Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC about a mysterious time-travelling adventurer known only as "The Doctor". It is also the title of a 1996 television movie featuring the same character. It is common to see the show's title abbreviated as Dr. Who, even by the BBC, although purists consider this form incorrect.

Adaptations and other appearances

Doctor Who has appeared on stage numerous times. In the early 1970s, Trevor Martin played the role in Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday which also featured former companion actress Wendy Padbury (Pertwee's Doctor made a cameo appearance via film). In the early 1990s, Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker both played the Doctor at different times during the run of a musical play entitled '. For two performances while Pertwee was ill, David Banks (best known for playing various Cybermen) played the Doctor. Other original plays have been staged as amateur productions, with other actors playing the Doctor, while Terry Nation wrote Curse of the Daleks, a stage play mounted in the late 1960s, but without the Doctor.

Related Topics:
Trevor Martin - Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday - Wendy Padbury - David Banks - Cybermen - Terry Nation - Curse of the Daleks

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The Doctor has also appeared in two cinema films: Dr. Who and the Daleks in 1965 and Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD in 1966. Both were essentially retellings of existing stories on the big screen, with a larger budget and numerous alterations to the series concept. In these films, Peter Cushing played a human scientist named Dr. Who, who travelled with his two granddaughters and other companions in a time machine he invented. Due to this and numerous other changes (not to mention the storylines that duplicated televised episodes), the movies are not regarded as being part of the ongoing continuity of the series, although the Cushing version of the character would reappear in both comic strip and literary form, the latter attempting to reconcile the film continuity with that of the series.

Related Topics:
Dr. Who and the Daleks - Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD - 1966 - Peter Cushing - Dr. Who

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A pilot episode for a potential spin-off series, K-9 and Company, was aired in 1981 with Elisabeth Sladen reprising her role as companion Sarah Jane Smith and John Leeson as the voice of K-9, but was not picked up as a regular series.

Related Topics:
K-9 and Company - Elisabeth Sladen - Sarah Jane Smith - John Leeson - K-9

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In 1997, a PC computer game (using voices of all television Doctors from the third to the seventh) based on the television series was released by BBC Multimedia. Called Destiny of the Doctors, it featured attempts by the Master (reprised by Anthony Ainley) to eradicate the Doctor's seven past incarnations from the universe. Although it was well-received by fans and critics alike, its place in the canon is almost impossible to work out.

Related Topics:
1997 - PC - Computer game - BBC Multimedia - Destiny of the Doctors - Anthony Ainley

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Doctor Who books have been published from the mid-sixties through to the present day. The Doctor has also appeared in many audio plays and webcasts. See Doctor Who spin-offs for more details.

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Charity episodes

In 1993, coinciding with the series' 30th anniversary, a charity special entitled Dimensions in Time was produced in aid of Children in Need, featuring all of the surviving actors who played the Doctor and a number of previous companions. Not taken seriously by many, the story had the Rani opening a hole in time, cycling the Doctor and his companions through his previous incarnations and menacing them with monsters from the show's past. It also featured a crossover with the soap opera EastEnders, the action taking place in the latter's Albert Square location and around Greenwich, including the Cutty Sark. The special was one of several special 3D programmes the BBC produced at the time, using a 3D system that made use of the Pulfrich effect requiring glasses with one darkened lens.

Related Topics:
Dimensions in Time - Children in Need - Rani - EastEnders - Albert Square - Greenwich - Cutty Sark - Pulfrich effect

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In 1999, another special, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, was made for Red Nose Day and later released on VHS. An affectionate parody of the television series, it was split into four segments, mimicking the traditional serial format, complete with cliffhangers. (The version released on video was split into only two episodes.) In the story, the Doctor (Rowan Atkinson) encounters both the Master (Jonathan Pryce) and the Daleks. During the special the Doctor is forced to regenerate several times, with his subsequent incarnations played by, in order, Richard E. Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, and Joanna Lumley. The script was written by comedy writer Steven Moffat, who contributed two scripts to the 2005 series and will write one script for the 2006 series.

Related Topics:
Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death - Red Nose Day - Parody - Cliffhanger - Rowan Atkinson - The Master - Jonathan Pryce - Dalek - Richard E. Grant - Jim Broadbent - Hugh Grant - Joanna Lumley - Steven Moffat

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Other programmes

The Doctor in his fourth incarnation (Tom Baker) has been represented on several episodes of The Simpsons, starting with the episode "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming" where (along with Krusty the Clown and Steve Urkel) he was part of a delegation to the Pentagon of "the esteemed representatives of television". The episode was broadcast the week of Doctor Whos 33rd anniversary.

Related Topics:
Tom Baker - The Simpsons - Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming - Krusty the Clown - Steve Urkel

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Jon Culshaw frequently impersonates the Fourth Doctor in the Dead Ringers series. Culshaw's "Doctor" has telephoned three of the "real" Doctors — Tom Baker, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy — in character as the Fourth Doctor. This prompted the bemused (and confused) McCoy to ask the classic question: "Have you been in the pub?". When Culshaw phoned Tom Baker himself and stated that he "was the Doctor", Baker replied, "But there must be some mistake...I'm The Doctor..." Both Baker and McCoy had previously worked with Culshaw and were aware of his impression of Baker but not when the calls would come, if at all, so their reactions were genuine.

Related Topics:
Jon Culshaw - Dead Ringers

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