Doctor Who (TV Series)

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Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of the Doctor, a Time Lord—a space and time-travelling humanoid alien. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Accompanied by companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes, while working to save civilisations and help people in need.

The show is a significant part of British popular culture, and elsewhere it has gained a cult following. It has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot, in the form of a television film titled Doctor Who. The programme was relaunched in 2005, and since then has been produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff. Doctor Who has also spawned numerous spin-offs, including comic books, films, novels, audio dramas, and the television series Torchwood (2006–2011), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), K-9 (2009–2010), and Class (2016), and has been the subject of many parodies and references in popular culture.

Twelve actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the show with the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation – an idea introduced in 1966 to allow the show to continue after the departure of original lead William Hartnell who was becoming very ill at the time. The concept is that this is a Time Lord trait through which the character of the Doctor takes on a new body and personality to recover from a severe injury or anything that would otherwise kill a normal person. Each actor's portrayal differs, but all represent stages in the life of the same character and form a single narrative. The time-travelling feature of the plot means that different incarnations of the Doctor occasionally meet. The Doctor is currently portrayed by Jodie Whittaker, who took on the role after Peter Capaldi's exit in the 2017 Christmas special "Twice Upon a Time"

Premise

Doctor Who follows the adventures of the primary character, a rogue Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who simply goes by the name "The Doctor". He fled from Gallifrey in a stolen TARDIS – "Time and Relative Dimension in Space" – a machine which allows him to travel across time and space. The TARDIS has a "chameleon circuit" which normally allows the machine to take on the appearance of local objects as a disguise. However, the Doctor's TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British police box due to a malfunction in the chameleon circuit.

The Doctor rarely travels alone and often brings one or more companions to share these adventures. His companions are usually humans, as he has found a fascination with planet Earth. He often finds events that pique his curiosity as he tries to prevent evil forces from harming innocent people or changing history, using only his ingenuity and minimal resources, such as his versatile sonic screwdriver. As a Time Lord, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate when his body is mortally damaged, taking on a new appearance and personality. The Doctor has gained numerous reoccurring enemies during his travels, including the Daleks, the Cybermen, and the Master, another renegade Time Lord.

History

Main article: History of Doctor Who

Public consciousness

Episodes

Further information: List of Doctor Who serials

Missing episodes

Main article: Doctor Who missing episodes

Characters

The Doctor

Doctor (Doctor Who)

Changes of appearance

Main article: Regeneration (Doctor Who) Producers introduced the concept of regeneration to permit the recasting of the main character. This was first prompted by original star William Hartnell's poor health. The actual term "regeneration" was not initially conceived of until the Doctor's third on-screen regeneration however; Hartnell's Doctor had merely described undergoing a "renewal," and the Second Doctor underwent a "change of appearance". The device has allowed for the recasting of the actor various times in the show's history, as well as the depiction of alternative Doctors either from the Doctor's relative past or future.

The serials The Deadly Assassin and Mawdryn Undead and the 1996 TV film would later establish that a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times, for a total of 13 incarnations. This line has stuck in the public consciousness despite not often being repeated, and was recognised by producers of the show as a plot obstacle for when the show finally had to regenerate the Doctor a thirteenth time. The episode "The Time of the Doctor" depicted the Doctor acquiring a new cycle of regenerations, starting from the Twelfth Doctor, due to the Eleventh Doctor being the product of the Doctor's twelfth regeneration from his original set.

Although the idea of casting a woman as the Doctor had been suggested by the show's writers several times, including by Newman in 1986 and Davies in 2008, until 2017, all official depictions were played by men. Jodie Whittaker took over the role as the Thirteenth Doctor at the end of the 2017 Christmas special, and is the first woman to be cast as the character. Whittaker had previously starred in television series such as Return to Cranford, Broadchurch alongside David Tennant (Tenth Doctor) and the dystopian anthology Black Mirror. The show introduced the Time Lords' ability to change sexes on regeneration in earlier episodes, first in dialogue, then with Michelle Gomez's version of The Master.

In addition to those actors who have headlined the series, others have portrayed versions of the Doctor in guest roles. Notably, in 2013, John Hurt guest-starred as a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor known as the War Doctor in the run-up to the show's 50th anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor". He is shown in mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor" retroactively inserted into the show's fictional chronology between McGann and Eccleston's Doctors, although his introduction was written so as not to disturb the established numerical naming of the Doctors. Another example is from the 1986 serial The Trial of a Time Lord, where Michael Jayston portrayed the Valeyard, who is described as an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor's nature, somewhere between the twelfth and final incarnation.

