Husbands of River Song on Christmas Day. The intro for Before the Flood featured rock-guitar play over the theme while specially filmed "found footage" story Sleep No More featured a one-off intro sequence matching the "feel" of the story, getting rid of both the TARDIS and the Doctor's face.

2016 would see another break for Doctor Who on TV while the next series was filmed to broadcast in the following year, with a unique teaser introducing the new companion releasing on 23 April. 22 October marked the premiere, fittingly on the 10th anniversary as that of Torchwood, of a new but ultimately ill-fated spin-off series: Class. Airing exclusively on BBC Three, which had since been relegated to an online service, Class was based at Coal Hill School, the very first setting of Doctor Who, and hosted a guest appearance by the Doctor himself in the first episode. Ultimately, the sole new episode of Doctor Who itself to air in 2016 would be the annual Christmas special: The Return of Doctor Mysterio, the first in five years to preview the upcoming series as Doctor Who would return to the spring season.

Series 10 premiered with The Pilot on 19 April. The series concluded with The Doctor Falls on 1 July, which saw the Doctor mortally wounded. The Doctor himself would postpone his regeneration, however, and the finale concluded with the surprise return of the First Doctor now portrayed by David Bradley, who had previously played William Hartnell in the 50th anniversary docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time, who would go on to expand the First Doctor's timeline beyond his original final story with the Christmas special Twice Upon a Time, incorporating footage from The Tenth Planet by morphing Hartnell into Bradley and vice versa (thereby also showing his regeneration again). Soon after The Doctor Falls, Jodie Whittaker was announced to be playing the Thirteenth Doctor, the first female incarnation of the Doctor, who made her debut at the conclusion of said Christmas special. The finale of the series, beginning in World Enough and Time, saw the return of John Simm as the Saxon Master alongside Gomez's Missy, marking the first televised Multi-Master story in the show's history.

The mid-2010s saw further video game releases such as Legacy and Infinity as well as the first multi-franchise LEGO game, LEGO Dimensions. A mini-game on the Doctor Who Instagram Stories game was also released in November 2018, with another one released in April 2019.

A huge milestone

With new incoming showrunner Chris Chibnall taking over, a huge milestone was reached when the first ever woman, Jodie Whittaker was cast as the Doctor and given a plethora of diversified episodes. Series 11 was moved to Sundays and was reduced to 10 episodes beginning with The Woman Who Fell to Earth on 7 October 2018 and concluding with The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos on 9 December, compensating with an extended running time. The new change was met with a large amount of positivity, with majority praising the new Doctor and stories, many celebrities saying it was about time. Some people, however, were not very impressed with the changes made, calling them "too politically correct" and "Social Justice Warrior"-driven. Despite this negativity, the new era ended up very successful. The new series also got rid of the annual Christmas Special, which had been a constant since the return in 2005, replacing it with a New Year Special on Tuesday the 1 January 2019, followed by a gap year.

This series also once again got rid of the idea of having the current Doctor's face as well as the TARDIS show up in the intro. It also removed the "cold openings" which had been permanent instalments since 2005's The End of the World. The opening story and the Special also didn't have a title sequence.

As for first-timers, 2019 saw the release of a fully fledged virtual reality game The Runaway and the first ever escape room Worlds Collide on the 16 May and 16 January, respectively. It was also the first time a Doctor appeared in expanded media before appearing on-screen.

2019 was also the year that Big Finish Productions celebrated their 20th Anniversary. This was done with a free YouTube livestream spanning the entire weekend of 20 and 21 July with a plethora of audio stories ending with Lies in Ruins, the opening of the 20th anniversary audio box set The Legacy of Time.

August saw a third Instagram mini-game released to the Stories section.

All throughout the last months of 2018 and the first 9 months of 2019, students, staff and graduates of the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) had worked tirelessly and carefully in collaboration with the Doctor Who team to recreate the missing 1965 single-episode story Mission to the Unknown as closely as possible to the original and with the original 60s-era television values. It was released on YouTube on 9 October 2019, giving fans the opportunity to again enjoy the lost classic.

