What Britain's Top TV Critic Watched Last Night
- Publication: Daily Express
- Date: 2003-12-31
- Author: Charlie Catchpole
- Page:
- Language: English
WHY did the BBC ignore the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who last month? The milestone could have been marked with a different episode every night for a week, featuring all seven Doctors.
Instead, it belatedly and half-heartedly caught up with THE DOCTOR WHO STORY (BBC1).
Maybe somebody in high places is still embarrassed by the inter-galactic hoo-hah over the decision to axe the show towards the end of the Eighties - an awesome example of viewer power that forced the corporation grudgingly to grant the time-travelling Doctor a brief reprieve.
Many questions went unanswered last night. Why was there no mention of the Doctor's metal mutt, K9, or the US made-for-TV movie spin-off? Did the BBC Radiophonic Workshop ever record a follow-up to the Doctor Who theme? Where is the Tardis now? (Younger viewers must have wondered what a police box was.)
There were contributions from the four surviving Doctors, with Colin Baker (1984-86) perhaps summing up the character best: "It's the classic Lone Ranger or Sir Lancelot... the man who rides into your village, rights all the wrongs and disappears and you don't know a huge amount about him afterwards, but you know he's a thoroughly decent chap and he's on your side."
Doctor number four, Tom Baker, admitted he didn't always read the scripts "so I never knew quite what was going on". Explaining how the role changed his life, he said: "Girls who found me utterly revolting now found me irresistible."
We learnt BBC high-ups hated the Daleks and their stories would have been junked, only the producers didn't have anything to transmit in their place, and that Graham Cole, PC Stamp in The Bill, was an evil Cyberman. "You get real street cred, having been a Cyberman," he said, proudly.
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- APA 6th ed.: Catchpole, Charlie (2003-12-31). What Britain's Top TV Critic Watched Last Night. Daily Express .
- MLA 7th ed.: Catchpole, Charlie. "What Britain's Top TV Critic Watched Last Night." Daily Express [add city] 2003-12-31. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Catchpole, Charlie. "What Britain's Top TV Critic Watched Last Night." Daily Express, edition, sec., 2003-12-31
- Turabian: Catchpole, Charlie. "What Britain's Top TV Critic Watched Last Night." Daily Express, 2003-12-31, section, edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=What Britain's Top TV Critic Watched Last Night | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/What_Britain%27s_Top_TV_Critic_Watched_Last_Night | work=Daily Express | pages= | date=2003-12-31 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=31 March 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=What Britain's Top TV Critic Watched Last Night | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/What_Britain%27s_Top_TV_Critic_Watched_Last_Night | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=31 March 2025}}</ref>
