History of Doctor Who
Encyclopedia
Doctor Who is a British television science-fiction
series, produced and screened by the British Broadcasting Corporation
on their BBC One
channel from 1963 to 1989 in its original form, with a new series launched in early 2005. In between the two, there was a one-off television movie
co-produced with Universal Pictures
and 20th Century Fox Television, screened on the Fox Network in the United States in 1996.
This article is specifically about the production history of the programme. For a more general overview of the series, please see the main Doctor Who
article. For more about the main character of the Doctor, please see Doctor (Doctor Who)
.
, the Assistant and Adviser to the Controller of Programmes at BBC Television
, asked Donald Wilson, the Head of the Script Department, to have his department's Survey Group prepare a study on the feasibility of the BBC producing a new science fiction television series. The report was prepared by staff members Alice Frick and Donald Bull, and delivered the following month, much to the commendation of Wilson, Maschwitz and the BBC's Assistant Controller of Programmes Donald Baverstock
. A follow-up report into specific ideas for the format of such a programme was commissioned, and delivered in July. Prepared by Frick with another Script Department staff member, John Braybon, this report recommended a series dealing with time travel as being an idea particularly worthy of development.
In December, Canadian-born Sydney Newman
arrived at the BBC Television studio as the new Head of Drama
. Newman was a science-fiction fan who had overseen several such productions in his previous positions at ABC Television
and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
. In March 1963, he was made aware by Baverstock – now promoted to Controller of Programmes – of a gap in the schedule on Saturday evenings between the sports showcase Grandstand
and the pop music programme Juke Box Jury
. Ideally, any programme scheduled here would appeal to children that had previously been accustomed to the timeslot; the teenaged audience of Juke Box Jury; and the adult sports fan audience of Grandstand. Newman decided that a science-fiction programme would be perfect to fill the gap, and enthusiastically took up the existing Script Department research, initiating several brainstorming sessions with Wilson, Braybon, Frick and another BBC staff writer, C. E. 'Bunny' Webber
.
Wilson and Webber contributed heavily to the formatting of the programme and its initial cast of regular characters, and co-wrote the programme's first format document with Newman. Newman personally came up with the idea of a time machine larger on the inside than the outside and the idea of the central character, the mysterious "Doctor"; he also gave the series the name Doctor Who. Later in the year production was initiated and handed over to producer Verity Lambert
and story editor
David Whitaker to oversee, after a brief period when the show had been handled by a "caretaker" producer, Rex Tucker
. Concerned about Lambert's relative lack of experience, Wilson appointed the experienced staff director Mervyn Pinfield
as associate producer. Australian staff writer Anthony Coburn
also contributed, penning the very first episode from a draft initially prepared by Webber, and coming up with the idea that the time machine, the TARDIS
, should externally resemble a police box
.
Doctor Who was originally intended to be an educational series, with the TARDIS taking the form of an object from that particular episode's time period (a column in Ancient Greece, a sarcophagus in Egypt, etc.). When the show's budget was calculated, however, it was discovered that it was prohibitively expensive to re-dress the TARDIS model for each episode; instead, the TARDIS's "Chameleon Circuit" was said to be malfunctioning, giving the prop its characteristic 'police-box' appearance.
The series' theme music was written by film and television composer Ron Grainer
(who would later go on to also compose the theme to The Prisoner
, among others) in collaboration with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
. While Grainer wrote the theme, it was Delia Derbyshire
who was responsible for its creation, using a series of tape recorders to laboriously cut and join together the individual sounds she created with both concrete sources and square- and sine-wave oscillators. Grainer was amazed at the results and asked "Did I write that?" when he heard it. Derbyshire replied that he mostly had. The BBC (who wanted to keep members of the Workshop anonymous) prevented Grainer from getting her a co-composer credit and half the royalties. This unusual creative situation was explained in the BBC documentary called Alchemists of Sound. The title sequence was designed by graphics designer Bernard Lodge and realised by electronic effects specialist Norman Taylor.
(later a director on the series) and Geoffrey Bayldon
had both turned down approaches to star in the series, Verity Lambert and the first serial's director Waris Hussein
managed to persuade 55-year-old character actor William Hartnell
to take the part of the Doctor. Hartnell was known mostly for playing army sergeants and other tough characters in a variety of films, but Lambert had been impressed with his sensitive performance as a rugby league
talent scout in the film version of This Sporting Life
, which inspired her to offer him the role.
Hartnell's Doctor would initially be accompanied by his granddaughter Susan Foreman
(played by Carole Ann Ford
), originally to have been merely a travelling companion
, but with a family tie added by Coburn, who was uncomfortable with the possible undertones the relationship could carry were they to be unrelated. They were joined in the first episode by two of Foreman's schoolteachers, Barbara Wright
(Jacqueline Hill
) and Ian Chesterton
(William Russell
), from contemporary 20th century England. This remained the line-up of the series for the entire first season, but over time the regular line-up would change regularly as the Doctor's various companions left him to return home, having found new causes on worlds they had visited and elected to stay there, or even occasionally being killed off. However, he would always quickly find new travelling companions. Such characters were used by the production team to relate the point of view of the viewers at home, asking questions and furthering the stories by getting into trouble.
Doctor Who predates the original Star Trek
as one of the first TV series to be given two chances at producing a first episode. The very first episode of the series, "An Unearthly Child", had to be refilmed due to technical problems and errors made during the performance. During the days between the two tapings, changes were made to costuming, effects, performances, and the script (which had originally featured a more callous Doctor, and Susan doing unexplained things such as flicking ink on paper and folding it to produce a symmetrical pattern, and then tracing shapes over the pattern). This second version of "An Unearthly Child
", the first episode of the very first serial, was transmitted at 5.15 pm on 23 November 1963, but due to both a power failure in certain areas of the country and the overshadowing news of US President John F. Kennedy's assassination
, it drew minimal comment and was repeated the following week immediately before the second episode.
It was not until the second serial, The Daleks
, that the programme caught the imaginations of viewers and began to ingrain itself in the popular consciousness. This was primarily due to the Dalek
creatures introduced in this story. Devised by scriptwriter Terry Nation
and designer Raymond Cusick
, they were completely un-humanoid and like nothing that had been seen on television before. Lambert had in fact been strongly advised against using Nation's script by her direct superior Donald Wilson, but used the excuse that they had nothing else ready in order to produce it. Once it was clear what a great success it had been, Wilson admitted to Lambert that he would no longer interfere with her decisions as she clearly knew the programme better than he did.
Hartnell's Doctor was not initially paternal or sympathetic; he described himself and Susan simply as "wanderers in the 4th dimension". He was cantankerous, bossy and occasionally showed a streak of ruthlessness. However, the character mellowed as he grew closer to his companions, and he soon became a popular icon, especially among children who watched the series. This alteration in the portrayal of the Doctor began during the fourth serial, Marco Polo
. The Doctor's role was minimal during episode two, and from the later episodes his portrayal of the character mellowed considerably.
The programme became a great success, frequently drawing audiences of 12 million or more, and the Daleks came back for several return appearances. Whitaker left the show early in the second season (though continued writing for it until 1970), being briefly replaced by Dennis Spooner
, who in turn was replaced by Donald Tosh
at the end of the season. Pinfield also left halfway through the season due to poor health, but was not replaced.
By the time of the third season in 1965, however, some difficulties were beginning to arise. Lambert had moved on, to be replaced as producer by John Wiles
, who did not have a good working relationship with Hartnell. The lead actor himself was finding it increasingly difficult to remember his lines as he was suffering from the early stages of the arteriosclerosis
that would later cause his death. Wiles and Tosh came up with a way of writing Hartnell out in the story The Celestial Toymaker
, by having the Doctor made invisible for part of the story, intending that when he re-appeared he would be played by a new actor. However, Wiles was forbidden to replace Hartnell by the new Head of Serials, Gerald Savory
. Wiles had also hoped to make other bold changes, such as introducing a companion with a cockney
accent (which was vetoed, as he was told all characters must speak "BBC English"), and resigned shortly afterwards (allegedly after learning that he would be sacked at the end of the season), with Tosh also resigning on principle.
By 1966, however, it was clear that Hartnell's health was affecting his performances, and that he would not be able to carry on playing the Doctor for a long period of time. By this point Savory had moved on as Head of Serials and his successor, Shaun Sutton
, was more favourable to change, allowing Wiles' replacement, Innes Lloyd
, to make many of the very changes that Wiles had been barred from. Lloyd discussed the situation with Hartnell and the actor agreed that it would be best to leave, although later in life he would claim that he had not wanted to go.
came up with an intriguing way of writing the First Doctor
out – as he was an alien being, they decided that he would have the power to change his body when it became worn out or seriously injured, a process that was called "renewal" but would later become known within the mythology of the series as "regeneration
". Whereas Wiles had intended to replace Hartnell with another actor but playing the same character, Lloyd and Davis elected to change the entire personality and appearance of the Doctor. They cast actor Patrick Troughton
, who first appeared in November 1966 after the changeover from Hartnell had been seen at the end of the story The Tenth Planet
. That serial also introduced the popular Cybermen
, villains who would return to face the Doctor on several subsequent occasions.
Troughton played the role generally in a more lightweight, comical manner, albeit still with much of the original character's passionate hatred of evil and desire to help the oppressed. He also on occasion showed a darker side, manipulating his companions and the people around him for the greater good (examples include The Tomb of the Cybermen
and The Evil of the Daleks
). Davis left the show at the end of the fourth season, and was replaced by Peter Bryant
. A few months later, Lloyd left the show and Bryant was promoted to producer. Bryant's successor as script editor was Derrick Sherwin
(though Victor Pemberton
had filled the job for Bryant's first serial, The Tomb of the Cybermen).
Troughton remained in the part for three seasons until 1969, eventually tiring of the workload of starring in a regular series. By this time, the viewing figures for Doctor Who had fallen considerably, and new script editor Terrance Dicks
recalled that there was some talk of ending the series at the conclusion of its sixth season in 1969 (though this has been denied by Bryant, Sherwin and director David Maloney
, with paperwork suggesting it was actually in danger at the end of the seventh season in 1970). The series' budget was also increasingly strained by the cost of exotic sets, costumes and props every time the Doctor visited a new setting, and so Bryant and Sherwin (now effectively acting as co-producer, though the BBC refused to credit him as such) came up with the idea of reducing the cost of the series by setting all of the adventures on Earth, with the Doctor to act as the Scientific Advisor to an organisation called UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
, charged with defending the Earth from alien invasion.
This new set-up was tested in the season six story The Invasion
, and at the end of the season was put in place more permanently by having the Second Doctor
captured by his own race, the Time Lord
s, and sentenced to exile on Earth
with his appearance being changed again as punishment for his interference in the affairs of other races. Thus Doctor Who ended its sixth production block, and its black and white era. From then on, in common with all BBC One
programmes, it was to be produced in colour.
, star of the musical Oliver!
, but when he turned the part down, comic actor Jon Pertwee
, another candidate from Sherwin's shortlist, was cast instead. Sherwin had hoped that Pertwee would bring much of his comic acting skill to the part, but he was keen to establish himself as a serious dramatic actor as well as a comedian. Although some lighter touches were visible throughout Pertwee's era, he essentially played it very "straight" and not at all as Sherwin had envisioned. Pertwee's Doctor was more action-oriented than his predecessors, and the producers allowed Pertwee to indulge his love of riding various vehicles during his tenure, including motorcycles, hovercraft, the so-called "Whomobile" and the Doctor's vintage roadster, "Bessie".
Sherwin stayed only to oversee the first story of the seventh season. Spearhead from Space
was the first Doctor Who story to be made all in colour and – due to industrial action in the electronic studios – the only example of the original series to be made entirely on film (though there would be several occasions where stories were recorded entirely on Outside Broadcast Video after its introduction a few years later). Thereafter, he moved on to work on the series Paul Temple
, and was replaced by director Barry Letts
after another regular director on the show, Douglas Camfield
, had turned down the job.
The seventh season, at twenty-five episodes, was shorter than any before, and established a pattern of Doctor Who seasons being between twenty and twenty-eight episodes in length, one that would last until the middle of the 1980s. However, although the new format of the Doctor being stuck on Earth had proved popular enough to save the programme from cancellation, neither Letts nor his script editor Terrance Dicks
were particularly keen on the idea, and from the eighth season onwards sought reasons for the Doctor to be able to travel in time and space again, eventually having the Time Lords grant him full freedom at the conclusion of the 1973 tenth anniversary story, The Three Doctors, a serial which also featured guest appearances from Troughton and Hartnell, the latter in a restricted role due to his poor health.
Another innovation of theirs from the eighth season onwards was the introduction of the character of the Master
as a new nemesis for the Doctor, conceived as a Professor Moriarty
to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes
. Played by Roger Delgado
, he became a highly popular character, although over the following two seasons it was felt that he became a little over-used. Delgado and the production team eventually agreed that he should be written out during the eleventh season by killing the character off, with some ambiguity as to whether or not he had died to save the Doctor.
However, before this story could be written, Delgado was killed in a car accident in Turkey
. His death had a profound effect on Pertwee. With actress Katy Manning
also having departed from her role as companion Jo Grant
after three seasons, and Letts and Dicks both planning to move on, Pertwee felt that his "family" on the show was breaking up, and he decided to leave at the conclusion of the eleventh season in 1974. It is often said that Pertwee asked for a substantially increased fee for another year on the series and was told that his services were no longer required. It is unclear, however, if the story is true, or if it was merely a ploy to make his departure easier.
and script editor Robert Holmes
, who had been a long-time writer for the programme.
Letts had intended to cast an older actor as the Fourth Doctor, to hark back to Hartnell's portrayal in the 1960s, but after a long search he eventually selected Tom Baker
, who was suggested to him by the incoming Head of Serials, Bill Slater. Baker was only forty years old, almost fifteen years Pertwee's junior, but despite not being the type of actor Letts had originally been looking for, he went on to become arguably the most popular and best-remembered to play the role. He starred in the series for seven years, longer than any of his predecessors or successors, and during his time on the programme Doctor Who enjoyed a consistent run of popular success and high viewing figures. Baker's Doctor was a more eccentric personality, at times passionate and caring, but at other times aloof and alien. This ambivalence was a deliberate choice by Baker, in an attempt to remind the viewers that the Doctor was not human, and therefore had non-human characteristics.
Under the control of Hinchcliffe and Holmes, who took over from the beginning of the twelfth season, Doctor Who became a much darker programme, with the pair being heavily influenced by Hammer Films' successful horror film
productions and other gothic influences. Their era achieved the highest viewing figures (average ratings for Hinchcliffe's 3 years were over 1 million higher than the average for any other producer) and is frequently praised by fans as a highly successful one, with many serials from that period remaining fan favourites. However, the BBC received complaints from Mary Whitehouse
, chairwoman of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, that the programme was unfit for children and could traumatise them. While the BBC publicly defended the programme, after three seasons Hinchcliffe was moved on to the adult police thriller series Target in 1977, and his replacement, Graham Williams
, was specifically instructed to lighten the tone of the storylines.
After staying on during the fifteenth season under Williams for a brief handover period, Holmes also left the programme, and his replacement, Anthony Read
, worked with Williams, who was told to create a less violent and more humour-based approach, much to Baker's liking. The actor now felt very possessive of the part and frequently argued with directors over his inclusion of ad-libbed lines, but he was extremely pleased when the levity of the show increased even further after the departure of Read and the hiring of Douglas Adams
as script editor for season seventeen in 1979. Some fans have criticised Adams for introducing too much of the sort of humorous content that served him well in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
. However, others consider some of Adams' scripts to be among the series' high points, with City of Death
being the primary example.
Season 17 saw the show garner its highest-ever viewing figures during the ITV
network strike, with estimates of between 16 and 19 million viewers for episodes of the Williams and Adams penned story City of Death
. However, there were also problems: director Alan Bromly left the production towards the end of the story Nightmare of Eden
due to frustrations at the technicalities of production and arguments with Baker, leaving Williams to oversee completion of the story. Rampant inflation in the television industry was squeezing the series, with the budget much reduced in real terms from where it had been under Hinchcliffe. The scheduled final story of the season, Adams' own Shada
, was abandoned midway through recording due to industrial action, and the season finished, after just twenty episodes, in January 1980.
