Transmat:Doctor Who
Doctor Who is both a television show and a global multimedia franchise created and controlled by the British Broadcasting Corporation. It centres on a time traveller called "the Doctor", who comes from a race of beings known as Time Lords. He travels through space and time in a time machine he calls the TARDIS with his friends. Another vital element of the show is the concept of regeneration — a process by which the Doctor can change his form when he's near death. This convenient trick thus allows the programme to change lead actors in a narratively sensible way.
Though it began on the day after the Kennedy assassination in 1963, it has had three distinct production eras. The first version — sometimes called "classic Doctor Who" by fans — ran from 1963 to 1989, and contained the adventures of the first seven Doctors. In 1996 an American co-production was attempted involving the Eighth Doctor. The current iteration of the show began broadcast in 2005, and is by far the most popular and critically successful version, beginning with the adventures of Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor.
In addition to the televised programme, the show has spawned a rich heritage of comics, audio stories, novels, short stories and even stage plays.
Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter was an important advocate for the return of Doctor Who to BBC One in the early 2000s.
Donald Baverstock
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 its producer, Verity Lambert. By choosing to commission only a few weeks at a time, Baverstock managed to exercise very specific financial control over the production, threatening to end Doctor Who several times over the course of its first year. It was largely he that was responsible for preventing actors' salaries from massively inflating after the show became a surprise hit after the Daleks were introduced.Today in production history
- 1964 - "Flashpoint" was recorded at Riverside Studios 1, bringing Carole Ann Ford's tenure on Doctor Who to a close. (INFO: The Daleks Invasion of Earth)
- 1969 - Location filming for Spearhead from Space took place. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Third Doctor)
- 1970 - Studio filming for Terror of the Autons took place at BBC Television Centre 8. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Third Doctor)
- 1984 - Location filming for The Mark of the Rani took place. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Sixth Doctor)
- 1999 - The Big Finish audio story The Marian Conspiracy was recorded.
- 2008 - Big Finish's two-part audio story The Eight Truths / Worldwide Web was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 2009 - The Big Finish audio story Echoes of Grey 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.
- 2014 - Big Finish's audio anthology The Third Doctor Adventures was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 2017 - Big Finish announced the Short Trips audio story Landbound.
- 2018
- The Big Finish audio story The Monsters of Gokroth was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- Big Finish's Rose Tyler audio drama anthology The Dimension Cannon was recorded.
- 2023 - Series 15 began filming.
Today's releases
- 1965
- "Small Prophet, Quick Return" premiered on BBC1.
- Part one of the TV Century 21 comic story The Menace of the Monstrons was published.
- 1971 - Part four of Backtime was published in Countdown.
- 1976
- Part four of The Hand of Fear premiered on BBC1.
- Part six of the TV Comic story The Mutant Strain was published.
- 1997 - DWM 258 was published by Marvel Comics.
- 2006 - Jack's Back and Bad Day at the Office premiered on BBC Three.
- 2008 - DWA 87 was published by BBC Magazines.
- 2009 - Part two of The Mad Woman in the Attic premiered on CBBC.
- 2012 - UNIT Dominion was released by Big Finish.
- 2013
- The Light at the End was released by Big Finish Productions.
- The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage was published by Puffin Books.
- DWA 332 was published by Immediate Media Company London Limited.
- 2014
- 12 Doctors, 12 Stories was published by Puffin Books, including the short story Lights Out, which was also digitally published independently of the anthology.
- DWFC 31 was published by Eaglemoss Collections.
- 2015
- 12 Doctors, 12 Stories was published by Penguin Group.
- Toby Hadoke's Who's Round 143 was released online.
- 2018 - Torchwood: God Among Us 1 was released by Big Finish.
- 2019 - Smashed was released by Big Finish.
- 2022 - The Power of the Doctor premiered on BBC One.
Today's births and deaths
- 1925 - Actor Glyn Houston was born.[1]
- 1928 - Actor Jerome Willis was born.[2]
- 1955 - Actor Annie Hulley was born.[3]
- 1969 - Writer Trudi Canavan was born.[4]
- 1998 - Actor Christopher Gable died.[5]
- 2010 - Actor Lewis Alexander died.[6]