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

4 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Tom Baker	...	Doctor Who 173 episodes, 1974-1984
William Hartnell	...	Dr. Who / ... 140 episodes, 1963-1984
Jon Pertwee	...	Doctor Who / ... 129 episodes, 1970-1984
Patrick Troughton	...	Dr. Who / ... 127 episodes, 1966-1985
Frazer Hines	...	Jamie / ... 116 episodes, 1966-1985
Nicholas Courtney	...	Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart / ... 106 episodes, 1965-1989
Pat Gorman	...	Guard / ... 34 episodes, 1964-1985
Elisabeth Sladen	...	Sarah Jane Smith 81 episodes, 1973-1984
Jacqueline Hill	...	Barbara Wright / ... 81 episodes, 1963-1980
William Russell	...	Ian Chesterton 78 episodes, 1963-1965
Katy Manning	...	Jo Grant 77 episodes, 1971-1984
John Scott Martin	...	Dalek / ... 66 episodes, 1965-1988
John Levene	...	Sergeant Benton / ... 70 episodes, 1967-1983
Peter Davison	...	The Doctor / ... 70 episodes, 1981-1984

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:

time traveller | time travel | space travel | human alien | reincarnation | 

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

TV editing was very difficult in the 1960s, and so (in common with most other British TV drama at the time) many early episodes of "Doctor Who" were recorded "as live". If the actors fluffed their lines, the others had to cover for him/her. There are several obvious instances of this in the series, such as in "The Web Planet" where actor William Hartnell forgot his lines, leading to co-star William Russell to prompt him by asking "What galaxy is that in then, Doctor?". In order to facilitate this style of recording, the actors were allowed a four-day rehearsal period (Monday-Thursday) followed by camera rehearsal on Friday day and the actual studio recording Friday evening. Saturdays were often spent on location recording inserts for future episodes, and the actors were given Sunday off before the process started again for the next episode on Monday morning. Although editing techniques improved over the years, it remained the case that studio scenes would usually be taped almost as live, using a multi-camera system, until the series ended in 1989.

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Goofs

Peri Brown is a California girl, but often pronounces words in Nicola Bryant's English accent.

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Quotes

Capt. Mike Yates: I see. So all we've got to deal with is something which is either too small to see or thirty feet tall, can incinerate you or freeze you to death, turn stone images into homicidal monsters and looks like the devil.
The Doctor: Exactly.

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Crazy Credits

A number of episodes in the 1960s did not feature William Hartnell as The Doctor. Despite this, he is still given lead actor credit on those episodes.

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Alternate Versions

Additional material from an earlier version of episode 2 of "Carnival Of Monsters" was mistakenly screened in Australia in the mid 1970's. These have since been included on the DVD release. One extended scene involves a more abrupt initial confrontation with Lieutenant Andrews and a more in-depth discussion with Shirna & Vorg. The deleted scene is in the SS Bernice stateroom, and immediately followed the eradicator attack upon the scope. It was removed due to timing purposes. Early versions of episode #2 used a new version of the theme music, composed by the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop to celebrate the shows 10th anniversary. The new arrangement used the EMI Synthi 100 "Delaware" Synthesiser. These alternate title sequences were eventually not used for Broadcast. For the 1981 repeat, director/producer Barry Letts requested that 44 seconds of material be cut from the final episode (#4), due to Peter Halliday's bald-cap slipping in some shots. This shortened 'directors preferred' ending is also included on the DVD.

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Connections

Referenced in Midnight Screenings: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

User Reviews

No Words Can Describe...

This series is just too huge to put into words. Classic Who has so many different styles and stories and protagonists. It's amazing concepts and different, iconic things.things that are just common knowledge in our culture today. Eight Doctors. Eight eras. There's just too much of it to put into words. Doctor Who is just part of British culture due to this fine, twenty six season long story of a time travelling alien.

Each Doctor's era is very different. They seem to have the same style as the Doctor. The Doctor ran the show, with the exception of the First Doctor (William Hartnell) to a degree, who let his companions take charge. Each Doctor had unique personalities, and the style and stories of Classic Who matched the Doctor they were assigned to.

The First Doctor was more of an adviser and let his companions take control, but he was still a crazy, lovable alien just like his other incarnations. The Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) is my favourite, he's very childish but intelligent and was grown up when he needed to be. The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) was the earthbound Doctor started off as arrogant and annoyed, but gradually became more loving. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) arguably made the show popular and is the most known Classic Doctor. He's also arguably the most childish and always had that huge smile.

The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) was the youngest Classic Doctor, but acted like the oldest at times. He's arguably the most unlucky Doctor as he just wants fun but death surrounds him. The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is arguably (yes, again) the most disliked Doctor due to his arrogance and choice of clothing (not his fault). He was very childish and serious most of the time. The Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) was the clown to start off with, but gradually got much darker and more manipulative but always remained childish. The Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) was probably the most human Doctor, and seemed to be one of the most childish but had a hidden sadness and rage, leading into New Who.

The TARDIS is the Doctor's iconic time and space travelling machine. It has became so iconic in British culture that if a child sees an old police box, he'll/she'll probably shout "TARDIS!" and point. The Master is the Doctor's nemesis, his Moriarty, who can also regenerate when injured as they are both the aliens called Time Lords from Gallifrey. Daleks are another iconic thing in Britain now, try and find somebody who doesn't know what one is.

Of course, these are only brief descriptions and don't go into each era, which usually matches the Doctor at the time. The series is so massive that I could describe it for hours. So impressive. A small concept became such an iconic show. Possibly more famous than Robin Hood, another British achievement.

I gave this series a 9 for a reason, though. I believe the pacing is too slow. It's hard to pay attention much of the time as things take so long to happen. This was normal at the time of 1960s Doctor Who, but not the extent this series. As fun and interesting as it is, it can bore me to a very large extent. If only each story was cut in half, bar some of the better paces stories.

So a huge cultural thing, but the series itself has a number of problems. The concepts are so genius, though, that these can be forgiven. I just find the series hard to watch a lot of the time. I'll review New Who (2005-) separately.

Details

Official Sites:

BBC [UK]

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 September 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

Doctor Who

Filming Locations:

City of London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

GBP4,500,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$293,279

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$293,279

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