17 October 2019 marked the 40th anniversary of the long-running Doctor Who Magazine with its 544th issue being released exactly 40 years after the first issue. To celebrate, the issue also offered a 32-page Doctor Who Magazine: The Index along with it at no additional cost.

A Doctor Who theme night at the Natural History Museum in Kensington as part of their after-hours series Lates was held on 25 October 2019. A special screening of the Series 3 opening episode, Smith and Jones, was shown during the event.[1]

On the 12 November 2019, a second VR game was released called The Edge of Time, in which the Player got much more freedom to explore time and space as well as piloting the TARDIS. Essentially, the Player gets sent on an adventure of their own.

Series 12 premiered on New Year's Day, Wednesday 1 January 2020 with Spyfall: Part One, which also marked the first time since The End of Time that a two-part story had a single title. Part One also aired on the 10th Anniversary of The End of Time: Part Two. Spyfall: Part Two was broadcast only four days later on 5 January on a Sunday which continued to be the format established the previous series.

Episode 5 of series 12, Fugitive of the Judoon; broadcast on 26 January, hit another milestone as the first episode to have a black woman, Jo Martin, cast as the Doctor, albeit adding confusion to the show's history, with this version claiming to be a past version while the Thirteenth Doctor has no recollection of her. This episode also brought back Captain Jack Harkness over a decade after his last appearance on the show, The End of Time: Part Two and 9 years after his last televised appearance, in Torchwood: Miracle Day's last episode The Blood Line.

The series ended on 1 March 2020 with The Timeless Children, once and for all establishing to the lore of the show that the Doctor had lived for several millennia before becoming the First Doctor, by not only settling the decades-long debate of the "Morbius Doctors" from The Brain of Morbius, but also implying vaguely "the Ruth Doctor" to be from the Doctor's past before William Hartnell's incarnation while also giving the character a new background as a being from another dimension known as "the Timeless Child" capable of infinite regeneration who was brought to Gallifrey by the Shobogan Tecteun, who went on to transfer the regenerative ability to the people of the planet and thus creating the Time Lords. This release created a gap between stories with a little over half a year until the following story.

Series 12 also saw the "cold opening" return for the first time since 2017's Twice Upon a Time, though it was not used consistently across all episodes.

2020 saw the release of the Doctor Who franchise's second escape room A Dalek Awakens, launching on 9 March 2020.

Six months later, the first print-and-play escape room was released on 8 August, called The Hollow Planet and intended as a prequel to the previous escape room.

A little over half a year later after The Timeless Children, the New Year Special aired on 1 January 2021, named Revolution of the Daleks and continuing the Dalek-storyline begun in Resolution with a a new mutated faction of Daleks introduced leading to civil war between them and a squad of pure Daleks similar to the war fought between Imperial Daleks and Renegade Daleks in Remembrance of the Daleks. The story also saw the return of Jack Robertson from Arachnids in the UK as well as the second return of Jack Harkness, also bringing in multiple numbers of creatures from the Doctor’s past adventures.

COVID-19

On 25 March 2020, Chris Chibnall published a short story to the Doctor Who website titled Things She Thought While Falling, set between Twice Upon a Time and The Woman Who Fell to Earth. It was written as a treat to take fans' minds off of the COVID-19 outbreak worldwide.

On 26 March 2020, Russell T Davies returned to publish a previously withheld short story titled Doctor Who and the Time War, which offered an alternate account on what happened during the Last Great Time War, namely having the Eighth Doctor destroy Gallifrey and subsequently regenerating into the Ninth Doctor completely omitting the existence of a War Doctor. Later, Davies also released a new audio short story titled Revenge of the Nestene set directly after Rose. Both were part of a Doctor Who: Lockdown! event due to COVID-19.