Williams and Adams both departed at the end of the season, Williams because he had had enough of the programme after three seasons in charge, and Adams to concentrate on his increasingly successful Hitchhiker's franchise. Williams recommended to the Head of Series & Serials, Graeme MacDonald
, that he be replaced by his Production Unit Manager, John Nathan-Turner
. Although MacDonald agreed with the principle of appointing someone familiar with the workings of the show, he first offered the job to Nathan-Turner's predecessor George Gallaccio
, who after leaving Doctor Who in 1977 had already gained experience as a producer on the BBC Scotland
drama The Omega Factor
. However, Gallaccio turned the role down, and MacDonald offered it instead to Nathan-Turner, who accepted, and became the new producer.
to return to the series as Executive Producer and oversee Nathan-Turner's initial season working on the series. Letts had, in fact, been offering unofficial advice and comment to Graham Williams for some time beforehand.
Nathan-Turner and the new script editor, Christopher H. Bidmead
, sought to return to a more serious tone for the series, reining in much of the humour that had been prevalent during Williams' tenure and changing the character's costumes. The new producer also sought to bring the show "into the 1980s", commissioning a new title sequence, bringing all the incidental music in-house to be produced electronically by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
, and commissioning Peter Howell
of the Workshop to come up with a brand-new arrangement of the series' famous theme tune. This displeased both Baker and his co-star Lalla Ward
, who did not see eye-to-eye with Nathan-Turner on the new direction.
These changes arrived with season eighteen in the autumn of 1980, when the audience for Doctor Who had fallen dramatically to around five million viewers, due chiefly to competition from the ITV
network's American import Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
. There was a further blow when Tom Baker decided that after seven seasons in the part he would leave the role. His departure was heavily publicised in the press, with Baker attracting much comment for his tongue-in-cheek suggestion that his successor could be a woman, which the publicity-aware Nathan-Turner was not quick to deny.
The producer initially sought actor Richard Griffiths
to succeed Baker, but when he proved unavailable, cast Peter Davison
, with whom he had previously worked on the popular drama series All Creatures Great and Small. Davison was very different from his four predecessors, being much younger, in line with Nathan-Turner's desire for the Fifth Doctor
to be completely unlike the massively popular Fourth
, so that the public would not draw unfavourable comparisons between the two. Davison's Doctor was arguably the most human of them all, and the one whose vulnerability was emphasised the most. The Fifth Doctor, more often than not, reacted to circumstances around him rather than being proactive, and had the air of a young aristocrat about him, in contrast to Baker's bohemian personality.
Davison made his first appearance at the end of the season eighteen closer, Logopolis
, although it was to be a year until his first full season in the part began in 1982. In the meantime Alan Hart, Controller of BBC One
, had decided to move the programme from an autumn to a spring transmission slot. This was partly because, after eighteen years on Saturday evenings, he had also decided to change the transmission date, running the series twice-weekly on weekdays instead of once a week on Saturdays. This had the effect of halving the number of weeks the series was on-air to thirteen instead of twenty-six, and moving from an autumn to a spring debut. Additionally, Davison was also working on the BBC sit com Sink or Swim and was unavailable to record enough episodes to make an autumn start date viable.
This experiment in seeing the viability of running a twice-weekly drama serial would later lead to the launching of the massively popular soap opera EastEnders
in a similar slot. It also had the short-term effect of doubling the Doctor Who audience, with the story Black Orchid
being the final story of the regular run – and the only one of the 1980s – to break the double-figure millions barrier for the story overall, with a recorded figure of ten million viewers. The last individual episode with over ten million viewers was the first part of 1982's Time-Flight
.
During production of the nineteenth season, Bidmead decided to move on and was replaced as script editor, first on a temporary basis by Antony Root
and then on a more permanent basis by Eric Saward
, who remained in the role for several years. He and Nathan-Turner oversaw an increasing reliance on the show's history in following seasons, with the return of various characters and adversaries from the Doctor's past, culminating in 1983 with the twentieth anniversary special 90-minute episode, The Five Doctors
.
Davison left the part after only three seasons in 1984. He had been advised by Patrick Troughton to stay no longer than three years, and was also disenchanted with the quality of the scripts on the programme during the twentieth season. Although he felt things had improved in the twenty-first, by then his departure had already been announced, and Nathan-Turner had selected Colin Baker
– who had guest-starred in the season twenty story Arc of Infinity
– to replace him. Colin Baker became the Sixth Doctor
on screen in March 1984 at the conclusion of Davison's final story, The Caves of Androzani
.
. Baker's portrayal of the Doctor also met with criticism. A more bombastic and overbearing personality than any of the others, the Doctor's use of deadly force against his enemies in a few stories caused controversy.
The series once again drew some criticism for the horrific content of some of the episodes. Unlike those misgivings levelled at the earlier reign of producer Philip Hinchcliffe, however, many of these came from within the BBC itself. Michael Grade
had taken over as Controller of BBC One in 1984, and was not a fan of the series. In fact, he later admitted in interviews that he "hated" the programme, and he wanted to cancel it outright. There is much debate, however, as to how far his decisions were driven by his personal views. At the time, the BBC was suffering a financial shortfall due to expensive ventures such as the launch of EastEnders
, breakfast and daytime television, and savings were needed across the Corporation.
In any case, when it was announced that Doctor Who
s production would be moved back a financial year, the news was interpreted as that the show was under threat of cancellation. The press and public outcry was much larger than Grade or the Board of Governors of the BBC
had expected, being given a full-page front cover story in the popular tabloid newspaper The Sun
. A charity single, "Doctor in Distress
", was even produced and released in March 1985. It was written by Ian Levine
and Fiachra Trench
and performed by a group of 30 mid-level celebrities, including Nicola Bryant
, Nicholas Courtney
and Colin Baker himself, under the banner "Who Cares". The single was universally panned.
Baker's era was interrupted by what would be a long 18-month hiatus between seasons 22 and 23, officially because the show was moved back from the spring to the autumn schedule, with only one new Doctor Who story, Slipback
, made on radio during the hiatus, broadcast as 6 parts (at 10 minutes each) on BBC Radio 4
from 25 July to 8 August 1985, as part of a children's magazine show called Pirate Radio Four
.
Season twenty-three eventually aired in the autumn of 1986. Production of the new season was complicated by various factors. Although the episode length had been reverted to 25 minutes, the number of episodes was reduced to fourteen, just over half the length of most previous seasons. The series was still up against The A-Team
and, having been off the air for eighteen months, found it hard to regain viewers who had turned to ITV
. Saward and Nathan-Turner had decided on an over-arching storyline for the entire season entitled "The Trial of a Time Lord
", but its complexities proved confusing to both writers and viewers, with the season drawing viewing figures of only four to five million.
Problems existed behind the scenes as well. Robert Holmes
, who had returned to writing for the series on a semi-regular basis in 1984, died before he could deliver the final episode. In addition, Saward and Nathan-Turner had a falling out, with Saward resigning from the programme, and Nathan-Turner unofficially taking on the role of script editor with Saward's departure. Despite all of this, Grade consented to allow the series to continue, but moved it away from Saturday nights into a mid-week slot once more, and limited it to one episode per week. He also ordered that a new Doctor be found, as he was not enamoured of Colin Baker's portrayal. Baker was therefore dismissed from the role, despite Nathan-Turner's pleas to the BBC brass that Baker did not fulfill his three-year contract due to the 18-month hiatus where nothing was filmed, plus the format changes between the two seasons, where Baker only did the equivalent of just a season and a half's worth of work in total.
as script editor on the advice of a friend who had run a BBC Drama Script Unit course that Cartmel had attended, and casting little-known Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy
as the Seventh Doctor
. In his first season, McCoy, a comedy actor, portrayed the character with a degree of clown-like humour, but Cartmel's influence soon changed that. The Seventh Doctor developed into a darker figure than any of his earlier incarnations, manipulating people like chess pieces and always seeming to be playing a deeper game than he ever let on.
The new season was placed by Grade at 7.35 pm on Monday evenings opposite the phenomenally popular ITV soap opera, Coronation Street
. The latter was the most-watched programme on British television, and the viewing figures for Doctor Who suffered accordingly, though they were frequently the best for any BBC programme broadcast in the slot (viewing figures at the time did not take account of video recordings). The season's quality was also publicly derided by many fans of the programme, although over the following two seasons the criticism was balanced out by some happier viewers, who felt that the young team of writers being assembled by Cartmel was taking the programme in the right direction.
Nathan-Turner attempted to leave once more at the end of production on the twenty-fifth season in 1988, but was once again persuaded to stay for a further year after another BBC producer – Paul Stone, who had produced The Box of Delights
– was offered the position but declined. He and Cartmel remained on the production team for the twenty-sixth season in 1989. Although the season once again drew praise, the viewing figures were disastrous, starting at around the 3 million mark and improving to only around 4.5 million by the season's conclusion. At the end of the year, Cartmel was head-hunted to script-edit the BBC's popular medical drama, Casualty, and Nathan-Turner also finally left the show, although no replacements were assigned for either position as in-house production was being shut down.
Although Michael Grade
had left the BBC in 1987 to take up a new position as Chief Executive of Channel 4
, Doctor Who remained in its poor slot opposite Coronation Street
and continued to suffer in the ratings. Jonathan Powell, the new Controller of BBC One
, decided to suspend the series, a decision which was clear to the production team by the end of production on the twenty-sixth season in August 1989.
The final story to be produced as part of the original run was Ghost Light
, although it was not the last to be broadcast. That was Survival
, the last episode of which was transmitted on 6 December 1989, and brought the series' twenty-six year run to a close. John Nathan-Turner
decided close to transmission that a more suitable conclusion should be given to the final episode as it would be the last instalment of the programme for some time, and was possibly going to be the last ever. Accordingly, Andrew Cartmel wrote a short, melancholic closing monologue for Sylvester McCoy, which McCoy recorded on 23 November 1989 – by coincidence, the show's twenty-sixth anniversary. This was dubbed over the closing scene as the Doctor and his companion Ace walked off into the distance, apparently to further adventures. The Doctor Who production office at the BBC finally closed down, for the first time since 1963, in August 1990.
(Ace) have stated that they would have left during this season. Storylines would have seen Ace joining the Time Lord academy on Gallifrey
, and the introduction of a cat burglar as the new companion. Script editor Andrew Cartmel had already begun work on four loosely connected stories which would have comprised the season: Earth Aid by Ben Aaronovitch (a space opera
featuring insect-like aliens), Ice Time by Marc Platt (set in 1960s London, featuring the return of the Ice Warrior
s and Ace's departure), Crime of the Century by Cartmel (a contemporary story featuring animal testing
), and Alixion by Robin Mukherjee (in which the Doctor is lured to an isolated asteroid to play a series of life-or-death games). Ahead of the new companion's introduction, Ice Time would have featured her father, a criminal named Sam Tollinger, who was intended to be a recurring character. Alixion would have seen the Doctor going insane after facing a psychic enemy, with mental rather than physical strain being the cause of his regeneration at the end of the season. However, since the programme was placed on indefinite hiatus, none of these stories were fully developed. Actors Richard Griffiths
and Ian Richardson
were two names mentioned by the production team as replacements for McCoy.
(The above details appear based primarily on a theoretical article written by Dave Owen for Doctor Who Magazine in issue 205, August 1997. In particular, the concept of regeneration through insanity was of Owen's own invention and was never part of the plans of Andrew Cartmel or his team of writers, although Cartmel has since become aware of the idea and given it his approval as a potentially fitting end to the Seventh Doctor. None of the stories above were commissioned at the time of cancellation, even to the point of rough outlines, and were put together by Dave Owen from interviews with the most likely authors to have been commissioned had the series gone ahead.)
On 12 November 2009 Big Finish Productions announced they were doing an audio version of Season 27 with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred and Beth Chalmers as new companion named Raine Creevey (not Kate Tollinger as previously suggested). Marc Platt contributed Thin Ice
, while script editor Andrew Cartmel has written Crime of the Century
, Animal
and co-written Earth Aid
with Ben Aaronovitch.
After the series was taken off the air in 1989, various Doctor Who projects were produced under license by the BBC. Doctor Who Magazine
continued its long-running comic strip and published original fiction, initially continuing the run of stories with the seventh Doctor and Ace and featuring other companions and Doctors. Virgin Publishing published a series of original books, The New Adventures of Doctor Who
(NAs), from 1991 to 1997. This series continued the stories of the seventh Doctor, further exploring and developing the themes and ideas introduced in the later years of the television series. Several writers who had worked on that era wrote NAs, as well as writers of earlier eras and some writers who would work on the new series, including Russell T Davies, Paul Cornell
, Mark Gatiss
and Gareth Roberts
. The NAs introduced original companions, including Bernice Summerfield
, and at one point the series editors considered regenerating the Doctor; they did however regenerate The Master. The success of the NAs led Virgin to publish The Missing Adventures
, featuring earlier Doctors and companions, and several short story anthologies.
Following the television movie (see below), the eighth Doctor replaced the seventh in both the comic strip and original books. BBC Books
took back the rights to publish original fiction in 1997 and published two series, the Eighth Doctor Adventures
and the Past Doctor Adventures
as well as some anthologies of short stories, until 2005. Big Finish Productions
adapted several NAs, minus the Doctor, into audio plays; on the back of these, they won a license from the BBC to produce original audio plays featuring the Doctors and their companions, and eventually also produced plays featuring other characters and monsters from the TV series and spin-offs; Big Finish has also published short story anthologies. Big Finish attracted a number of writers from the books series as well as new writers, including Rob Shearman
; it also gave future Doctor David Tennant
his first acting role in a Doctor Who story.
For more information, see the Doctor Who spin-offs
article.
Although it was for all intents and purposes cancelled (series co-star Sophie Aldred
said in the documentary More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS that she was told it was cancelled), the BBC maintained the series was merely "on hiatus" and insisted the show would return. Nathan-Turner would produce just one more Doctor Who project, the 30th anniversary special Dimensions in Time
, in 1993, a replacement for an aborted 30th anniversary project called The Dark Dimension.
, a British expatriate who worked for Columbia Pictures
' television arm in the United States. Segal's negotiations dragged on for several years, and followed him from Columbia to Steven Spielberg
's Amblin Entertainment
company and finally to Universal Studios
' television arm. At Amblin, Segal had come close to interesting the CBS
network in commissioning the series as a mid-season replacement show in 1994, but this eventually came to nothing.
Finally, at Universal, Segal managed to interest the Fox Network in the programme, in the form of their Vice-President in charge of Television Movie production, Trevor Walton, an Englishman who was already familiar with the series. Although Walton had no power to commission a series, he was able to commission a one-time television movie that served as a backdoor pilot for a possible series revival. The movie that was eventually made was simply titled Doctor Who. To distinguish it from the television series, Segal later suggested the alternate title Enemy Within
. Opinions on how to refer to the television movie differ among fans, but the most common usage is to just call it the "television movie" or abbreviate it as "the TVM".
The original plan was for a completely new American version of Doctor Who, in the same way that Sanford and Son
was an unrelated re-make of Steptoe and Son
and All in the Family
had re-made Till Death Us Do Part. However, when new scriptwriter Matthew Jacobs
came on board in 1995 – at Walton's persuasion, feeling that a simpler story was needed than the intricate back-stories Segal had created with writer John Leekley
– he persuaded Segal that the movie should instead be a direct continuation of the BBC series, something no American production had ever attempted before when buying the rights to a British programme.
Segal agreed, and Sylvester McCoy appeared briefly at the beginning of the film, before "regenerating" into the Eighth Doctor
as played by Paul McGann
. McGann had been Segal's first choice for the part, although both the actor himself and the Fox Network had not initially been keen. Segal later claimed that the BBC's Executive Producer on the project, Jo Wright, had wanted the role of the "previous Doctor" to be played by Tom Baker, as it was felt he was regarded as the definitive Doctor by the British public and McCoy's tenure had not been as popular, but she backed down when Segal explained how this went against the continuity of the programme. Segal also had to fight to retain the familiar Doctor Who theme: composer John Debney
wanted to write a new piece, but was convinced to create a rearrangement of Ron Grainer
's composition, although Grainer did not receive screen credit for his work. A further tie to the BBC series was the use of the logo used from 1970 to 1973 during the Jon Pertwee era. This logo subsequently became the official franchise logo until it was replaced in 2004, although it still appears on all merchandise featuring any of the original series Doctors.
