Transmat:Doctor Who

Russell T Davies

File:David Tennant interviews Russel T Davies - Doctor Who Confidential - BBC

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

The women who gave Doctor Who back to us

File:David Tennant interviews Doctor Who Producers - Doctor Who Confidential - BBC

David Tennant interviews Julie Gardner and Jane Tranter

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

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

The Quantel Paintbox was a graphics workstation that allowed Doctor Who to have a primitive form of colour grading in the 1980s.

Surprising guest star

John Cleese appeared in Doctor Who's highest rated televised story, City of Death, around the time of series 2 of Fawlty Towers. Find out more about the thousands of actors who have been on Doctor Who by exploring Doctor Who guest actors.

Ex-Doctors never die, they just make audios

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

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

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

Production history for 25.10

• 1963
  • Margot Maxine became the first actor to walk off the set of Doctor Who when she refused to have her teeth blackened. An extra, she was to have played one of the cave people in "The Cave of Skulls"
  • Christopher Barry replied to J. N. Shearme's 18 October message, informing him that the BBC had decided not to use either of the methods suggested for Dalek voices — vocoder and computer generation — and that most would be done live, in-studio.
• 1968 - Episode six of The Invasion was recorded at Lime Grove Studios D. (TCH 13)
• 1971 - Location filming for The Sea Devils took place. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Third Doctor)
• 1976 - Studio filming for The Face of Evil took place at BBC Television Centre studio 3. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Fourth Doctor)
• 1982 - Studio filming for Terminus took place at BBC Television Centre studio 8. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Fifth Doctor)
• 1984 - Location filming for The Mark of the Rani took place. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Sixth Doctor)
• 2004 - The Big Finish audio story Catch-1782 was recorded at the Moat Studios.
• 2005 - The shooting script for Rise of the Cybermen, then titled Parallel World Part 1, was prepared. (DWMSE 14)
• 2006 - The first meeting for series 2 of Torchwood took place in Cardiff. The arrangement at the time included Helen Raynor's "Toshiko story" and an episode by Russell T Davies. RTD did not end up writing a story for that series in the end. The concept for Chris Chibnall's Fragments was originally intended for the sixth episode, and Catherine Tregenna had already thought up the idea of Adam Smith and his self-titled episode. (TM 1)
• 2010 - The Big Finish audio story Voyage to the New World was recorded at the Moat Studios.
• 2012 - The second series of Big Finish's Doctor Who spin-off Counter-Measures was recorded at the Moat Studios.
• 2017 - Big Finish announced the Torchwood One audio box set Machines.
• 2018 - Big Finish's audio anthology The Eighth of March was recorded at the Moat Studios.
• 2021 - Big Finish's audio anthology Silver and Ice was recorded at the Soundhouse.

Things released on 25.10

• 1965 - Part one of the TV Comic story Enter: The Go-Ray was published.
• 1969 - Part four of the TV Comic story U.F.O. was published.
• 1975
  • Part one of Pyramids of Mars premiered on BBC1.
  • Part one of the TV Comic story The Space Ghost was published.
• 1979
  • Terry Nation's Dalek Special was published by Target Books.
  • DWM 3 was published by Marvel Comics.
• 1980 - Part one of Full Circle premiered on BBC1.
• 1986 - Part four of Mindwarp premiered on BBC1.
• 1989 - Part one of The Curse of Fenric premiered on BBC1.
• 1990 - Encyclopedia of The Worlds of Doctor Who: L-R was published by Piccadilly Press.
• 2000 - Doctor Who: Regeneration was published by HarperCollins.
• 2007 - DWA 41 was published by BBC Magazines.
• 2010
  • Part one of Death of the Doctor premiered on CBBC. Later, episode three of Sarah Jane's Alien Files premièred with it.
  • The Seeds of Doom was released on Region 2 DVD.
• 2011 - The Sarah Jane Adventures Collection was released by BBC Physical Audio.
• 2012
  • DWA 292 was published by Immediate Media Company London Limited.
  • Voyage to Venus, The Acheron Pulse and The Last Post were released by Big Finish Productions.
• 2014 - In the Forest of the Night premiered on BBC One.
• 2016
  • The Whoniverse was published by Harper Design.
  • The first episode of Classmates was released on YouTube.
• 2017 - The Eleventh Doctor Year Three #11 was published by Titan Comics.
• 2018
  • The Good Doctor was published by BBC Books.
  • Toby Hadoke's Who's Round 235 was released online.
• 2019 - The vinyl version of The Abominable Snowmen was released by Demon Records.
• 2022
  • Kaleidoscope was released by Big Finish.
  • TARDIS Tales: Volume One was published by Cubicle Seven.
• 2023 - The Union was released by Big Finish.

25.10 births and deaths

• 1919 - Actor Peter Howell was born.
• 1955 - Actor Glynis Barber was born.
• 1958
  • Actor Simon Gipps-Kent was born.
  • Actor Phil Daniels was born.
• 1964 - Actor Carla Mendonça was born.
• 1966 - Actor Ian Collins was born.
• 1981 - Actor Francesco Martino was born.
• 1991 - Actor John Stratton died.
• 1993 - Actor Bernard Martin died.
• 2008 - Actor Harry Brooks died.