User:John Stephenson/Doctor Who (1960s-1990s)

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Doctor Who

British science-fiction drama series

First broadcasts

23rd November 1963 (original series) 12th May 1996 (TV movie)

Creators

Sydney Newman Donald Wilson C. E. Webber

Starring

William Hartnell • Patrick Troughton Jon Pertwee • Tom Baker Peter Davison • Colin Baker Sylvester McCoy • Paul McGann

Doctor Who ran from 1963 to 1989 as a television series on the BBC, which was followed by a 1996 television movie prior to its relaunch in 2005. The programme has lasted so long partly because the Doctor, who has an alien physiology, is able to regenerate his body when badly injured, allowing the lead actor to be recast. By 1996, eight actors had played the Doctor on television, with others appearing in unofficial or alternative productions.

History

(CC) Photo: Tim Schnack
Cast and crew of Doctor Who reunited at a 1983 fan convention celebrating 20 years of the programme. Clockwise from top left: Tom Baker (fourth Doctor, 1974-1981), John Nathan-Turner (producer, 1980-1989), Patrick Troughton (second Doctor, 1966-1969), Peter Davison (fifth Doctor, 1981-1984), and Jon Pertwee (third Doctor, 1970-1974); with 'companion' actors Sarah Sutton (1981-1983), Mark Strickson (1983-1984), Carole Ann Ford (1963-1964), Elisabeth Sladen (1974-1976), and Janet Fielding (1981-1984).

1960s

In the early 1960s, Doctor Who was the eventual product of a desire within the BBC to bring science fiction to the small screen. Something was also needed to plug a gap in the Saturday early evening schedules of sport and music programmes; Doctor Who was created by Sydney Newman, Donald Wilson and C.E. Webber, and produced by the BBC's drama department as a family viewing, intended to be educational and exciting. Time travel as a premise of the series would allow a balance of historical settings and space adventure, with the characters facing danger alongside both aliens and figures of history. With Verity Lambert - then the BBC's youngest and only female producer - at the helm, William Hartnell was cast as the grandfatherly, enigmatic 'Doctor' and the series was first shown on 23rd November 1963.

Doctor Who initially endured a rough ride, though audiences seemed positive on the whole. The series was over-budget, with money being clawed back gradually through Lambert's stewardship, and forces within the BBC were unhappy that the Drama Department were responsible for a programme that they felt would find a more appropriate home at the BBC. The series was only intended to run for a few episodes, but all that changed with the second serial - The Daleks. Terry Nation's script ushered in the mid-sixties 'Dalekmania' craze, with millions of children and not a few older viewers taking the evil Daleks to heart. The Daleks secured the show's future, and over time, appeared more regularly both in the series and in two cinematic productions starring Peter Cushing. More aliens appeared in the programme, and as the years rolled by, the 'pure historical' serials (those set in Earth's past, with no aliens involved) dwindled as successive production teams took the TARDIS further out into time and space.

By 1966, changes were afoot as audience ratings began to decline. Hartnell was ill and had become increasingly difficult to deal with. If the show was to survive, a new lead actor was required, raising the problem of how to recast the Doctor. Several ideas were suggested, but ultimately the concept of a mysterious 'renewal' process, explained as part of the TARDIS, was shown to change the Doctor's physical appearance and, to some extent, his personality. Patrick Troughton first appeared as the Doctor in 1966; over the next few weeks, it became clear that audiences were warming to his portrayal of the Doctor as a dishevelled figure with a determination to overcome the terrors of the universe, and the series entered its so-called 'Monster Era', with more alien creatures appearing: the Yeti, the "Ice Warriors" (Martians), and the Quarks, to name but a few.

1969 saw Troughton's departure; his final episode saw the Doctor captured and put on trial by his own people, accused of meddling in the affairs of other races. The 'Time Lords', from whom it was revealed the Doctor fled due to boredom, exiled the Doctor to Earth and imposed a second change of appearance, heralding another radical change for the series.

1970s

The early 1970s saw the first episodes of Doctor Who broadcast in colour - a move which certainly suited the flamboyant third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee as something of a dandy. This incarnation would emphasise the Doctor's love of technological wizardry and high-powered vehicles - aspects which drew much on the interests of Pertwee himself. The actor would occasionally spot a new or interesting vehicle - such as a one-seater hovercraft or a gyrocopter - and ask for it to appear in the show with him at the controls, an arrangement which the manufacturers were generally all-too-happy to arrange. Pertwee's Doctor would also make more use of the 'sonic screwdriver', a handheld device introduced in the Troughton years that got the Time Lord out of many tricky situations.

