Transmat:Doctor Who

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The Caves of Androzani was the final televised story to feature Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor, who had decided to end his tenure on Doctor Who at a three-year milestone after taking advice from former lead Patrick Troughton. As such, it depicted the regeneration of the Fifth Doctor into the Sixth Doctor, played by incoming actor Colin Baker. The story is often cited with high regard for its dramatic elements, unusually action-heavy plot, and the dynamic style of its scenes, which were directed by Graeme Harper in his first credited instance as episode director, which broke free from the less engaged atmosphere of other classic stories. The Caves of Androzani is famous for topping a Doctor Who Magazine poll in 2009 that asked readers to vote for, the single best televised story at the time. Dubiously enough, the story that came directly after this one, TV: The Twin Dilemma, crashed to the bottom of the list as the lowest-regarded of all stories ever televised at the time.

The women who gave Doctor Who back to us

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Click for video

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

Industrial action

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Click for a video of a 21st century geek as he takes delivery of one of the two Paintboxes used by the BBC in the 1980s
The Quantel Paintbox was a graphics workstation that allowed Doctor Who to have a primitive form of colour grading in the 1980s. To find out more about the "business of show", go to category:production information, where you can read about colour separation overlay, low loaders, telerecordings, vidFIRE, rostrum cameras, 2" quad tape, Ealing Studios and tons more.
Surprising guest star

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

The relevance of comics

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

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

The first of the "money men"
Donald Baverstock was the BBC executive who set the the wheels in motion that eventually led to the creation of Doctor Who. Essentially the original commissioner of the programme, he hired Sydney Newman and later imposed a sense of financial responsibility upon producer Verity Lambert.
Production history for 5 November


Things released on 5 November


5 November births and deaths