This started an era of multiple releases of short stories, webcasts and alternate script-reveals which featured alongside watchalongs of various episodes of Doctor Who throughout the entire year 2020 as a way for fans to cope with the virus spreading across the world and forcing new restrictions on people constantly, extending its way into February 2021.

The biggest of these stories was the massive multi-media expanding series known as Time Lord Victorious, released on 17 August, and played off of the Tenth Doctor's self-proclaimed title in 2009 story The Waters of Mars, which sent the Doctor down a long path of saving the universe from Time Fractures caused by him meddling with time, all while avoiding his own death. While the plot of time fracturing continued later down the line, this series ran until to 16 April 2021.

On 19 March 2021, an iOS and Android game was released by Maze Theory, called The Lonely Assassins, set around the Wester Drumlins disappearances and featuring Weeping Angels as well as the Player as the hero.

Post-Lockdown

On 26 May a new massive ground-breaking Immersive Theatrical Adventure, known as Doctor Who: Time Fracture, opened its doors in Davies Mews in London to the public, promising an exciting adventure where the visitor got to be the hero of the day.

This immersive theatre had the entire plethora of known Doctors as well as some friends and companions returning via pre-recordings to guide the hero through it all while helping to avoid foes along the way such as Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels.

The experience would be running throughout all of 2021 as well as going well into 2022, closing down on 5 June of that year.

On 25 July was released a trailer for the upcoming series, which included a link to a "/mystery" page on the Doctor Who website which began a quest on 13 August of clue-finding in an ARG known as #FindTheDoctor meant to engage fans until the series. The ARG dropped clues on a weekly basis up until 16 September, as a reward releasing a promo pic of Thirteen and a video revealing a new monster.

On 24 September it was revealed that Russell T Davies would be returning to take over as showrunner, with his new reign officially starting in November 2023, but unofficially starting 23 October 2022. This was accompanied by a new deal between the BBC and Bad Wolf Productions, which had simultaniously been acquired by Sony Pictures Television, to be co-producing the following era.

On 14 October, a follow-up to The Edge of Time was released, called The Edge of Reality, which functioned much in the same way that the preceding game did, but offered a much more expanded gameplay and saw the return of David Tennant voicing the Tenth Doctor, alongside Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor.

Series 13, subtitled Doctor Who: Flux, was reduced to 6 episodes as a result of COVID-19[2] and was released on 31 October with its first episode The Halloween Apocalypse. On 5 December the sixth and final episode of this series, The Vanquishers aired, forming a serial for the first time since Season 26 in 1989 and the first time the entire season is a single story since The Trial of a Time Lord (season 23) in 1986. It saw the continuation of the Timeless Child storyline, uncovered in the previous year's The Timeless Children, revealing the Fugitive Doctor's involvement with the Division in their quest to stop the Dark Times at the hands of Ravagers Swarm and Azure along with her then-companion Karvanista and other operatives, hiding time-creatures, the Mouri inside living prisons designated Passenger forms. It introduced Dan Lewis as a new companion, after being unwillingly swept away from his love Diane, and saw the return of Tecteun in a new incarnation as well as the Sontarans, Daleks, Weeping Angels, Cybermen and an Ood and introduced a universe-breaking force known as the Flux, meanwhile a girl named Claire Brown dealt with a Squad of Weeping Angels and an ordinary man, Professor Jericho joined in on a trip of a lifetime. It also saw the return of Kate Stewart and gave Joseph Williamson's mysterious tunnels a purpose and saw a lover's story between characters Bel and Vinder while an evil mastermind the Grand Serpent secretly infiltrated and climbed the ranks of UNIT, ultimately shutting it down in 2017. It also brought an element from the Virgin New Adventures novels to the screen in the form of the Eternal Time.

A Special era

A few weeks after, the New Year Special aired on 1 January 2022, titled Eve of the Daleks. It saw the introduction of the Dalek Execution Squad to the screen, fighting a time loop to kill the Doctor in revenge for destroying their War Fleet in the Flux.

