Doctor Who (in-universe)

Stand well clear, Jo!

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According to some accounts where the Doctor existed only ever as a fictional character, Doctor Who was a BBC science fiction series that chronicled their adventures. (PROSE: The Thief of Sherwood, The Terror of the Umpty Ums)

Doctor Who received coverage in such publications as Doctor Who Magazine, Radio Times, Doctor Who - A Celebration, The Discontinuity Guide and Doctor Who: The Television Companion.

In 1964, the starring cast consisted of William Hartnell as Dr. Who, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright and Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman. (PROSE: The Thief of Sherwood) At some point during the 21st century, the Doctor was played by a woman. (PROSE: The Terror of the Umpty Ums)

History

The Daleks appeared in one of the first eight stories.

From 19 September to 24 October 1964, a six-part story entitled The Outlaws was first broadcast, starring actor William Hartnell as a version of the First Doctor. The six episodes were titled: "The Deserted Castle", "The Thief of Sherwood", "The Alchemist", "Errand of Mercy", "Ransom" and "A Guest For the Gallows". Episodes 3 and 5 were missing but still existed as off-air recordings. It had the production code "I".

The guest cast for "The Deserted Castle" included William Russell in a dual role also as Robin Hood, Archie Duncan as Little John, Ronald Hines as Will Scarlet, Frank Thornton as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Anneke Wills as Maid Marion, Milton Johns as the peddler, Carl Bernard as a villager and Ivor Colin as a man-at-arms. The writer was Godfrey Porter, the title music was by Ron Grainer with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the incidental music was composed and conducted by Harper C Bassett, the story editor was David Whitaker, the designer was Barry Newbery, the associate producer was Mervyn Pinfield, the producer was Verity Lambert and the director was Patrick Whitfield.

While doing an alchemy demonstration for the Sheriff in Episode 3, the Doctor nearly blows himself up while mixing chemicals, leaving him absent for two episodes while Hartnell recovered from a short illness.

The tenth story was titled Planet of Giants and followed on from a cliffhanger in which the fault locator warned of a build-up of pressure within the TARDIS.

In 1986, Godfrey Porter wrote a novelisation of The Outlaws entitled The Thief of Sherwood for Target Books. (PROSE: The Thief of Sherwood)

By the 21st century, Cybermen, Weeping Angels, Sontarans, and Slitheen had appeared. David Karpagnon, an orphan with dissociative personality disorder, watched the show around this time. The Doctor helped him with his problems from inside his head. (PROSE: The Terror of the Umpty Ums)

Behind the scenes

The TV series briefly mentioned in Remembrance of the Daleks was implied to be Doctor Who. As an in-universe concept, Doctor Who has been more consistently used in parallel universes. The Eighth Doctor discovered the existence of Doctor Who in TV Action! while the Eleventh Doctor dealt with chapters of his life being chronicled as episodes of a television programme in The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who. As a significant part of popular culture of Earth history in their own universe, television programmes and books based upon the Doctor have also been referenced in other in-universe sources such as Sarah Jane Smith's Doctor series.