Happy birthday, dear Doctor!
- Publication: Bournemouth Evening Echo
- Date: 1988-11-23
- Author:
- Page: 25
- Language: English
TO the Time Lord who is several thousand years old, it will be an anniversary hardly worth noticing, but millions of mere mortals have every intention of celebrating the fact that Dr. Who, star of the world's longest-running TV science-fiction series, will have been on their screens for 25 years today.
The first series, costing a modest £2,500 a programme, was intended to last eight weeks, and no further series were planned.
But the response to the first instalment, starring William Hartnell, was so amazing that the show was repeated before the second episode was broadcast!
Since then, Dr. Who has had to tackle far more serious difficulties than those posed by the Daleks and the Cybermen.
The critics have periodically rounded on the show, the BBC has more than once tried to axe it, and Mrs. Mary Whitehouse has attacked it, saying its adventures "have no place in children's viewing."
Even the fanatically-loyal Dr. Who Appreciation Society, which has solicitors, barristers, chartered accountants, scientists and computer analysts among its 3,000 members, has complained the series has degenerated from serious science fiction into "near-pantomime."
But the intrepid Doctor has seen off every challenge.
And to celebrate a silver jubilee reached against all odds, the writers of the new series have set the first adventure in 1963, at the start of the Swinging Sixties.
There is talk, too, of the Time Lord making another return to the big screen.
There was an early film in 1965, called Doctor Who and the Daleks, with the title role played by Peter Cushing.
Now, movie mogul Peter Litten is reported to have paid a staggering £7 million to the BBC for the movie rights to Doctor Who — and the search is on for the right man to take part.
The actor currently playing him on television —and the seventh Doctor of the small screen — is 44-year-old Scottish actor, Sylvester McCoy.
He took on the role last year after a colourful early career as a pub performer — and he can still boast that he holds the world record for keeping a pair of ferrets down his trousers!
So what about the men who have played the Doctor in his previous incarnations?
The first two Doctors, William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton, are now dead, but Jon Pertwee, Peter Davidson, Tom Baker, Colin Baker are all in good spirits for this silver jubilee.
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- APA 6th ed.: (1988-11-23). Happy birthday, dear Doctor!. Bournemouth Evening Echo p. 25.
- MLA 7th ed.: "Happy birthday, dear Doctor!." Bournemouth Evening Echo [add city] 1988-11-23, 25. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "Happy birthday, dear Doctor!." Bournemouth Evening Echo, edition, sec., 1988-11-23
- Turabian: "Happy birthday, dear Doctor!." Bournemouth Evening Echo, 1988-11-23, section, 25 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Happy birthday, dear Doctor! | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Happy_birthday,_dear_Doctor! | work=Bournemouth Evening Echo | pages=25 | date=1988-11-23 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=8 April 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Happy birthday, dear Doctor! | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Happy_birthday,_dear_Doctor! | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=8 April 2025}}</ref>