As a new first, Doctor Who teamed up with the massive multiplayer online roleplaying game EVE Online on 13 January to create a limited time online adventure game called The Interstellar Convergence. It lasted until 1 February.

On 17 March, Doctor Who created an island in the massive multiplayer game Fortnite. In this game the player would see a lot of familarities such as Gallifrey, Kerb!am, the Kerb!am Man, Daleks, Weeping Angels, the Pting and so on, as they would compete in a battle royale. The game was unassociated with Fortnite’s creator Epic Games, but carried the label "Created in Fortnite".

On 1 April a boardgame was released by Gale Force Nine called Don't Blink which saw the Eleventh Doctor and his companions facing off against the Weeping Angels on a spaceship while trying to repair the TARDIS.

On 17 April the second ever Easter Special Legend of the Sea Devils aired, and reintroduced the Sea Devils to the show for the first time since 1984 story Warriors of the Deep.

Immediately following the special, BBC Sounds aired a new audio spin-off series in 10 parts called Doctor Who: Redacted, episode one of which was called SOS, which dealt with a team of young people running a podcast called The Blue Box Files, a show about trying to figure out what the mysterious blue box showing up throughout history could mean. The show dealt with the mystery of the Doctor and people known to them being "redacted" from history. The series concluded with Salvation on 19 June, which saw the Doctor return to reality and Cleo Proctor saving the universe.

On 27 June, Eastside Games released a new video game for iOS mobile phones called Lost in Time, which saw the Thirteenth Doctor, Twelfth Doctor, Tenth Doctor and Fourth Doctor and their friends trying to prevent a sinister plot from tearing apart the universe. The game was only a "soft-launch" at that time, with the full release taking place on 8 March 2023.

The British Broadcasting Corporation had its 100th Anniversary on 18 October 2022, celebrating its creation on 18 October 1922 with a BBC 100 event across a week. As part of the celebrations Doctor Who aired a Centenary Special on 23 October 2022, The Power of the Doctor, which incidentally also happened to be the end of an era as it was the last episode written by Chris Chibnall as well as Thirteenth Doctor star Jodie Whittaker. It saw companion Dan leaving the TARDIS early on, and saw Yaz and the Doctor face off against the combined forces of the Daleks, the Cybermen and the Master in a battle that ultimately caused the Doctor to regenerate. It saw the return of Graham O'Brien, Kate Stewart, Inston-Vee Vinder, Ace, Tegan Jovanka and Ashad, the Lone Cyberman as well as brief appearances from Melanie Bush, Jo Jones and Ian Chesterton. Also returning were the faces of former Doctors, the First, the Fifth, the Sixth, the Seventh, the Eighth and the Fugitive, both as Guardians of the Edge at the Time Lord-dreamstate afterlife and as AI interfaces. It saw the return of David Tennant as the new Fourteenth Doctor in a surprise twisted turn of events.

On 25 October, it was officially announced as part of a deal between the BBC/Bad Wolf Productions and Disney Branded Television that future series of the show would be available outside the U.K. and Ireland on the streaming platform Disney+, transforming Doctor Who into a global franchise.

On 1 November, the cross-platform, massively multiplayer, party royale game Fall Guys released four new character-skins, available for purchase. These were a Dalek, the Fourth Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor and the Fourteenth Doctor. The skins were available until early morning 6 November (adverttised as 5 November).

On 10 November, an "unprecedented" move was made with the then-latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, issue #584, in that it released the first full story of the new incarnation of the Doctor, called Liberation of the Daleks, which would be a multi-issue comic strip, covering the gap between The Power of the Doctor and the next television story.

On 19 March 2023 a short webcast was released called Tomorrow. Doom's Day is coming..., which showed a clock ticking in the void. The next day, 20 March, a new webcast was released called Meet Doom - the Universe's Greatest Assassin!, which announced a huge multi-media series would begin later in the year in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the franchise.

On 7 April 2023, a new game called An Unlikely Heist was released on Apple Arcade by Tilting Point LLC, which saw the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz solving mysteries and unravelling a sinister plot across time and space.

