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This article is about the television series. For other uses, see Doctor Who (disambiguation).
| Doctor Who | |
|---|---|
 Current Doctor Who title sequence | |
| Format | Science fiction drama |
| Created by | Sydney Newman C. E. Webber Donald Wilson BBC |
| Starring | Various Doctors (currently David Tennant) Various companions |
| Opening theme | Doctor Who theme music composed by Ron Grainer |
| Ending theme | Doctor Who theme music (reprise) |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 738 (as of 25 December 2007) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 25 min. (1963–1984, 1986–1989) 45 min. (1985, 2005–present) various other lengths |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC tv, later renamed BBC One |
| Picture format | 405-line black & white (1963–1967) 625-line black & white (1968–1969) PAL 625-line colour (1970–1989) 720x576 16:9 (2005–present) |
| Original run | Original Series: 23 November 1963 – 6 December 1989 Television Movie: 12 May 1996 Current Series: 26 March 2005 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | K-9 and Company Torchwood The Sarah Jane Adventures K-9 Doctor Who Confidential Totally Doctor Who |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
| | Doctor Who Portal |
Doctor Who is a long-running, award-winning British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a mysterious alien time-traveller known as "the Doctor" who travels in his space and time-ship, the TARDIS, which appears from the exterior to be a blue police phone box. With his companions, he explores time and space, solving problems and righting wrongs.
The programme is listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world"Dr Who \'longest-running sci-fi\'", BBC News, 2006-09-28. Retrieved on 2006-09-30. and is also a significant part of British popular culture. (2006-09-14) "The end of Olde Englande: A lament for Blighty". The Economist. Retrieved on 2006-09-18. ICONS. A Portrait of England. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.Moran, Caitlin. "Doctor Who is simply masterful", The Times, News Corporation, 2007-06-30. Retrieved on 2007-07-01. "[Doctor Who] is as thrilling and as loved as Jolene, or bread and cheese, or honeysuckle, or Friday. It’s quintessential to being British." It has been recognised for its imaginative stories, creative low-budget special effects during its original run, and pioneering use of electronic music (originally produced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop). In Britain and elsewhere, the show has become a cult television favourite and has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. It has received recognition from critics and the public as one of the finest British television programmes, including the BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series in 2006.
The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. A television film was made in 1996 as a backdoor pilot for a new series (which never entered production), and the programme was successfully relaunched in 2005, produced in-house by BBC Wales. Some development money for the new series is contributed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which is credited as a co-producer. Doctor Who has also spawned spin-offs in multiple media, including the current television programmes Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
The show\'s lead character is currently portrayed by David Tennant. A Christmas special co-starring Kylie Minogue aired in December 2007, and a fourth series, scheduled to air in 2008, is in production.Series Four confirmed. Doctor Who - News. BBC (22 March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-22. For that series, Catherine Tate will reprise her role of Donna Noble, from the 2006 Christmas special, as the Doctor\'s latest companion.Tate to be Doctor\'s new companion. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-07-04. Midway through the series, Freema Agyeman will also return to her role of Martha Jones, following a multi-episode guest appearance in the Doctor Who spin-off series, Torchwood. John Barrowman is to film for the show after Christmas 2007, continuing his role as Captain Jack Harkness,EG BIG INTERVIEW: JOHN BARROWMAN. thisisnottingham.co.uk (2007-11-09). Retrieved on 2007-11-09. and Billie Piper will return as Rose Tyler for three episodes.Billie Piper to return to Dr Who (2007-11-27). Retrieved on 2007-11-27.
After a 2008 Christmas special and three further specials starring David Tennant, scheduled to air in 2009, Doctor Who is planned to return in 2010 for a fifth full length series."Series Five", Doctor Who: News, BBC, 2007-09-03. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
Contents |
Doctor Who first appeared on BBC television at 5:15 pm (GMT) on 23 November 1963,Howe, Stammers, Walker (1994), p. 54 following discussions and plans that had been in progress for a year. The Head of Drama, Sydney Newman, was mainly responsible for developing it, with the first format document for the series being written by Newman along with the Head of the Script Department (later Head of Serials) Donald Wilson and staff writer C. E. \'Bunny\' Webber. Writer Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and initial producer Verity Lambert also heavily contributed to the development of the series.Howe, Stammers, Walker (1994), pp. 157–230 ("Production Diary")Newman is often given sole creator credit for the series. Some reference works such as The Complete Encyclopedia of Television Programs 1947–1979 by Vincent Terrace erroneously credit Terry Nation with creating Doctor Who, due to the way his name is credited in the two Peter Cushing films.Newman and Lambert\'s role in originating the series was recognised in the 2007 episode "Human Nature", in which the Doctor, in disguise as a human named John Smith, gives his parents\' names as Sydney and Verity. The series\' title theme was composed by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.Richards, p. 23 The programme was originally intended to appeal to both children and adults.Howe, Stammers, Walker (1992), p. 3 The BBC drama department\'s Serials division produced the programme for twenty-six series, broadcast on BBC One. Viewing numbers that had fallen (though comparably increased at some points), a decline in the public perception of the show and a less prominent transmission slot saw production suspended in 1989 by Jonathan Powell, Controller of BBC One.Deans, Jason (2005-06-21). Doctor Who makes the Grade. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-02-04. “But Mr Grade was not at the helm when Doctor Who was finally retired for good in 1989 - that decision fell to the then BBC1 controller, Jonathan Powell.” Although it was for all intents and purposes cancelled (as series co-star Sophie Aldred reported in the documentary Doctor Who: More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS), the BBC said the series would return.
While in-house production had ceased, the BBC was hopeful of finding an independent production company to relaunch the show. Philip Segal, a British expatriate who worked for Columbia Pictures\' television arm in the United States, approached the BBC about such a venture. Segal\'s negotiations eventually led to a television movie. The Doctor Who television movie was broadcast on the Fox Network in 1996 as a co-production between Fox, Universal Pictures, the BBC, and BBC Worldwide. Although the film was successful in the UK (with 9.1 million viewers), it was less so in the United States and did not lead to a series.
Licensed media such as novels and audio plays provided new stories, but as a television programme Doctor Who remained dormant until 2003. In September of that year, BBC Television announced the in-house production of a new series after several years of unsuccessful attempts by BBC Worldwide to find backing for a feature film version. The new incarnation of the series is executively produced by writer Russell T Davies and BBC Wales Head of Drama/BBC Television Controller of Drama Commissioning Julie Gardner. It has been sold to many other countries worldwide (see Viewership).
The new series debuted with the episode "Rose" on BBC One on 26 March 2005. There have been two further series in 2006 and 2007, and Christmas Day specials in 2005, 2006 and 2007. This will be followed by a fourth series to be shown in 2008.Doctor Who set for fourth series. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-07-03. There will be a rest year in 2009, with no new series, although David Tennant will star in 3 specials in that year. A fifth series is planned for 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/entertainment/6976178.stm BBC news
The programme rapidly became a national institution, the subject of countless jokes, newspaper mentions and other popular culture references.Clark, Anthony. Doctor Who (1963–89, 2005–). Screenonline. Retrieved on 2007-03-21. “The science fiction adventure series Doctor Who (BBC, 1963–89) has created a phenomenon unlike any other British TV program.”Tulloch, John. Doctor Who. Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved on 2007-03-21. “The official fans have never amounted to more than a fraction of the audience. Doctor Who achieved the status of an institution as well as a cult.” Many renowned actors asked for or were offered and accepted guest starring roles in various stories.
With popularity came controversy over the show\'s suitability for children. Moral campaigner Mary Whitehouse repeatedly complained to the BBC in the 1970s over what she saw as the show\'s frightening or gory content.Biography of Mary Whitehouse. Retrieved on 2007-07-06. The programme became even more popular - especially with children. John Nathan-Turner, who produced the series during the 1980s, was heard to say that he looked forward to Whitehouse\'s comments, as the show\'s ratings would increase soon after she had made them.Doctor Who Producer Dies. Retrieved on 2007-07-06. During the 1970s, the Radio Times, the BBC\'s listings magazine, announced that a child\'s mother said the theme music terrified her son. The Radio Times was apologetic, but the theme music remained.
There were more complaints about the programme\'s content than its music. During Jon Pertwee\'s second season as the Doctor, in the serial "Terror of the Autons" (1971), images of murderous plastic dolls, daffodils killing unsuspecting victims and blank-featured android policemen marked the apex of the show\'s ability to frighten children. Other notable moments in that decade included the Doctor apparently being drowned by Chancellor Goth in "The Deadly Assassin" (1976), and the allegedly negative portrayal of Chinese people in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" (1977).
It has been said that watching Doctor Who from a position of safety "behind the sofa" (as the Doctor Who exhibition at the Museum of the Moving Image in London was titled) and peering cautiously out to see if the frightening part was over is one of the great shared experiences of British childhood. The phrase has become commonly used in association with the programme and occasionally elsewhere.
The Mark II fibreglass TARDIS used between 1980 and 1989.
A BBC audience research survey conducted in 1972 found that by their own definition of "any act(s) which may cause physical and / or psychological injury, hurt or death to persons, animals or property, whether intentional or accidental", Doctor Who was the most violent of all the drama programmes the corporation then produced.Howard, Philip. "Violence is not really Dr Who\'s cup of tea", The Times, 1972-01-29, pp. 2. Retrieved on 2007-01-17. The same report found that 3% of the surveyed audience regarded the show as "very unsuitable" for family viewing."The Times Diary - Points of view", The Times, 1972-01-27, pp. 16. Retrieved on 2007-01-17. However, responding to the findings of the survey in The Times newspaper, journalist Philip Howard maintained that: "to compare the violence of Dr Who, sired by a horse-laugh out of a nightmare, with the more realistic violence of other television series, where actors who look like human beings bleed paint that looks like blood, is like comparing Monopoly with the property market in London: both are fantasies, but one is meant to be taken seriously."
The image of the TARDIS has become firmly linked to the show in the public\'s consciousness. In 1996, the BBC applied for a trademark to use the TARDIS\' blue police box design in merchandising associated with Doctor Who.Case details for Trade Mark 2104259. UK Patent Office. Retrieved on 2007-01-17. In 1998, the Metropolitan Police filed an objection to the trademark claim; in 2002 the Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC,Trade mark decision. UK Patent Office website. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.Knight, Mike. IN THE MATTER OF Application No. 2104259 by The British Broadcasting Corporation to register a series of three marks in Classes 9, 16, 25 and 41 AND IN THE MATTER OF Opposition thereto under No. 48452 by The Metropolitan Police Authority (PDF). UK Patent Office. Retrieved on 2007-01-17. indicating that the police box image was more associated with Doctor Who than with the police.BBC wins police Tardis case. BBC News (2002-10-23). Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
The 21st-century revival of the programme has become the centrepiece of BBC One\'s Saturday schedule, and has "defined the channel".Robinson, James. "Television\'s Lord of prime time awaits his next regeneration", The Observer, 2007-03-18. Retrieved on 2007-03-19. In 2007, Caitlin Moran, television reviewer for The Times, wrote that Doctor Who is "quintessential to being British".
Doctor Who originally ran for 26 seasons on BBC1, from 23 November 1963 until 6 December 1989. During the original run, each weekly episode formed part of a story (or "serial") — usually of four to six parts in earlier years and three to four in later years. Notable exceptions were the epic The Daleks\' Master Plan, which aired in twelve episodes (plus an earlier one-episode teaser, "Mission to the Unknown", featuring none of the regular cast),The Daleks\' Master Plan. Writers Terry Nation and Dennis Spooner, Director Douglas Camfield, Producer John Wiles. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 13 November 1965–29 January 1966."Mission to the Unknown". Writer Terry Nation, Director Derek Martinus, Producer Verity Lambert. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1965-10-09. almost an entire season of 7-episode serials (season 7), the 10-episode serial The War Games The War Games. Writers Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks, Director David Maloney, Producer Derrick Sherwin. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 19 April 1969–21 June 1969., and The Trial of a Time Lord, which ran for 14 episodes (albeit divided into three production codes and four narrative segments) during Season 23.The Trial of a Time Lord. Writers Robert Holmes, Philip Martin and Pip and Jane Baker, Directors Nicholas Mallett, Ron Jones and Chris Clough, Producer John Nathan-Turner. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 6 September 1986–6 December 1986. Occasionally serials were loosely connected by a storyline, such as Season 16\'s quest for the Key to Time or Season 18\'s journey through E-Space and the theme of entropy.
The programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule. Initially, it alternated stories set in the past, which would teach younger audience members about history, with stories set either in the future or in outer space to teach them about science. This was also reflected in the Doctor\'s original companions, one of whom was a science teacher and another a history teacher.
However, science fiction stories came to dominate the programme and the "historicals", which were not popular with the production team, were dropped after The Highlanders (1967). While the show continued to use historical settings, they were generally used as a backdrop for science fiction tales, with one exception: Black Orchid set in 1920s Britain.Black Orchid. Writer Terence Dudley, Director Ron Jones, Producer John Nathan-Turner. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC1, London. 1 March 1982–2 March 1982.
The early stories were more serial-like in nature, with the narrative of one story flowing into the next, and each episode having its own title, although produced as distinct stories with their own production codes. Following The Gunfighters (1966), however, each serial was given its own title, with the individual parts simply being assigned episode numbers. What to name these earlier stories is often a subject of fan debate.
Writers during the original run included Terry Nation, Henry Lincoln, Douglas Adams, Robert Holmes, Terrance Dicks, Dennis Spooner, Eric Saward, Malcolm Hulke, Christopher H. Bidmead, Stephen Gallagher, Brian Hayles, Chris Boucher, Peter Grimwade, Marc Platt and Ben Aaronovitch.
The serial format changed for the 2005 revival, with each series consisting of thirteen 45-minute, self-contained episodes (60 minutes, with adverts, on overseas commercial channels). Each series includes several standalone and multi-part stories, linked with a loose story arc that resolves in the series finale. As in the early "classic" era, each episode — whether standalone or part of a larger story — has its own title.
738 Doctor Who instalments have been televised since 1963, ranging from 25-minute episodes (the most common format), to 45-minute episodes (for Resurrection of the Daleks in the 1984 series, a single season in 1985, and the revival), to two feature-length productions (1983\'s "The Five Doctors" and the 1996 television movie), to the two 60-minute Christmas specials produced for the revival and the more recent 72 minute 2007 Christmas Special.
The current series is recorded in 576i25 DigiBeta wide-screen format and then filmised to give a 25p image in post-production using a Snell & Wilcox Alchemist Platinum.
Between about 1967 and 1978, large amounts of older material stored in the BBC\'s various video tape and film libraries were either destroyedThe tapes, based on a 405-line broadcast standard, were rendered obsolete when UK television changed to a [[625-line television system|625-line signal in preparation for the soon-to-begin colour transmissions or simply wiped. This included many old episodes of Doctor Who, mostly stories featuring the first three Doctors — William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee. Following consolidations and recoveries the archives are complete from the programme\'s move to colour television (starting from Jon Pertwee\'s time as the Doctor), although a few Pertwee episodes have required substantial restoration; a handful have been recovered only as black and white films, and several survive in colour only as NTSC copies recovered from North America (a few of which are domestic, off-air Betamax tape recordings, not transmission quality). In all, 108 of 253 episodes produced during the first six years of the programme are not held in the BBC\'s archives. It has been reported that in 1972 almost all episodes then made were known to exist at the BBC,Molesworth, Richard. BBC Archive Holdings. Doctor Who Restoration Team. Retrieved on 2007-04-30. “A full set was held at least until early 1972, as 16 mm black and white film negatives (apart - of course - from \'Masterplan\' 7). .” whilst by 1978 the practice of wiping tapes had ended.Molesworth, Richard. BBC Archive Holdings. Doctor Who Restoration Team. Retrieved on 2007-04-30. “the videotapes began to be wiped, or re-used, until the formation of the BBC’s Film and Videotape Library in 1978 put a stop to this particular practice.”
Some episodes have been returned to the BBC from the archives of other countries who bought copies for broadcast, or by private individuals who got them by various means. Early colour videotape recordings made off-air by fans have also been retrieved, as well as excerpts filmed from the television screen onto 8 mm cine film and clips that were shown on other programmes. Audio versions of all of the lost episodes exist from home viewers who made tape recordings of the show.
In addition to these, there are off-screen photographs made by photographer John Cura, who was hired by various production personnel to document many of their programmes during the 1950s and 1960s, including Doctor Who. These have been used in fan reconstructions of the serials. These amateur reconstructions have been tolerated by the BBC, provided they are not sold for profit and are distributed as low quality VHS copies.
One of the most sought-after lost episodes is Part Four of the last William Hartnell serial, The Tenth Planet (1966), which ends with the First Doctor transforming into the Second. The only portion of this in existence, barring a few poor quality silent 8 mm clips, is the few seconds of the regeneration scene, as it was shown on the children\'s magazine show Blue Peter. With the approval of the BBC, efforts are now under way to restore as many of the episodes as possible from the extant material. Starting in the early 1990s, the BBC began to release audio recordings of missing serials on cassette and compact disc, with linking narration provided by former series actors. "Official" reconstructions have also been released by the BBC on VHS, on MP3 CD-ROM and as a special feature on a DVD. The BBC, in conjunction with animation studio Cosgrove Hall has reconstructed the missing Episodes 1 and 4 of The Invasion (1968) in animated form, using remastered audio tracks and the comprehensive stage notes for the original filming, for the serial\'s DVD release in November 2006. Although no similar reconstructions have been announced as of early 2007, Cosgrove Hall has expressed an interest in animating more lost episodes in the future,Flash Frames, a featurette included on the DVD release of The Invasion, BBC Video, 2006. despite the announcement in April 2007 that this project is on indefinite hiatus.
In April 2006, Blue Peter launched a challenge to find these missing episodes with the promise of a full scale Dalek model.Blue Peter — Missing Doctor Who tapes. bbc.co.uk (April 2006). Retrieved on 2006-04-24.
The character of the Doctor was initially shrouded in mystery. All that was known about him in the programme\'s early days was that he was an eccentric alien traveller of great intelligence who battled injustice while exploring time and space in an unreliable old time machine called the TARDIS, an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space. The TARDIS is much larger on the inside than on the outside Now an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary the word "TARDIS" is often used to describe anything that appears larger on the inside than its exterior implies. Full record for Tardis-like adj.. Science Fiction Citations. Retrieved on 2007-09-07. and, due to a malfunction of its Chameleon Circuit is stuck in the shape of a 1950s-style British police box.
However, not only did the initially irascible and slightly sinister Doctor quickly mellow into a more compassionate figure, it was eventually revealed that he had been on the run from his own people, the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey.
As a Time Lord, the Doctor has the ability to regenerate his body when near death. Introduced into the storyline as a way of continuing the series when the writers were faced with the departure of lead actor William Hartnell in 1966, it has continued to be a major element of the series, allowing for the recasting of the lead actor when the need arises. The serial The Deadly Assassin established that a Time Lord can regenerate twelve times, for a total of thirteen incarnations (although at least one Time Lord, The Master, has managed to circumvent this). To date, the Doctor has gone through this process and its resulting after-effects on nine occasions, with each of his incarnations having his own quirks and abilities but otherwise sharing the memories and experience of the previous incarnations:
Other actors have also played the Doctor, though rarely more than once (see the list of actors who have played the Doctor for details).
Despite these shifts in personality, the Doctor has always remained an intensely curious and highly moral adventurer, who would rather solve problems with his wits than through violence.
Throughout the programme\'s long history certain controversial revelations about the Doctor have been made. For example, in The Brain of Morbius (1976), it was hinted that the First Doctor may not have been the Doctor\'s first incarnation (although the other faces depicted may have been incarnations of the Time Lord Morbius); during the Seventh Doctor\'s era it was hinted that the Doctor was more than just an ordinary Time Lord. In the Eighth Doctor movie, it was suggested that the Doctor was "half human", though the canonicity of this is highly contested. He does physically become a human in the Tenth Doctor story "Human Nature". The very first episode, An Unearthly Child, revealed that the Doctor has a granddaughter, Susan Foreman, and in "Fear Her" (2006), he remarked that he had, in the past, been a father. The 2005 series revealed that the Ninth Doctor thought he had become the last surviving Time Lord, and that his home planet had been destroyed.
The Doctor almost always shares his adventures with up to three companions, and since 1963 more than 35 actors and actresses have featured in these roles. The First Doctor\'s original companions were his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) and school teachers Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (William Russell). The only story from the original series in which the Doctor travels alone is The Deadly Assassin.
Dramatically, the companion characters provide a surrogate with whom the audience can identify, and serves to further the story by requesting exposition from the Doctor and manufacturing peril for the Doctor to resolve. The Doctor regularly gains new companions and loses old ones; sometimes they return home or find new causes — or loves — on worlds they have visited. Some have even died during the course of the series.
Although the majority of the Doctor\'s companions have been young, attractive females, the production team for the 1963–1989 series maintained a long-standing taboo against any overt romantic involvement in the TARDIS. The taboo was controversially broken in the 1996 television film when the Eighth Doctor was shown kissing companion Grace Holloway. The 2005 series played with this idea by having various characters think that the Ninth Doctor and Rose (played by Billie Piper) were a couple, which they vehemently denied (see also "The Doctor and romance"). The idea of a possible involvement was suggested again in "Smith and Jones", when the Tenth Doctor kisses his soon-to-be new companion Martha Jones, although the Doctor insists that the kiss was simply for the purpose of \'genetic transfer\'.
Previous companions have reappeared in the series, usually for anniversary specials. One former companion, Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen), together with the robotic dog K-9, appeared in an episode of the 2006 series more than twenty years after their last appearances in the 20th Anniversary story "The Five Doctors" (1983). Afterwards, the character was featured in the spinoff series The Sarah Jane Adventures.
The most recent companions of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) are Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), and Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), both of whom depart at the end of "Last of the Time Lords". Catherine Tate will reprise her role as Donna Noble from the 2006 Christmas special, becoming the Doctor\'s companion for the entire run of the fourth series.Tate to be Doctor\'s new companion. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-07-04. Agyeman will appear as Martha Jones in three episodes of the spin-off series Torchwood before returning to Doctor Who halfway through the fourth series.More Martha!. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-07-02..Doctor Who to get extra companion. bbc.co.uk. Retrieved on 2007-07-02. Billie Piper will reprise her role as Rose Tyler for three episodes of season four in 2008.Billie Piper to return to Dr Who. bbc.c.uk. Retrieved on 2007-11-27. For the 2007 Christmas episode,Voyage of the Damned, The Doctor\'s companion was Astrid Peth, played by Australian performer Kylie Minogue.
Though arguably not a companion, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart was a recurring character in the original series making his first appearance along side the Second Doctor and his final alongside the Seventh. He and UNIT appeared regularly during the Third Doctor\'s tenure.
The Daleks are perhaps the best-known adversaries faced by the Doctor.
When Sydney Newman commissioned the series, he specifically did not want to perpetuate the cliché of the "bug-eyed monster" of science fiction. However, monsters were a staple of Doctor Who almost from the beginning and were popular with audiences.
Notable adversaries of the Doctor in the original series include the Autons, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Zygons, the Sea Devils, the Silurians, the Ice Warriors, the Wirrn, the Yeti, Davros (the creator of the Daleks), the Master (a Time Lord with a thirst for universal conquest), and, most notably, the Daleks. This continued with the resurrection of the series in 2005, which has featured the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master and, less prominently, the Autons and the Macra. The new series has also introduced new monsters, including the Slitheen, the Ood, and the Judoon. The upcoming fourth series will see the return of the Sontarans in at least two episodes.
Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth\'s twin planet Mondas that began to implant more and more artificial parts into their bodies. This led to the race becoming coldly logical and calculating, with emotions usually only shown when naked aggression was called for.
Of all the monsters and villains, the ones that have most secured the series\' place in the public\'s imagination are the Daleks, who first appeared in 1963 and were the series\' very first "monster". The Daleks are Kaled mutants in tank-like mechanical armour shells from the planet Skaro. Their chief role in the great scheme of things, as they frequently remark in their instantly recognisable metallic voices, is to "Exterminate!" all beings inferior to themselves, even destroying the Time Lords in the often referenced but never shown Time War. Davros, the Daleks\' creator, became a recurring villain after he was introduced in Genesis of the Daleks, in which the Time Lords send the Doctor back to either destroy the Daleks, avert their creation, or tamper with their genetic structure to make them less warlike. Davros has been played by Michael Wisher (first introduced in Genesis of the Daleks), David Gooderson (Destiny of the Daleks), and Terry Molly.
The Daleks were created by writer Terry Nation (who intended them as an allegory of the Nazis) and BBC designer Raymond Cusick. The Daleks\' début in the programme\'s second serial, The Daleks (1963–64), caused a tremendous reaction in the viewing figures and the public, putting Doctor Who on the cultural map. A Dalek appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture in 1999, photographed by Lord Snowdon.
The Master is a renegade Time Lord, and the Doctor\'s nemesis. Conceived as "Professor Moriarty to the Doctor\'s Sherlock Holmes,"Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition #2, 5 September 2002, [subtitled The Complete Third Doctor], page 14) the character first appeared in 1971. As with the Doctor, the role has been portrayed by several actors, the first being Roger Delgado who continued in the role until his death in 1973. The Master was briefly played by Peter Pratt and Geoffrey Beevers until Anthony Ainley took over and continued to play the character until Doctor Who\'s cancellation in 1989. The Master returned in the 1996 television movie of Doctor Who, played by Eric Roberts, and in the three-part finale of the 2007 series, portrayed by Derek Jacobi and John Simm.
Audio sample composed by Ron Grainer:
An excerpt from the theme music to Doctor Who
Problems listening to the file? See media help.
The original 1963 radiophonic arrangement of the Doctor Who theme is widely regarded as a significant and innovative piece of electronic music, and Doctor Who was the first television series in the world to have a theme entirely realised through electronic means.
The original theme was composed by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, with assistance from Dick Mills. The various parts were built up by creating tape loops of an individually struck piano string and individual test oscillators and filters. The Derbyshire arrangement served, with minor edits, as the theme tune up to the end of Season 17 (1979–80).
A more modern and dynamic arrangement was composed by Peter Howell for Season 18 (1980), which was in turn replaced by Dominic Glynn\'s arrangement for Season 23\'s The Trial of a Time Lord (1986). Keff McCulloch provided the new arrangement for the Seventh Doctor\'s era which lasted from Season 24 (1987) until the series\' suspension in 1989. For the new series in 2005, Murray Gold provided a new arrangement which featured samples from the 1963 original with further elements added; in the 2005 Christmas episode "The Christmas Invasion", Gold introduced a modified closing credits arrangement that was used up until the conclusion of the 2007 series.
A new arrangement of the theme, once again by Gold, was introduced in the 2007 Christmas special episode, "Voyage of the Damned".
Versions of the "Doctor Who Theme" have also been released in a pop music venue over the years. In the early 1970s, Jon Pertwee, who had played the Third Doctor, recorded a version of the Doctor Who theme with spoken lyrics, titled, "Who Is the Doctor". In 1988 the band The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (later known as The KLF) released the single "Doctorin\' the Tardis" under the name The Timelords, which reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 2 in Australia; this version incorporated several other songs, including "Rock and Roll Part 2" by Gary Glitter (who recorded vocals for some of the CD-single remix versions of "Doctorin\' the Tardis"). Others who have covered or reinterpreted the theme include Orbital, Pink Floyd, the Australian string ensemble Fourplay, New Zealand punk band Blam Blam Blam, The Pogues, and the comedians Bill Bailey and Mitch Benn, and satirised on The Chaser\'s War on Everything. A reggae/ska version of the Doctor Who theme tune was released on the Explosion label in 1969 by Bongo Herman and Les. The theme tune has also appeared on many compilation CDs and has made its way into mobile phone ring tones. Fans have also produced and distributed their own remixes of the theme.
Most of the innovative incidental music for Doctor Who has been specially commissioned from freelance composers, although in the early years some episodes also used stock music, as well as occasional excerpts from original recordings or cover versions of songs by popular music acts such as The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
The incidental music for the first Doctor Who adventure, An Unearthly Child, was written by Norman Kay. Many of the stories of the William Hartnell period were scored by electronic music pioneer Tristram Cary, whose Doctor Who credits include The Daleks, Marco Polo, The Daleks\' Master Plan, The Gunfighters and The Mutants. Other composers in this early period were included Richard Rodney Bennett, Carey Blyton and Geoffrey Burgon.
The most frequent musical contributor during the first fifteen years was Dudley Simpson, who is also well known for his theme and incidental music for Blake\'s 7. Simpson\'s first Doctor Who score was Planet of Giants (1964) and he went on to write music for many adventures of the Sixties and Seventies, including most of the stories of the Jon Pertwee / Tom Baker periods, ending with The Horns of Nimon (1979). He also made a cameo appearance in The Talons of Weng-Chiang (as a music-hall conductor).
Beginning with The Leisure Hive (1980), the task of creating incidental music was assigned to the Radiophonic Workshop. Paddy Kingsland and Peter Howell contributed many scores in this period and other contributors included Roger Limb, Malcolm Clarke and Jonathan Gibbs.
The Radiophonic Workshop was dropped after the The Trial of a Time Lord season, and Keff McCulloch took over as the series\' main composer, with Dominic Glynn and Mark Ayres also contributing scores.
All the incidental music for the 2005 revived series has been composed by Murray Gold and Ben Foster and has been performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from the 2005 Christmas episode The Christmas Invasion onwards. A concert featuring the orchestra performing music from the first two series took place on 19 November 2006 to raise money for Children in Need. David Tennant hosted the event, introducing the different sections of the concert. Murray Gold and Russell T. Davies answered questions during the interval and Daleks and Cybermen menaced the audience whilst music from their stories was played. The concert aired on BBCi on Christmas Day 2006.
The new series has featured occasional use of excerpts of pop music from the Seventies, Eighties, Nineties and early 2000s, including works by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, Soft Cell, Rogue Traders, Britney Spears and the Scissor Sisters. The soundtrack for Series 1 and 2 was released on 4 December 2006 by Silva Screen Records.Who soundtrack soon. bbc.co.uk (2006-07-17). Retrieved on 2006-08-04.Silva Screen announces Doctor Who CD release date (2006-11-01). Retrieved on 2006-12-04. The soundtrack for Series 3 was released on 5 November 2007.
Doctor Who\'s science-fiction themes and settings meant that many sound effects had to be specially created for the series, although some common sound effects (such as crowds, horses and jungle noises) were sourced from stock recordings. Because Doctor Who began several years before the advent of the first mass-produced synthesisers, much of the equipment used to create electronic sound effects in the early days was custom-built by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and until the early 1970s audio effects were produced using a combination of electronic and radiophonic techniques.
Almost all of the original sound effects and audio backgrounds during the 1960s were overseen by the Radiophonic Workshop\'s Brian Hodgson, who worked on Doctor Who from its inception until the middle of Jon Pertwee\'s tenure in the early 1970s, when he was succeeded by Dick Mills. Hodgson created hundreds of pieces of "special sound" ranging from ray-gun blasts to dinosaurs, but without doubt his best known sound effects are the sound of the TARDIS as it de-materialises and re-appears, and the voices of the Daleks.
The basic audio source Hodgson used for the TARDIS effect was the sound of his house keys being scraped up and down along the strings of an old gutted piano, and played backwards. The famous Dalek voice effect was obtained by passing the actors\' voices through a device called a ring modulator, and it was further enhanced by exploiting the distortion inherent in the microphones and amplifiers then in use. However, the precise sonic character of the Daleks\' voices varied somewhat over time because the original frequency settings used on the ring modulator were never noted down.
The image of the TARDIS is iconic in British popular culture.
Doctor Who has always appeared on the BBC\'s mainstream BBC One channel, drawing audiences of many millions of viewers. It was most popular in the late 1970s, with audiences frequently as high as 12 million. During the ITV network strike of 1979, viewership peaked at 16 million. No first-run episode of Doctor Who has ever drawn fewer than three million viewers on BBC One, although its late 1980s performance of three to five million viewers was seen as poor at the time and was, according to the BBC Board of Control, a leading cause of the programme\'s 1989 suspension. Some fans considered this disingenuous, since the programme was scheduled against the soap opera Coronation Street, the most popular show at the time. The BBC One broadcast of "Rose", the first episode of the 2005 revival, drew an average audience of 10.81 million, third highest for BBC One that week and seventh across all channels. The 2005 series had an average audience of 7.91 million viewers, the 2006 series achieved an average audience of about 7.85 million, and the 2007 series achieved 7.54 million in the context of declining year-to-year viewership for all television channels.[citation needed] The 2006 episode "Rise of the Cybermen" managed sixth place in the charts across the week with 9.22 million viewers.Spilsbury, Tom (2006-09-13 cover date). "Public Image". Doctor Who Magazine (373): 8. The all-time highest chart placing for an episode of Doctor Who is second, for the 2007 Christmas special Voyage Of The Damned, which received 13.31 million viewers, a feat which also made it the second most watched show of the year. The current revival also garners the highest audience Appreciation Index of any non-soap drama on television.Mark Wright. "“These sci-fi people vote”", The Stage, 2007-11-01. Retrieved on 2008-01-09.
The programme also gained a strong following in Australia, possibly as a result of the close connection between the BBC and Australia\'s major public broadcaster, ABC.[citation needed] The latest repeat of the classic series in Australia ran from September 2003 to February 2006, and the revived series has also been shown on ABC and UK.TV.
The series also has a fan base in the United States, where it was shown in syndication from the 1970s to the 1990s, particularly on PBS stations (see Doctor Who in North America). New Zealand was the first country outside the UK to screen Doctor Who beginning in September 1964, and continued to screen the series for many years, including the new series from 2005. In Canada, the series debuted in January 1965, but the CBC only aired the first twenty-six episodes. TVOntario picked up the show in 1976 beginning with The Three Doctors and aired it through to Season 24 in 1991. TVO\'s schedule ran several years behind the BBC\'s throughout this period. From 1979 to 1981, TVO airings were bookended by science-fiction writer Judith Merril who would introduce the episode and then, after the episode concluded, try to place it in an educational context in keeping with TVO\'s status as an educational channel. The airing of The Talons of Weng Chiang resulted in controversy for TVOntario as a result of accusations that the story was racist. Consequently the story was not rebroadcast. CBC began showing the series again in 2005.
Only four episodes have ever had their premier showings on channels other than BBC One. The 1983 twentieth anniversary special "The Five Doctors" had its début on 23 November (the actual date of the anniversary) on the Chicago PBS station WTTW in the United States and various other PBS members two days prior to its BBC One broadcast. The 1988 story Silver Nemesis was broadcast with all three episodes edited together in compilation form on TVNZ in New Zealand in November, after the first episode had been shown in the UK but before the final two instalments had aired there. Finally, the 1996 television film premièred on 12 May 1996 on CITV in Edmonton, Canada, fifteen days before the BBC One showing, and two days before it aired on Fox in the US.
A wide selection of serials is available from BBC Video on VHS and DVD, on sale in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States. Every fully extant serial has been released on VHS, and BBC Worldwide continues to regularly release serials on DVD. The 2005 series is also available in its entirety on UMD for the PlayStation Portable
As of September 2007, the revived series had been, or was currently, broadcast weekly in Australia (ABC), Austria (Pro 7), Belgium (één), Brazil (People+Arts), Canada in English on (CBC) and in French on (Ztélé), Denmark (Danmarks Radio), Finland (TV2), France (France 4), Germany (Pro 7), Hong Kong (ATV World) and BBC Entertainment, Hungary (RTL Klub-owned COOL TV), Ireland (TV3), Israel (Yes Stars 2), Italy (Jimmy), Japan (BS-2, a channel of NHK), Malaysia (Astro Network), the Netherlands (NED 3), New Zealand (Prime TV), Norway (NRK), Poland (TVP 1), Portugal (People+Arts), Russia (STS TV), Spain and Latin America (People+Arts), South Korea (KBS2 (dubbed in Korean) and Fox (subtitled in Korean)), Sweden (SVT), Switzerland (Pro 7), Thailand (Channel 7 and BBC Entertainment), Turkey (Cine5), the United States (Sci Fi Channel [first run], public television [second run] and BBC America [second run]), Greece (Skai TV), Style UK (part of Showtime Arabia) for the Middle East, North Africa and the Levant territories. The series has also been sold to, but not yet shown in Romania (TVR).
A special logo has been designed for the Japanese broadcast with t
