Dr. Who (Dr. Who and the Daleks)
As discussed at Thread:232095, this page is tagged "Non-DWU" yet simultaneously documents a bunch of appearances of the character in valid sources. Something must be done. The main proposal of Thread:232095 is to revalidate the Cushing Doctor's stories, in which event there exists a sandbox for what should be done with this page.
These problems might be so great that the article's factual accuracy has been compromised. Talk about it here or check the revision history or Manual of Style for more information.
- You may wish to consult
Dr. Whofor other, similarly-named pages.
Dr. Who was an eccentric human scientist, living in a cottage in England with his granddaughter and Barbara. He also had a niece named Louise. His closest friend was Susan, who referred to him as "Grandfather" but was, according to one account, actually his great-grandmother.
Biography
Within the Doctor's universe
As a fictional character
According to several sources, the character of Dr. Who existed as a piece of fiction within the universe of the Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.
When in the Black Archive, Kate Stewart noted two VHS cassettes, one of them being Daleks: Invasion Earth. She noted that the Doctor and Peter Cushing had been friends and that the Doctor had loaned him a waistcoat "for the second one". The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors particularly loved the movies, joking around calling each other Dr. Who, and phoned Cushing to persuade him to make a third movie. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) Indeed, another account noted the Third Doctor visiting the cinema to see a double-bill of Peter Cushing films, which closely resembled the adventures of Dr. Who. (PROSE: A Visit to the Cinema) While biking, Lawrence Burton thought to himself that the enemy of the Great Houses might be those "outer space robot people" that appeared in "at least two films with Peter Cushing". (PROSE: We Are the Enemy)
Another account stated that Cushing had the lead role in the 1980 science fiction film Prey for a Miracle as "the mysterious government adviser, Doctor Who". The character was loosely based on the First Doctor and was inspired by the UFO/gods scare caused by the Latter-Day Pantheon in New York City in March and April 1965. A film critic for the magazine Film in Focus claimed the "endearingly eccentric professor" was as fictional as the rest of the film. What little information there was about his real counterpart suggested he was a shadowy, manipulative figure. (PROSE: Salvation)
Yet a third set of accounts claimed that Cushing portrayed Dr. Who in the film Dr. Who and the Daleks, not in the 20th century but in 2065. According to these accounts, the film was inspired by the real Thal-Dalek battle which had broke out around eighteen months prior to the release of the film. (PROSE: Peaceful Thals Ambushed!)
As a real person
Some accounts stated that Dr. Who existed in the Doctor's universe, but not in the form of televised fiction.
When confronted with the multiple choice nature of his timestream, the Eighth Doctor mused that constant shifts in history meant that he might have origins such as the Other during the day but then "after hours" become "a mad professor who thinks he’s an alien," all while remaining the same person in the present. Griffin rejected this, but admitted it could be shown as true in the Doctor's biodata. (PROSE: Unnatural History)
One account claimed that Dr. Who and his eight-year-old granddaughter Suzy were both fictional creations made by the real Doctor to distract the Five O'Clock Shadow until he could escape. Compared to the real Doctor, Dr. Who was cheerful and angst-free meaning that the Shadow had no hold over him and Suzy. The pair then departed for more childlike and wondrous adventures leaving the real Doctor to face the Shadow on his own in the future. (PROSE: The Five O'Clock Shadow)
Gabby Gonzalez's "magic" notebook wrote about how Gabby thought the Doctor's other selves would be from parallel universes. In the book was an incarnation resembling Dr. Who, albeit without a moustache and drawn to more closely resemble "her" Doctor, the Tenth Doctor — suggesting Dr. Who may have originated in a universe peculiar to him. (COMIC: Four Doctors)
The Time Lords knew of differing accounts concerning many aspects of Dalek history, including alternate versions of the Doctor's first encounter with the mutants. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual) Indeed, the events surrounding Dr. Who's encounter with the Daleks (NOTVALID: Dr. Who and the Daleks) differed from other distinct accounts of the Thal-Dalek battle. (TV: The Daleks, PROSE: Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, et. al) According to the Dalek Combat Training Manual produced during the Last Great Time War, some simply wrote the contradicting accounts off as incorrect, but others wondered if there might be some truth to them; some speculated that they were evidence of Dalek activities in parallel dimensions. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual)
Adventures
First adventures
Dr. Who had invented time travel in the form of Tardis, a space-time machine, the exterior of which looked like a police box.