On 3 May, Big Finish Productions released the first story in what was their celebration of the 60th anniversary of the franchise, Past Lives in the audio series Once and Future.

On 5 June, the BBC released the first story in the Doom's Day series called Hour One, written by James Goss. The story was released on the Doctor Who website.

On 15 August the party royale game Fall Guys once more released character skins, available for purchase. They were the Tenth Doctor, the TARDIS and a Cyberman. Along with them were the previous collaboration's character skins, once again made available. They were available until 20 August.

Continuity

A common contention among fans and producers of the series is that a large part of the Doctor's appeal comes from their mysterious and alien origins. While over the decades several revelations have been made about their background — that they are a Time Lord, that they are from Gallifrey, they can regenerate a total of 13 times, among others — the writers have striven to retain some sense of mystery and to preserve the eternal question, "Doctor who?" This backstory was not rigidly planned from the beginning, but developed gradually and haphazardly over the years, the result of the work of many writers and producers.

Understandably, this has led to continuity problems. Characters such as the Monk were retroactively classified as Time Lords, early histories of races such as the Daleks were rewritten, unseen versions of the Doctor existed prior to William Hartnell's version and so on. The creation of a detailed backstory has also led to the criticism that too much being known about the Doctor limits both creative possibilities and the sense of mystery. Some of the stories during the Seventh Doctor's tenure, part of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", were intended to deal with this issue by suggesting that much of what was believed about the Doctor was wrong and that they are a far more powerful and mysterious figure than previously thought. In both an untelevised scene in Remembrance of the Daleks and the subsequent Silver Nemesis it is implied (to quote an excised line from "Remembrance") that the Doctor is "far more than just another Time Lord." The suspension of the series in 1989, however, meant that none of these hints were ever resolved, at least on television. The Virgin New Adventures novel, Lungbarrow, did resolve these hints and explain the Doctor's origins. However, not all fans regard the spin-off novels as canon or accept the revelations made in that particular story, partly because other parts of the franchise seem to contradict parts of it.

The 1996 television movie created even more uncertainty about the character, revealing that the Doctor had a human mother and they remembered their father. Fans, however, seemed to be more upset about the fact that the Eighth Doctor kissed Dr Grace Holloway, breaking the series' longstanding taboo against the Doctor having any romantic involvement with their companions.

The revelation in the 1996 television movie that the Doctor was half-human is often considered to be a continuity error as the Doctor is considered by most to be a full Time Lord, causing fans to attempt to find alternative explanations about why the Doctor claimed to be part human.

While some fans regard discontinuities as a problem, others regard it as a source of interest or humour — an attitude taken in the book The Discontinuity Guide. A common fan explanation is that a universe with time travellers is likely to have many historical inconsistencies.

The revived series has tackled this issue head on by suggesting that "time is in flux" and with the exception of certain fixed points in time, almost anything can be changed. Recently, some fan interpretations of the series 5 finale, The Big Bang, have suggested a potential reboot of Doctor Who continuity in toto, but there is also evidence in opposition to this view.

In 2020, the 12th revived series took another bold move to shake up the mythos of the show, by claiming the Doctor's origins are a completely different species to what was previously established, that they are from a different universe and that they can regenerate an infinite number of times.

There has been much fan speculation on exactly which aspects of the television series, books, radio dramatisations, and other sources are considered canon. This has been made more complex by the fact that at least one novel, short story, comic, and audio have all been adapted for the TV series. Additionally, the events of at least one novel have been referenced on screen. For their part, the BBC have never issued a firm edict as to what counts as "canon". Thus, Doctor Who stands in stark contrast to the more formalised canons of Star Trek, Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings — and, indeed, almost every other fictional universe.

"Doctor Who?"