Transmitted on the Fox Network on 14 May 1996 and on BBC One
thirteen days later – although actually having debuted on CityTV
in Toronto, Canada, the film having been shot in Vancouver, on 12 May – the production drew only 5.5 million viewers in the United States, although it was far more successful in the UK with 9 million viewers, one of the top-ten programmes of the week.
McGann's Doctor was a combination of boyish glee and wonder at the universe with occasional flashes of an old soul in a young body, and was well received by fans, even if the reactions to the television movie were mixed. However, in spite of the success and popularity of the film in the UK, the disappointing US viewing figures led Fox to decline to commission a series. With no broadcast network attached in the United States, Universal could not produce a series for the BBC alone. Indeed, it would have been cheaper for the BBC to make a new series themselves rather than pay for a series with no production partner. Thus plans for a new series were scrapped, with no new production looking likely as the decade came to an end.
Little happened at the BBC regarding new Doctor Who production until the following year, when producer Mal Young
arrived at the Corporation's in-house production arm as Head of Continuing Drama Series. Young was keen on reviving the programme, and this interest was shared by the then-current Controller of BBC One, Peter Salmon. Tony Wood, a producer in Young's department, who previously worked at Granada Television
, recalled his former colleague Russell T Davies' enthusiasm for the programme and recommended him to Young as someone who might make a good writer of a new version. Davies had recently written for the popular Granada dramas The Grand and Touching Evil
for the ITV
network, and earlier in the decade had worked for the BBC, writing the well-received children's science-fiction serials Century Falls
and Dark Season
, which itself contained many Doctor Who-influenced themes.
A meeting was arranged between Davies and Mal Young's development producer, Patrick Spence. In 1999 the media took hold of the story following the success and critical acclaim surrounding Davies' Channel 4
drama, Queer as Folk. Although various sources claimed that a provisional title of Doctor Who 2000 had been given to the proposed new series, in reality very little work had been done, as Peter Salmon had been informed by BBC Worldwide
that a new series would upset the tentative plans they were making for a new film version of the series. Thus, plans for the television revival were shelved for the time, and seemed to become even less likely in 2000 when Salmon was replaced as Controller of BBC One.
, proved to be equally enthusiastic about the idea of new Doctor Who, often commenting to the press that she would like to pursue the idea but that "rights difficulties" – presumably BBC Worldwide's film negotiations – prevented it. Equally positive comments were made by the Corporation's overall Head of Drama, Jane Tranter
. Heggessey had received several new series proposals since she had taken over control of BBC One, the highest-profile being from producer Dan Freedman – who had produced a full-cast, official, audio Doctor Who story, entitled Death Comes to Time
, for the BBCi
website in 2001. Another came from actor/writer Mark Gatiss
, who in 2002 drew up and submitted a proposal in collaboration with writer Gareth Roberts
and then Doctor Who Magazine
editor Clayton Hickman
.
In the meantime, BBCi, the interactive media arm of the corporation, who had scored successes with their Doctor Who webcasts (beginning with the aforementioned Death Comes to Time, which was followed by Real Time in 2002 and a re-make of the uncompleted Shada
in 2003), decided on a more ambitious project to celebrate the programme's upcoming 40th anniversary. In July 2003, BBCi announced the production of Scream of the Shalka
, a fully animated adventure adapted for webcasting with Richard E. Grant
as the Doctor
and Sir Derek Jacobi
as the Master
. As there were no concrete plans for producing a new series, BBCi announced Shalka as the "official" continuation of the programme, and that Grant was the "official" Ninth Doctor. However, events were soon to overtake that.
, produced in-house at BBC Wales
in 2004 for transmission in 2005.
Davies was made the chief writer and Executive Producer of the new series (called Series One instead of continuing the numbering with Season 27, although the narrative thread continued from the old series rather than starting afresh), and other writers included Mark Gatiss
, Steven Moffat
, Paul Cornell
and Rob Shearman
. The Producer was Phil Collinson
and the other Executive Producers were Mal Young
(although he subsequently left the BBC midway through production at the end of 2004), and BBC Wales Head of Drama, Julie Gardner
. A new arrangement of the theme tune was composed by Murray Gold
.
The new series would comprise thirteen 45-minute long episodes, with the first story titled "Rose
" after the Doctor's new companion Rose Tyler
. Unlike past seasons which used serial-style storytelling, the new series would have mainly standalone or two-part episodes. Filming of the first season began in Cardiff
on 18 July 2004. With the new series confirmed, when Shalka was webcast in November 2003, the further adventures of Grant's Ninth Doctor were in doubt. In February 2004, plans for sequels to Shalka were indefinitely shelved, although Grant's version of the character, now dubbed the "Shalka Doctor
", would return in a short story entitled "The Feast of the Stone" published on the BBC website.
After much speculation in the press about possible candidates, BBC announced that Christopher Eccleston
would be the Ninth Doctor
, accompanied by former pop singer Billie Piper
as Rose. In the April 2004 issue of Doctor Who Magazine
, Davies announced that Eccleston's Doctor would indeed be the Ninth Doctor, relegating Grant's Ninth Doctor to non-official status.
In April 2004, Michael Grade returned to the BBC, this time as the Chairman of the Board of Governors
, although this position does not involve any commissioning or editorial responsibilities. Although he was quoted as being generally indifferent to the new series, he eventually wrote an e-mail to BBC Director-General Mark Thompson
in June 2005, after the successful new first series, voicing approval for its popularity. He also declared, "I never dreamed I would ever write this. I must be going soft!"
However, not everyone was pleased with the new production. Some fans criticised the new logo and perceived changes to the TARDIS model. According to various news sources, members of the production team even received hate mail and death threats. The new logo and trailers were posted on the BBC website and were followed up by television spots in March 2005 with a media blitz in the run up to the transmission of "Rose" on 26 March. A leak of a rough cut of the premiere onto the internet by an employee of a third party company associated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
also attracted much media attention and discussion amongst fans. Advance reviews in the British media were generally positive.
"Rose" finally saw transmission on schedule on 26 March at 7 pm on BBC One, the first regular episode of Doctor Who for over 15 years. To complement the series, BBC Wales also produced Doctor Who Confidential
, a 13-part documentary series with each episode broadcast on BBC Three
immediately after the end of the weekly instalment on BBC One. "Rose" received average overnight ratings of 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 10.5 million. The final figure for the episode, including video recordings watched within a week of transmission, was 10.81 million, No. 3 for BBC One that week and No. 7 across all channels. The success of the launch saw the BBC's Head of Drama Jane Tranter
confirming on 30 March that the series would return both for a Christmas Special in December 2005 and a full second series in 2006.
The series was well received by both critics and the public. The 2005 TV Choice/TV Quick Award went to Eccleston for Best Actor, and Doctor Who was nominated for Best Series. Eccleston, Piper, and Doctor Who were all winners in their categories at the UK's National Television Awards
, announced on 25 October 2005. Although not as prestigious as the British Academy Television Awards
(BAFTAs), they are the highest-profile UK television awards voted on by members of the public. The series did go on to win two BAFTA awards in May, including the Best Drama Series category.
Due to an initial lack of interest by networks in the United States, Doctor Who debuted on the Sci Fi Channel
on 17 March 2006, one year after the Canadian and UK showings.
Although the new series clearly continues the storyline of the original – with Eccleston identified in publicity materials as the Ninth Doctor, and the appearance of original series elements such as UNIT and Sarah-Jane Smith—the BBC is officially treating the series as a new programme, calling the 2005 season "Series 1". This has led to controversy between fans who wish to follow the BBC's numbering and those who consider the 2005 series to be Season 27 (and so on).
Concurrent with the new series, BBC Books revamped its line of Doctor Who original fiction, retiring for now its Eighth Doctor and Past Doctor paperback line (the last such volume appearing in late 2005) and launching a new series of hardback novels featuring the Ninth and, later, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors (see New Series Adventures
).
and the Daily Express
announced "exclusive" news that Eccleston had quit the series. Eccleston then apparently released a statement through the BBC, saying that he would be leaving the role at Christmas for fear of being typecast
.
Fan reaction to the news ranged from disappointment to irritation to outright anger. Some did point out, however, that the series is uniquely suited to deal with cast changes. The number of angry postings on the popular Outpost Gallifrey
fan forum was enough for Shaun Lyon, the owner of the website, to close down the forum for two days to allow tempers to cool.
Speculation arose as to how long the production team had been aware of Eccleston's decision. Eventually, it transpired that the departure had been planned and the scripts written to accommodate Eccleston's departure, but it was not meant to have been announced until after the first series had concluded. The BBC admitted that they had falsely attributed Eccleston's "statement" and released it in violation of an earlier agreement not to reveal his departure publicly. The statement had been made after journalists made queries to the press office.
On 16 April 2005, the BBC confirmed that David Tennant
would be the Tenth Doctor
. The regeneration from Eccleston to Tennant took place in "The Parting of the Ways
", the season finale. Tennant and Piper next starred in a 7-minute mini-episode
for Children in Need
. Tennant's first full story as the Doctor was the 2005 Christmas special, "The Christmas Invasion
", and Piper joined him for the whole of Series 2.
At a BAFTA screening of "The Parting of the Ways", the finale of the 2005 series, on 15 June 2005, Jane Tranter announced that both a second seasonal episode (later titled "The Runaway Bride
") and third series of Doctor Who had been commissioned. Piper left the programme at the end of Series 2, and a new companion, Martha Jones
(played by Freema Agyeman
), joined Tennant at the start of Series 3 on 31 March 2007.
Series 2 aired in the UK and US in 2006, and finished airing in Canada on 12 February 2007. The third series aired in the UK in the spring of 2007 and began airing in Canada and the US during the summer of that year. A 2007 Christmas Special "Voyage of the Damned
" was broadcast on 25 December 2007 in the UK, featuring Kylie Minogue
as a waitress named Astrid.
The fourth series aired in the UK in 2008 featuring two companions; Donna Noble, who first appeared in "The Runaway Bride
" and Martha Jones, who returned to the series for five episodes of series four. Billie Piper also returned to the show to reprise her original role as Rose Tyler.
Following broadcast of the third series, the BBC announced that the show would not return as a weekly series in 2009, due to a number of factors. Instead, four specials would be broadcast in 2009, with a full series returning in 2010. It was later announced that when the full series returned in 2010, Tennant would no longer be the Doctor. Playing the role would be the 26-year-old actor Matt Smith.
The return of Doctor Who has led to the BBC launching a number of spin-offs and related programmes. The first of these was the behind-the-scenes series Doctor Who Confidential
which began airing on BBC Three
in conjunction with the 2005 series and returned for a new set of episodes in 2006; each episode focuses on elements of that week's Doctor Who episode, and the series has continued alongside all stories since 2005. In 2006, the first full Doctor Who spin-off series, Torchwood
, debuted on BBC Three; it did not air in the United States until BBC America
debuted it in September 2007, while the Canadian CBC aired it in October 2007. A second behind-the-scenes series, Totally Doctor Who
, which aired on BBC One, also debuted in 2006. After the appearance of Sarah Jane Smith in the 2006 episode "School Reunion
", it was announced that Elisabeth Sladen
would reprise the role in a new series entitled The Sarah Jane Adventures
, the first episode of which aired on BBC One on 1 January 2007, followed by its debut as a weekly series in September 2007. Following Sladen's death, the programme will come to an end after its fifth series in autumn 2011. Yet another spin-off series, K-9, was announced for 2007, but this series is not being produced by the BBC. In addition, Tennant and Agyeman provided voice acting work for The Infinite Quest
, an animated serial that aired as part of the 2007 series of Totally Doctor Who.
was confirmed as his replacement.
On 29 October 2008, during his acceptance speech via live feed at the National Television Awards
, David Tennant
publicly announced his intention to exit the series at the end of the 2009 specials, making way for a new actor to portray the eleventh incarnation
of the Doctor in the 2010 series. 26-year-old actor Matt Smith was announced as his successor in a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential
, broadcast on BBC One on 3 January 2009. Production on Moffat and Smith's first series began in July 2009, and the first episode
was broadcast on 3 April 2010.
The new series was accompanied by a new logo, unveiled on 6 October 2009, and a new title sequence. The series featured a completely redesigned TARDIS interior, a slightly altered TARDIS exterior, and a new companion – Amy Pond
– portrayed by Karen Gillan
. Gillan was joined on a recurring basis by Arthur Darvill
, playing Amy's boyfriend (later husband) Rory Williams
, and Alex Kingston
as the mysterious River Song
.
The Eleventh Doctor's first series concluded on 26 June 2010 with transmission of the series finale "The Big Bang
," followed by another Christmas Special, "A Christmas Carol" and a pair of Comic Relief
mini-episodes, "Space" and "Time,"
broadcast on 18 March 2011.
A second full series of 13 episodes was commissioned for 2011, with Smith and Gillan both returning as the Doctor and Amy respectively (making it the first time since the show's relaunch in 2005 that both the Doctor and main companion had remained the same from one series to the next). The series was broadcast in two halves, with the first seven episodes broadcast between April and June 2011, and the final six beginning on 27 August 2011. With the new series, Darvill was upgraded to series regular and full-time companion as Rory, and Kingston continued to appear on a recurring basis as River Song.
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
series, produced and screened by the British Broadcasting Corporation
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
on their BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
channel from 1963 to 1989 in its original form, with a new series launched in early 2005. In between the two, there was a one-off television movie
Doctor Who (1996)
Doctor Who is a television movie based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Developed as a co-production amongst Universal Television, BBC Television, BBC Worldwide, and the American network FOX, the 1996 television film premiered on 12 May 1996 on CITV in Edmonton,...
co-produced with Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
and 20th Century Fox Television, screened on the Fox Network in the United States in 1996.
This article is specifically about the production history of the programme. For a more general overview of the series, please see the main Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
article. For more about the main character of the Doctor, please see Doctor (Doctor Who)
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
.
Origins
In March 1962, Eric MaschwitzEric Maschwitz
Albert Eric Maschwitz OBE , known as Eric Maschwitz and sometimes credited as Holt Marvell, was an English entertainer, writer, broadcaster and broadcasting executive.-Life and work:...
, the Assistant and Adviser to the Controller of Programmes at BBC Television
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The corporation, which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927, has produced television programmes from its own studios since 1932, although the start of its regular service of television...
, asked Donald Wilson, the Head of the Script Department, to have his department's Survey Group prepare a study on the feasibility of the BBC producing a new science fiction television series. The report was prepared by staff members Alice Frick and Donald Bull, and delivered the following month, much to the commendation of Wilson, Maschwitz and the BBC's Assistant Controller of Programmes Donald Baverstock
Donald Baverstock
Donald Baverstock was a British television producer and executive, born in Cardiff, Wales. He initially worked for BBC Television in their Talks Department, where he was the Editor of the topical magazine programme Highlight and then co-devised and edited its more ambitious and better-remembered...
. A follow-up report into specific ideas for the format of such a programme was commissioned, and delivered in July. Prepared by Frick with another Script Department staff member, John Braybon, this report recommended a series dealing with time travel as being an idea particularly worthy of development.
In December, Canadian-born Sydney Newman
Sydney Newman
Sydney Cecil Newman, OC was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s...
arrived at the BBC Television studio as the new Head of Drama
BBC television drama
BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom...
