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 #227 | 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

Ron Moody was approached to play the Third Doctor after his success in Oliver! (1968) but he turned down the role. He has stated in interviews that turning down the role of the Third Doctor was the worst thing he ever did professionally; every time he hears the familiar Doctor Who theme tune he kicks himself.

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Quotes

The Doctor: First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

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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

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 Metal Mickey: Mickey in Love (1980)

User Reviews

A Timeless gem of sci-fi TV

I think it's hard to even glance at the science fiction television scene without knowing about Doctor Who. There are many people I've come across who are fans and almost all of them have a different answer to the question (the question I always ask when I find this out) "Who's your favourite Doctor?" Everyone has a different opinion and the reason for that is something I'll get into later, either way each has it's own era which I'll get into. Either way, the plot is simple, an alien takes his granddaughter and 2 schoolteachers inside a telephone box that's bigger on the inside and is convinced to use the ability to travel anywhere in the universe at any time to save lives, the people he travels with changes and every time he dies he gets a new body.

The First Doctor is one that I'm sorry to say does not age well. His granddaughter is easily one of the most useless companions the show's ever had. I'd say his stories are slow and sometimes due to William Hartnell's decaying health that he seemed like a background character in his own show. I don't blame anyone for that, really. That and the show doesn't have it's comedic charm that it'll later have. With that said there are some endearing moments from these years and some of them hold up better then others.

The Second Doctor is where the show hit it's stride with bar none the one with the most influence on how future incarnations are to be played. Usually the most distinctive thing he's done that will sometimes get used by other incarnations is that he would usually fool his enemies into thinking he's an idiot or not as smart.

The Third Doctor's era is probably the most distinctive out of all of them because it changes it's premise and easily has the biggest change in the history of the show since the jump between this show and the newer one. I'd say some of his later ones are worth watching first just to get a gist of him actually doing what the show is about but I'd also say that if you want a kind of pre-cursor to shows like The X Files (except with the tone of Doctor Who) then I'd suggest stories like The Silurians. With all that said I do like Pertwee as The Doctor, kind of reminds me of what I thought when I thought of Sherlock Holmes before I saw any adaptation as a kid.

The Fourth Doctor is my favourite with my second favourite being... The second. His time on the show was so long that if you see a story from 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1981 then you'll see how different his era can be. I discovered the show through arguably one of the best stories of the entire 52 year run and Tom Baker can do effective build-up and also is by far the strangest and most unpredictable incarnation of the character.

The Fifth Doctor is where things got a little shaky... I mean, the most iconic incarnation of the character just left, how can they top that? Well, they went the route of making him the most human incarnation of the character. I do really like his performance and there are some things that still hold up, so even though it's after Baker, it's not an act of just "Go up until this point - then stop".

The Sixth... despite his reputation is not that bad. The writing here is where the show becomes the shadow of what it once was and never goes back on track. I'm not apt to blame Colin Baker for this, he seriously is trying but the problem is that despite some okay story-lines, those "Okay" ones were the best of them, like the BBC was just making more of the show out of obligation.

Finally the seventh... His just seems like they wanted one thing and after a year just threw up their arms and just asked for something else instead. His era started out like a bad remake of Troughton's era without using his being goofy to make his enemies underestimate him. This is where I think the show just gave up... Until his second and third year. He was changed from the goofy one nobody takes seriously because he's the goofy one nobody takes seriously to by far the most meticulous planner out of all the incarnations. Revelation Of The Daleks is a story where all he had to do was (using a chess metaphor) move the pieces around so he can do his final move which he made before the episode even started. Unfortunately though, instead of opening a new era, the BBC decided to cancel the show because... Well, nothing competes with 4... Except 2.

In conclusion, I know this isn't a linear review but I don't think I can talk about the show without splitting it up into these eras. I can't list all my pros and cons because this is the show that what one era does right, another era does wrong or vise versa. I could have gone into a lot more detail about things like why Colin Baker is not to blame for his era even going as far to say that he had very little control in anything, asking to dress in all black so The Doctor can blend into the night and instead greeted with... Well if you've seen his costume, you'll know why he hates it. There are so many different retrospectives and opinions if you want to start with something I'd suggest watching them. This show is something that lasts a lifetime.