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Doctor Who

British science-fiction drama series

First broadcast

26th March 2005 (new series)

Starring

Christopher Eccleston • David Tennant Matt Smith

Executive producers

Russell T. Davies, Julie Gardner (2005-2009) Stephen Moffat

Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television series which was relaunched in 2005 following its original 26-year run on the BBC, plus a 1996 television movie. On television and in other media, it features the adventures of a time traveller known as the 'Doctor', who journeys through time and space, righting wrongs and fighting injustice, often accompanied by friends known to fans as 'companions'.

The programme has lasted since 1963 partly because the Doctor, who has an alien physiology, is able to 'regenerate' himself when badly injured, allowing the lead actor to be recast. In the 'new series' (2005-), three actors have played the Doctor - Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith. His time machine, the TARDIS, is famously disguised as an old British police box and is bigger on the inside than out; some well-known adversaries include the Daleks - mutants inside pepperpot-shaped casings - the Cybermen, and the Slitheen family. The 2010 series is executive-produced by Stephen Moffat and introduces Matt Smith as the Doctor. Moffat took over from Russell T. Davies, who brought back the show in 2005. Currently, Doctor Who appears to have won a new generation of followers of varying ages: the UK children's magazine show Blue Peter, for example, reported that their 'Design a Doctor Who Monster' competition received the largest number of entries for any such event since 1993.

History

Following the programme's 1989 cancellation and failure of a 1996 American-backed movie to secure a new series, the rights to make Doctor Who remained outside the reach of BBC programme-makers. The return of the show in 2005 was largely due to the persistence ofthe then-Controller of Drama Commissioning, Jane Tranter, and the Controller of BBC One at the time, Lorraine Heggessey, who finally won the rights to the series from the corporation's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide. The lack of support for further films finally convinced the BBC that an in-house series was the best way to secure the future of the programme.. The 'new series' retained the TARDIS and other key features of the original 'classic series', rather than being a fundamentally new spin-off. Going into production in 2004, it was executive-produced by writer Russell T. Davies and BBC Wales Head of Drama/BBC Television Controller of Drama Commissioning Julie Gardner. Davies had contributed to a range of Doctor Who novels published in the interim years, so brought a love of the programme to the new series, as well as considerable television scriptwriting experience. Davies cast the highly-experienced actor Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, leaving the circumstances of his latest regeneration unclear. Eccleston, however, declined to appear in a second run of 13 45-minute adventures, along with a Christmas special, leading Davies to cast David Tennant as the tenth Doctor.

After four series and several specials, Davies left the programme in the hands of frequent writer for the series, Stephen Moffat, who is executive producer from series five onwards. With David Tennant also leaving the series in 2010, the fifth season of the programme will open with a new actor playing the Doctor, Matt Smith.

Characters

The Doctor

The Doctor is the main character in the series: various aspects of his character and past have been revealed, but much remains mysterious. The Doctor's real name, for example, is something he could reveal "only one time" (Forest of the Dead, 2008).

In Rose (2005), the first episode of the new series, the viewer is introduced to what appears to be a leather-jacketed man of action, mid-way through a conflict with a creature known as the Nestene. It becomes clear that he is not a human being, and that he travels in time and space in a machine disguised as a 1950s police telephone box, and which is much bigger on the inside. This story also reveals that he believes himself to be the last of his own people, who were destroyed in a battle known as the 'Time War'. Throughout this season of adventures, it is emphasised that this individual is "damaged", in Russell T. Davies's words, by his experiences, which make him somewhat unpredictable.

The Doctor's physiology is rather different from humans, with its most spectacular ability being to 'regenerate' - what he calls a a trick for "cheating death", as shown at the conclusion of 2005's The Parting of the Ways. With the Doctor's body fatally injured in the course of saving his companion's life, she and the viewer witness a tremendous burst of energy released from his body, and his features melt into those of a new individual - the Doctor's tenth incarnation, portrayed by David Tennant. 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, (The Christmas Invasion, 2006), who would rather solve problems with his wits than through violence. The new series is yet to indicate whether there is a limit to the number of times the Doctor can do this; in School Reunion (2006), he states that he does not age, though this may be in relation to the much shorter lifespan of a human being.

Other aspects of the Doctor's life remain less clear. Sometimes, there are suggestions of romantic feelings towards others, e.g. Reinette in the 2006 adventure The Girl in the Fireplace, and his companion Rose (2005-2008), but his personal relationships are never humanlike. The programme has given but a few hints about what family he might have had: the new series has mentioned a brother (Smith & Jones, 2007) and that he was a father (Fear Her, 2006). The Doctor's　own people, the Time Lords, were destroyed in a 'Time War' with the Daleks, the Doctor's greatest adversary.