. Newman was a science-fiction fan who had overseen several such productions in his previous positions at ABC Television
Associated British Corporation
Associated British Corporation was one of a number of commercial television companies established in the United Kingdom during the 1950s by cinema chain companies in an attempt to safeguard their business by becoming involved with television which was taking away their cinema audiences.In this...
and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
. In March 1963, he was made aware by Baverstock – now promoted to Controller of Programmes – of a gap in the schedule on Saturday evenings between the sports showcase Grandstand
Grandstand (BBC)
Grandstand was a British television sport programme. Broadcast between 1958 and 2007, it was one of the BBC's longest running sports shows, alongside BBC Sports Personality of the Year.Its first presenter was Peter Dimmock...
and the pop music programme Juke Box Jury
Juke Box Jury
Juke Box Jury was a musical panel show which originally ran on BBC Television from 1 June 1959 until December 1967. The programme was based on the American show Jukebox Jury, itself an offshoot of a long-running radio series....
. Ideally, any programme scheduled here would appeal to children that had previously been accustomed to the timeslot; the teenaged audience of Juke Box Jury; and the adult sports fan audience of Grandstand. Newman decided that a science-fiction programme would be perfect to fill the gap, and enthusiastically took up the existing Script Department research, initiating several brainstorming sessions with Wilson, Braybon, Frick and another BBC staff writer, C. E. 'Bunny' Webber
C. E. Webber
Cecil Edwin Webber was a British television writer and playwright. He is best remembered for his contribution to the creation of the famous science-fiction series Doctor Who while working as a staff writer for the BBC in the early 1960s...
.
Wilson and Webber contributed heavily to the formatting of the programme and its initial cast of regular characters, and co-wrote the programme's first format document with Newman. Newman personally came up with the idea of a time machine larger on the inside than the outside and the idea of the central character, the mysterious "Doctor"; he also gave the series the name Doctor Who. Later in the year production was initiated and handed over to producer Verity Lambert
Verity Lambert
Verity Ann Lambert, OBE was an English television and film producer. She is best known as the founding producer of the science-fiction series Doctor Who, a programme which has become a part of British popular culture, and for her association with Thames Television...
and story editor
Script editor
A script editor is a member of the production team of scripted television programmes, usually dramas and comedies. The script editor has many responsibilities including finding new script writers, developing storyline and series ideas with writers, ensuring that scripts are suitable for production...
David Whitaker to oversee, after a brief period when the show had been handled by a "caretaker" producer, Rex Tucker
Rex Tucker
Rex Tucker was a British television director in the 1950s and 1960s.He was born in March in the Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire. Amongst his work, he was a driving force during the formative stages of Doctor Who in 1963, acting as a caretaker producer prior to the arrival of Verity Lambert...
. Concerned about Lambert's relative lack of experience, Wilson appointed the experienced staff director Mervyn Pinfield
Mervyn Pinfield
Mervyn Pinfield was a British Television producer and director working for the BBC during the 1950s and 1960s. He is well known for being the associate producer on the BBC television series Doctor Who from the first episode of An Unearthly Child to The Romans, during Verity Lambert's tenure as...
as associate producer. Australian staff writer Anthony Coburn
Anthony Coburn
Anthony Coburn was an Australian television writer and producer, who spent much of his professional career living and working in the United Kingdom. He moved to the UK in the 1950s, where he joined the staff of BBC Television...
also contributed, penning the very first episode from a draft initially prepared by Webber, and coming up with the idea that the time machine, the TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
, should externally resemble a police box
Police box
A police box is a British telephone kiosk or callbox located in a public place for the use of members of the police, or for members of the public to contact the police...
.
Doctor Who was originally intended to be an educational series, with the TARDIS taking the form of an object from that particular episode's time period (a column in Ancient Greece, a sarcophagus in Egypt, etc.). When the show's budget was calculated, however, it was discovered that it was prohibitively expensive to re-dress the TARDIS model for each episode; instead, the TARDIS's "Chameleon Circuit" was said to be malfunctioning, giving the prop its characteristic 'police-box' appearance.
The series' theme music was written by film and television composer Ron Grainer
Ron Grainer
Ronald Erle “Ron” Grainer was an Australian-born composer who worked for most of his professional career in the United Kingdom. He is mostly remembered for his film and television music.- Biography :...
(who would later go on to also compose the theme to The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
, among others) in collaboration with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, one of the sound effects units of the BBC, was created in 1958 to produce effects and new music for radio, and was closed in March 1998, although much of its traditional work had already been outsourced by 1995. It was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware...
. While Grainer wrote the theme, it was Delia Derbyshire
Delia Derbyshire
Delia Ann Derbyshire was an English musician and composer of electronic music and musique concrète. She is best known for her electronic realisation of Ron Grainer's theme music to the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and for her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.-Early...
who was responsible for its creation, using a series of tape recorders to laboriously cut and join together the individual sounds she created with both concrete sources and square- and sine-wave oscillators. Grainer was amazed at the results and asked "Did I write that?" when he heard it. Derbyshire replied that he mostly had. The BBC (who wanted to keep members of the Workshop anonymous) prevented Grainer from getting her a co-composer credit and half the royalties. This unusual creative situation was explained in the BBC documentary called Alchemists of Sound. The title sequence was designed by graphics designer Bernard Lodge and realised by electronic effects specialist Norman Taylor.
The First Doctor
After actors Hugh DavidHugh David
Hugh David was an actor turned television director. David was born in Aberystwyth, Wales. His directorial credits include Compact, Z-Cars, The Pallisers and Doctor Who, for which he directed two stories in the Patrick Troughton era...
(later a director on the series) and Geoffrey Bayldon
Geoffrey Bayldon
Geoffrey Bayldon is a British actor. After playing roles in many dramas including Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series Catweazle , after turning down the opportunity to play both the First and Second Doctors in the long-running BBC science fiction...
had both turned down approaches to star in the series, Verity Lambert and the first serial's director Waris Hussein
Waris Hussein
Waris Hussein is a British-Indian television director and film director best known for his many productions for British television....
managed to persuade 55-year-old character actor William Hartnell
William Hartnell
William Henry Hartnell was an English actor. During 1963-66, he was the first actor to play the Doctor in the long-running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
to take the part of the Doctor. Hartnell was known mostly for playing army sergeants and other tough characters in a variety of films, but Lambert had been impressed with his sensitive performance as a rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
talent scout in the film version of This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life is a 1963 British film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It tells the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting...
, which inspired her to offer him the role.
Hartnell's Doctor would initially be accompanied by his granddaughter Susan Foreman
Susan Foreman
Susan Foreman is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The granddaughter and original companion of the First Doctor, she was played by actress Carole Ann Ford from 1963 to 1964, in the show's first season and the first two stories of the second season...
(played by Carole Ann Ford
Carole Ann Ford
Carole Ann Ford is a British actress best known for her role as Susan Foreman in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She also appeared in the 1962 film version of The Day of the Triffids....
), originally to have been merely a travelling companion
Companion (Doctor Who)
In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, the term "companion" refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. In most Doctor Who stories, the primary companion acts as both deuteragonist and audience surrogate...
, but with a family tie added by Coburn, who was uncomfortable with the possible undertones the relationship could carry were they to be unrelated. They were joined in the first episode by two of Foreman's schoolteachers, Barbara Wright
Barbara Wright (Doctor Who)
Barbara Wright is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and a companion of the First Doctor. She was one of the programme's very first regulars and appeared in the bulk of its first two seasons from 1963–65, played by Jacqueline Hill. In the film version...
(Jacqueline Hill
Jacqueline Hill
Jacqueline Hill was a British actress known for her role as Barbara Wright in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. As the history teacher of the Doctor's granddaughter, Susan Foreman, Barbara Wright was the first of the companions to appear in the show in 1963, with Hill speaking...
) and Ian Chesterton
Ian Chesterton
Ian Chesterton is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and a companion of the First Doctor. He was played in the series by William Russell, and was one of the members of the programme's very first regular cast, appearing in the bulk of the first two...
(William Russell
William Russell (actor)
William Russell is an English actor, mainly known for his television work. He was born in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear.-Doctor Who:...
), from contemporary 20th century England. This remained the line-up of the series for the entire first season, but over time the regular line-up would change regularly as the Doctor's various companions left him to return home, having found new causes on worlds they had visited and elected to stay there, or even occasionally being killed off. However, he would always quickly find new travelling companions. Such characters were used by the production team to relate the point of view of the viewers at home, asking questions and furthering the stories by getting into trouble.
Doctor Who predates the original Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
as one of the first TV series to be given two chances at producing a first episode. The very first episode of the series, "An Unearthly Child", had to be refilmed due to technical problems and errors made during the performance. During the days between the two tapings, changes were made to costuming, effects, performances, and the script (which had originally featured a more callous Doctor, and Susan doing unexplained things such as flicking ink on paper and folding it to produce a symmetrical pattern, and then tracing shapes over the pattern). This second version of "An Unearthly Child
An Unearthly Child
The serial that became An Unearthly Child was originally commissioned from writer Anthony Coburn in June 1963, when it was intended to run as the second Doctor Who serial. At this stage, it was planned that the series would open with a serial entitled The Giants, to be written by BBC staff...
", the first episode of the very first serial, was transmitted at 5.15 pm on 23 November 1963, but due to both a power failure in certain areas of the country and the overshadowing news of US President John F. Kennedy's assassination
John F. Kennedy assassination
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas...
, it drew minimal comment and was repeated the following week immediately before the second episode.
It was not until the second serial, The Daleks
The Daleks
The Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in seven weekly parts from 21 December 1963 to 1 February 1964...
, that the programme caught the imaginations of viewers and began to ingrain itself in the popular consciousness. This was primarily due to the Dalek
Dalek
The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Within the series, Daleks are cyborgs from the planet Skaro, created by the scientist Davros during the final years of a thousand-year war against the Thals...
creatures introduced in this story. Devised by scriptwriter Terry Nation
Terry Nation
Terry Nation was a Welsh screenwriter and novelist.He is probably best known for creating the villainous Daleks in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who...
and designer Raymond Cusick
Raymond Cusick
Raymond P. "Ray" Cusick was a designer for the British Broadcasting Corporation. He is best known for designing the Daleks, a race of mutants who move around in tank-like travel machines, for the science fiction television series Doctor Who....
, they were completely un-humanoid and like nothing that had been seen on television before. Lambert had in fact been strongly advised against using Nation's script by her direct superior Donald Wilson, but used the excuse that they had nothing else ready in order to produce it. Once it was clear what a great success it had been, Wilson admitted to Lambert that he would no longer interfere with her decisions as she clearly knew the programme better than he did.
Hartnell's Doctor was not initially paternal or sympathetic; he described himself and Susan simply as "wanderers in the 4th dimension". He was cantankerous, bossy and occasionally showed a streak of ruthlessness. However, the character mellowed as he grew closer to his companions, and he soon became a popular icon, especially among children who watched the series. This alteration in the portrayal of the Doctor began during the fourth serial, Marco Polo
Marco Polo (Doctor Who)
-CD and DVD releases:*In 2003, a three-CD set of the audio soundtrack was released, as part of Doctor Who's 40th anniversary. This CD set is unique in containing a map of Cathay as represented during the period of the Doctor's visit to China, and also explaining historical inaccuracies...
. The Doctor's role was minimal during episode two, and from the later episodes his portrayal of the character mellowed considerably.
The programme became a great success, frequently drawing audiences of 12 million or more, and the Daleks came back for several return appearances. Whitaker left the show early in the second season (though continued writing for it until 1970), being briefly replaced by Dennis Spooner
Dennis Spooner
Dennis Spooner was an English television screenwriter and story editor, known primarily for his programmes about fictional spies and his work in children's television in the 1960s...
, who in turn was replaced by Donald Tosh
Donald Tosh
Donald Tosh was a BBC screenwriter during the 1960s who contributed to the Doctor Who programme in 1965.Before working on Doctor Who Tosh was briefly script editor on the series Compact, and had helped to develop the show that eventually became Coronation Street.Tosh was the story editor for the...
at the end of the season. Pinfield also left halfway through the season due to poor health, but was not replaced.
By the time of the third season in 1965, however, some difficulties were beginning to arise. Lambert had moved on, to be replaced as producer by John Wiles
John Wiles
John Wiles was a television writer and producer, now best known for being the second producer of the popular science fiction serial Doctor Who, succeeding Verity Lambert...
, who did not have a good working relationship with Hartnell. The lead actor himself was finding it increasingly difficult to remember his lines as he was suffering from the early stages of the arteriosclerosis
Arteriosclerosis
Arteriosclerosis refers to a stiffening of arteries.Arteriosclerosis is a general term describing any hardening of medium or large arteries It should not be confused with "arteriolosclerosis" or "atherosclerosis".Also known by the name "myoconditis" which is...
that would later cause his death. Wiles and Tosh came up with a way of writing Hartnell out in the story The Celestial Toymaker
The Celestial Toymaker
The Celestial Toymaker is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 2 April to 23 April 1966.-Plot:...
, by having the Doctor made invisible for part of the story, intending that when he re-appeared he would be played by a new actor. However, Wiles was forbidden to replace Hartnell by the new Head of Serials, Gerald Savory
Gerald Savory
Gerald Savory was an English playwright and screenwriter specialising in comedies.The son of actress Grace Lane , he was educated at Bradfield College and worked as a stockbroker's clerk before turning to the stage , first as an actor then a writer.His first work for movies was writing dialogue for...
. Wiles had also hoped to make other bold changes, such as introducing a companion with a cockney
Cockney
The term Cockney has both geographical and linguistic associations. Geographically and culturally, it often refers to working class Londoners, particularly those in the East End...
accent (which was vetoed, as he was told all characters must speak "BBC English"), and resigned shortly afterwards (allegedly after learning that he would be sacked at the end of the season), with Tosh also resigning on principle.
By 1966, however, it was clear that Hartnell's health was affecting his performances, and that he would not be able to carry on playing the Doctor for a long period of time. By this point Savory had moved on as Head of Serials and his successor, Shaun Sutton
Shaun Sutton
Shaun Alfred Graham Sutton OBE was an English television writer, director, producer and executive, who worked in the medium for nearly forty years from the 1950s to the 1990s...
, was more favourable to change, allowing Wiles' replacement, Innes Lloyd
Innes Lloyd
Innes Lloyd was a British television producer of BBC drama producers.-Doctor Who:...
, to make many of the very changes that Wiles had been barred from. Lloyd discussed the situation with Hartnell and the actor agreed that it would be best to leave, although later in life he would claim that he had not wanted to go.
The Second Doctor
Lloyd and story editor Gerry DavisGerry Davis (screenwriter)
Gerry Davis was a British television writer, best known for his contributions to the science-fiction genre. He also wrote for the soap operas Coronation Street and United!....
came up with an intriguing way of writing the First Doctor
First Doctor
The First Doctor is the initial incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor William Hartnell from 1963 to 1966. Hartnell reprised the role in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors in 1973 - albeit in a...
out – as he was an alien being, they decided that he would have the power to change his body when it became worn out or seriously injured, a process that was called "renewal" but would later become known within the mythology of the series as "regeneration
Regeneration (Doctor Who)
Regeneration, in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, is a biological ability exhibited by Time Lords, a race of fictional humanoids originating on the planet Gallifrey. This process allows a Time Lord who is old or mortally wounded to undergo a transformation into a new...
". Whereas Wiles had intended to replace Hartnell with another actor but playing the same character, Lloyd and Davis elected to change the entire personality and appearance of the Doctor. They cast actor Patrick Troughton
Patrick Troughton
Patrick George Troughton was an English actor most widely known for his roles in fantasy, science fiction and horror films, particularly in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 to 1969,...
, who first appeared in November 1966 after the changeover from Hartnell had been seen at the end of the story The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet
The Tenth Planet is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 8 October to 29 October 1966. It was William Hartnell's last regular appearance as the First Doctor, and the first story to feature the Cybermen...
. That serial also introduced the popular Cybermen
Cyberman
The Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
, villains who would return to face the Doctor on several subsequent occasions.
Troughton played the role generally in a more lightweight, comical manner, albeit still with much of the original character's passionate hatred of evil and desire to help the oppressed. He also on occasion showed a darker side, manipulating his companions and the people around him for the greater good (examples include The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Tomb of the Cybermen
The Tomb of the Cybermen is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that originally aired in four weekly parts from September 2 to September 23, 1967 and is the earliest serial starring Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor to exist in its entirety...
and The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks
The Evil of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which originally aired in seven weekly parts from 20 May to 1 July 1967. This serial marked the debut of Deborah Watling as the Doctor's new companion, Victoria Waterfield.Evil was initially intended to...
