<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

From SCI FI: Doctor Who is a science fiction TV series produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Its lead character is a human-looking alien known as the Doctor. Traveling through time and space in a ship called the TARDIS, the Doctor has adventures and fights evil throughout the universe. He's almost always accompanied by a companion or companions — people he's befriended during his adventures who have accepted his offer to travel with him (or who have stowed away on board the TARDIS). Doctor Who has the distinction of being the longest-running science-fiction show in television history, being broadcast on the BBC from 1963 until it was cancelled in 1989. It was shown in weekly 25-minute episodes (except for a single season in the mid-1980s that had 45-minute episodes), with complete, separate stories comprising anywhere from two to fourteen episodes. After its cancellation, Doctor Who was briefly revived as a single two-hour TV movie on the American Fox Network in 1996, but low ratings failed to convince Fox to exercise its option to produce a series. The creative rights returned to the BBC, who resurrected the series in 2005, extending the episodes to 45 minutes each and updating the look and feel of the program for a modern audience, to much acclaim.

Contents 1 New series vs. classic series 2 The Fox TV movie 3 Novels and audio adventures 4 The TARDIS 5 Regeneration 6 Actors who played the Doctor 7 Companions 8 Villains and monsters

New series vs. classic series

Doctor Who originally ran from 1963 to 1989, and in light of the new series which began in 2005, this version is often referred to as "the original series" or "the classic series." Although the new series is a continuation of the classic series (and not a "re-imagining" like the new Battlestar Galactica), the look and feel of the two versions of Doctor Who are much different. Firstly, the new series is shot entirely on "filmised video," whereas the classic series (like many BBC programs at the time) used video for studio shooting and film for footage shot on location, a style known within the industry as "piebald shooting" (which made transitions between indoor and outdoor locations very obvious). The new series also includes teasers both before the opening credits (sometimes recapping what went before) and, often, just before or after the closing credits ("Next Time..."). Most important, though, the new series makes use of modern special-effects techniques such as CGI. The classic series used production techniques that were considered state-of-the-art when it premiered in the 1960s, but within ten years, as budgets and scheduling failed to keep up with the show's needs, it developed a reputation for unconvincing special effects and silly-looking monsters in rubber suits. Regardless, audiences responded to the classic series because of its exciting storytelling and the compelling science fiction ideas it put forward, not its relatively modest special-effects budget. The new series continues this tradition of telling good stories, but with better effects.

The Fox TV movie

Doctor Who briefly returned in the mid-1990s, thanks mainly to the efforts of executive producer Philip Segal. The single two-hour movie, shown on the Fox Network in May 1996, was also a continuation of the original series, going so far as to cast the last person who played the Doctor in the classic series, Sylvester McCoy, and show him regenerating into the character's next incarnation (see "Regeneration," below). The movie garnered low ratings and many aspects of the story were criticized by longtime Doctor Who fans — especially the very controversial move to reveal that the Doctor is half-human. Nevertheless, audiences were pleased with the performance by the man who played the new Doctor, Paul McGann, and the story is considered canonical in the Doctor Who universe. The Fox TV movie is Paul McGann's only onscreen appearance as the Doctor.

Novels and audio adventures

Between the time of Doctor Who's cancellation in 1989 and its revival in 2005, hundreds of novelized adventures and audio stories were created. The books, published by Virgin Publishing and later the BBC, continued the adventures of the Doctor and his companions after the classic series' final episode, "Survival." There were also several "Missing Adventures" and "Past Doctor Adventures" published — stories set at points in the series before the final episode (sometimes long before). In 1999, the BBC licensed Big Finish Productions to make Doctor Who audio adventures, which feature many cast members from the classic series — as well as Paul McGann from the TV movie — reprising their roles with their voices. Big Finish and the BBC continue to produce original Doctor Who stories for books and audio to this day.

The TARDIS

The Doctor travels in his ship, the TARDIS, the name of which is an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension (or Dimensions) In Space. (See the main TARDIS article for more details on this name.) In classic science fiction parlance, it is a time machine, able to travel to any place in the universe at any time in that place's history. A built-in camouflage device (called a "chameleon circuit") is supposed to disguise the TARDIS to blend in with its surroundings, but it stopped working when the Doctor was in London in the 1960s (coinciding with the first episode of the original series, "An Unearthly Child"). Because of the malfunctioning circuit, the TARDIS has ever since been stuck in the shape of a Police Box — a heavy, opaque blue phone booth designed for emergency phone calls to the police. Probably the most important feature of the TARDIS, beyond its traveling abilities, is that it is "dimensionally transcendental", which means that the space inside the Police Box shell is much, much bigger than the shell itself. Also, in the new series especially, the idea that the TARDIS may actually be alive has been explored.

Regeneration

The Doctor was first played by William Hartnell. Hartnell was 55 years old when he took the role, and when the producers faced the prospect of his leaving the series (due ostensibly to health reasons), they came up with a novel idea for recasting the role: regeneration. Although the Doctor's origins hadn't yet been revealed at that point in the series, his past was shrouded in mystery, so it was made part of the series' mythology that the Doctor can completely change his physical appearance — "regenerate" — when necessary. This became a series linchpin, as it allowed the role of the Doctor to be recast many times. Eventually, the series explained his regenerating ability by revealing that the Doctor is a Time Lord from a planet called Gallifrey and that Time Lords were bestowed with a few special powers, including the ability to regenerate — but they can only do so 12 times (potentially resulting in 13 different "incarnations" of the Doctor). To date, the Doctor has regenerated nine times. David Tennant is the current actor to play the role.

Actors who played the Doctor

It is customary among fans, writers, and producers to refer to Doctors by their number, such as calling David Tennant the Tenth Doctor, although this is never done on-screen.

1. First Doctor, played by William Hartnell (1963–1966)
2. Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton (1966–1969)
3. Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee (1970–1974)
4. Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker (1974–1981)
5. Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison (1981–1984)
6. Sixth Doctor, played by Colin Baker (1984–1986)
7. Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy (1987–1989, 1996)
8. Eighth Doctor, played by Paul McGann (1996)
9. Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston (2005) -- Eccleston was the first actor to play the Doctor in the new version of the series.
10. Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant (2005–present)

In addition, Peter Cushing played the Doctor (although the character was actually called "Doctor Who") in two film adaptations, Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150 AD (1966). In light of the death of Hartnell, Richard Hurndall played the part of the First Doctor in the 20th anniversary episode "The Five Doctors." Other actors have played the Doctor in stage plays, radio/audio dramas, charity television specials, and animated forms.

It should be noted that Davison, Colin Baker, McCoy, and McGann have all reprised their roles in Big Finish's Doctor Who audio drama line, but the ending dates above do not reflect this.

Companions

During his adventures, the Doctor is almost always accompanied by companions who travel with him in the TARDIS. They come and go depending on storyline decisions and the availability of the actors who play them. The archetypal companion is female, young, and often in mortal danger. Many have gone against this mold, however, and some of the Doctor's more interesting companions have included a knife-wielding savage, a devious and cowardly schoolboy, a robot dog, and a tough teenager with a penchant for blowing things up with nitroglycerin. A few companions have died, emphasizing how dangerous it can be to travel with the Doctor.

Villains and monsters

A large part of Doctor Who's appeal is the many alien races and monsters the Doctor encounters during his adventures. Notable evil forces include the Cybermen, machine-like humanoids with no emotions; the Slitheen, a family of obese alien criminals who slaughtered humans so they could use their skins as disguises; and the Master, an evil Time Lord who served as the Doctor's dark reflection in the style of Sherlock Holmes' Moriarty. But Doctor Who probably would not have been renewed for a second season if it weren't for the monstrous Daleks. In the second story of the classic series, the Doctor encountered the very alien Daleks, malevolent blob-like mutants that spoke in a mechanical monotone and a moved around in robotlike shells that resembled giant pepper pots. Audiences immediately responded to the Daleks, and the show became an overnight phenomenon in the U.K. because of them. They are considered his greatest enemy, and their popularity ensured they would return many times to menace the Doctor.