When the series began, nothing was known of the Doctor at all, not even their name. In the very first serial, An Unearthly Child, two teachers from the Coal Hill School in London, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, become intrigued by one of their students, Susan Foreman, who exhibits high intelligence and patchy, unusually advanced knowledge. Trailing her to a junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane, they encounter a strange old man and hear Susan's voice coming from inside what appears to be a police box. Pushing their way inside, the two find that the exterior is actually camouflage for the dimensionally transcendental interior of the TARDIS.

Susan calls the old man "Grandfather", but he simply calls himself the Doctor. When he fears Ian and Barbara may alert the local authorities to what they've seen, he whisks them all away to another place in time and space.

In the first episode, Ian addresses the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman," as the junkyard in which they find him bears the sign "I.M. Foreman". When addressed by Ian with this name in the next episode, the Time Lord responds, "Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?" Later, when Ian realises that "Foreman" is not his name, he asks Barbara, "Who is he? Doctor who?" Although listed in the on-screen credits for nearly twenty years as "Doctor Who", the Doctor is never really called by that name in the series, except in that same tongue-in-cheek manner. For example, in The Five Doctors when one character refers to him as "the Doctor", another character asks, "Who?" The only real exception has been the computer WOTAN, in the serial, The War Machines, which commanded that "Doctor Who is required."

In The Gunfighters, the First Doctor uses the alias Dr Caligari. In The Highlanders the Second Doctor assumes the name of "Doctor von Wer" (a German translation of "Doctor of Who"), and signs himself as "Dr. W" in The Underwater Menace. In The Wheel in Space, his companion Jamie, reads the name off some medical equipment, and tells the crew of the Wheel that the Doctor's name is "John Smith". The Doctor adopts this alias several times over the course of the series, often prefixing the title "Doctor" to it. This has continued to the Tenth Doctor, and was famously referenced to in the 1996 television movie, where even though the Doctor is unconscious, a complete stranger, seemingly at random, writes the name John Smith on the Doctor's hospital admission papers.

In The Armageddon Factor, the Time Lord Drax addresses the Fourth Doctor as "Thete", short for "Theta Sigma", apparently a University nickname. In the 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks, the Seventh Doctor is asked to sign a document, which he does by using a question mark, and produces a calling card with a series of Greek letters (or Old High Gallifreyan script) and a question mark inscribed on it. The Eighth Doctor briefly used the alias "Dr Bowman" in the 1996 television movie. He has also been mocked by his fellow Time Lords for adhering to such a "lowly" title as "Doctor".

In many spin-off comic strips, books, films and other media, the character is often called "Doctor Who" (or just "Dr. Who") as a matter of course, though this has declined in recent years. From the first story through to Logopolis (the last story of Season 18 and also of the Tom Baker era), the lead character was listed as "Doctor Who". Starting with Peter Davison's first story, Castrovalva (also the first story of Season 19), the lead character is credited simply as "The Doctor".

Doctor Who writer Terrance Dicks offered the theory that Time Lord names were "jawbreakers," long and extremely difficult to pronounce, and this was why the Doctor never revealed his true name. However, River Song, one of the few people ever to know his name, was able to whisper it in his ear in a very short time. Some fans have speculated, taking off from the fact that the full name of the Time Lady Romana is "Romanadvoratrelundar", that the first syllable of the Doctor's true name is "Who". It should be noted that, although it is often asserted that "Doctor Who" is not the character's name, there is nothing in the series itself that actually confirms this. On at least one occasion the Doctor is about to give a name after the title "Doctor..." but is interrupted. Interestingly, the BBC novel, The Infinity Doctors mentions an ancient Gallifreyan god named "OHM". When this name is turned upside down, the result is "WHO." This idea originated in early drafts of The Three Doctors by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. The character of "Ohm" eventually became Omega.

It is interesting to note that, while spin-off media is known to "fill in the blanks" regarding aspects of Doctor Who lore — for example, several novels "revealed" The Master's real name — no officially licensed media has ever seriously attempted to solve the riddle of the Doctor's real name. Notwithstanding early spin-off media that treated "Doctor Who" as his name, of course.

The Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant, has stated that there was only one reason and one time that he would or could reveal his true name. During Matt Smith's reign as the Eleventh Doctor, it was revealed that the oldest question in the universe was "Doctor Who?" and considering how desperate the Silence, a religious order devoted to destroying the Doctor, were to keep him from revealing it, the consequences of him telling anyone his real name must be catastrophic.

In The Bells of Saint John, the Eleventh Doctor asked Clara Oswald to repeat the question, and stated that he didn't realise how much he enjoyed people asking him "Doctor Who?"

The name of the Doctor was a huge topic throughout the entire Eleventh Doctor era, with various aliens throughout the show gathering to imprison the Doctor to prevent him from eventually reaching the planet Trenzalore and speak his real name which in turn would restart the Time War by letting the Time Lords back into the universe before it was safe.

Accolades

In 2000, in a poll of industry professionals, the British Film Institute voted Doctor Who #3 in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. Since its return in 2005, the series has received many nominations and awards both nationally (UK) and internationally. This includes BAFTAs, the National Television Awards and the Hugo Awards. American accolades have been fewer and farther between, although in 2007 it broke a barrier by receiving a nomination for the 2008 People's Choice Awards, although it did not win. The series' revival found its highest ratings not in the UK but in South Korea.[3] The Guinness World Records have recognised that Doctor Who has broke, accomplished and set many different records. To see a full list, visit the Guinness World Records article on this Wikia.

Even the "gap year" season of 2009–2010, which consisted of only four specials (five if the 2008 Christmas special, The Next Doctor is included), wasn't enough to slow down the train of awards given to Doctor Who. On 20 January 2010 the series won Best Drama and David Tennant won Best Drama Performance at the 2010 National Television Awards.[4]

Feature films

To build upon the success of Dalekmania the series had created in Britain in the 1960s, two feature films were produced (Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.) and released worldwide. Although both were adapted from the William Hartnell television stories The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth respectively, they feature Peter Cushing as a Human scientist named Dr. Who who invents a TARDIS, and as such are not considered to be canonical.

In 2011 it was announced that a new feature film would be released, to be directed by Harry Potter director David Yates.[5] Although initial news reports suggested that the film would "start from scratch" in terms of continuity, Steven Moffat subsequently clarified that "any Doctor Who movie would be made by the BBC team, star the current TV Doctor and would certainly not be a Hollywood reboot".[6] He later reiterated, "There will not come a time when there's a separate kind of Doctor Who. What was talked about there was that there would be a separate Doctor and a different continuity. Of course it won't. That would be silly. Everyone knows that's silly. The BBC knows that's silly, and is not going to do that."[7]

Other media

Although Doctor Who originated as a television programme, it has become much more than that. Starting with "Dalekmania" in the 1960s, a great deal of merchandise has sprung out of Doctor Who. Some of that merchandise has continued the story of the Doctor's adventures. Over the decades, Doctor Who has appeared on stage, screen, and radio, and in a variety of novels, comics, full-cast audio adventures and webcasts. Beginning in the late 1980s, independent production companies such as BBV Productions and Reeltime Pictures took advantage of a loophole in the BBC's ownership of Doctor Who to licence individual characters and monsters from the series directly from their creators and build original film and audio dramas around them; this reached its height after the original series ended in 1989. Many of these productions involved original cast members from the series. Meanwhile, since 1991, a prolific series of original novels rivalled only by the Star Trek franchise (in terms of quantity) have been published. Many of these productions and novels are highly regarded by some Doctor Who fans. Several of the writers of the 2005 series previously wrote or scripted adventures for the Doctor in other media.

In terms of non-fiction works, Doctor Who ranks among the most intensely chronicled entertainment franchises in history. Since the publication of The Making of Doctor Who in the early 1970s, the number of books detailing the production, personnel, and even philosophy behind Doctor Who has numbered well into three figures. In addition, a growing number of actors connected to the series have published autobiographies (in several cases more than one volume of memoirs), ranging from 1960s-era co-stars such as Anneke Wills and Deborah Watling through to more recent actors such as Billie Piper and John Barrowman.