). Davis left the show at the end of the fourth season, and was replaced by Peter Bryant
Peter Bryant
Peter Bryant was the fourth producer of the BBC science fiction programme Doctor Who. He was born in London....
. A few months later, Lloyd left the show and Bryant was promoted to producer. Bryant's successor as script editor was Derrick Sherwin
Derrick Sherwin
Derrick Sherwin is a British television producer, writer, and actor. He is best known as the story editor and later producer of Doctor Who...
(though Victor Pemberton
Victor Pemberton
Victor Pemberton is a British writer and television producer.Victor Pemberton's scriptwriting work included BBC radio plays, and television scripts for the BBC and ITV, including Doctor Who, The Slide and The Adventures of Black Beauty.His television production work included the British version of...
had filled the job for Bryant's first serial, The Tomb of the Cybermen).
Troughton remained in the part for three seasons until 1969, eventually tiring of the workload of starring in a regular series. By this time, the viewing figures for Doctor Who had fallen considerably, and new script editor Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
recalled that there was some talk of ending the series at the conclusion of its sixth season in 1969 (though this has been denied by Bryant, Sherwin and director David Maloney
David Maloney
David John Lee Maloney was a British television director and producer. He was born in Alvechurch, Worcestershire, was educated at King Edward VI Five Ways and served in the Royal Air Force before becoming an actor in the theatre...
, with paperwork suggesting it was actually in danger at the end of the seventh season in 1970). The series' budget was also increasingly strained by the cost of exotic sets, costumes and props every time the Doctor visited a new setting, and so Bryant and Sherwin (now effectively acting as co-producer, though the BBC refused to credit him as such) came up with the idea of reducing the cost of the series by setting all of the adventures on Earth, with the Doctor to act as the Scientific Advisor to an organisation called UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
, charged with defending the Earth from alien invasion.
This new set-up was tested in the season six story The Invasion
The Invasion (Doctor Who)
The Invasion is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in eight weekly parts from 2 November to 21 December 1968...
, and at the end of the season was put in place more permanently by having the Second Doctor
Second Doctor
The Second Doctor is the second incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton....
captured by his own race, the Time Lord
Time Lord
The Time Lords are an ancient extraterrestrial race and civilization of humanoids in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, of which the series' eponymous protagonist, the Doctor, is a member...
s, and sentenced to exile on Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
with his appearance being changed again as punishment for his interference in the affairs of other races. Thus Doctor Who ended its sixth production block, and its black and white era. From then on, in common with all BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
programmes, it was to be produced in colour.
The Third Doctor
Sherwin's first choice to replace Troughton was actor Ron MoodyRon Moody
Ron Moody is an English actor.- Personal life :Moody was born in Tottenham, North London, England, the son of Kate and Bernard Moodnick, a studio executive. His father was of Russian Jewish descent and his mother was a Lithuanian Jew. He is a cousin of director Laurence Moody and actress Clare...
, star of the musical Oliver!
Oliver!
Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....
, but when he turned the part down, comic actor Jon Pertwee
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
, another candidate from Sherwin's shortlist, was cast instead. Sherwin had hoped that Pertwee would bring much of his comic acting skill to the part, but he was keen to establish himself as a serious dramatic actor as well as a comedian. Although some lighter touches were visible throughout Pertwee's era, he essentially played it very "straight" and not at all as Sherwin had envisioned. Pertwee's Doctor was more action-oriented than his predecessors, and the producers allowed Pertwee to indulge his love of riding various vehicles during his tenure, including motorcycles, hovercraft, the so-called "Whomobile" and the Doctor's vintage roadster, "Bessie".
Sherwin stayed only to oversee the first story of the seventh season. Spearhead from Space
Spearhead from Space
Spearhead from Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1970. The serial opened Series 7 of the show and was the first to be produced in colour. The serial introduced Jon Pertwee as the...
was the first Doctor Who story to be made all in colour and – due to industrial action in the electronic studios – the only example of the original series to be made entirely on film (though there would be several occasions where stories were recorded entirely on Outside Broadcast Video after its introduction a few years later). Thereafter, he moved on to work on the series Paul Temple
Paul Temple
Paul Temple is a fictional character created by British writer Francis Durbridge for the BBC radio serial Send for Paul Temple in 1938. Temple is an amateur private detective and author of crime fiction...
, and was replaced by director Barry Letts
Barry Letts
Barry Leopold Letts was a British actor, television director, writer and producer best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and for producing the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
after another regular director on the show, Douglas Camfield
Douglas Camfield
Douglas Gaston Sydney Camfield was an accomplished director for television from the 1960s to the 1980s. His programme credits include Z-Cars, Paul Temple, Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Shoestring, The Professionals, Out of the Unknown, The Nightmare Man, the BBC dramatisation of Beau Geste and...
, had turned down the job.
The seventh season, at twenty-five episodes, was shorter than any before, and established a pattern of Doctor Who seasons being between twenty and twenty-eight episodes in length, one that would last until the middle of the 1980s. However, although the new format of the Doctor being stuck on Earth had proved popular enough to save the programme from cancellation, neither Letts nor his script editor Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
were particularly keen on the idea, and from the eighth season onwards sought reasons for the Doctor to be able to travel in time and space again, eventually having the Time Lords grant him full freedom at the conclusion of the 1973 tenth anniversary story, The Three Doctors, a serial which also featured guest appearances from Troughton and Hartnell, the latter in a restricted role due to his poor health.
Another innovation of theirs from the eighth season onwards was the introduction of the character of the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
as a new nemesis for the Doctor, conceived as a Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
. Played by Roger Delgado
Roger Delgado
Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto was an English actor, best known for his role as the first Master in Doctor Who....
, he became a highly popular character, although over the following two seasons it was felt that he became a little over-used. Delgado and the production team eventually agreed that he should be written out during the eleventh season by killing the character off, with some ambiguity as to whether or not he had died to save the Doctor.
However, before this story could be written, Delgado was killed in a car accident in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
. His death had a profound effect on Pertwee. With actress Katy Manning
Katy Manning
Katy Manning is an English actress best known for her part as the companion Jo Grant in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She has also made many theatre appearances, and is now a citizen of Australia. She is myopic...
also having departed from her role as companion Jo Grant
Jo Grant
Josephine "Jo" Grant is a fictional character played by Katy Manning in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
after three seasons, and Letts and Dicks both planning to move on, Pertwee felt that his "family" on the show was breaking up, and he decided to leave at the conclusion of the eleventh season in 1974. It is often said that Pertwee asked for a substantially increased fee for another year on the series and was told that his services were no longer required. It is unclear, however, if the story is true, or if it was merely a ploy to make his departure easier.
The Fourth Doctor
Although Letts and Dicks were both planning on leaving at the end of the same season, it was they who worked closely on re-casting the role of the Doctor, in preparation to hand over to their successors, producer Philip HinchcliffePhilip Hinchcliffe
Philip Hinchcliffe is a British television producer, who brought shows including Private Schulz and The Charmer to the screen, probably best known for the overseeing of British television series Doctor Who from 1974-1977...
and script editor Robert Holmes
Robert Holmes (scriptwriter)
This entry is about the television scriptwriter. For other people with the same name, see Robert Holmes .Robert Colin Holmes was an English television scriptwriter, who for over twenty-five years contributed to some of the most popular programmes screened in the UK...
, who had been a long-time writer for the programme.
Letts had intended to cast an older actor as the Fourth Doctor, to hark back to Hartnell's portrayal in the 1960s, but after a long search he eventually selected Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
, who was suggested to him by the incoming Head of Serials, Bill Slater. Baker was only forty years old, almost fifteen years Pertwee's junior, but despite not being the type of actor Letts had originally been looking for, he went on to become arguably the most popular and best-remembered to play the role. He starred in the series for seven years, longer than any of his predecessors or successors, and during his time on the programme Doctor Who enjoyed a consistent run of popular success and high viewing figures. Baker's Doctor was a more eccentric personality, at times passionate and caring, but at other times aloof and alien. This ambivalence was a deliberate choice by Baker, in an attempt to remind the viewers that the Doctor was not human, and therefore had non-human characteristics.
Under the control of Hinchcliffe and Holmes, who took over from the beginning of the twelfth season, Doctor Who became a much darker programme, with the pair being heavily influenced by Hammer Films' successful horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
productions and other gothic influences. Their era achieved the highest viewing figures (average ratings for Hinchcliffe's 3 years were over 1 million higher than the average for any other producer) and is frequently praised by fans as a highly successful one, with many serials from that period remaining fan favourites. However, the BBC received complaints from Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
, chairwoman of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, that the programme was unfit for children and could traumatise them. While the BBC publicly defended the programme, after three seasons Hinchcliffe was moved on to the adult police thriller series Target in 1977, and his replacement, Graham Williams
Graham Williams
Graham Williams was a British television producer and script editor, whose best known work was on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who....
, was specifically instructed to lighten the tone of the storylines.
After staying on during the fifteenth season under Williams for a brief handover period, Holmes also left the programme, and his replacement, Anthony Read
Anthony Read
Anthony "Tony" Read is a British script editor, television writer and author. He was principally active in British television from the 1960s to the mid-1980s, although he occasionally contributed to televised productions until 1999. Starting in the 1980s, he launched a second career as a print...
, worked with Williams, who was told to create a less violent and more humour-based approach, much to Baker's liking. The actor now felt very possessive of the part and frequently argued with directors over his inclusion of ad-libbed lines, but he was extremely pleased when the levity of the show increased even further after the departure of Read and the hiring of Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams was an English writer and dramatist. He is best known as the author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which started life in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold over 15 million copies in his lifetime, a television...
as script editor for season seventeen in 1979. Some fans have criticised Adams for introducing too much of the sort of humorous content that served him well in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams. Originally a radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1978, it was later adapted to other formats, and over several years it gradually became an international multi-media phenomenon...
. However, others consider some of Adams' scripts to be among the series' high points, with City of Death
City of Death
-Pre-production:Writer David Fisher had contributed two scripts to Doctor Whos sixteenth season – The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara – and was asked by producer Graham Williams for further story ideas...
being the primary example.
Season 17 saw the show garner its highest-ever viewing figures during the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network strike, with estimates of between 16 and 19 million viewers for episodes of the Williams and Adams penned story City of Death
City of Death
-Pre-production:Writer David Fisher had contributed two scripts to Doctor Whos sixteenth season – The Stones of Blood and The Androids of Tara – and was asked by producer Graham Williams for further story ideas...
. However, there were also problems: director Alan Bromly left the production towards the end of the story Nightmare of Eden
Nightmare of Eden
Nightmare of Eden is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 24 November to 15 December 1979.-Synopsis:...
due to frustrations at the technicalities of production and arguments with Baker, leaving Williams to oversee completion of the story. Rampant inflation in the television industry was squeezing the series, with the budget much reduced in real terms from where it had been under Hinchcliffe. The scheduled final story of the season, Adams' own Shada
Shada
Shada is an unaired serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was intended to be the final serial of the 1979-80 season , but was never completed due to a strike at the BBC during filming...
, was abandoned midway through recording due to industrial action, and the season finished, after just twenty episodes, in January 1980.
Williams and Adams both departed at the end of the season, Williams because he had had enough of the programme after three seasons in charge, and Adams to concentrate on his increasingly successful Hitchhiker's franchise. Williams recommended to the Head of Series & Serials, Graeme MacDonald
Graeme MacDonald
Graeme MacDonald was a British television producer and executive....
, that he be replaced by his Production Unit Manager, John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, from 1980 until it was effectively cancelled in 1989...
. Although MacDonald agreed with the principle of appointing someone familiar with the workings of the show, he first offered the job to Nathan-Turner's predecessor George Gallaccio
George Gallaccio
George Gallaccio is a British television producer, whose most prominent work was as producer of the BBC programme Miss Marple, based on the novels by Agatha Christie....
, who after leaving Doctor Who in 1977 had already gained experience as a producer on the BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland
BBC Scotland is a constituent part of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the publicly-funded broadcaster of the United Kingdom. It is, in effect, the national broadcaster for Scotland, having a considerable amount of autonomy from the BBC's London headquarters, and is run by the BBC Trust, who...
drama The Omega Factor
The Omega Factor
The Omega Factor is a British television series produced by BBC Scotland in 1979...
. However, Gallaccio turned the role down, and MacDonald offered it instead to Nathan-Turner, who accepted, and became the new producer.
The John Nathan-Turner era
As Nathan-Turner was a new producer and a restructure of the Drama Department meant that MacDonald would not be able to offer the direct support that had been available to previous producers, the latter appointed Barry LettsBarry Letts
Barry Leopold Letts was a British actor, television director, writer and producer best known for his work on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and for producing the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials in the late 1970s and early 1980s...
to return to the series as Executive Producer and oversee Nathan-Turner's initial season working on the series. Letts had, in fact, been offering unofficial advice and comment to Graham Williams for some time beforehand.
Nathan-Turner and the new script editor, Christopher H. Bidmead
Christopher H. Bidmead
Christopher Hamilton Bidmead is a British writer and journalist.Bidmead trained as an actor at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts , later playing several roles on stage, television and radio. By the early 1970s he was scriptwriting for Thames Television, producing material for Harriet's Back in...
, sought to return to a more serious tone for the series, reining in much of the humour that had been prevalent during Williams' tenure and changing the character's costumes. The new producer also sought to bring the show "into the 1980s", commissioning a new title sequence, bringing all the incidental music in-house to be produced electronically by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
BBC Radiophonic Workshop
The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, one of the sound effects units of the BBC, was created in 1958 to produce effects and new music for radio, and was closed in March 1998, although much of its traditional work had already been outsourced by 1995. It was based in the BBC's Maida Vale Studios in Delaware...
, and commissioning Peter Howell
Peter Howell
Peter Howell is a musician and composer. He is best known for his work on Doctor Who as a member of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop....
of the Workshop to come up with a brand-new arrangement of the series' famous theme tune. This displeased both Baker and his co-star Lalla Ward
Lalla Ward
Sarah Ward known as Lalla Ward, is an English actor, author and illustrator. As an actor, she is known for playing the part of Romana in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. She is married to evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.-Early career:Ward's stage name, "Lalla", comes...
, who did not see eye-to-eye with Nathan-Turner on the new direction.
These changes arrived with season eighteen in the autumn of 1980, when the audience for Doctor Who had fallen dramatically to around five million viewers, due chiefly to competition from the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network's American import Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios. The series ran for two seasons between 1979–1981, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film several months before the series aired....
. There was a further blow when Tom Baker decided that after seven seasons in the part he would leave the role. His departure was heavily publicised in the press, with Baker attracting much comment for his tongue-in-cheek suggestion that his successor could be a woman, which the publicity-aware Nathan-Turner was not quick to deny.
The Fifth Doctor
Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths, OBE is an English actor of stage, film and television. He has received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor...
to succeed Baker, but when he proved unavailable, cast Peter Davison
Peter Davison
Peter Davison is a British actor, best known for his roles as Tristan Farnon in the television version of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small and the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, which he played from 1982 to 1984.-Early life:Davison was born Peter Moffett in Streatham,...
, with whom he had previously worked on the popular drama series All Creatures Great and Small. Davison was very different from his four predecessors, being much younger, in line with Nathan-Turner's desire for the Fifth Doctor
Fifth Doctor
The Fifth Doctor is the fifth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Peter Davison....
to be completely unlike the massively popular Fourth
Fourth Doctor
The Fourth Doctor is the fourth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC British television science-fiction series Doctor Who....
, so that the public would not draw unfavourable comparisons between the two. Davison's Doctor was arguably the most human of them all, and the one whose vulnerability was emphasised the most. The Fifth Doctor, more often than not, reacted to circumstances around him rather than being proactive, and had the air of a young aristocrat about him, in contrast to Baker's bohemian personality.
Davison made his first appearance at the end of the season eighteen closer, Logopolis
Logopolis
Logopolis is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 28 February to 21 March 1981. It was Tom Baker's last story as the Doctor and marks the first appearance of Peter Davison in the role...