When Barbara's boyfriend Ian Chesterton was visiting his house, he, Susan and Barbara went to have a look at Tardis. Ian accidentally pulled a lever and the four of them were transported to Skaro, the home planet of the Daleks, where they helped the Thals battle the Daleks.
Trying to return Tardis home, Dr. Who opened the doors to find a Roman legion marching towards the ship in 64. While in Rome itself, Ian soon ended up becoming a gladiator. (NOTVALID: Dr. Who and the Daleks, Dr Who and the House on Oldark Moor)
Further travels
Tardis subsequently materialised on Oldark Moor, where Dr. Who and his companions encountered Count Tarkin. (NOTVALID: Dr Who and the House on Oldark Moor)
Dr. Who became curious over one of the most ancient mysteries of the universe, a face-like settlement on Mars known as the Martian Sphinx. Dr. Who and Susan travelled to the red planet with his niece Louise. While Dr. Who was preparing to study the apparent formation, the group were surrounded by Daleks floating on hoverbouts. The Daleks kidnapped Louise and attempted to do the same to Dr. Who and Susan, but they were saved at the last moment by a group of telepathic natives, who lead them to an underground base.
Dr. Who and Susan noticed a series of hieroglyphics on the wall of the base, but were unsure of what they meant. Upon asking one of the Martians about why the Daleks had invaded, it was explained to them that they planned to use Mars as a base to conquer Earth. Shortly after this, Dr. Who announced that he had solved the mystery of the Sphinx, revealing that the hieroglyphics on the wall were actually a long-lost activation sequence for a massive Martian robot. Using this knowledge, the group were able to raise the robot out of the air to attack the Dalek forces as Dr. Who attempted to save Louise by breaking into a Dalek flying saucer. However, he discovered that this was a trap, as the Daleks wanted to take him to Skaro to drain the secrets of time travel from his mind. As the ship took off, it was attacked by the robot, although Louise and the Doctor were able to escape on one of the Dalek hoverboats.
The Daleks foothold on Mars lost, Dr. Who and his companions departed in Tardis, although Who wondered if the preceding event was the eve of a war. (NOTVALID: Daleks Versus the Martians)
Dr. Who, Susan, Louise and a police constable named Tom Campbell later travelled to London in 2150 and found that it had been devastated by a Dalek invasion years earlier. Once there, the four of them assisted in freeing Earth from Dalek occupation. After recovering TARDIS, Dr. Who returned Tom to the site of the robbery he had originally failed to prevent, and allowed him to change history. (NOTVALID: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)
Upon attempting to work out which came first, the chicken or the egg, a deliveryman named Vince Booth accidentally sent himself, Dr. Who, and Susan to a human colony planet where the preparatory Mechonoids had turned hostile. Eventually, Dr. Who was able to crack the Mechonoids' recognition codes, allowing Susan to turn them friendly while he was captured and making the planet safe for the arriving colonists. (NOTVALID: Dr. Who & the Mechonoids)
On Gallifrey
Dr. Who attended the Annual Gallifreyan Doctor Who Con in the company of the Doctor's first six incarnations, the First Doctor, the Second Doctor, the Third Doctor, the Fourth Doctor, the Fifth Doctor and the Sixth Doctor. The seven Doctors were asked by a fan about their worst enemy; the First Doctor angrily named "the Movie Doctor" as his, while a distraught Dr. Who replied that it was Roberta Tovey, (NOTVALID: Doctor Who?) an evil later defeated by the Sixth Doctor. (NOTVALID: The Final Script)
The end?