External links

Official websites

Social media

Footnotes

  1. ↑ https://www.nhm.ac.uk/events/lates.html
  2. ↑ https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-chris-chibnall-cuts-news/
  3. ↑ John Weisman (7 June 2010). 'Torchwood' on Starz: Just as before, Capt. Jack will get you bi tonight. Variety. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved on 16 April 2012.
  4. ↑ Anthony Weight (20 January 2010). National Television Awards - series and Tennant triumph. Doctor Who News. Retrieved on 16 April 2012.
  5. ↑ Adam Dawtrey (14 November 2011). Yates to direct bigscreen 'Doctor Who'. Variety. Retrieved on 23 July 2012.
  6. ↑ Steven Moffat denies Doctor Who 'reboot' film plan. BBC Newsbeat (5 December 2011). Retrieved on 23 July 2012.
  7. ↑ Chuck Foster (22 July 2012). Movie update. Doctor Who News. Retrieved on 23 July 2012.
v • e
Doctor Who television stories
 
Seasons 1-4: William Hartnell
Season 1: 1963-1964
Season 2: 1964-1965
Season 3: 1965-1966
Season 4: 1966
 
Seasons 4-6: Patrick Troughton
Season 4: 1966-1967
Season 5: 1967-1968
Season 6: 1968-1969
 
Seasons 7-11: Jon Pertwee
Season 7: 1970
Season 8: 1971
Season 9: 1972
Season 10: 1972-1973
Season 11: 1973-1974
 
Seasons 12-18: Tom Baker
Season 12: 1974-1975
Season 13: 1975-1976
Season 14: 1976-1977
Season 15: 1977-1978
Season 16: 1978-1979
Season 17: 1979-1980
Season 18: 1980-1981
 
Seasons 19-21: Peter Davison
Season 19: 1982
Season 20: 1983
Children in Need 1983
Season 21: 1984
 
Seasons 21-23: Colin Baker
Season 21: 1984
Season 22: 1985
Season 23: 1986
 
Seasons 24-26: Sylvester McCoy
Season 24: 1987
Season 25: 1988-1989
Season 26: 1989
 
TV Movie & 2013 specials: Paul McGann
TV Movie: 1996
Specials: 2013
Minisodes
 
Series 1: Christopher Eccleston
Series 1: 2005
Regular episodes
 
Series 2-4: David Tennant
Series 2: 2005-2006
Minisode
Christmas Special
Regular episodes
Series 3: 2006-2007
Christmas Special
Regular episodes
Animated special
Series 4: 2007-2010
Minisode
Christmas Special
Regular episodes
Minisodes
Animated special
Seasonal specials
 
Series 5-2013 specials: Matt Smith
Series 5: 2010
Regular episodes
Series 6: 2010-2011
Christmas Special
Minisodes
Regular episodes
(Part 1: Apr 2011)
Regular episodes
(Part 2: Aug 2011)
Minisode
Series 7: 2011-2013
Christmas Special
Minisodes
Regular episodes
(Part 1: 2012)
Minisode
Christmas Special
Regular episodes
(Part 2: 2013)
Specials: 2013
 
Series 8-10: Peter Capaldi
Series 8: 2014
Regular episodes
Series 9: 2014-2015
Christmas Special
Minisode
Regular episodes
Christmas Special
Series 10: 2016-2017
Christmas Special
Regular episodes
Christmas Special
 
Series 11-13: Jodie Whittaker
Series 11: 2018-2019
Regular episodes
New Year Special
Series 12: 2020-2021
Regular episodes
New Year Special
Series 13: 2021
Minisodes
Regular episodes
Seasonal specials
 
60th Anniversary Specials: David Tennant
Specials: 2023
Minisodes
60th Anniversary Specials
 
Season 1 (2023)-present: Ncuti Gatwa
Season 1: 2023-2024
Christmas Special
Regular episodes
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