, although it was to be a year until his first full season in the part began in 1982. In the meantime Alan Hart, Controller of BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, had decided to move the programme from an autumn to a spring transmission slot. This was partly because, after eighteen years on Saturday evenings, he had also decided to change the transmission date, running the series twice-weekly on weekdays instead of once a week on Saturdays. This had the effect of halving the number of weeks the series was on-air to thirteen instead of twenty-six, and moving from an autumn to a spring debut. Additionally, Davison was also working on the BBC sit com Sink or Swim and was unavailable to record enough episodes to make an autumn start date viable.
This experiment in seeing the viability of running a twice-weekly drama serial would later lead to the launching of the massively popular soap opera EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
in a similar slot. It also had the short-term effect of doubling the Doctor Who audience, with the story Black Orchid
Black Orchid (Doctor Who)
Black Orchid is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two parts on 1 March and 2 March 1982...
being the final story of the regular run – and the only one of the 1980s – to break the double-figure millions barrier for the story overall, with a recorded figure of ten million viewers. The last individual episode with over ten million viewers was the first part of 1982's Time-Flight
Time-Flight
Time-Flight is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 22 March to 30 March 1982...
.
During production of the nineteenth season, Bidmead decided to move on and was replaced as script editor, first on a temporary basis by Antony Root
Antony Root
Antony Root is an award-winning television executive and producer.- Education :He was educated at King's College School, Cambridge, Marlborough College and Christ's College, Cambridge where he read Philosophy and English...
and then on a more permanent basis by Eric Saward
Eric Saward
Eric Saward was born on 9 December 1944 and became a scriptwriter and script editor for the BBC, resigning from the latter post on the TV programme Doctor Who in 1986....
, who remained in the role for several years. He and Nathan-Turner oversaw an increasing reliance on the show's history in following seasons, with the return of various characters and adversaries from the Doctor's past, culminating in 1983 with the twentieth anniversary special 90-minute episode, The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors
The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme's twentieth anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations...
.
Davison left the part after only three seasons in 1984. He had been advised by Patrick Troughton to stay no longer than three years, and was also disenchanted with the quality of the scripts on the programme during the twentieth season. Although he felt things had improved in the twenty-first, by then his departure had already been announced, and Nathan-Turner had selected Colin Baker
Colin Baker
Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...
– who had guest-starred in the season twenty story Arc of Infinity
Arc of Infinity
Arc of Infinity is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 3 January to 12 January 1983...
– to replace him. Colin Baker became the Sixth Doctor
Sixth Doctor
The Sixth Doctor is the sixth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Colin Baker...
on screen in March 1984 at the conclusion of Davison's final story, The Caves of Androzani
The Caves of Androzani
The Caves of Androzani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 8–16 March 1984. It was Peter Davison's last regular appearance as the Doctor, and marks the first appearance of Colin Baker in the role...
.
The Sixth Doctor
Baker's first full season in 1985 was reasonably successful despite several changes. Alan Hart had decided to experiment with doubling the length of Doctor Who episodes, with season twenty-two comprising thirteen 45-minute episodes rather than twenty-six 25-minute ones as had previously been the case. The series also returned to Saturday evenings, where it continued to draw reasonably respectable figures of seven to eight million viewers for most episodes even though it faced stiff opposition from another American import on ITV, The A-TeamThe A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
. Baker's portrayal of the Doctor also met with criticism. A more bombastic and overbearing personality than any of the others, the Doctor's use of deadly force against his enemies in a few stories caused controversy.
The series once again drew some criticism for the horrific content of some of the episodes. Unlike those misgivings levelled at the earlier reign of producer Philip Hinchcliffe, however, many of these came from within the BBC itself. Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...
had taken over as Controller of BBC One in 1984, and was not a fan of the series. In fact, he later admitted in interviews that he "hated" the programme, and he wanted to cancel it outright. There is much debate, however, as to how far his decisions were driven by his personal views. At the time, the BBC was suffering a financial shortfall due to expensive ventures such as the launch of EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
, breakfast and daytime television, and savings were needed across the Corporation.
In any case, when it was announced that Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
s production would be moved back a financial year, the news was interpreted as that the show was under threat of cancellation. The press and public outcry was much larger than Grade or the Board of Governors of the BBC
Board of Governors of the BBC
The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...
had expected, being given a full-page front cover story in the popular tabloid newspaper The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
. A charity single, "Doctor in Distress
Doctor in Distress (single)
"Doctor in Distress" is a pop song related to the BBC television programme Doctor Who. It was released as an ensemble charity single in 1985.- Background :...
", was even produced and released in March 1985. It was written by Ian Levine
Ian Levine
Ian Levine is an English songwriter, producer, and DJ. He is also a well-known fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who.Levine attended Arnold School in Blackpool from 1963 to 1970...
and Fiachra Trench
Fiachra Trench
Fiachra Terence Wilbrah Trench is a musician and composer from Drogheda, County Louth in Ireland....
and performed by a group of 30 mid-level celebrities, including Nicola Bryant
Nicola Bryant
-External links:** at shillpages.com/dw *...
, Nicholas Courtney
Nicholas Courtney
William Nicholas Stone Courtney was an English television actor, most famous for playing Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
and Colin Baker himself, under the banner "Who Cares". The single was universally panned.
Baker's era was interrupted by what would be a long 18-month hiatus between seasons 22 and 23, officially because the show was moved back from the spring to the autumn schedule, with only one new Doctor Who story, Slipback
Slipback
Slipback is a radio audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in six episodes on BBC Radio 4 from 25 July to 8 August 1985, as part of a children's magazine show called Pirate Radio Four...
, made on radio during the hiatus, broadcast as 6 parts (at 10 minutes each) on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
from 25 July to 8 August 1985, as part of a children's magazine show called Pirate Radio Four
Pirate Radio Four
Pirate Radio Four was a magazine show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1985-6. Part of the station's drive to attract younger listeners, it was broadcast during the mornings in the school summer holidays and was aimed at children of about 8–14 years old...
.
Season twenty-three eventually aired in the autumn of 1986. Production of the new season was complicated by various factors. Although the episode length had been reverted to 25 minutes, the number of episodes was reduced to fourteen, just over half the length of most previous seasons. The series was still up against The A-Team
The A-Team
The A-Team is an American action adventure television series about a fictional group of ex-United States Army Special Forces personnel who work as soldiers of fortune, while on the run from the Army after being branded as war criminals for a "crime they didn't commit". The A-Team was created by...
and, having been off the air for eighteen months, found it hard to regain viewers who had turned to ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
. Saward and Nathan-Turner had decided on an over-arching storyline for the entire season entitled "The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord
The Trial of a Time Lord is a fourteen-part British science fiction serial of the long running BBC series Doctor Who. The serial, produced as the twenty-third season of the Doctor Who television series, aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986...
", but its complexities proved confusing to both writers and viewers, with the season drawing viewing figures of only four to five million.
Problems existed behind the scenes as well. Robert Holmes
Robert Holmes (scriptwriter)
This entry is about the television scriptwriter. For other people with the same name, see Robert Holmes .Robert Colin Holmes was an English television scriptwriter, who for over twenty-five years contributed to some of the most popular programmes screened in the UK...
, who had returned to writing for the series on a semi-regular basis in 1984, died before he could deliver the final episode. In addition, Saward and Nathan-Turner had a falling out, with Saward resigning from the programme, and Nathan-Turner unofficially taking on the role of script editor with Saward's departure. Despite all of this, Grade consented to allow the series to continue, but moved it away from Saturday nights into a mid-week slot once more, and limited it to one episode per week. He also ordered that a new Doctor be found, as he was not enamoured of Colin Baker's portrayal. Baker was therefore dismissed from the role, despite Nathan-Turner's pleas to the BBC brass that Baker did not fulfill his three-year contract due to the 18-month hiatus where nothing was filmed, plus the format changes between the two seasons, where Baker only did the equivalent of just a season and a half's worth of work in total.
The Seventh Doctor
Nathan-Turner had thought that he too would finally be leaving the series, but with no other producer available or willing to take on the series, he was instructed to remain. As a BBC staff producer, he had little choice but to either accept this or resign from the Corporation's staff. Not having expected to be producing season twenty-four, Nathan-Turner was left with little time to prepare, hiring inexperienced Andrew CartmelAndrew Cartmel
Andrew Cartmel is a British science fiction writer and journalist, and former script editor of Doctor Who. He has also worked as a script editor on other television series, as a magazine editor, a film studies lecturer and as a novelist.-Biography:...
as script editor on the advice of a friend who had run a BBC Drama Script Unit course that Cartmel had attended, and casting little-known Scottish actor Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
as the Seventh Doctor
Seventh Doctor
The Seventh Doctor is the seventh incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by the actor Sylvester McCoy....
. In his first season, McCoy, a comedy actor, portrayed the character with a degree of clown-like humour, but Cartmel's influence soon changed that. The Seventh Doctor developed into a darker figure than any of his earlier incarnations, manipulating people like chess pieces and always seeming to be playing a deeper game than he ever let on.
The new season was placed by Grade at 7.35 pm on Monday evenings opposite the phenomenally popular ITV soap opera, Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. The latter was the most-watched programme on British television, and the viewing figures for Doctor Who suffered accordingly, though they were frequently the best for any BBC programme broadcast in the slot (viewing figures at the time did not take account of video recordings). The season's quality was also publicly derided by many fans of the programme, although over the following two seasons the criticism was balanced out by some happier viewers, who felt that the young team of writers being assembled by Cartmel was taking the programme in the right direction.
Nathan-Turner attempted to leave once more at the end of production on the twenty-fifth season in 1988, but was once again persuaded to stay for a further year after another BBC producer – Paul Stone, who had produced The Box of Delights
The Box of Delights
The Box of Delights is a children's fantasy novel by John Masefield. It is a sequel to The Midnight Folk, and was first published in 1935.-Plot summary :...
– was offered the position but declined. He and Cartmel remained on the production team for the twenty-sixth season in 1989. Although the season once again drew praise, the viewing figures were disastrous, starting at around the 3 million mark and improving to only around 4.5 million by the season's conclusion. At the end of the year, Cartmel was head-hunted to script-edit the BBC's popular medical drama, Casualty, and Nathan-Turner also finally left the show, although no replacements were assigned for either position as in-house production was being shut down.
Although Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...
had left the BBC in 1987 to take up a new position as Chief Executive of Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
, Doctor Who remained in its poor slot opposite Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
and continued to suffer in the ratings. Jonathan Powell, the new Controller of BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, decided to suspend the series, a decision which was clear to the production team by the end of production on the twenty-sixth season in August 1989.
The final story to be produced as part of the original run was Ghost Light
Ghost Light (Doctor Who)
-Pre-production:Working titles for this story included The Bestiary and Life-Cycle. As revealed in the production notes for the DVD release, the story was renamed Das Haus der tausend Schrecken upon translation into German.The story evolved out of an earlier, rejected script entitled Lungbarrow...
, although it was not the last to be broadcast. That was Survival
Survival (Doctor Who)
-Writing:Writer Rona Munro approached script editor Andrew Cartmel at a BBC scriptwriting workshop and said that she'd "kill to write for Doctor Who." The story Munro developed incorporated themes including the morals of hunting...
, the last episode of which was transmitted on 6 December 1989, and brought the series' twenty-six year run to a close. John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, from 1980 until it was effectively cancelled in 1989...
decided close to transmission that a more suitable conclusion should be given to the final episode as it would be the last instalment of the programme for some time, and was possibly going to be the last ever. Accordingly, Andrew Cartmel wrote a short, melancholic closing monologue for Sylvester McCoy, which McCoy recorded on 23 November 1989 – by coincidence, the show's twenty-sixth anniversary. This was dubbed over the closing scene as the Doctor and his companion Ace walked off into the distance, apparently to further adventures. The Doctor Who production office at the BBC finally closed down, for the first time since 1963, in August 1990.
Planned Season 27
At the time production on the series was suspended, work had already begun on Season 27. Both McCoy and incumbent companion Sophie AldredSophie Aldred
Sophie Aldred is an English actress and television presenter, best known for her portrayal of The Doctor's companion Ace in the television series Doctor Who during the late 1980s.-Early life:...
(Ace) have stated that they would have left during this season. Storylines would have seen Ace joining the Time Lord academy on Gallifrey
Gallifrey
Gallifrey is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and is the homeworld of the Doctor and the Time Lords...
, and the introduction of a cat burglar as the new companion. Script editor Andrew Cartmel had already begun work on four loosely connected stories which would have comprised the season: Earth Aid by Ben Aaronovitch (a space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
featuring insect-like aliens), Ice Time by Marc Platt (set in 1960s London, featuring the return of the Ice Warrior
Ice Warrior
The Ice Warriors are a fictional extraterrestrial race of reptilian-like humanoids in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The race originated on Mars, and first appeared in the 1967 serial The Ice Warriors where they encountered the Second Doctor and his...
s and Ace's departure), Crime of the Century by Cartmel (a contemporary story featuring animal testing
Animal testing
Animal testing, also known as animal experimentation, animal research, and in vivo testing, is the use of non-human animals in experiments. Worldwide it is estimated that the number of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from the tens of millions to more than 100 million...
), and Alixion by Robin Mukherjee (in which the Doctor is lured to an isolated asteroid to play a series of life-or-death games). Ahead of the new companion's introduction, Ice Time would have featured her father, a criminal named Sam Tollinger, who was intended to be a recurring character. Alixion would have seen the Doctor going insane after facing a psychic enemy, with mental rather than physical strain being the cause of his regeneration at the end of the season. However, since the programme was placed on indefinite hiatus, none of these stories were fully developed. Actors Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths
Richard Griffiths, OBE is an English actor of stage, film and television. He has received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play, the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Featured Actor and a Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor...
and Ian Richardson
Ian Richardson
Ian William Richardson CBE was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor....
were two names mentioned by the production team as replacements for McCoy.
(The above details appear based primarily on a theoretical article written by Dave Owen for Doctor Who Magazine in issue 205, August 1997. In particular, the concept of regeneration through insanity was of Owen's own invention and was never part of the plans of Andrew Cartmel or his team of writers, although Cartmel has since become aware of the idea and given it his approval as a potentially fitting end to the Seventh Doctor. None of the stories above were commissioned at the time of cancellation, even to the point of rough outlines, and were put together by Dave Owen from interviews with the most likely authors to have been commissioned had the series gone ahead.)
On 12 November 2009 Big Finish Productions announced they were doing an audio version of Season 27 with Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred and Beth Chalmers as new companion named Raine Creevey (not Kate Tollinger as previously suggested). Marc Platt contributed Thin Ice
Thin Ice (Doctor Who audio)
Thin Ice is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Plot:...
, while script editor Andrew Cartmel has written Crime of the Century
Crime Of The Century (Doctor Who audio)
Crime Of The Century is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Plot:...
, Animal
Animal (Doctor Who audio drama)
Animal is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Cast:*The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy*Ace - Sophie Aldred*Raine Creevey - Beth Chalmers...
and co-written Earth Aid
Earth Aid
Earth Aid is a Big Finish Productions audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. -Cast:*The Doctor - Sylvester McCoy*Ace - Sophie Aldred*Raine Creevey - Beth Chalmers...
with Ben Aaronovitch.
Beyond television
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
continued its long-running comic strip and published original fiction, initially continuing the run of stories with the seventh Doctor and Ace and featuring other companions and Doctors. Virgin Publishing published a series of original books, The New Adventures of Doctor Who
Virgin New Adventures
The Virgin New Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
(NAs), from 1991 to 1997. This series continued the stories of the seventh Doctor, further exploring and developing the themes and ideas introduced in the later years of the television series. Several writers who had worked on that era wrote NAs, as well as writers of earlier eras and some writers who would work on the new series, including Russell T Davies, Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as Doctor Who fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield....
, Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
and Gareth Roberts
Gareth Roberts (writer)
Gareth John Pritchard Roberts is a British television screenwriter and novelist, best known for his work related to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
. The NAs introduced original companions, including Bernice Summerfield
Bernice Summerfield
Bernice Surprise Summerfield is a fictional character created by author Paul Cornell as a new companion of the Seventh Doctor in Virgin Publishing's range of original full-length Doctor Who novels, the New Adventures...
