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Revision as of 00:06, 24 April 2018
- Publication: British Philatelic Bulletin
- Date: July 2013
- Author: Simon Ball
- Page: 206
- Language: English
As the much-awaited Doctor Who special issue is launched this month, Simon Ball reveals the inside story of science fiction's favourite space (and time) hero
WITH THOUSANDS of fans in over 50 countries eagerly anticipating his next adventure in time and space, a merchandising portfolio worth millions and a cupboardful of awards, Doctor Who is one of TV's hottest properties. State-of-the-art computer graphics, make-up, prosthetics, costume and set design have melded with action-packed storylines and brilliant characterisation to propel the world's longest-running science fiction drama forward into the 21st century. This is a far cry from the show's beginning in 1963. It started with the best of intentions: BBC programmers wanted a children's educational drama to slot into the Saturday teatime gap between Grandstand and Juke Box Jug.
No monsters allowed As it happened, the BBC's head of drama Sydney Newman was a science fiction fan. So, together with script department head Donald Wilson and staff writer Cecil Edwin Webber, he came up with the idea of a character who travels in time and space to bring history and science to life for young viewers.
Initially, evil aliens and ugly monsters were not part of the plot — on the orders of Donald Wilson. The result was An Unearthly Child, broadcast on 23 November 1963. In it curious teachers Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton (William Russell) follow their mysterious pupil Susan Foreman (Carol Ann Ford) to the junkyard that is apparently her home. There they hear Susan's voice coming from a police callbox, only to discover that the box is much bigger on the inside. Here lurks Susan's alien grandfather known only as the Doctor. They travel back through time in the TARDIS to the Stone Age, where they are captured by cavemen seeking the secret of fire.
Like much in the early days of Doctor Who, the choice of a police box for the Doctor's TARDIS ship was driven by a pragmatic yet imaginative approach to the show's tiny production budget. Obviously the interior had to be larger than the police box exterior to enable filming within, so the solution was to place the interior in another spatial dimension and to devise a malfunction that results in the exterior appearance of a police box — so saving money by not building a large ship. But why a police box in particular? Well, the producers originally intended the TARDIS to have a 'chameleon circuit' that enabled it to take on the appearance of an object local to wherever it materialised, so blending in with the surroundings. In this case, a police box would not, of course, have been an uncommon sight in 1960s London. Then they had the circuit break down in the script, so the police box remained a police box and any expensive prop change to different-looking space ships — could cleverly be avoided.
Galactic hard man The police box became such an iconic element of the show's legend that when the Metropolitan Police challenged the BBC's application to trademark the image, the Patent Office ruled in the Corporation's favour.
The Doctor proved to be a knowledgeable but frequently bad-tempered Edwardian dandy, which was a bit of a departure for the actor chosen to play him. William Hartnell (1) had made a name for himself doing hard man characters, particularly tough soldiers like Sergeant Major Bullimore in The Army Game. Interestingly, his appearance as the first Doctor in the new stamp set released on 26 March will be Hartnell's second in the Royal Mail stamp programme. He featured on a 2008 stamp marking the 50th anniversary of Carry On Sergeant in the role of 'Sergeant Grimshawe'.
Viewing figures of around four million for the Stone Age adventure in the first four shows were disappointing. But that changed with the second series. Suddenly children all over Britain were taking cover behind the sofa in eager anticipation of the thrilling show. The Daleks had arrived.
Exterminate!!! Things would have been very different had producer Verity Lambert complied with Donald Wilson's prohibition on bug-eyed monsters. Below: the Dalek, now a Doctor Who operated on a very tight production schedule so 'instantly' available scripts were at a premium. And that meant monsters were in: a script about aliens driving metal war machines was the only one ready to shoot at that time, so the Daleks made their debut.
The response was phenomenal: the Daleks drew in 12 million viewers and every school playground resounded to cries of 'Ex-term-in-ate!!!' As Wilson's bug-eyed monster ban bit the dust, the educational purpose of the show diminished. Viewers wanted alien monsters and that is what they got. Intent on galactic domination, the Daleks kept coming back. And in 1966 they were joined by the Cybermen to make their first attempt to destroy Earth in The Tenth Planet.