According to one account, Susan and Dr. Who eventually realised that they were only fictional characters within the works of the Scriptwriter. Partway through the script of what would have been a third movie with the characters, in which Dr. Who had greatly aged and was now nearly senile (though still inventive and self-reliant, notably creating himself a turbo-charged walking frame), Susan decided that she had had enough of the Scriptwriter putting them through one ridiculous situation after another — especially as, being a child actor, Susan would only get the pay on her 21st birthday. Pulling out a hammer and a wooden stake, props saved from her Grandfather's last acting job, Susan somehow reached beyond her fictionality and staked the Scriptwriter through the heart, putting an end to the Dr. Who movies once and for all. Upon reading through the unfinished script, Peter Cushing tried to "burn, drown and throttle it" but was unable to destroy it, merely losing it; it was later found and the truth discovered. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who 3 - The Third Motion Picture)
Overhearing a conversation between Susan Foreman and the First Doctor in which they revealed that Susan was actually the Doctor's grandmother because Time Lords get younger with each regeneration, Dr. Who finally realised the truth of his own lineage and that his Susan, the girl he had raised as his granddaughter, was in fact his great-grandmother. (NOTVALID: Doctor Who? 95)
Behind the scenes
- Unlike William Hartnell's version of the character, who never directly gave his name as "Dr. Who" on-screen, Cushing's Doctor freely introduced himself as "Dr. Who" in both Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., although in the latter, he only did so once, being called simply "the Doctor" for most of the runtime.
- Stanmark Productions Limited obtained a license to make a series of fifty-two half-hour radio dramas based upon Doctor Who. After Boris Karloff proved unavailable, Peter Cushing was hired to play the role. Advertisements were published, but only a pilot episode (now lost) was ever completed.[1][2] It is not known whether Cushing portrays the film version of Dr. Who in this production, or a version of the character more in keeping with the television series.
- Marvel Premiere #57 (1980), the first American reprint of a Doctor Who comic story, features an original artwork by Dave Cockrum and Frank Giacoia titled "The Five Doctors". This happens to be a rare instance of Peter Cushing being credited as "the Doctor" alongside William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, and Tom Baker.
- The image was reprinted on the back cover of Doctor Who (1984) #2.
Explanations
Some proposals have been made to reconcile Dr. Who in the DWU:
- The novel Human Nature showed John Smith remembering the Seventh Doctor's repressed memories from "before his birth", wherein he was a human scientist who built the very first TARDIS before setting out to explore the universe. The novel further states that the scientist subsequently found a wild jungle planet and educated its people into a mighty civilisation, strongly hinting at the scientist becoming the Other. As the Other is reckoned to have later "reincarnated" himself into the Doctor, this provides yet another potential way to bridge Dr. Who with the televised Doctor, though merely through unstated implication. While the reference to Dr. Who is apparent, the scientist mentioned in Human Nature has some significant differences from Dr. Who: he comes from Victorian England and the TARDIS was initially invented as just a tool for police, while Dr. Who came from what was then modern-day England and invented the TARDIS as a time machine all along. If this account does refer to Dr. Who, it must therefore be viewed as being partially inaccurate, either due to the Doctor's incomplete memory or due to liberties in how it was written by John Smith.
- The inclusion of the character in the short story Dr Who and the House on Oldark Moor from the anthology Short Trips and Side Steps suggests that the world of Dr. Who is a parallel universe to the regular DWU.
- This is also suggested by the Titan comic story Four Doctors, where a face resembling Dr. Who (albeit without a moustache, and clearly designed to resemble David Tennant) appears when Gabby Gonzalez's "magic" notebook is writing about how Gabby thought the Doctor's "other selves" would be from parallel universes. Despite this, no story has explicitly called the adventures of Dr. Who an alternate universe. Therefore, all stories featuring him are considered invalid on this wiki.
- In DWM 469, Steven Moffat stated that he wrote a scene for TV: The Day of the Doctor in which Kate Stewart would walk past posters for the Peter Cushing films while noting the "need to screen the Doctor's known associates". Moffat explained that he believed the films existed in the DWU as "distorted accounts" of the Doctor's adventures. However, the production team could not afford the rights to the posters. This scene does appear in the novelisation of the story.
- In an interview in DWM 490, Moffat instead proposed that Dr. Who recklessly altering Time to change the outcome of the bank robbery at the end of Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. caused him to accidentally restart the universe, rewriting himself into a Time Lord and losing his family name.
Footnotes
- ↑ Howe, David J., "The Lost Radio Plays". The Frame #10. May, 1989. p. 17.
- ↑ http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv41/petercushing.html "Peter Cushing Obituary". Time Space Visualiser #41.