, and at one point the series editors considered regenerating the Doctor; they did however regenerate The Master. The success of the NAs led Virgin to publish The Missing Adventures
Virgin Missing Adventures
The Virgin Missing Adventures were a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which had been cancelled in 1989, featuring stories set between televised episodes of the programme. The novels were published from 1994 to 1997, and...
, featuring earlier Doctors and companions, and several short story anthologies.
Following the television movie (see below), the eighth Doctor replaced the seventh in both the comic strip and original books. BBC Books
BBC Books
BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
took back the rights to publish original fiction in 1997 and published two series, the Eighth Doctor Adventures
Eighth Doctor Adventures
The Eighth Doctor Adventures are a series of spin off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. 73 books were published overall...
and the Past Doctor Adventures
Past Doctor Adventures
The Past Doctor Adventures were a series of spin-off novels based on the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and published under the BBC Books imprint. For most of their existence, they were published side-by-side with the Eighth Doctor Adventures...
as well as some anthologies of short stories, until 2005. Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
adapted several NAs, minus the Doctor, into audio plays; on the back of these, they won a license from the BBC to produce original audio plays featuring the Doctors and their companions, and eventually also produced plays featuring other characters and monsters from the TV series and spin-offs; Big Finish has also published short story anthologies. Big Finish attracted a number of writers from the books series as well as new writers, including Rob Shearman
Rob Shearman
Robert Shearman is currently best known as a writer for Doctor Who and for his ongoing association with Jarvis & Ayres Productions which has resulted in six plays for BBC Radio 4 broadcast in the station's regular weekday Afternoon Play slot, and one classic...
; it also gave future Doctor David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
his first acting role in a Doctor Who story.
For more information, see the Doctor Who spin-offs
Doctor Who spin-offs
Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who....
article.
Although it was for all intents and purposes cancelled (series co-star Sophie Aldred
Sophie Aldred
Sophie Aldred is an English actress and television presenter, best known for her portrayal of The Doctor's companion Ace in the television series Doctor Who during the late 1980s.-Early life:...
said in the documentary More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS that she was told it was cancelled), the BBC maintained the series was merely "on hiatus" and insisted the show would return. Nathan-Turner would produce just one more Doctor Who project, the 30th anniversary special Dimensions in Time
Dimensions in Time
Dimensions in Time is a charity special crossover between the British science fiction television series Doctor Who and the soap opera EastEnders that ran in two parts on 26 and 27 November 1993. It was filmed on the EastEnders Albert Square set, and features several of the stars of that programme...
, in 1993, a replacement for an aborted 30th anniversary project called The Dark Dimension.
The Eighth Doctor
Although in-house production had ceased, the BBC were hopeful of finding an independent production company to re-launch the show and had been approached for such a venture by Philip SegalPhilip Segal
Philip David Segal is a television producer. He emigrated to the United States in 1974 at the age of twelve, where he studied film at San Diego State University...
, a British expatriate who worked for Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
' television arm in the United States. Segal's negotiations dragged on for several years, and followed him from Columbia to Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its...
company and finally to Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
' television arm. At Amblin, Segal had come close to interesting the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
network in commissioning the series as a mid-season replacement show in 1994, but this eventually came to nothing.
Finally, at Universal, Segal managed to interest the Fox Network in the programme, in the form of their Vice-President in charge of Television Movie production, Trevor Walton, an Englishman who was already familiar with the series. Although Walton had no power to commission a series, he was able to commission a one-time television movie that served as a backdoor pilot for a possible series revival. The movie that was eventually made was simply titled Doctor Who. To distinguish it from the television series, Segal later suggested the alternate title Enemy Within
Doctor Who (1996)
Doctor Who is a television movie based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Developed as a co-production amongst Universal Television, BBC Television, BBC Worldwide, and the American network FOX, the 1996 television film premiered on 12 May 1996 on CITV in Edmonton,...
. Opinions on how to refer to the television movie differ among fans, but the most common usage is to just call it the "television movie" or abbreviate it as "the TVM".
The original plan was for a completely new American version of Doctor Who, in the same way that Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son
Sanford and Son is an American sitcom, based on the BBC's Steptoe and Son, that ran on the NBC television network from January 14, 1972, to March 25, 1977....
was an unrelated re-make of Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about two rag and bone men living in Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974. Its theme tune, "Old...
and All in the Family
All in the Family
All in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
had re-made Till Death Us Do Part. However, when new scriptwriter Matthew Jacobs
Matthew Jacobs
Matthew Jacobs is a British writer, director and producer. He is known best for his extensive career writing for television shows like Doctor Who and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles...
came on board in 1995 – at Walton's persuasion, feeling that a simpler story was needed than the intricate back-stories Segal had created with writer John Leekley
John Leekley
John Leekley is an American writer, director and producer. He is one of the most prolific writer/producers in television. He received a Primetime Emmy Award for his work as Executive Producer/Writer on the HBO Original Series “Spawn”....
– he persuaded Segal that the movie should instead be a direct continuation of the BBC series, something no American production had ever attempted before when buying the rights to a British programme.
Segal agreed, and Sylvester McCoy appeared briefly at the beginning of the film, before "regenerating" into the Eighth Doctor
Eighth Doctor
The Eighth Doctor is the eighth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by Paul McGann...
as played by Paul McGann
Paul McGann
Paul McGann is an English actor who made his name on the BBC serial The Monocled Mutineer, in which he played the lead role...
. McGann had been Segal's first choice for the part, although both the actor himself and the Fox Network had not initially been keen. Segal later claimed that the BBC's Executive Producer on the project, Jo Wright, had wanted the role of the "previous Doctor" to be played by Tom Baker, as it was felt he was regarded as the definitive Doctor by the British public and McCoy's tenure had not been as popular, but she backed down when Segal explained how this went against the continuity of the programme. Segal also had to fight to retain the familiar Doctor Who theme: composer John Debney
John Debney
John C. Debney is an American film composer. He received an Academy Award nomination for his score for Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ...
wanted to write a new piece, but was convinced to create a rearrangement of Ron Grainer
Ron Grainer
Ronald Erle “Ron” Grainer was an Australian-born composer who worked for most of his professional career in the United Kingdom. He is mostly remembered for his film and television music.- Biography :...
's composition, although Grainer did not receive screen credit for his work. A further tie to the BBC series was the use of the logo used from 1970 to 1973 during the Jon Pertwee era. This logo subsequently became the official franchise logo until it was replaced in 2004, although it still appears on all merchandise featuring any of the original series Doctors.
Transmitted on the Fox Network on 14 May 1996 and on BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
thirteen days later – although actually having debuted on CityTV
Citytv
Citytv is a Canadian English language television system owned and operated by Rogers Communications under its Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. division...
in Toronto, Canada, the film having been shot in Vancouver, on 12 May – the production drew only 5.5 million viewers in the United States, although it was far more successful in the UK with 9 million viewers, one of the top-ten programmes of the week.
McGann's Doctor was a combination of boyish glee and wonder at the universe with occasional flashes of an old soul in a young body, and was well received by fans, even if the reactions to the television movie were mixed. However, in spite of the success and popularity of the film in the UK, the disappointing US viewing figures led Fox to decline to commission a series. With no broadcast network attached in the United States, Universal could not produce a series for the BBC alone. Indeed, it would have been cheaper for the BBC to make a new series themselves rather than pay for a series with no production partner. Thus plans for a new series were scrapped, with no new production looking likely as the decade came to an end.
Back to the BBC
Following the 1996 telemovie, Universal retained some rights to produce new Doctor Who stories, but without a broadcaster attached, they allowed those rights to expire. Full production rights therefore returned to the BBC in 1997.Little happened at the BBC regarding new Doctor Who production until the following year, when producer Mal Young
Mal Young
Mal Young is a British television producer and executive producer.-Background:His initial career was in the Graphic Design industry, and it was not until the age of 27 that he began working in television, on the acclaimed Channel 4 soap opera Brookside.Working on the show for nearly a decade, he...
arrived at the Corporation's in-house production arm as Head of Continuing Drama Series. Young was keen on reviving the programme, and this interest was shared by the then-current Controller of BBC One, Peter Salmon. Tony Wood, a producer in Young's department, who previously worked at Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
, recalled his former colleague Russell T Davies' enthusiasm for the programme and recommended him to Young as someone who might make a good writer of a new version. Davies had recently written for the popular Granada dramas The Grand and Touching Evil
Touching Evil
Touching Evil is a British television drama serial, which began airing in 1997. It was produced by United Productions for Anglia Television, and screened on the ITV network. The first series consisted of six fifty-minute episodes. It was created by Paul Abbott, and written by Abbott with Russell T...
for the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network, and earlier in the decade had worked for the BBC, writing the well-received children's science-fiction serials Century Falls
Century Falls
Century Falls is a British cross-genre series broadcast in six twenty-five minute episodes on BBC One in early 1993. Written by Russell T Davies, it tells the story of teenager Tess Hunter and her mother, who move to the seemingly idyllic rural village of Century Falls, only to find that it hides...
and Dark Season
Dark Season
Dark Season is a British science-fiction television serial for adolescents, screened on BBC1 in late 1991. Comprising six twenty-five minute episodes, the two linked three-part stories tell the adventures of three teenagers and their battle to save their school and their classmates from the actions...
, which itself contained many Doctor Who-influenced themes.
A meeting was arranged between Davies and Mal Young's development producer, Patrick Spence. In 1999 the media took hold of the story following the success and critical acclaim surrounding Davies' Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
drama, Queer as Folk. Although various sources claimed that a provisional title of Doctor Who 2000 had been given to the proposed new series, in reality very little work had been done, as Peter Salmon had been informed by BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Limited is the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in 1995. In the year to 31 March 2010 it made a profit of £145m on a turnover of £1.074bn. The company had made a profit of £106m...
that a new series would upset the tentative plans they were making for a new film version of the series. Thus, plans for the television revival were shelved for the time, and seemed to become even less likely in 2000 when Salmon was replaced as Controller of BBC One.
The Fortieth Anniversary Doctor
However, Salmon's successor, Lorraine HeggesseyLorraine Heggessey
Lorraine Heggessey is a British television producer and former Chief Executive of the production company Talkback Thames...
, proved to be equally enthusiastic about the idea of new Doctor Who, often commenting to the press that she would like to pursue the idea but that "rights difficulties" – presumably BBC Worldwide's film negotiations – prevented it. Equally positive comments were made by the Corporation's overall Head of Drama, Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter is an English television executive who has been the executive vice-president of programming and production at BBC Worldwide's Los Angeles base since January 2009...
. Heggessey had received several new series proposals since she had taken over control of BBC One, the highest-profile being from producer Dan Freedman – who had produced a full-cast, official, audio Doctor Who story, entitled Death Comes to Time
Death Comes to Time
Death Comes to Time is a webcast audio drama based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced by the BBC and first broadcast in five episodes on the BBCi Cult website from 12 July 2001, accompanied by limited animation.-Synopsis:When two Time Lords are...
, for the BBCi
Bbc.co.uk
BBC Online is the brand name and home for the BBC's UK online service. It is a large network of websites including such high profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services co-branded BBC iPlayer, the pre-school site Cbeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize...
website in 2001. Another came from actor/writer Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
, who in 2002 drew up and submitted a proposal in collaboration with writer Gareth Roberts
Gareth Roberts (writer)
Gareth John Pritchard Roberts is a British television screenwriter and novelist, best known for his work related to the science-fiction television series Doctor Who...
and then Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
editor Clayton Hickman
Clayton Hickman
Clayton Hickman is a British writer, magazine editor and designer. Born in Bristol in 1977, he first worked in publishing as Editorial Assistant on Film Review magazine from 1999-2000, and went on to become the longest-serving editor of Panini Comics' Doctor Who Magazine, overseeing the...
.
In the meantime, BBCi, the interactive media arm of the corporation, who had scored successes with their Doctor Who webcasts (beginning with the aforementioned Death Comes to Time, which was followed by Real Time in 2002 and a re-make of the uncompleted Shada
Shada
Shada is an unaired serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was intended to be the final serial of the 1979-80 season , but was never completed due to a strike at the BBC during filming...
in 2003), decided on a more ambitious project to celebrate the programme's upcoming 40th anniversary. In July 2003, BBCi announced the production of Scream of the Shalka
Scream of the Shalka
Scream of the Shalka is a flash-animated series based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was produced to coincide with the 40th Anniversary of the series and was originally posted in six weekly parts from 13 November to 18 December 2003 on bbc.co.uk's Doctor Who...
, a fully animated adventure adapted for webcasting with Richard E. Grant
Richard E. Grant
Richard E. Grant is a Swaziland-born British actor, screenwriter and director. His most notable role came in the film Withnail and I. He holds dual British and Swazi citizenship.-Early life:...
as the Doctor
Shalka Doctor
The Shalka Doctor is the common fan name given to the character that appeared as an alternate incarnation of the Doctor in the flash-animated serial Scream of the Shalka in 2003 and the later short story The Feast of the Stone which were based on the British science fiction television series,...
and Sir Derek Jacobi
Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...
as the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
. As there were no concrete plans for producing a new series, BBCi announced Shalka as the "official" continuation of the programme, and that Grant was the "official" Ninth Doctor. However, events were soon to overtake that.
The Ninth Doctor
In September 2003, Heggessey managed to persuade Worldwide that as several years had now passed and they were no nearer to producing a film, BBC television should be allowed to make a new series. The other proposals notwithstanding, Tranter and Heggessey elected to approach Davies once again, who had often told the BBC when approached for other projects that he would only return to them to take charge of a new series of Doctor Who. He quickly accepted, and on 26 September 2003 it was officially announced that Doctor Who would be returning to BBC OneBBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, produced in-house at BBC Wales
BBC Wales
BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the British Broadcasting Corporation for Wales. Based at Broadcasting House in the Llandaff area of Cardiff, it directly employs over 1200 people, and produces a broad range of television, radio and online services in both the Welsh and English languages.Outside...
in 2004 for transmission in 2005.
Davies was made the chief writer and Executive Producer of the new series (called Series One instead of continuing the numbering with Season 27, although the narrative thread continued from the old series rather than starting afresh), and other writers included Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss
Mark Gatiss is an English actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and has both written for and acted in the TV series Doctor Who and Sherlock....
, Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
, Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as Doctor Who fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield....
and Rob Shearman
Rob Shearman
Robert Shearman is currently best known as a writer for Doctor Who and for his ongoing association with Jarvis & Ayres Productions which has resulted in six plays for BBC Radio 4 broadcast in the station's regular weekday Afternoon Play slot, and one classic...
. The Producer was Phil Collinson
Phil Collinson
Philip "Phil" Collinson is a British television producer. He was initially an actor, before switching to working behind the cameras in the industry as a script editor and writer on programmes such as Springhill and Emmerdale, later becoming the producer of Peak Practice, Doctor Who and Coronation...
and the other Executive Producers were Mal Young
Mal Young
Mal Young is a British television producer and executive producer.-Background:His initial career was in the Graphic Design industry, and it was not until the age of 27 that he began working in television, on the acclaimed Channel 4 soap opera Brookside.Working on the show for nearly a decade, he...
(although he subsequently left the BBC midway through production at the end of 2004), and BBC Wales Head of Drama, Julie Gardner
Julie Gardner
Julie Gardner is a Welsh television producer. Her most prominent work has been serving as executive producer on the 2005 revival of Doctor Who and its spin-off shows Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
. A new arrangement of the theme tune was composed by Murray Gold
Murray Gold
Murray Gold is an English composer for stage, film, and television and a dramatist for both theatre and radio.-Television:Gold has been nominated for a BAFTA four times in the category Best Original Television Music, for Vanity Fair , Queer as Folk , Casanova and Doctor Who...
.
The new series would comprise thirteen 45-minute long episodes, with the first story titled "Rose
Rose (Doctor Who)
"Rose" is the first episode of Series One of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak, the episode was first broadcast on 26 March 2005....
" after the Doctor's new companion Rose Tyler
Rose Tyler
Rose Marion Tyler is a fictional character portrayed by Billie Piper in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was created by series producer Russell T Davies...
. Unlike past seasons which used serial-style storytelling, the new series would have mainly standalone or two-part episodes. Filming of the first season began in Cardiff
Cardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
on 18 July 2004. With the new series confirmed, when Shalka was webcast in November 2003, the further adventures of Grant's Ninth Doctor were in doubt. In February 2004, plans for sequels to Shalka were indefinitely shelved, although Grant's version of the character, now dubbed the "Shalka Doctor
Shalka Doctor
The Shalka Doctor is the common fan name given to the character that appeared as an alternate incarnation of the Doctor in the flash-animated serial Scream of the Shalka in 2003 and the later short story The Feast of the Stone which were based on the British science fiction television series,...
", would return in a short story entitled "The Feast of the Stone" published on the BBC website.
Christopher Eccleston
Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...
would be the Ninth Doctor
Ninth Doctor
The Ninth Doctor is the ninth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by Christopher Eccleston....
, accompanied by former pop singer Billie Piper
Billie Piper
Billie Paul Piper is an English singer and actress.She began her career in the late 1990s as a pop singer and then switched to acting. She started in acting and dancing and was talent spotted at the Sylvia Young stage school by Smash Hits magazine who wanted a "face" for their magazine...
as Rose. In the April 2004 issue of Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine
Doctor Who Magazine is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
, Davies announced that Eccleston's Doctor would indeed be the Ninth Doctor, relegating Grant's Ninth Doctor to non-official status.
In April 2004, Michael Grade returned to the BBC, this time as the Chairman of the Board of Governors
Board of Governors of the BBC
The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...
, although this position does not involve any commissioning or editorial responsibilities. Although he was quoted as being generally indifferent to the new series, he eventually wrote an e-mail to BBC Director-General Mark Thompson
Mark Thompson
Mark John Thompson is Director-General of the BBC, a post he has held since 2004, and a former chief executive of Channel 4...
in June 2005, after the successful new first series, voicing approval for its popularity. He also declared, "I never dreamed I would ever write this. I must be going soft!"
However, not everyone was pleased with the new production. Some fans criticised the new logo and perceived changes to the TARDIS model. According to various news sources, members of the production team even received hate mail and death threats. The new logo and trailers were posted on the BBC website and were followed up by television spots in March 2005 with a media blitz in the run up to the transmission of "Rose" on 26 March. A leak of a rough cut of the premiere onto the internet by an employee of a third party company associated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
also attracted much media attention and discussion amongst fans. Advance reviews in the British media were generally positive.
"Rose" finally saw transmission on schedule on 26 March at 7 pm on BBC One, the first regular episode of Doctor Who for over 15 years. To complement the series, BBC Wales also produced Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...
, a 13-part documentary series with each episode broadcast on BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
immediately after the end of the weekly instalment on BBC One. "Rose" received average overnight ratings of 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 10.5 million. The final figure for the episode, including video recordings watched within a week of transmission, was 10.81 million, No. 3 for BBC One that week and No. 7 across all channels. The success of the launch saw the BBC's Head of Drama Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter
Jane Tranter is an English television executive who has been the executive vice-president of programming and production at BBC Worldwide's Los Angeles base since January 2009...
confirming on 30 March that the series would return both for a Christmas Special in December 2005 and a full second series in 2006.
The series was well received by both critics and the public. The 2005 TV Choice/TV Quick Award went to Eccleston for Best Actor, and Doctor Who was nominated for Best Series. Eccleston, Piper, and Doctor Who were all winners in their categories at the UK's National Television Awards
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...
, announced on 25 October 2005. Although not as prestigious as the British Academy Television Awards
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
(BAFTAs), they are the highest-profile UK television awards voted on by members of the public. The series did go on to win two BAFTA awards in May, including the Best Drama Series category.
Due to an initial lack of interest by networks in the United States, Doctor Who debuted on the Sci Fi Channel
Sci Fi Channel (United States)
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
on 17 March 2006, one year after the Canadian and UK showings.
Although the new series clearly continues the storyline of the original – with Eccleston identified in publicity materials as the Ninth Doctor, and the appearance of original series elements such as UNIT and Sarah-Jane Smith—the BBC is officially treating the series as a new programme, calling the 2005 season "Series 1". This has led to controversy between fans who wish to follow the BBC's numbering and those who consider the 2005 series to be Season 27 (and so on).
Concurrent with the new series, BBC Books revamped its line of Doctor Who original fiction, retiring for now its Eighth Doctor and Past Doctor paperback line (the last such volume appearing in late 2005) and launching a new series of hardback novels featuring the Ninth and, later, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors (see New Series Adventures
New Series Adventures (Doctor Who)
The New Series Adventures are a series of novels relating to the long-running BBC science fiction television series, Doctor Who. The 'NSAs', as they are often referred to, are published by BBC Books, and are regularly published in the spring and autumn of each year. Beginning and concluding with...
).
The Tenth Doctor
Mere hours after the announcement of a second series, tabloid newspapers The SunThe Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
and the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
announced "exclusive" news that Eccleston had quit the series. Eccleston then apparently released a statement through the BBC, saying that he would be leaving the role at Christmas for fear of being typecast
Typecasting (acting)
In TV, film, and theatre, typecasting is the process by which a particular actor becomes strongly identified with a specific character; one or more particular roles; or, characters having the same traits or coming from the same social or ethnic groups...
.
Fan reaction to the news ranged from disappointment to irritation to outright anger. Some did point out, however, that the series is uniquely suited to deal with cast changes. The number of angry postings on the popular Outpost Gallifrey
Outpost Gallifrey
Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fan site from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website...
fan forum was enough for Shaun Lyon, the owner of the website, to close down the forum for two days to allow tempers to cool.
Speculation arose as to how long the production team had been aware of Eccleston's decision. Eventually, it transpired that the departure had been planned and the scripts written to accommodate Eccleston's departure, but it was not meant to have been announced until after the first series had concluded. The BBC admitted that they had falsely attributed Eccleston's "statement" and released it in violation of an earlier agreement not to reveal his departure publicly. The statement had been made after journalists made queries to the press office.
On 16 April 2005, the BBC confirmed that David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
would be the Tenth Doctor
Tenth Doctor
The Tenth Doctor is the tenth incarnation of the protagonist of the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He is played by David Tennant, who appears in three series, as well as eight specials...
. The regeneration from Eccleston to Tennant took place in "The Parting of the Ways
The Parting of the Ways
"The Parting of the Ways" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 18 June 2005. It was the second episode of the two-part story that featured Christopher Eccleston making his last appearance as the Ninth Doctor...
", the season finale. Tennant and Piper next starred in a 7-minute mini-episode
Doctor Who: Children in Need
"Doctor Who: Children in Need", also known as "Born Again", is a 7-minute mini-episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
for Children in Need
Children in Need
Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over £500 million. The highlight of the Children in Need appeal is an annual telethon, held in November. A teddy bear named "Pudsey Bear" fronts the campaign, while Terry Wogan is a long...
. Tennant's first full story as the Doctor was the 2005 Christmas special, "The Christmas Invasion
The Christmas Invasion
"The Christmas Invasion" is a 60-minute special episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is Christmas, but there is little cause for celebration as planet Earth is invaded by aliens known as the Sycorax...
", and Piper joined him for the whole of Series 2.
At a BAFTA screening of "The Parting of the Ways", the finale of the 2005 series, on 15 June 2005, Jane Tranter announced that both a second seasonal episode (later titled "The Runaway Bride
The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)
"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...
") and third series of Doctor Who had been commissioned. Piper left the programme at the end of Series 2, and a new companion, Martha Jones
Martha Jones
Martha Jones is a fictional character played by Freema Agyeman in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. She is a companion of the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who, replacing Rose Tyler...
(played by Freema Agyeman
Freema Agyeman
Freema Agyeman is a British actress who is best known for playing Martha Jones, former companion of the Tenth Doctor in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and itsspin-off series Torchwood...
), joined Tennant at the start of Series 3 on 31 March 2007.
Series 2 aired in the UK and US in 2006, and finished airing in Canada on 12 February 2007. The third series aired in the UK in the spring of 2007 and began airing in Canada and the US during the summer of that year. A 2007 Christmas Special "Voyage of the Damned
Voyage of the Damned (Doctor Who)
"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. First broadcast on 25 December 2007, it is 72 minutes long and the third Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005...
" was broadcast on 25 December 2007 in the UK, featuring Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
as a waitress named Astrid.
The fourth series aired in the UK in 2008 featuring two companions; Donna Noble, who first appeared in "The Runaway Bride
The Runaway Bride (Doctor Who)
"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor...
" and Martha Jones, who returned to the series for five episodes of series four. Billie Piper also returned to the show to reprise her original role as Rose Tyler.
Following broadcast of the third series, the BBC announced that the show would not return as a weekly series in 2009, due to a number of factors. Instead, four specials would be broadcast in 2009, with a full series returning in 2010. It was later announced that when the full series returned in 2010, Tennant would no longer be the Doctor. Playing the role would be the 26-year-old actor Matt Smith.
The return of Doctor Who has led to the BBC launching a number of spin-offs and related programmes. The first of these was the behind-the-scenes series Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...
which began airing on BBC Three
BBC Three
BBC Three is a television network from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, terrestrial, IPTV and satellite platforms. The channel's target audience includes those in the 16-34 year old age group, and has the purpose of providing "innovative" content to younger audiences, focusing on new talent...
in conjunction with the 2005 series and returned for a new set of episodes in 2006; each episode focuses on elements of that week's Doctor Who episode, and the series has continued alongside all stories since 2005. In 2006, the first full Doctor Who spin-off series, Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
, debuted on BBC Three; it did not air in the United States until BBC America
BBC America
BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, and available on both cable and satellite.-History:The channel launched on March 29, 1998, broadcasting comedy, drama and lifestyle programs from BBC Television and other British television broadcasters like ITV and...
debuted it in September 2007, while the Canadian CBC aired it in October 2007. A second behind-the-scenes series, Totally Doctor Who
Totally Doctor Who
Totally Doctor Who is a children's television series produced by the BBC that was originally broadcast between 13 April 2006 and 29 June 2007, accompanying the second and third revived series of Doctor Who. No episodes have been produced following the third series...
, which aired on BBC One, also debuted in 2006. After the appearance of Sarah Jane Smith in the 2006 episode "School Reunion
School Reunion (Doctor Who)
"School Reunion" is the third episode in the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It first aired on 29 April 2006. The episode's narrative takes place some time after the events of "The Christmas Invasion"...
", it was announced that Elisabeth Sladen
Elisabeth Sladen
Elisabeth Clara Heath-Sladen was an English actress best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series Doctor Who. She was a regular cast member from 1973 to 1976, alongside both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, and reprised the role many times in subsequent decades, both on...
would reprise the role in a new series entitled The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures
The Sarah Jane Adventures is a British science fiction television series, produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies and starring Elisabeth Sladen...
, the first episode of which aired on BBC One on 1 January 2007, followed by its debut as a weekly series in September 2007. Following Sladen's death, the programme will come to an end after its fifth series in autumn 2011. Yet another spin-off series, K-9, was announced for 2007, but this series is not being produced by the BBC. In addition, Tennant and Agyeman provided voice acting work for The Infinite Quest
The Infinite Quest
The Infinite Quest is an animated serial based on the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was made by BBC Television, but does not share the same producers as the live-action series. It was aired in twelve weekly parts starting 2 April 2007 as a segment of the children's...
, an animated serial that aired as part of the 2007 series of Totally Doctor Who.
The Eleventh Doctor
In May 2008 it was announced that Russell T Davies would step down as executive producer and head writer of Doctor Who in 2009; Steven MoffatSteven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
was confirmed as his replacement.
On 29 October 2008, during his acceptance speech via live feed at the National Television Awards
National Television Awards
The National Television Awards is a British television awards ceremony, broadcast by the ITV network and initiated in 1995. The National Television Awards are the most prominent ceremony for which the results are voted on by the general public. Because of the way the awards are decided, winners are...
, David Tennant
David Tennant
David Tennant is a Scottish actor. In addition to his work in theatre, including a widely praised Hamlet, Tennant is best known for his role as the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, along with the title role in the 2005 TV serial Casanova and as Barty Crouch, Jr...
publicly announced his intention to exit the series at the end of the 2009 specials, making way for a new actor to portray the eleventh incarnation
Eleventh Doctor
The Eleventh Doctor is the eleventh incarnation of the protagonist of the BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Matt Smith plays this incarnation, replacing David Tennant's Tenth Doctor in the 2010 episode "The End of Time, Part Two"...
of the Doctor in the 2010 series. 26-year-old actor Matt Smith was announced as his successor in a special edition of Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential
Doctor Who Confidential is a documentary series created by the British Broadcasting Corporation to complement the revival of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Each episode was broadcast on BBC Three on Saturdays, immediately after the broadcast of the weekly...
, broadcast on BBC One on 3 January 2009. Production on Moffat and Smith's first series began in July 2009, and the first episode
The Eleventh Hour (Doctor Who)
"The Eleventh Hour" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 3 April 2010....
was broadcast on 3 April 2010.
The new series was accompanied by a new logo, unveiled on 6 October 2009, and a new title sequence. The series featured a completely redesigned TARDIS interior, a slightly altered TARDIS exterior, and a new companion – Amy Pond
Amy Pond
Amelia Jessica 'Amy' Pond is a fictional character portrayed by Karen Gillan in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who...
– portrayed by Karen Gillan
Karen Gillan
Karen Sheila Gillan is a Scottish actress and former model who is best known for her current portrayal of Amy Pond in the British science fiction series Doctor Who.-Early life:...
. Gillan was joined on a recurring basis by Arthur Darvill
Arthur Darvill
Thomas Arthur Darvill is an English actor, known professionally as Arthur Darvill. He is noted for his work in the plays Terre Haute and Swimming with Sharks , but is probably best known for his role as the Eleventh Doctor's Companion Rory Williams in the television series Doctor Who.-Early and...
, playing Amy's boyfriend (later husband) Rory Williams
Rory Williams
Rory Williams is a fictional character portrayed by Arthur Darvill in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Having been introduced at the start of the 5th series, Rory joins the Eleventh Doctor as a companion in the middle of Series 5...
, and Alex Kingston
Alex Kingston
Alexandra Elizabeth "Alex" Kingston is an English actress. She is most widely known for her roles as Dr. Elizabeth Corday on the NBC medical drama ER and as River Song in Doctor Who.-Early life and education:...
as the mysterious River Song
River Song
"River Song" may refer to:* "River Song" , the opening track of Dennis Wilson's 1977 album Pacific Ocean Blue* River Song , a recurring character in the Doctor Who TV series...
.
The Eleventh Doctor's first series concluded on 26 June 2010 with transmission of the series finale "The Big Bang
The Big Bang (Doctor Who)
"The Big Bang" is the 13th and final episode in the fifth series of British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the second part of a two-part season finale started with "The Pandorica Opens", at the end of which The Doctor is trapped, the TARDIS destroyed, and Amy Pond has been shot...
," followed by another Christmas Special, "A Christmas Carol" and a pair of Comic Relief
Comic Relief
Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...
mini-episodes, "Space" and "Time,"
Space and Time (Doctor Who)
"Space" and "Time" are two mini-episodes of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They were broadcast on 18 March 2011 as part of BBC One's Red Nose Day telethon for the charity Comic Relief...
broadcast on 18 March 2011.
A second full series of 13 episodes was commissioned for 2011, with Smith and Gillan both returning as the Doctor and Amy respectively (making it the first time since the show's relaunch in 2005 that both the Doctor and main companion had remained the same from one series to the next). The series was broadcast in two halves, with the first seven episodes broadcast between April and June 2011, and the final six beginning on 27 August 2011. With the new series, Darvill was upgraded to series regular and full-time companion as Rory, and Kingston continued to appear on a recurring basis as River Song.
External links
- Official BBC.co.uk Doctor Who site
- Doctor Who Cuttings Archive – A history of Doctor Who in press and media cuttings and articles from the 1960s onwards .
- "A Brief History of Time (Travel)" production history site
- A History of the Doctor Who theme
- Russell T Davies, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 13 June 2005, "Alien resurrection"