Under outgoing producer Derrick Sherwin, the series moved to an Earth-based background where the Doctor would be aided by a military organisation known as the 'United Nations Intelligence Taskforce' (UNIT). Stories set in a near-future Earth - actually, for the most part the south of England - were cheaper to produce and would involve higher production values, especially during the transition to colour programming. However, new producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks found the UNIT format too restrictive, and so gradually steered the Doctor's adventures to ever-lengthier forays back out into time and space.

The 1970s were also the years when critics of the programme increasingly labelled the programme as too violent and unsuitable for children; this began with the introductions of the Nestene, a creature able to control plastic, in two adventures which depicted everyday objects such as shop dummies and dolls coming to life and attacking people. Though Letts and Dicks tried to tone down the violence, writer and later script editor Robert Holmes was more willing to include the scares.

In 1974, Pertwee moved on, and was succeeded by Tom Baker, then the youngest actor to take on the part. At 40, Baker would go on to become the best-remembered Doctor to date, playing the role for a record seven years and depicting the Doctor as a more 'bohemian' figure, usually clad in a long coat, wide-brimmed hat and trademark scarf. Under Philip Hinchcliffe, Letts's successor, and with Holmes script-editing, the programme became more challenging viewing for the youngest fans, with more violence and blood depicted. Over time, the Doctor varied from a darker personality given to sombre moods, to a lighter portrayal which injected much humour into the series, especially when Graham Williams took over as producer and Douglas Adams script-edited the programme in the late 1970s. This was also the time when Baker's own influence over his characterisation was at its height. By this time, Doctor Who was a mainstay of Saturday-evening entertainment, regularly pulling in over ten million viewers a week, and towards the end of the decade had become notably more humour-driven and aimed at younger viewers, largely due to pressure both within and outside the BBC. Change, as ever, was just around the corner.

1980s

John Nathan-Turner became the producer of Doctor Who in 1980, at the time of Baker's final season. 'JN-T' would go on to produce the programme right through the 1980s, and became the source of much fan comment due to an increasingly controversial style. In 1981, he cast the well-known actor Peter Davison as Baker's successor - at the time, the youngest ever at 29 - and oversaw the Doctor's transformation into a more 'human' persona that evidenced a love of cricket - as evidenced by his outfit - and a more 'vulnerable' character that was far from infallible, more so when the 'sonic screwdriver' was written out to make life more challenging for the Doctor. Nathan-Turner was determined to court the series' fans by bringing back old adversaries, and also introduced more unconventional companions that were a sharp contrast with the mostly female, human occupants that until then had made up the majority of TARDIS travellers. Nathan-Turner was an expert publicist, occasionally putting out false stories (such as a fake story title, 'The Doctor's Wife', and announcing that the police box shape of the TARDIS might be axed), and making sure that Doctor Who was rarely out of the public eye.

Davison would ultimately decide that three years was enough, and Nathan-Turner again had to find a replacement, casting Colin Baker, until then best-known for playing television villains. Baker debuted in 1984, playing a loud and unashamedly arrogant sixth Doctor, and would ultimately complete only two seasons. The BBC considered Doctor Who vulnerable against competition on other channels, and possibly too violent, though Michael Grade,　then the Controller of BBC One, would later admit a personal dislike of the show. Creative differences between Nathan-Turner and his script editor, Eric Saward, reached a low point at this stage. A decision was taken in 1985 to 'suspend' Doctor Who, with effect from early 1986, but a fan campaign backed up by the media ensured its return in late 1987; Nathan-Turner is widely credited with ensuring that the press took the programme's side, especially when it was suggested that the cancellation was part of a plot to introduce a higher television licence fee. However, senior management were determined to implement change: Baker was sacked, and Nathan-Turner was forced to cast his third leading man.

1987 saw the return of the series with the little-known Sylvester McCoy in the role. McCoy's portrayal took some time to become established as the actor gradually settled into the role, at a time when behind-the-scenes strikes were taking their toll on production. McCoy's early clownish seventh Doctor became much darker and manipulative under the direction of script editor Andrew Cartmel; this era of the show also encouraged young and inexperienced writers, leading to some of the most innovative but controversial stories of the original series. By 1989, however, ratings had declined once more, and this time no media campaign backed the series when it was quietly killed off after 26 years.