The Tenth Planet was also a landmark event for the lead character. William Hartnell's health had been seriously deteriorating from arteriolosclerosis and he wanted out. Cast changes were nothing new to the show — throughout its run the programme would see several companions come and go — but the loss of the main actor was a far more serious dilemma for the producers. The problem was solved with an imaginative quirk of Time Lord physiology, allowing physical regeneration when bodily death threatens and so Hartnell regenerated into Patrick Troughton (2) for the 1967 season.
Who's a naughty boy Where Hartnell had been aloof and irascible, there was something of the naughty child about Troughton's more playful take on the Doctor's personality. In his trademark baggy suit and penchant for playing the recorder, he was described as a cosmic hobo. Troughton's tenure in the role lasted for three years and along the way he battled Daleks and Cybermen, as well as new adversaries like the Macra, Ice Warriors and the Yeti.
While taking on the Yeti the Doctor first encountered Colonel (later Brigadier) Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, played by Nicholas Courtney. He became a regular sidekick to the third and fourth Doctors as head of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT) dealing with extraterrestrial threats against Earth. By 1969 Troughton had tired of the role. To facilitate his exit the Doctor was put on trial by the Time Lords for interfering in the destiny of other races. His sentence was to regenerate as comic actor Jon Pertwee (3, page 207) and be banished to Earth, which saved on the costume, props and effects budgets for the first Doctor Who episodes shot in colour.
Pertwee's Doctor was a Seventies peacock in a crushed velvet suit and cape. He was also a bit of an action man, driving a souped-up vintage car and practising Venusian martial arts. While serving as UNIT's scientific advisor Pertwee's Doctor took on some new foes including the Autons, Silurians, Sontarians, Sea Devils and a renegade Time Lord known as the Master.
An adventure teaming Pertwee with Hartnell and Troughton as The Three Doctors earned the Doctor a reprieve from his Earth-bound punishment —he was allowed to travel with new assistant Sarah Jane Smith to The Planet of the Spiders, where radiation poisoning caused him to regenerate into Tom Baker (4), the fourth Doctor
With his unruly mop of hair, popping eyes and absurdly long scarf; Baker was the longest-serving pilot of the TARDIS from 1974 to 1981. Where Pertwee had played the role as a kind of intergalactic James Bond, Baker, like Troughton, brought a degree of eccentric anti-authoritarianism back into the role, only with his frock coat pockets filled with bags of jelly babies instead of a recorder.
Horror story The show also took a darker aspect as new producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes were clearly more influenced by the then popular Hammer Horror films rather than the jollier James Bond and The Avengers of the 1960s. As viewing figures climbed, the number of complaints the BBC received from
Planet of the Spiders
- Doctor Who gives kids the creeps
- Dr Who is blamed over epidemic of spider fears among young children
- Who's afraid ...?
The Brain of Morbius
- Tardis time-slip urged
- Dr Who finds a champion
- When Daniel Fryer and Caroline Simpson express their views ... they are not to be brushed lightly aside
The Deadly Assassin
Season 22
Death
In 1979 Douglas Adams, whose Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy was already a cult favourite on Radio 4, was hired as script editor. This boosted the humorous content of the scripts and saw the show's viewing figures peak at 17 million.
'Buck rogers beats the doc Ratings were to take a serious dip in 1980 when ITV pitched the big-budget American sci-fi show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century against Doctor Who's Saturday tea-time slot. Worse still for the BBC was Baker's decision to quit the TARDIS the following year, and the job was given to All Creatures Great and Small star Peter Davison (5). Despite his outlandish Edwardian cricketer's outfit, Davison's Doctor was much more introverted character acting in consensus with his burgeoning crew of companions, which included an air hostess, alien assassin and a robot. On the advice of Patrick Troughton, Davison only stuck with the role for three years, regenerating into Colin Baker (6) for the 1984 season. Baker's Doctor was rather pompous and overbearing and his tenure on the show was beset with scheduling problems.
