Doctor Who
- This is an overview article on the TV series and franchise. For other uses of the title "Doctor Who", see Doctor Who (disambiguation).
Doctor Who is a science-fiction television programme that originally ran on the BBC from 1963 to 1989. A television movie was co-produced with Universal Pictures in 1996, after which the series itself was revived starting in March 2005 in the United Kingdom and Australia, and in March 2006 in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel (and, as of 2009, BBC America). It is still in production as of 2010.
Doctor Who is about the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known only as the Doctor. The Doctor travels through space and time in a craft known as the TARDIS, an acronym for "Time and Relative Dimension in Space". The Doctor is usually accompanied by one or more companions, who are often females. The tone of the programme varies from serious to comic, from gothic horror to pantomime camp. The original Doctor Who series is fondly remembered among the general public both for frightening monsters (such as the Daleks and the Cybermen) and pioneering use of both electronic music and low-budget special effects.
History of Doctor Who
doctor who was born to a german father named adolf hitler and a japanese mother who was actually a man emperor tojo he had a troubled childhood and made may imaginary locations such as gallifrey and the TARDIS he then fought in world war two but was instantly shot the second he signed up for the SS he then made a living abducting children and trainig dolphins he died at the age of 4 a sad lonely woman(he had a sex chage at the age of 2)
Television Stories
Logos
- See Doctor Who logo
What Makes Doctor Who Unique
Fans often speak of the "undefinable magic" present in Doctor Who. This can be explained as a combination of several factors:
- The Doctor can change from serious to satirical, young to old, and change back again. He can go from self-doubting anti-hero to exuberant lover of life, all within the same continuity and even the same episode, then he can change back again, remaking himself every couple of years.
- The series can range in tone, style and genre, as well as encompassing almost any place and time. The travellers may meet storybook characters in a land of fantasy and the next week land in a credible day-after-tomorrow London.
- No other telefantasy series has, as often quoted, stayed on air for so long. Its longevity enabled it to enthrall (and frighten) new generations of children and teenagers for three decades. Everyone can have "their" own favorite Doctor or period of the series, including those who prefer the novels to the television series. It's important to make the distinction that Doctor Who, whether airing in 1963 or in 2010, is the same series. This differs from The Twilight Zone, which has been produced off and on since 1959, but is an anthology which has no ongoing continuity or characters, or the Star Trek franchise, which has consisted of numerous series but with an ever-changing ensemble of characters rather than the constant presence of a single character.
- The evolution of viewer from fan to maker of the series. As early as 1980, "Full Circle", a script authored by a teenaged fan, Andrew Smith, appeared on the screen (Smith also got to write the novelisation). In the same story, another young fan, Matthew Waterhouse, made his debut in the series as series regular. A few months later, Peter Davison, who professed to being a fan of the series in his youth, became the Fifth Doctor. Colin Baker had been a fan of the series since the first episode, which he had seen when he was a 20 year old. Though not crossing over in large numbers, members of fandom made the odd venture into the production side of the series up until the end of the original series. In 2005, the elders of Doctor Who fandom have grown up into the creators of the new series. And two of the franchise's recent leading men -- David Tennant and John Barrowman -- are both lifelong Who fans, to the point of both demonstrating an ability to cite chapter and verse in their DVD commentaries and interviews, a feat rarely demonstrated by participants in other franchises, including Star Trek. Matt Smith, however, says he grew up during the period when Doctor Who was not on the air, but since getting the role has immersed himself in the franchise's history.
- The flexibility of being able to change the lead actor via regeneration has allowed the series to continually reinvent itself, while maintaining continuity to the past and offering audiences with an easy-to-grasp rationale for the change of actor. Similarly, the continually changing supporting cast of companions and recurring characters also allows new perspectives and new chemistry to be brought into the series frequently. These factors were also cited in contributing to Law & Order's 20-year run on American TV, as that series was also known for making frequent changes to its lead cast.
- Both of the above have also afford the series, at least in its original run, the flexibility to make changes in the event of perceived audience dissatisfaction, such as the decision to replace Colin Baker with Sylvester McCoy (although the rationale in that case remains hotly debated two decades later).
The series is also unique for its longevity. Its original 26-season run places it far beyond the longevity of any other single, uninterrupted English-language science fiction series (a record Doctor Who retains even if the 1985-86 hiatus is taken into account). Its nearest rival, America's Stargate SG-1, ran for 10 seasons. Star Trek and its spinoffs amassed more individual seasons, but these were separate series, not one ongoing production. Doctor Who surpasses the Trek franchise in terms of individual seasons when the revived series, plus its spinoffs, are added together (33 seasons as of the fall of 2008). The Guinness Book of Records has officially recognized Doctor Who as the world's longest-running science fiction television series; in July 2009 Guinness also proclaimed Doctor Who the single most successful science-fiction series, too.
Continuity
- See also: canon
A common contention among fans and producers of the series is that a large part of the Doctor's appeal comes from his mysterious and alien origins. While over the decades several revelations have been made about his background - that he is a Time Lord, that he is from Gallifrey, among others - the writers have often strived to retain some sense of mystery and to preserve the eternal question, "Doctor who?" This backstory was not rigidly planned from the beginning, but developed gradually (and somewhat haphazardly) over the years, the result of the work of many writers and producers.
Understandably, this has led to continuity problems. Characters such as the Meddling Monk were retroactively classified as Time Lords, early histories of races such as the Daleks were rewritten, and so on. The creation of a detailed backstory has also led to the criticism that too much being known about the Doctor limits both creative possibilities and the sense of mystery. Some of the stories during the Seventh Doctor's tenure, part of the so-called "Cartmel Masterplan", were intended to deal with this issue by suggesting that much of what was believed about the Doctor was wrong and that he is a far more powerful and mysterious figure than previously thought. In both an untelevised scene in Remembrance of the Daleks and the subsequent Silver Nemesis it is implied (to quote an excised line from "Rememberance") that the Doctor "is more than just a Time Lord." The suspension of the series in 1989, however, meant that none of these hints were ever resolved, at least on television. The Virgin New Adventure novel, Lungbarrow, did resolve these hints and explain the Doctor's origins. However, not all fans regard the spin-off novels as canon, and so do not accept the revelations made in that particular story.
The 1996 television movie created even more uncertainty about the character, revealing that the Doctor had a human mother and he remembered his father. Fans, however, seemed to be more upset about the fact that the Eighth Doctor was shown kissing Dr. Grace Holloway, breaking the series' longstanding taboo against the Doctor having any romantic involvement with his companions.
The revelation in the 1996 television movie that the Doctor was half-human proved controversial among fans, and some have suggested that only the Eighth Doctor was half-human due to the particularly traumatic circumstances of his regeneration, rather than the Doctor having been half-human all along. (The evidence for or against this in the series is, typically, equivocal.) The Time Lord ability to change species during regeneration is referenced by the Eighth Doctor in relation to the Master in the television movie, and is supported by Romana's regeneration scene in the 1979 serial Destiny of the Daleks.
While some fans regard discontinuities as a problem, others regard it as a source of interest or humour (an attitude taken in the book The Discontinuity Guide). A common fan explanation is that a universe with time travellers is likely to have many historical inconsistencies. The revival series has tackled this issue head on by suggesting that "time is in flux" and with the exception of certain fixed events in time, most anything can be changed (DW: The Fires of Pompeii, The Unicorn and the Wasp, etc.). As such it's possible to rationalize that some events seen -- for example the events of the 2005 episode Dalek sparks some minor continuity issues with later events such as The Stolen Earth, however it's possible to rationalize that the events of Dalek may now occur differently or not at all, due to the Doctor's actions in later episodes (and later in his lifetime). Most recently, some fan interpretations of the Series 5 finale, DW: The Big Bang have suggested a potential reboot of Doctor Who continuity in toto, but there is also evidence in opposition to this view and it remains to be seen what, if any, ramifications may occur following that episode.
There has been much fan speculation centred on exactly which aspects of the television series, books, radio dramatisations, and other sources are considered canon. This has been made more complex by the fact a novel, a short story, and a Big Finish audio have all, to date, been adapted for the TV series (Human Nature, Blink and Dalek, respectively), and the events of at least one novel have been referenced on screen (NSA: The Monsters Inside in DW: Boom Town). For their part, the BBC has never issued a firm edict as to what counts as canon, unlike Star Trek which, per Paramount Pictures, only counted live-action televised or film productions as canon, until recently when The Animated Series was reintroduced into canon , or Star Wars which counts everything licenced by Lucasfilm since the mid-1990s as canon.
"Doctor Who?"
When the series begins, nothing is known of the Doctor at all, not even his name. In the very first serial, An Unearthly Child, two teachers from the Coal Hill School in London, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, become intrigued by one of their students, Susan Foreman, who exhibits high intelligence and unusually advanced knowledge. Trailing her to a junkyard at 76 Totter's Lane, they encounter a strange old man and hear Susan's voice coming from inside what appears to be a police box. Pushing their way inside, the two find that the exterior is actually camouflage for the dimensionally transcendental interior of the TARDIS.
Susan calls the old man "Grandfather", but he simply calls himself the Doctor. When he fears Ian and Barbara may alert the local authorities to what they've seen, he subsequently whisks them all away to another location in time and space.
In the first episode, Ian addresses the Doctor as "Doctor Foreman," as the junkyard in which they find him bears the sign "I.M. Foreman". When addressed by Ian with this name in the next episode, the Time Lord responds, "Eh? Doctor who? What's he talking about?" Later, when Ian realizes that "Foreman" is not his name, he asks Barbara, "Who is he? Doctor who?" Although listed in the on-screen credits for nearly twenty years as "Doctor Who", the Doctor is never really called by that name in the series, except in that same tongue-in-cheek manner. For example, in The Five Doctors when one character refers to him as "the Doctor", another character asks, "Who?" The only real exception has been the computer WOTAN, in the serial, The War Machines, which commanded that "Doctor Who is required."
In The Gunfighters, the First Doctor uses the alias Dr. Caligari. In The Highlanders the Second Doctor assumes the name of "Doctor von Wer" (a German translation of "Doctor of Who"), and signs himself as "Dr. W" in The Underwater Menace. In The Wheel in Space, his companion Jamie, reading the name off some medical equipment, tells the crew of the Wheel that the Doctor's name is "John Smith". The Doctor subsequently adopts this alias several times over the course of the series, often prefixing the title "Doctor" to it. This has continued through to the Tenth Doctor, and was famously referenced to in the 1996 television movie, where even though the Doctor is unconscious a complete stranger, seemingly at random, writes the name John Smith on the Doctor's hospital admission papers.
In The Armageddon Factor, the Time Lord Drax addresses the Fourth Doctor as "Theet", short for "Theta Sigma", apparently a University nickname. In the 1988 serial Remembrance of the Daleks, the Seventh Doctor is asked to sign a document, which he does by using a question mark, and produces a calling card with a series of Greek letters (or Old High Gallifreyan script) and a question mark inscribed on it. The Eighth Doctor briefly used the alias "Dr. Bowman" in the 1996 television movie. He has also been mocked by his fellow Time Lords for adhering to such a "lowly" title as "Doctor".
In many spin-off comic strips, books, films and other media, the character is often called "Doctor Who" (or just "Dr. Who") as a matter of course, though this has declined in more recent years. From the first story through to Logopolis (the last story of Season 18 and also of the Tom Baker era), the lead character was listed as "Doctor Who". Starting from Peter Davison's first story, Castrovalva (also the first story of Season 19), the lead character is credited simply as "The Doctor".
Doctor Who writer Terrance Dicks often expressed the theory that Time Lord names were "jawbreakers," long and extremely difficult to pronounce, and this was why the Doctor never revealed his true name. However, this is unlikely due to the fact that River Song, one of the few people ever to know his name, was able to whisper it in his ear in a very small space of time. Some fans have speculated, taking off from the fact that the full name of the Time Lady Romana is Romanadvoratrelundar, that the first syllable of the Doctor's true name is "Who". It should be noted that, although it is often asserted that "Doctor Who" is not the character's name, there is nothing in the series itself that actually confirms this. On at least one occasion the Doctor is about to give a name after the title "Doctor..." but is interrupted. Interestingly, the BBC novel, "The Infinity Doctors" mentions an ancient Gallifreyan god named "OHM". When this name is turned upside down, the result is "WHO." (This idea originated in early drafts of "The Three Doctors" by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. The character of "Ohm" eventually became Omega.)
It is interesting to note that, while spin-off media is known to "fill in the blanks" regarding aspects of Doctor Who lore -- for example, several novels "revealed" The Master's real name -- no officially licensed media has ever seriously attempted to solve the riddle of the Doctor's real name. Notwithstanding early spin-off media that treated "Doctor Who" as his name, of course.
Accolades
In 2000, in a poll of industry professionals, the British Film Institute voted Doctor Who #3 in a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes. Since its return in 2005, the series has received many nominations and awards both nationally (UK) and internationally. This includes BAFTAs, the National Television Awards and the Hugo Awards. American accolades have been fewer and farther between, although in 2007 it broke a barrier by receiving a nomination for the 2008 People's Choice Awards, although it did not win. The series' revival found its highest ratings not in the UK but in South Korea [1].
The Guinness World Records have recognized that Doctor who has broke, accomplished and set many different records. To see a full list, visit the Guinness World Records article on this Wikia.
Even the "gap year" season of 2009-2010, which consisted of only four specials (five if the 2008 Christmas special, The Next Doctor is included), wasn't enough to slow down the train of awards given to Doctor Who. On 20 January 2010 the series won Best Drama and David Tennant won Best Drama Performance at the 2010 National Television Awards.[2]
Parodies and Pastiches
Parodies
- See Doctor Who parodies.
Pastiches
- See Doctor Who pastiches.
Other Media
Although Doctor Who originated as a television programme, it has become much more than that. Starting with "Dalekmania" in the 1960s, a great deal of merchandise has sprung out of Doctor Who. Some of that merchandise has continued the story of the Doctor's adventures. Over the decades, Doctor Who has appeared on stage, screen, and radio, and in a variety of novels, comics, full-cast audio adventures and webcasts. Beginning in the late 1980s, independent production companies such as BBV Productions and Reeltime Pictures took advantage of a loophole in the BBC's ownership of Doctor Who to licence individual characters and monsters from the series directly from their creators and build original film and audio dramas around them; this reached its height after the original series ended in 1989. Many of these productions involved original cast members from the series. Meanwhile, since 1991, a prolific series of original novels rivalled only by the Star Trek franchise in terms of quantity have been published. Many of these productions and novels are highly regarded by Doctor Who fans, and all of the writers of the 2005 series previously wrote or scripted adventures for the Doctor in other media.
In terms of non-fiction works, Doctor Who ranks among the most intensely chronicled entertainment franchises in history. Since the publication of The Making of Doctor Who in the early 1970s, the number of books detailing the production, personnel, and even philosophy behind Doctor Who has numbered well over 100. In addition, a growing number of actors connected to the series have published autobiographies (in several cases more than one volume of memoirs), ranging from 1960s-era co-stars such as Anneke Wills and Deborah Watling through to more recent actors such as Billie Piper and John Barrowman.
External links
- The BBC's official "Doctor Who" home page
- Doctor Who Online, News & Information site + popular Forum with stars from the show.