Companions

The Doctor rarely travels the universe alone, and many of his friends or 'companions' have shared his adventures over the years. The Doctor is initially travelling alone, but former London shop assistant Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) joins him at the close of the opening 2005 adventure, with others appearing later. It becomes clear that the Doctor's new friends were not the first to join him in the TARDIS, but so far only three of his 'companions' from the past have appeared (School Reunion onwards, 2006, and The Sarah Jane Adventures, 2007-) and others have not been discussed. Though the relationship between the Doctor and Rose is initially rocky, they come to trust and rely on each other through experience; her departure in 2006's Doomsday seemed to affect the Doctor deeply.

In terms of programme-making, the idea of having a companion is to provide a surrogate with whom the audience can identify and to further the story by asking questions and getting into trouble. Any kind of intimate relationship is out, though the new series seems to have established a tradition that the Doctor must have romantic involvement each year; so far, the kisses have kept coming.

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. Perhaps the best-known example of this in the new series concerns the attempts of the Slitheen family to take over the planet and sell it for scrap (Aliens of London and World War Three, 2005). Other villains appearing include the Master (a fellow, evil Time Lord returning from the original series in 2007, played by John Simm and Sir Derek Jacobi), the Cybermen (2006 onwards) and Cassandra, the last human being alive five billion years in the future The End of the World, 2005; New Earth, 2006).

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. They have appeared several times in the new series, firstly in Dalek (2005), where it appears that only one individual had survived a previous encounter with their nemesis, the Doctor - known in Skaroene lore as 'The Oncoming Storm' (The Parting of the Ways, 2005). The Daleks have made more regular appearances in the relaunched programme than in the original 1963-1989 series, returning at least once a year.

Format

Episodes of Doctor Who run for about 45 minutes, except for special Christmas adventures broadcast between series. Two-part episodes have separate titles. From series two, the regular characters have been largely absent from one or more episodes so the leads can concentrate on filming others; this led to criticism of the first 'Doctor-lite' adventure, 2006's Love and Monsters.

Music and titles

The theme music for Doctor Who, arranged by Murray Gold, is based on that of the original series's run, by Ron Grainer and Delia Derbyshire, and likewise the titles evoke those of the original. The twenty-first-century series theme and titles represent the space-time vortex through which the TARDIS travels.

Spin-offs and other adventures

The new series has seen two spin-off dramas, Torchwood (2006-), starring John Barrowman, and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-) starring Elisabeth Sladen with occasional appearances by K-9, a robot dog voiced by John Leeson. Sladen and Leeson's characters were 'companions' in the original series of Doctor Who, and were brought back in the 2006 adventure School Reunion. This is one of the few examples of a direct link between the new and 'classic' series of the programme. The main character in Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness, appeared in Doctor Who from 2005's The Empty Child onwards. The programme sees Harkness leading a team trying to prevent alien incursions via a 'time rift' running through present day Cardiff, while the Sarah Jane Adventures follows the adventures of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith over several series. The latter production aired on Children's BBC with an intended audience of younger fans, while Torchwood was presented as a post-9pm 'adult' take on the affairs of the Doctor Who universe. Enthusiasm from children, however, later saw a cut version also broadcast. Torchwood returned for a second series in 2008, followed by a BBC Radio 4 play that year. The 2009 series comprises five episodes shown over one week.

Several shorter adventures have also appeared as part of charity events and the Proms, a long-standing evening of music at the Royal Albert Hall. 2005 saw the immediate aftermath of the Doctor's regeneration into the form of David Tennant broadcast as part of the long-running charity event Children in Need. Similarly, a second short Children in Need adventure, Time Crash (2007), contributed to the series' continuity. The Doctor also appeared in The Music of the Spheres as part of the 2008 Proms, in an 'interactive' adventure which saw the TARDIS linked to the Royal Albert Hall via a hole in time and space through which an evil 'Graske' emerged to threaten the audience. This was the Graske's second appearance in what has become a significant run of extra adventures available on digital channels or the internet, the first being Attack of the Graske in 2005. Series two's web-only TARDISodes, which comprised short prequels to broadcast stories, did not return again, however and likewise the quiz show for young fans, Totally Doctor Who, was ultimately not renewed.

The BBC had produced original adventures for the Doctor on its website, notably The Scream of the Shalka (2003), starring Richard E. Grant, who for a time was publicised as the "ninth Doctor" prior to Christopher Eccleston's first television appearance. Grant's Holmesian Doctor was the main casualty of the series's renewal, with further adventures ruled out to avoid confusing the audience as to which "ninth Doctor" was official.

See also

• Doctor Who (1960s-1990s)
• TARDIS
• Science fiction
• BBC