Moving the production budget from one financial year to another led to an 18-month gap between the series end in 1985 and 1986's season. By then Doctor Who found itself up against The A Team on ITV, which had already gained a massive following in the battle for ratings.
With the viewing figures in tatters, Baker was replaced by comic actor Sylvester McCoy (7) for the 1987 season. Despite an outwardly comedic exterior, McCoy's Doctor had a much darker, more manipulative personality than his predecessors'. The new Doctor was well received by fans, but the show was rescheduled on weekdays against ITV's flagship soap Coronation Street. This led to disappointing viewing figures and in 1989 production was suspended.
But that was not the end of the time-travelling adventurer. New fans joined the ranks of the hardcore Whovians as reruns of classic episodes found their way onto cable and digital networks (particularly in the United States) and sales of videos, DV Ds, new audio adventures, comics, action figures and novels fed their addiction. After a false start with 1996's made-for-TV movie starring Paul McGann (8), Doctor Who was an instant hit when rebooted in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston (9).
Better than Hollywood No longer bedevilled by cardboard sets and wobbly special effects the new show was able to hold its own with any Hollywood sci-fi epic. Producer Russell T Davies applied lessons learnt from successful American franchises like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, making each episode a self-contained adventure. They were also part of an overall story encompassing each season, with randomly distributed plot elements in each show that were 'tied up' in the series' final episodes. Tricks derived from popular soap operas were also applied to weave in the backgrounds of the companions and their families.
Eccleston was replaced by David Tennant (10) at the end of the 2005 season, just in time for a new innovation, the Doctor Who Christmas Special which immediately became a traditional festive viewing fixture.
In 2010, after finally usurping Tom Baker as the most popular Doctor of all time (and space), Tennant conceded the role to Matt Smith (11), who at 26 is the youngest Doctor so far. The show continues to grow from strength to strength.
Old villains like the Daleks, Cybermen and the Master have returned and the show's legends are frequently recalled with references to UNIT and the odd guest from the past. Well-known actors, including Sir Michael Gambon, Kylie Minogue and Simon Pegg, vie for guest appearances, while new villains like the Weeping Angels and the Slitheen have joined Doctor Who's rogues gallery. The programme has also spawned spin-offs, including Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures.
Given the show's longevity, it is hardly surprising that many of the present production team and writers grew up as fans of the original series. One such writer is the popular sci-fi author Neil Gaiman, who has contributed two episodes to the new series, including Hugo Award-winning The Doctor's Wife.
Asked to name his favourite Doctor, he says: 'That's a hard one. My Doctor was Patrick Troughton. He really was the Doctor, for me as a boy, and is the person I most wanted to explore the universe with, and the person I most wanted by my side when things got scary. Matt Smith is amazing, though. He plays the Doctor as a thousand-year-old alien with a young man's face and a child's sense of wonder, and writing dialogue for him is as much fun as hearing him speak it.'
Philatelic specifications of the 'Doctor Who' stamps are on page 167, Preview, February • Neil Gaiman's latest novel for adults 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane' is published in the UK later this year.
It's Who you know...
• Asteroid 3325, discovered in 1984 by Arizona's Lowell Observatory, is called Tardis after Doctor Who's famous ride.
• The noise made by the TARDIS when it 'takes off' was originally produced by running a bunch of keys along the strings of an old piano.
• 'Voice of the Daleks' Roy Skelton also acted the voices of Zippy and George in children's show Rainbow.
• The first Doctor Who episode was overshadowed by news of President Kennedy's assassination the previous day - so BBC ran it again before the second episode.
• In a new BBC drama about the creation of Doctor Who, William Hartnell is played by David Bradley - in a 2012 episode he was a killer who hijacked a spaceship for its cargo of dinosaurs.
