Background and Setting
Background
This used to read This BBC television series made between 1963 and 1989
was the longest running Fantasy/Science Fiction TV show in history.
However, in 2005, Dr Who came back to the screens, so in some senses you
could say it's now 1963 to 2006, and therefore without question the longest
running Sci-Fi show.
The original format consisted of a number of 25 minute episodes telling a
self-contained story over usually four or six episodes.
Each episode would contain a short recap of the previous episode and
would be concluded on a cliffhanger.
For most of its run, Dr Who episodes would be shown at around
5:30pm on Saturday afternoons, although this did change in the
last few seasons.
No new episodes were produced for many years (1990 to 2004), with exception
of a short piece of the BBC's Children in Need Telethon.
After a largely unsuccessful a new US/UK co-production
TV movie was shown in the mid 1990s, it looked like the Doctor would
never return to TV.
However, in 2004 it was announced that the Doctor would return in a BBC
Cardiff produced series in 2005; indeed it did and the 13 episodes were
a massive critical and ratings success for the BBC. As I update this
page (Dec 2005), the 28th season is due to start with a Christmas episode
and show through the first quarter of 2006. It has already been confirmed
that the 29th season has also been ordered for airing in 2007.
Setting
The series revolves around the travels of a renegade `Time Lord',
known simply as the Doctor, who travels around all of space and time
in a time travel machine known as the TARDIS, which looks for most of the
time like an old Police box:
The Doctor has an unusual physiology which includes two hearts and the
ability to `regenerate' into a new physical appearance when the
existing body becomes old or damaged.
For most of his adventures, he is accompanied by at least one
companion, often more. Although many of the companions have been
humans from Earth, there have been others who were either robots
or aliens.
Thus far, ten different actors
have played the Doctor on TV, and Paul McGann in
the US/UK co-production TV movie.
Choose:
Dr Who Main Index
B.King@ee.surrey.ac.uk & D.White@ee.surrey.ac.uk
2nd December 2005 (previous update: 29th April 1996!)