Professor X
Professor X was a BBC science fiction television series which ran from 1963 to 1989.
The show concerned a mysterious scientist who travelled through time and space inside a TASID, a ship which resembled a pillar box on the outside. (PROSE: No Future [+]Loading...["No Future (novel)"]) Alice Lloyd told the Sixth Doctor that Professor X was always exploring dimensions similar to their own, including one where the Nazis won the Second World War and one where Kennedy wasn't assassinated. (AUDIO: The End of the Line [+]Loading...["The End of the Line (audio story)"])
The first ever episode of Professor X aired on BBC1, one Saturday in October 1963, at 5:15pm. (AUDIO: An Unearthly Woman [+]Loading...["An Unearthly Woman (audio story)"]) Nova told the Ninth Doctor that the show ran for 861 episodes and that she had watched them all with her father as a child. The Doctor told her that he had seen the show, or at least that he would one day see it. (AUDIO: Food Fight [+]Loading...["Food Fight (audio story)"])
One of its most popular stories, produced during the 1960s, was Vault of the Cyborgs. (AUDIO: Klein's Story [+]Loading...["Klein's Story (audio story)"]) The twelfth story of Series Three, entitled "The Rage of the Weylanni", introduced the Weylanni. Ellis Andrews did not consider it to be one of the series' better stories. (AUDIO: The Crooked Man [+]Loading...["The Crooked Man (audio story)"]) The show had a "missing" Christmas episode. (PROSE: Conundrum [+]Loading...["Conundrum (novel)"])
In 1976, the character was being played by Frankie Howerd. During that same year, Bernice Summerfield, apparently unfamiliar with this aspect of 20th century popular culture, encountered the Professor in his own fictional world inside the Mediasphere. Using his TASID, the Professor dropped her off in the real universe. Benny noticed his resemblance to the Seventh Doctor and appreciated the character all the more because of it. (PROSE: No Future [+]Loading...["No Future (novel)"])
Dave Young played a Cybertron in one of the final episodes of the series. (PROSE: Escape Velocity [+]Loading...["Escape Velocity (novel)"])
In May 1996, a Professor X movie premiered. A novel series called Professor X: The New Adventures also existed, for which Joel Mintz had written a submission. (PROSE: The Room With No Doors [+]Loading...["The Room With No Doors (novel)"]) An American remake of Professor X had a bike chase and an awful CGI snake. (PROSE: The Web of Terror)
In the early 21st century, re-runs of Professor X were broadcast on UK Gold. (PROSE: The Deadstone Memorial [+]Loading...["The Deadstone Memorial (novel)"])
Professor X was among the 20th century Earth television shows broadcast by Reef Station One in the New Earth Republic during the 101st century. Fans argued whether the latest incarnation of Professor X was the ninth or tenth. Monsters battled by the Professor included the XTerminators, Snow Vikings, whom debuted in The Snow Vikings, and Cybs. (PROSE: Synthespians™ [+]Loading...["Synthespians™ (novel)"])
References
The series had merchandise based on it, (PROSE: Conundrum [+]Loading...["Conundrum (novel)"]) which included fanzines. The show had overseas fans in such places as the United States. (PROSE: Return of the Living Dad [+]Loading...["Return of the Living Dad (novel)"])
Ace's younger brother Liam McShane was a fan of the series. (AUDIO: The Rapture [+]Loading...["The Rapture (audio story)"]) Polly Wright watched the show on her parents' sofa, later comparing the events of her travels with the Doctor to those in an action movie or Professor X. (PROSE: The Murder Game [+]Loading...["The Murder Game (novel)"]) The Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield once watched an episode of the series. (PROSE: Question Mark Pyjamas [+]Loading...["Question Mark Pyjamas (short story)"])
American fans called themselves X-ians, while the British ones preferred to be known as the Professor X Appreciation Association, with Internet-based fan organisations. (PROSE: Escape Velocity [+]Loading...["Escape Velocity (novel)"])
Mark Bradley said that the technology found in the Forge Alpha Facility was "like something out of Professor X". (PROSE: Project: Valhalla [+]Loading...["Project Valhalla (novel)","Project: Valhalla"])
In the Unbound Universe, Professor X was normally shown on Sunday nights. On the day of the handover of Hong Kong however, the programme was not aired due to the political situation. (AUDIO: Sympathy for the Devil [+]Loading...["Sympathy for the Devil (audio story)"])
Behind the scenes
The fictional series acts as a stand-in for Doctor Who series itself, as evident from the evidence listed above concerning similar running dates, characters and plotlines. This is similar to the relationship between Quatermass and Nightshade.
A similarly named stand-in is Doctor X, a 1950s television series first mentioned in PROSE: In Search of Doctor X. Both had been preceded by "Colonel X", a Doctor Who stand-in used in one 1992 episode of the non-DWU television series Press Gang, created by Steven Moffat; the character was portrayed by Michael Jayston, better-known for playing the Valeyard.
The 109th and final issue of long-running fanzine In-Vision contained a feature entitled What If: 40 Years of alternates, containing blurbs ostensibly giving glimpses into alternative versions of the Doctor Who series, such as a version of events where Patrick Troughton played a more conventional recast of the First Doctor rather than a reimagining of the character, leading to the show being cancelled upon his departure. One of these features was a two-page spread credited to Paul Cornell's fellow Virgin New Adventures Daniel O'Mahony, which gave a complete history of the Professor X series. Entitled Professor X 1963-2003, it was presented as an extract from a fictional version of "the Third Edition of The Guinness Book of Classic British Television". As no credit to Paul Cornell was included, however, this feature is not currently understood to have been licensed, and must be considered simply as a notable fan work.
External links
- The Professor X Programme Guide - A humorous fan-created guide to the fictional series, via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
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