Doctor Who (1963–1989)

The adventures of an eccentric renegade time traveling alien and his companions.

Stars:

Tom Baker, William Hartnell, Jon Pertwee

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Tom Baker	...	Doctor Who (172 episodes, 1974-1981)
William Hartnell	...	Dr. Who (136 episodes, 1963-1973)
Jon Pertwee	...	Doctor Who (129 episodes, 1970-1983)
Patrick Troughton	...	Dr. Who (126 episodes, 1966-1985)
Frazer Hines	...	Jamie McCrimmon (117 episodes, 1966-1985)
Nicholas Courtney	...	Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart (106 episodes, 1965-1989)
Elisabeth Sladen	...	Sarah Jane Smith (81 episodes, 1973-1983)
Jacqueline Hill	...	Barbara Wright (80 episodes, 1963-1980)
William Russell	...	Ian Chesterton (77 episodes, 1963-1965)
Katy Manning	...	Jo Grant (77 episodes, 1971-1973)
John Levene	...	Sergeant Benton (71 episodes, 1968-1975)
Peter Davison	...	The Doctor (70 episodes, 1981-1984)

Storyline

The Doctor is a renegade Time Lord: an eccentric, highly-intelligent scientist from a distant planet. He travels through time and space in the TARDIS, a curious device, larger on the inside than on the outside, which was designed to change its appearance to suit its surroundings. Unfortunately, the Doctor's TARDIS seems to be broken, and always appears as a blue British police box. The Doctor has a soft spot for the planet Earth, and often visits there, either to save it from various alien threats or to whisk a choice few inhabitants away to the distant parts of the galaxy to help him fight evil there. The Doctor has many foes, including Daleks (led by Davros), and The Master, another renegade Time Lord. Time Lord biology enables them to regenerate their bodies, and so both the Doctor and the Master appear evolve over the years...

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Plot Keywords:

time lord | alien | renegade | companion | eccentric | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

BBC [United Kingdom]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 September 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

Docteur Who

Filming Locations:

England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£4,500,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

45 min 45 min (15 episodes) 25 min (679 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono (1963-1987) Stereo (1988-1989)

Color:

Black and White (1963-1969) Color (1970-1989)

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The design of the Daleks was never based on an actual pepper pot and was designed around a seated person. The pepper pot was used by designer Raymond Cusick to demonstrate how he envisaged it moving. A Dalek used in the series was five feet six inches tall, four feet long and three feet wide, weighing 336 pounds. The operator inside worked the Dalek gun, plunger, eye stalk and the lights, while a voice actor in the corner of the studio provided the Dalek voice by speaking into a ring modulator. The operator inside still had to learn the lines even though he didn't speak them, as the lights had to operate in synchronicity with the voice.

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Quotes

The Doctor: Into the matrix. Where the only logic is there isn't any logic.

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Crazy Credits

While several episodes made use of teaser sequences before the opening credits (though only a handful in the show's 26-year history), the 1970 7-part story "The Ambassadors of Death" was unique in that it was an experiment in changing the format of the opening credits that was not repeated. At the start of each chapter, the credits would begin as usual but end right after the title "Doctor Who" appeared (before the episode and writer titles appeared). A brief teaser then followed, followed by the remainder of the opening sequence, as usual. Another story from the same season, "Inferno", also altered the format of the opening credits slightly by showing the episode and writer titles over footage of bubbling lava.

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Connections

Referenced in Don't Crash: The Documentary of the Making of the Movie of the Book of the Radio Series of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (2005)

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Soundtracks

"Incidental Music (1989)"
Written by Eden Akhavi
Performed by Eden Akhavi

User Reviews

Excellent

This is perhaps one of the finest sci-fi series ever made. The idea is simple; a timelord who travels through time and space in a TARDIS (in the shape of an old Police Box)with various companions to fight the forces of evil in the Universe.

The budget was never large, but the ideas and effort were outstanding. It started going downhill after Peter Davison finished his turn as the Doctor, mainly due to poor stories and weaker scripts, but with the right budget and some seasoned writers, this show could be very great again.

Well worth watching for the ideas alone - especially some of those in the Tom Baker era, this has a massive worldwide following and deservedly so.