On rare occasions, other actors have stood in for the lead. In The Five Doctors, Richard Hurndall played the First Doctor due to William Hartnell's death in 1975; 34 years later David Bradley similarly replaced Hartnell in Twice Upon a Time. In Time and the Rani, Sylvester McCoy briefly played the Sixth Doctor during the regeneration sequence, carrying on as the Seventh. For more information, see the list of actors who have played the Doctor. In other media, the Doctor has been played by various other actors, including Peter Cushing in two films.

The casting of a new Doctor has often inspired debate and speculation. Common topics of focus include the Doctor's sex (prior to the casting of Whittaker, all official incarnations were male), race (all Doctors to date have been white) and age (the youngest actor to be cast is Smith at 26, and the oldest are Capaldi and Hartnell, both 55).

Meetings of past and present incarnations

Revelations about the Doctor

See also: Doctor Who Continuity curiosities

Companions

Companion (Doctor Who)

Adversaries

Daleks

Main article: Dalek

Cybermen

Main article: Cyberman

The Master

Main article: Master (Doctor Who)

Music

See also: List of Doctor Who composers

Theme music

Main article: Doctor Who theme music

Incidental music

Main article: List of music featured on Doctor Who

See also: List of Doctor Who music releases

Viewership

Main article: Doctor Who fandom

United Kingdom

International

Oceania

Americas

Main article: Doctor Who in Canada and the United States

DVD and video

Main article: List of Doctor Who DVD releases

Adaptations and other appearances

Doctor Who films

Main article: Dr. Who (Dalek films)

Spin-offs

Main article: Doctor Who spin-offs

Aftershows

Charity episodes

Spoofs and cultural references

Main article: Doctor Who spoofs

Museums and exhibitions

Main article: Doctor Who exhibitions

There have been various exhibitions of Doctor Who in the United Kingdom, including the now closed exhibitions at:

• Lands End (Cornwall)
• Blackpool
• Llangollen
• Kelvingrove Museum, Glasgow
• Coventry Transport Museum, Coventry
• Centre for life, Newcastle upon Tyne
• Melbourne, Australia (only international DW concert to be performed)
• Kensington Olympia Two, London

There is an exhibition open currently in Cardiff (the city where the series is filmed)

Merchandise

Main article: Doctor Who merchandise

Since its beginnings, Doctor Who has generated hundreds of products related to the show, from toys and games to collectible picture cards and postage stamps. These include board games, card games, gamebooks, computer games, roleplaying games, action figures and a pinball game. Many games have been released that feature the Daleks, including Dalek computer games.

Audios

The Doctor has also appeared in webcasts and in audio plays; among the latter were those produced by Big Finish Productions, who were responsible for a range of audio plays released on CD, as well as 2006's eight-part BBC 7 series starring Paul McGann. Big Finish's productions began with the release of The Sirens of Time in July 1999. These audios feature Doctors 4–8. As well as this, Big Finish also release a range of other audio books read by both Doctors and Companions.

Books

See also: List of Doctor Who novelists

Doctor Who books have been published from the mid-sixties through to the present day. From 1965 to 1991 the books published were primarily novelised adaptations of broadcast episodes; beginning in 1991 an extensive line of original fiction was launched, the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures. Since the relaunch of the programme in 2005, a new range of novels have been published by BBC Books, featuring the adventures of the Ninth, Tenth and 11th Doctors. Numerous non-fiction books about the series, including guidebooks and critical studies, have also been published, and a dedicated Doctor Who Magazine with newsstand circulation has been published regularly since 1979. There is also a Doctor Who Adventures magazine published by the BBC.

See also:

• List of Doctor Who novelisations
• Eighth Doctor Adventures
• Past Doctor Adventures
• New Series Adventures

Video games

See also:

Chronology and canonicity

Awards

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Doctor Who

See also

• Doctor Who in Australia
• Doctor Who in Canada and the United States
• List of Doctor Who serials
• List of Doctor Who serials by setting
• List of Doctor Who universe creatures and aliens
• List of Doctor Who vehicles

Notes

References

Cited texts

Further reading

• Matt Hills. Triumph of a Time Lord: Regenerating "Doctor Who" in the Twenty-First Century (I.B. Tauris, 2010) 261 pages. Discusses the revival of the BBC's Doctor Who in 2005 after it had been off the air as a regular series for more than 15 years; topics include the role of "fandom" in the sci-fi programme's return, and notions of "cult" and "mainstream" in television.
• Tabloid Bintang Indonesia, Doctor Who Pengganti Chalkzone
• Majalah GADIS, Kenalan Bareng Doctor Who, Ketemu Bareng 1st–11th Doctor

External links

Official websites

Past official BBC websites

Reference websites