Doctor Who 

The adventures in time and space of the Doctor, a Time Lord who changes appearance and personality by regenerating when near death, and is joined by companions in battles against aliens and other megalomaniacs.

Creator:

Sydney Newman

Stars:

William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee

Top Rated TV #238 | 3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Tom Baker	...	Doctor Who 178 episodes, 1974-1984
William Hartnell	...	Dr. Who / ... 144 episodes, 1963-1984
Jon Pertwee	...	Doctor Who / ... 132 episodes, 1970-1984
Patrick Troughton	...	Dr. Who / ... 131 episodes, 1966-1985
Frazer Hines	...	Jamie / ... 117 episodes, 1966-1985
Nicholas Courtney	...	Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart / ... 109 episodes, 1965-1989
Pat Gorman	...	Guard / ... 104 episodes, 1964-1985
Elisabeth Sladen	...	Sarah Jane Smith 83 episodes, 1973-1984
Jacqueline Hill	...	Barbara Wright / ... 81 episodes, 1963-1980
William Russell	...	Ian Chesterton 78 episodes, 1963-1965
Katy Manning	...	Jo Grant 78 episodes, 1971-1984
John Scott Martin	...	Dalek / ... 76 episodes, 1965-1988
John Levene	...	Sergeant Benton / ... 74 episodes, 1967-1983

Storyline

Traveling across time and space, the immortal time-lord known as 'The Doctor' travels across the universe with his many companions and his loyal shape-shifting space-ship: The TARDIS. The Doctor faces many threats across many generations: from The Daleks, The Cybermen and his time-lord adversary The Master to the sinister Davros, creator of The Daleks.

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Plot Keywords:

doctor who | gunfight at the o.k. corral | doc holliday | reference to tombstone arizona | arizona territory | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Official Sites:

BBC [UK]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 September 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

Doctor 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 (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

When the series was syndicated in the US, many stations did not show it in its half-hour long, cliff-hanger format. Instead, a "movie version", made up of all episodes of one adventure, but with the cliff-hanger endings edited out, would be shown. Since the number of episodes used to tell one story would sometimes vary (usually four episodes, but sometimes 6, 7, or only 2), the "movie versions" varied in length. Because of this, many stations showed the movie versions on weekends, in late-night or early-morning slots, where their schedules were more flexible.

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Quotes

The Doctor: I always like to do the unexpected, it takes people by surprise.

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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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Alternate Versions

Although there are over 100 lost episodes from the 1960s, all of them exist in audio-only form, due to fans' off-air recordings made at the time of broadcast. These have been issued in audiobook format.

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Connections

Referenced in How Video Games Changed the World (2013)

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.