Toggle menu
Toggle personal menu
Not logged in
Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits.

1963 (production)

From Tardis Wiki, the free Doctor Who reference
Revision as of 10:54, 25 May 2021 by JDPManjoume (talk | contribs)
RealWorld.png
Timeline for 1963
20th century | 1960s

• 1960 • 1961 • 1962 • 1964 • 1965 • 1966 • 1967 • 1968 • 1969
WikipediaInfo.png

1963 was a year in which a number of events important to the production of Doctor Who and its spin-offs occurred.

  • 14 January - Sydney Newman took over the role of BBC Head of Drama.[1]
  • 29 March - C. E. Webber, on orders from Sydney Newman, sent a report to Donald Wilson, in which he described a potential science fiction programme which would eventually become Doctor Who. The report described suitable characters for the "five-o'clock Saturday audience": the handsome young man, the handsome well-dressed heroine aged about 30 and the mature man. The initial thought was of a laboratory-set programme with scientists for protagonists, although this was eventually scrapped in the next report.[2]
  • 16 May - A document, prepared by Donald Wilson and C. E. Webber and Sydney Newman, was submitted to Donald Baverstock which outlined the concept of a proposed programme called Dr. Who.
  • 24 June - David Whitaker appointed as script editor.[3]
  • 7 August - William Hartnell has his first costume fitting and make up test.[4]
  • 20 August - First filming on "An Unearthly Child", the first ever episode, began. The session at Stage 3A of Ealing involved the recording of some of the elements of the opening credits.[4]
  • 31 August - Further filming of opening credits elements at Studio 5 of TV Centre.[4] (Though the two sessions cover most of the elements used in the title sequence, some other howlaround elements would ultimately be used from a previous BBC production in 1960, Tobias and the Angel.[5][6][7])
  • 3 September - Title sequence assembled from the pre-existing and newly recorded elements by Richard Barclay at Ealing.[4]
  • 20 September - William Hartnell, Carole Ann Ford, Jacqueline Hill and William Russell all meet together for the first time, for a publicity photo shoot at TV Centre.[4]
  • 21 September - Rehearsals for "An Unearthly Child" began at a Drill Hall on Uxbridge Road.[4]
  • 27 September - The first episode, "An Unearthly Child" is recorded.[4] This version of the first episode was beset by technical problems, and the BBC subsequently rejected it for broadcast, authorising a rare "do-over" for later in the year. The outcome of these filming sessions was later dubbed "the Pilot Episode".[8]
  • 4 October - After viewing the pilot episode, Sydney Newman officially rejected the Pilot Episode in a lunch meeting with Verity Lambert and Waris Hussein and authorised a remounting of the episode.[4] According to Howe and Walker, this was a contingency that had been planned for.[source needed] Over the next couple of weeks, numerous revisions to the script and changes to costuming and characterisation were undertaken.
  • 9-11 October - Filming for "An Unearthly Child" restarted at Ealing Studios following September's false start.
  • 21 November - The first ever Doctor Who press conference was held to launch the new show. All four lead actors and David Whitaker attended the event at BBC Langham.
  • 21 November - Radio Times published an article announcing the debut of Doctor Who, dated 23 November. This was the first Doctor Who-related article ever published.
  • 30 December - The Audience Research Report on the first episode of Doctor Who was filed with the BBC.

Footnotes

Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies.