Transmat:Doctor Who
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 Doctor Who 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 Doctor Who 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 Doctor Who 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.- 1968 - Part four of the TV Comic story Car of the Century was published.
- 1974 - Part four of the TV Comic story The Magician was published.
- 1996 - Part nine of the Radio Times comic story Dreadnought was published.
- 2000 - DWM 294 was published by Panini Publishing.
- 2006 - DWA 9 was published by BBC Magazines.
- 2008 - The very first Doctor Who at the Proms, including short Music of the Spheres, took place at Royal Albert Hall.
- 2011 - DWDVDF 67 was published by GE Fabbri Ltd.
- 2013 - The Doctors Revisited - The Seventh Doctor was broadcast on BBC America, followed by a rebroadcast of Seventh Doctor story Remembrance of the Daleks.
- 2016 - TCH 15 was published by Hachette Partworks.
- 2017
- Classic Doctors, New Monsters: Volume Two was released by Big Finish Productions.
- Toby Hadoke's Who's Round 210 was released online.
- DWM 515 was published by Panini Comics.
- DWFC 103 was published by Eaglemoss Collections.
- 2020 - The Power of the Daleks: Special Edition was released on Region 2 DVD.
- 2021 - The Torchwood audio story Madam, I'm was released by Big Finish.
- 2023 - Among Us 3 was released by Big Finish.
- ...that the Steven Moffat era revolutionised Doctor Who's approach to cinematography by assigning DOPs to individual production blocks and episodes, which resulted in obvious lighting differences throughout each series?
- ... that Edward Watkinson advanced the theory that civilisations developed beer before bread? (PROSE: Walking to Babylon)
- ... that Silurian airships were dirigibles used during the height of the Silurians' prehistoric reign on Earth that enhanced the destructive power of their third eyes? (PROSE: Blood Heat)
- ... that Peri read the American comic book Swamp Thing in her youth? (PROSE: Players)
- ... that Kera-Bera Beasts were parasites who got close to their victims by creating illusory images of themselves to endear themselves to their targets? (COMIC: The Stray)
- 1925 - Actor Harry Towb was born.[1]
- 1932 - Actor and Stuntman Dinny Powell was born.[2]
- 1944
- Director Matthew Robinson was born.[3]
- Actor Trevor Lawrence was born.[4]
- 1946 - Actor Graham Simpson was born.
- 1950
- Actor Nigel Plaskitt was born.[5]
- Actor Simon Jones was born.[6]
- 1952 - Actor Robert Duncan was born.[7]
- 1959 - Actor Siobhan Redmond was born.[8]
- 1960 - Actor Gabrielle Glaister was born.[9]
- 1979 - Actor Julia Haworth was born.[10]
- 2012 - Actor Geoffrey Hughes died.[11]
- 2018 - Actor Alan Bennion died.[12]
- 2022
- Actor Bernard Cribbins died.[13]
- Visual effects producer Tony Dow died.[14]
- 1976 - Location filming for The Deadly Assassin took place. (Doctor Who The Handbook: The Fourth Doctor)
- 1978 - Location filming for The Androids of Tara took place. (REF: Doctor Who The Handbook: The Fourth Doctor)
- 1988 - Studio filming for The Happiness Patrol took place at BBC Television Centre Studio 3. (Doctor Who The Handbook: The Seventh Doctor)
- 1994 - Writer John Leekley revised his 15 July story proposal for the 1996 TV movie, drawing on it. The main changes he'd made to the storyline was the elimination of the so-called "Cybs", and the addition of a new character: Castellan Kelner, the Master's henchman. He later submitted his first draft on 24 August.
- 2007 - The Big Finish audio stories The Mind's Eye, Mission of the Viyrans and The Bride of Peladon were recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 2015
- The first series of Big Finish's audio series The Churchill Years was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- Filming began on Sleep No More.
- 2017 - The Big Finish audio story Serpent in the Silver Mask was recorded at the Moat Studios.
- 2021 - Big Finish announced the Torchwood audio story The Great Sontaran War.
- 2022 - Big Finish's Torchwood audio stories Double and Sigil and the Rani Takes on the World audio anthology The Revenge of Wormwood were recorded at the Soundhouse.
- 2023 - Big Finish's audio anthology Victory of the Doctor was recorded.