1990s

See also spin-offs

Doctor Who survived throughout the 1990s as a series of original novels produced by Virgin Publishing, and later the BBC. In 1996, the Doctor returned to the small screen in a U.S.-backed TV movie which saw McCoy hand over to Paul McGann. The production fared well among UK audiences, but was poorly scheduled in North America and ultimately it failed to go to a series. McGann's Doctor, who was revealed to be half-human, was a gentler figure than his predecessor, often struck by amnesia. His adventures continued in print, on radio and in comics into the twenty-first century. He returned to television in a short 50th-anniversary production, The Night of the Doctor, in 2013, which revealed the details of the end of the eighth Doctor's life.

Characters

The Doctor

(CC) Photo: Tim Schnack
Peter Davison was the youngest actor to play the Doctor in the original 1963-1989 series, taking on the role from 1981 to 1984. Wearing his cricket-inspired outfit, here he meets fans at a 1983 convention.

The Doctor is the main character in the series: various aspects of his character and past have been revealed, but much remains mysterious. Even his name remains an enigma; 'Who' is certainly not his real name (An Unearthly Child, 1963), though he has occasionally used it as a pseudonym, especially when translated into other languages (e.g. The Underwater Menace, 1967), or was referred to as such in a few 1960s episodes.. As for his title, various explanations have been presented over the years, such as the Doctor obtaining various doctorates (e.g. The Armageddon Factor, 1978). It is unclear whether he is a medical doctor or not, and early on he referred to himself as a scientist and engineer, "a builder of things" (The Aztecs, 1964).

Over the course of the series' first few years, it becomes clear that the Doctor is not a human being, though in the 1990s and later, it was shown that he may have some human roots (Doctor Who, 1996). First shown travelling with his grand-daughter, Susan (An Unearthly Child, 1963), the programme has given but a few hints about what other family he might have had: the 1996 film revealed that his mother was human. From 1969's The War Games, the Doctor's　own people, the Time Lords, appeared regularly in the show.

The Doctor's physiology is rather different from humans; Spearhead from Space (1970) reveals he has two hearts, for example, and he is also capable of physical and mental feats beyond those of an ordinary human. The most spectacular of these, first shown at the conclusion of 1966's The Tenth Planet, is his ability to 'regenerate' - what he calls a "renewal" (The Power of the Daleks, 1966). It is quickly established that this new person is the same character, physically different and with some new personality quirks, but still the same adventurer. Later stories established that this ability is limited to twelve regenerations (e.g. The Deadly Assassin, 1977; Mawdryn Undead, 1983), though in The War Games (1969), the Doctor stated that Time Lords could live forever.

Other aspects of the Doctor's life remain less clear. Occasionally, there are suggestions of romantic feelings towards others, e.g. his companions Grace (Doctor Who, 1996), but his personal relationships are never humanlike. For much of the series, the relationships with his companions were purely platonic.

Companions

The Doctor rarely travels the universe alone, and many of his friends or 'companions' have shared his adventures over the years. The very first, Susan, was actually his grand-daughter, with her two human teachers completing the first TARDIS crew from 1963 after they followed her home to an old police box in the very first episode, An Unearthly Child. Through curiosity, being rescued or taking up an offer to see the universe, many others followed over the years. In the 1970s, the Doctor was 'exiled' to Earth by his own people for a time, and became a reluctant member of UNIT, a special taskforce set up to counter alien threats. This 'UNIT family' memorably included Nicholas Courtney as its commanding officer, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Other well-remembered companions of the 1970s included the accident-prone UNIT agent Jo Grant (Katy Manning), the leather-clad savage Leela (Louise Jameson), and Sarah Jane Smith, a journalist played by Elisabeth Sladen in the original series, the new series and two spin-off productions of 1981 and 2007-2011, K-9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Villains

In Doctor Who, the universe is a dangerous place. A frequently occurring theme is that of various alien races attempting to conquer the Earth or otherwise threatening the human race, only to be foiled by the Doctor. Examples include the Cybermen, the Sontarans and the Doctor's arch-nemesis, the Master (a fellow, evil Time Lord played mainly by Roger Delgado and Anthony Ainley).

Best-known villains in the series and wider UK culture are the 'Daleks', mutants inside metallic pepperpot-like casings equipped with a gun and an appendage not unlike a sink plunger. Envisaged as representing the Nazis, their best-known characteristic is frequently screaming "Exterminate!" at anything un-Dalek prior to destroying anything that gets in their way of eliminating all life other than that which is Dalek. The Daleks have appeared several times in the series, firstly in The Daleks (1963), where it appears that they are confined to a single city on their home planet of Skaro. Their popularity meant that future appearances saw them transformed into the most dangerous race in the universe (e.g. The Dalek Invasion of Earth, 1964; Genesis of the Daleks, 1975).