Above: enter Jon Pertwee as the third Doctor in 1969
Below: the Dalek, now a world-famous celebrity
Spelling correction: Sontarans
MARVELLOUS MONSTERS
Your inside guide to some of Doctor Who's most fiendish and famous villains
Marking the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, the Royal Mail issue of 26 March comprises 11 sheet stamps and a five-stamp, 22.60 Miniature Sheet featuring the TARDIS and the four monsters here. For full specifications please see page 169 of the Preview in last month's Bulletin
Dalek
The Daleks, bent on dominating the universe, were created on the planet Skaro by Kaled scientist Davros when he implanted mutant Kaled bodies into robotic shells during the thousand-year war between his race and the Thais.
He had realised that years of radiation and chemical poisoning from the war would lead the Kaleds to mutate into immobile organisms. Their metal shells would allow them to survive.
Daleks have had every emotion purged from their being except hate. Now they have only the desire to rid the universe of all non-Dalek life. First appearing in 1963, they are famous, of course, for their catchphrase 'Exterminate!'.
Weeping Angel
First appearing in Blink in 2007, the Weeping Angels are an ancient race of aliens who have the ability to send other beings into the past. This allows the Angels to feed on the potential time energy of what would have been the rest of their victims' lives.
When they are not being observed they can move very quickly and silently, but when being watched, they become quantum-locked, occupying a single position in space and becoming stone.
If two Angels look at each other at the same time, they are trapped in stone form until an outside force moves them apart, so they cover their eyes while moving giving the impression they are weeping.
The Ood
Just about humanoid in appearance and with tentacles on the lower portions of their faces, the Ood speak through a translator device - a sphere connected to their mouths by a tube. The tube originally connected their bodies to a hive brain, but humans from the far future isolate them from the brain and use them as a slave race.
Ood are not monsters. They are a peaceful race, sophisticated and wise, and loyal friends of the Doctor. However. when they are taken over and controlled by evil entities they become monstrous creatures, acting against their instinct with lethal intent. The Ood first appeared in The Impossible Planet in 2006.
Cyberman
The Cybermen were originally humanoids and came from Earth's twin planet Mondas. They implanted more and more artificial parts, made of metal and plastic, into their bodies so they became coldly logical and calculating cyborgs, who had every emotion deleted from their minds.
The Cybermen made their debut appearance in The Tenth Planet in 1966, for the farewell adventure of the First Doctor William Hartnell. They returned in the 2006 two-part story, Rise of the Cybermen and The Age of Steel, and have been recurring villains in the revived series ever since.
BBC. DOCTOR WHO (word marks, logos and devices). TARDIS. DALEKS and CYBERMAN (word marks and devices) are trademarks of the British Broadcasting Corporation and are used under licence. BBC logo 0 BBC 1996. Doctor Who logo 0 BBC 2012. Datek image © BBC/Terry Nation 1963. Cyberman image BBC/Kit Pedler/Gerry Davis 1966. Licensed by BBC WW Ltd.
Disclaimer: These citations are created on-the-fly using primitive parsing techniques. You should double-check all citations. Send feedback to whovian@cuttingsarchive.org
- APA 6th ed.: Ball, Simon (July 2013). Who's Who (British Philatelic Bulletin). British Philatelic Bulletin p. 206.
- MLA 7th ed.: Ball, Simon. "Who's Who (British Philatelic Bulletin)." British Philatelic Bulletin [add city] July 2013, 206. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: Ball, Simon. "Who's Who (British Philatelic Bulletin)." British Philatelic Bulletin, edition, sec., July 2013
- Turabian: Ball, Simon. "Who's Who (British Philatelic Bulletin)." British Philatelic Bulletin, July 2013, section, 206 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=Who's Who (British Philatelic Bulletin) | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Who%27s_Who_(British_Philatelic_Bulletin) | work=British Philatelic Bulletin | pages=206 | date=July 2013 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=30 May 2025 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=Who's Who (British Philatelic Bulletin) | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/Who%27s_Who_(British_Philatelic_Bulletin) | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=30 May 2025}}</ref>
