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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.
Think DESU 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 DESU 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 DESU history.
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.
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.
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.
But Baverstock wasn't the only BBC executive to have a profound impact on the development of Doctor Who. Make sure you read about Lorraine Heggessey, Mark Thompson, Danny Cohen, George Entwistle, Tony Hall, Shaun Sutton, Sydney Newman and others.- 1965 - Part three of the TV Comic story Enter: The Go-Ray was published.
- 1969 - Part one of the TV Comic story The Night Walkers was published.
- 1975
- Part three of Pyramids of Mars premiered on BBC1.
- Part three of the TV Comic story The Space Ghost was published.
- 1979 - DWM 5 was published by Marvel Comics.
- 1980 - Part three of Full Circle premiered on BBC1.
- 1984 - DWM 95 was published by Marvel Comics.
- 1986 - Part two of Terror of the Vervoids premiered on BBC1.
- 1989 - Part three of The Curse of Fenric premiered on BBC1.
- 2005 - The Claws of Axos was released on Region 1 DVD.
- 2007 - DWA 42 was published by BBC Magazines.
- 2010
- Part one of Lost in Time premiered on CBBC, followed by episode five of Sarah Jane's Alien Files.
- Doctor Who: The Complete Fifth Series was released in the UK on DVD and Blu-ray.
- 2011 - The Witch from the Well and The First Wave were released by Big Finish Productions.
- 2012 - DWA 294 was published by Immediate Media Company London Limited.
- 2014 - Death in Heaven premiered on BBC One.
- 2018 - Molten Heart was published by BBC Books.
- 2022
- Sullivan and Cross - AWOL was released by Big Finish.
- A World of Demons: The Villains of Doctor Who was released.
- 2023 - Mission: Find Lilith was released by BBV Productions.
- ... that despite having worked on more serials than any other costumer in the 1963 version of Doctor Who, Daphne Dare never got the opportunity to design the definitive costume for any incarnation of the Doctor?
- ... that Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer were both responsible for the song, "Enough Is Enough"? (PROSE: Wetworld)
- ... that Golosian is a language so complex that it cannot be processed by the the TARDIS translation circuit? (AUDIO: Bang-Bang-a-Boom!)
- ... that several different incarnations of the Doctor have all believed they temporarily possessed "the last dodo"? (PROSE: The Last Dodo, PROSE: Echo, COMIC: The Didus Expedition)
- ... that Halohawks were capable of flight despite having no wings? (COMIC: Danger Flight)
- 1927
- 1937 - Actor Malcolm Taylor was born.[3]
- 1941 - Actor Nerys Hughes was born.[4]
- 1942 - Actor Su Douglas was born.[5]
- 1956 - Writer Richard Curtis was born.[6][7]
- 1958 - Actor John Gillett was born.[8]
- 1983 - Actor Chris Rankin was born.[9]
- 1984 - Director, writer and actor Scott Handcock was born.[10]
- 1992 - Actor Zaqi Ismail was born.[11]
- 2012 - Actor Roger Hammond died.[12]
- 2021 - Studio sound supervisor Hugh Barker died.[13]
- 1963 - The studio recording for "The Firemaker" took place at Studio D of Lime Grove Studios. (INFO: "The Firemaker")
- 1967 - Location filming at Climping Beach for The Enemy of the World concluded. (TCH 11)
- 1968 - Episode eight of The Invasion was recorded at Lime Grove Studios D. (TCH 13)
- 1972 - Location filming The Three Doctors took place. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Third Doctor)
- 1977 - Studio filming for The Invasion of Time took place at BBC Television Centre studio 8. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Fourth Doctor)
- 2005
- Rewrites for The Christmas Invasion known as "salmon script revisions" were made. This changed Guinevere One's television coverage, Daniel Llewellyn arriving at the Tower of London and the A-positive people being returned to normal. (DWMSE 14)
- Big Finish's audio adaptation of the unproduced TV story Night Thoughts was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 2011 - The Big Finish audio story The Emerald Tiger was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 2016 - Big Finish's audio anthology The Third Doctor Adventures: Volume Three took place at the Soundhouse.
- 2017
- The Big Finish audio story The Lure of the Nomad was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- Big Finish announced the fourth series of The Third Doctor Adventures.
- 2018 - The Big Finish audio story The Moons of Vulpana was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 2019 - Big Finish's The Paternoster Gang audio anthology Heritage 4 was recorded.
- 2022 - Big Finish's audio anthology Comrades-in-Arms was recorded at the Soundhouse.
- ↑ Doctor Who Guide
- ↑ Ken Dodd: The Biography
- ↑ Aveleyman
- ↑ BFI
- ↑ Aveleyman
- ↑ Richard Curtis. Contactmusic.com. Retrieved on 10 March 2017.
- ↑ Roberts, Jem. The True History of the Blackadder. London: Arrow Books, 2013. Print.
- ↑ Aveleyman
- ↑ People Pill
- ↑ People Pill
- ↑ IMDb
- ↑ The Guardian
- ↑ DWM 572