Format

For most of its 1963-1989 run, Doctor Who was broadcast in 25-minute episodes, with few exceptions: the series experimented with 45-minute episodes in the mid-1980s. Initially the programme ran for most of the year, with only a few weeks' break between seasons (and if the programme was repeated in the interim, it would effectively be shown year-round). Over the decades, the number of episodes each year was reduced; about 26 was the norm for some years, though by the end of the 1980s this had fallen to 14. Long stories of six or more episodes thus became a thing of the past; the majority of stories consisted of four episodes. From 1966, each story had only one title, but originally individual episodes had separate titles, leading to considerable fan debate over what the overall titles for some of these early serials are. The very first story, for instance, is commonly known and marketed by the BBC as An Unearthly Child, which strictly speaking was only the title of the very first episode. Internal production documents have led some fans to conclude that the 'true' title is 100,000 BC.

Music and titles

The theme music for Doctor Who changed little for the first 17 years of the original series's run: composed by Ron Grainer and realised by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, this example of electronic music played over the original series titles, which were achieved using a howl-round visual effect. The final result served as a memorable introduction to each episode. Other composers on the original series included Peter Howell, who created a faster, more dramatic version for the period 1980-1985; Dominic Glynn (1986); and Keff McCulloch (1987-1989). The 1996 film also had new theme music.

Spin-offs and other adventures

(CC) Photo: Sam Howzit
The robot dog K-9 appeared in Doctor Who and several spin-offs.

The original series had only one spin-off, which did not survive beyond its 1981 pilot. K-9 and Company starred Elisabeth Sladen and John Leeson, reprising their roles as former companions Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 (a robot dog voiced by Leeson).

Other media

In the 1960s, Terry Nation was unable to launch a U.S. spin-off series starring his creations, the Daleks, but they twice appeared on the big screen. Two televised adventures of Doctor Who were remade for the cinema: Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965) and Daleks: Invasion Earth 2150AD (1966) starred Peter Cushing as 'Doctor Who', an elderly human scientist who had invented a time machine. These two films, which were not part of the television series's continuity, did well at a time when 'Dalekmania' was at its height; as enthusiasm for the exterminating aliens waned, however, the Daleks made no further assaults on the box office.

Following a Doctor-less Dalek stage play of the late 1960s, The Curse of the Daleks, in the early the Time Lord returned to the stage in Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday, starring Trevor Martin as an alternative fourth Doctor. Another theatrical adventure, this time featuring Doctors from the television series, appeared as The Ultimate Adventure in 1989. Jon Pertwee reprised his role for the play's first run - with David Banks understudying - and a further run of shows featured Colin Baker returning to the role. Baker and his co-star on the original series, Nicola Bryant, also appeared in a Doctor Who radio drama, Slipback, in 1985. Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen also voiced their characters for Doctor Who and the Pescatons, an original adventure first released on LP in 1976. The 1980s also saw a series of documentary films from Reeltime Pictures, as well as independent productions licensed to use certain characters from Doctor Who, the first being Wartime in 1987. Among others, Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans (1994) was a new outing for a classic Doctor Who race of villains, and this was followed by Downtime (1995), which saw the return of the Yeti, a 1960s monster.

Nearly all the stories broadcast up to 1996 have been novelized, and annuals containing new stories appeared in print from early in the programme's broadcast history, as did comic strips. In the 1990s two new stories were broadcast on BBC radio, though one of them actually appeared after its novelization as a result of delays. Elisabeth Sladen starred alongside Jon Pertwee and Nicholas Courtney in the two Doctor Who BBC Radio dramas, written by former producer Barry Letts: The Paradise of Death (1993) and The Ghosts of N-Space (1996).

Many of the original stars of the series appeared as different characters - some rather similar to their Doctor Who personas - in several fan-produced video dramas in the 1990s. More recently, they have starred in officially-licensed audio dramas by Big Finish, some of which have aired on the digital radio station BBC 7. Meanwhile, a series of original novels saw Doctors past and present battling adversaries old and new first for Virgin Publishing in their New Adventures series (1991-1997), then BBC Books (1997-). Virgin's range continued without the Doctor, following the adventures of his print companion Bernice Summerfield.

Spoofs

The BBC itself produced two spoofs of Doctor Who for charity. In 1993, Children in Need featured Dimensions in Time, a crossover with several incarnations of the Doctor meeting characters from the British soap opera Eastenders. This was publicised as a "pantomime" and is not considered 'canon' by fans. In 1999, Red Nose Day featured the comedy Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death.