History of Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series, produced and broadcast by the BBC on the BBC TV channel from 1963 to 1964, and on BBC1 from 1964 to 1989 and since 2005. A one-off television film, co-produced with Universal Pictures, was broadcast on the Fox network in the United States in 1996.
Origins
In March 1962, Eric Maschwitz, the Assistant and Adviser to the Controller of Programmes at BBC Television, asked Donald Wilson, the Head of the Script Department, to have his department's Survey Group prepare a study on the feasibility of the BBC producing a new science fiction television series. The report was prepared by staff members Alice Frick and Donald Bull, and delivered the following month, much to the commendation of Wilson, Maschwitz and the BBC's Assistant Controller of Programmes Donald Baverstock. A follow-up report into specific ideas for the format of such a programme was commissioned and delivered in July. Prepared by Frick with another Script Department staff member, John Braybon, this report recommended a series dealing with time travel as being an idea particularly worthy of development.In December, Canadian-born Sydney Newman arrived at BBC Television as the new Head of Drama. Newman was a science fiction fan who had overseen several such productions in his previous positions at ABC Weekend TV and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. In March 1963, he was made aware by Baverstock – now promoted to Chief of Programmes – of a gap in the schedule on Saturday evenings between the sports showcase Grandstand and the pop music programme Juke Box Jury. Ideally, any programme scheduled here would appeal to children that had previously been accustomed to the timeslot, the teenaged audience of Juke Box Jury, and the adult sports fan audience of Grandstand. Newman decided that a science fiction programme would be perfect to fill the gap, and initiated a brainstorming session chaired by Wilson and including Braybon, Frick and another BBC staff writer, C. E. Webber.
Webber's first outline document about the series, dated 29 March 1963, envisioned the show, tentatively titled The Troubleshooters, being driven by a group of Earth-based, contemporary humans who are constantly conflicting with a recurring foe. Newman would then personally come up with the idea of an educational series featuring a time machine larger on the inside than the outside and the idea of the central character, the mysterious "Dr. Who"; he may also have given the series the same title. However, in a 1971 interview Donald Wilson claimed to have named the series, and when this claim was put to Newman he did not dispute it.
Webber's second outline, now calling the series Dr. Who, followed an amnesiac "frail old man lost in space and time" with a machine which enables him "to travel together through time, through space, and through matter." The character of Dr. Who was described as being "suspicious and capable of sudden malignance", disliking his other supporting characters, and hating scientific progress, with the secret mission to meddle with time and destroy the future, while his time machine was described as "unreliable" and being invisible. Sydney Newman penciled in a rejection of the character's description, as he didn't want the main character of the series to be "a reactionary", but a "father figure" who would "take science, applied and theoretical, as being as natural as eating". He also disliked the idea of an invisible time machine, saying that a "tangible symbol" was needed, but was enthusiastic about the idea of the time machine's unreliability. In addition, Webber suggested ways Dr. Who's identity could develop. He suggested Bethlehem as a location for a Christmas story and Dr. Who as Merlin, as Jacob Marley, and his wife as Cinderella's godmother chasing her husband through time. Newman wasn't keen on the proposed direction for the series, writing, "I don't like this much - it reads silly and condescending. It doesn't get across the basis of teaching of educational experience - drama based upon and stemming from factual material and scientific phenomena and actual social history of past and future."
The final memo detailing the format of the series, written by Wilson, Webber, and Newman and dated 16 May 1963, described the character of Dr. Who as a "650 years old" man whose "watery blue eyes are continually looking around in bewilderment and occasionally a look of utter malevolence clouds his face as he suspects his earthly friends of being part of some conspiracy". He "seems not to remember where he comes from but he has flashes of garbled memory which indicate that he was involved in a galactic war and still fears pursuit by some undefined enemy". His ship is also described as "a police telephone box but anyone entering it finds himself inside an extensive electronic contrivance. Though it looks impressive, it is an old beat-up model which Dr. Who stole when he escaped from his own galaxy in the year 5733; it is uncertain in performance; moreover, Dr. Who isn't quite sure how to work it, so they have to learn by trial and error." Later in the year production was initiated and handed over to producer Verity Lambert and story editor David Whitaker to oversee, after a brief period when the show had been handled by a "caretaker" producer, Rex Tucker. Concerned about Lambert's relative lack of experience, Wilson appointed the experienced staff director Mervyn Pinfield as associate producer. Australian staff writer Anthony Coburn also contributed, penning the very first episode from a draft initially prepared by Webber.
Doctor Who was originally intended to be an educational series, with the TARDIS taking the form of an object from that particular episode's time period. When the show's budget was calculated, however, it was discovered that it was prohibitively expensive to re-dress the TARDIS model for each episode; instead, the TARDIS's "Chameleon Circuit" was said to be malfunctioning, giving the prop its characteristic 'police-box' appearance.
The series' theme music was written by film and television composer Ron Grainer in collaboration with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. While Grainer wrote the theme, it was Delia Derbyshire who was responsible for its creation, using a series of tape recorders to laboriously cut and join the individual sounds she created with both concrete sources and square- and sine-wave oscillators. Grainer was amazed at the results and asked "Did I write that?" when he heard it. Derbyshire replied that he mostly had. The BBC prevented Derbyshire from getting a co-composer credit and half the royalties. The title sequence logo was designed by graphics designer Bernard Lodge, with the sequence itself realised by electronic effects specialist Norman Taylor.
1960s
First Doctor
After actors Hugh David and Geoffrey Bayldon had both turned down approaches to star in the series, Verity Lambert and the first serial's director Waris Hussein managed to persuade 55-year-old character actor William Hartnell to take the part of the Doctor. Hartnell was known mostly for playing army sergeants and other tough characters in a variety of films, but Lambert had been impressed with his sensitive performance as a rugby league talent scout in the film version of This Sporting Life, which inspired her to offer him the role.Hartnell's Doctor would initially be accompanied by his granddaughter Susan Foreman, originally to have been merely a travelling companion, but with a family tie added by Coburn, who was uncomfortable with the possible undertones the relationship could carry were they to be unrelated. They were joined in the first episode by two of Foreman's schoolteachers, Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, from contemporary 20th-century England. This remained the line-up of the series for the entire first season, but over time the regular line-up would change regularly as the Doctor's various companions left him to return home, having found new causes on worlds they had visited and elected to stay there, or even occasionally being killed off. However, he would always quickly find new travelling companions. Such characters were used by the production team to relate the point of view of the viewers at home, asking questions and furthering the stories by getting into trouble.
The first episode of the series, "An Unearthly Child", had to be re-recorded owing to technical problems and errors made during the performance. During the days between the two tapings, changes were made to costuming, effects, performances, and the script. This second version of "An Unearthly Child", the first episode of the very first serial, was transmitted at 5.15 pm on 23 November 1963, but due to both a power failure in certain areas of the country and the overshadowing news of US President John F. Kennedy's assassination, it drew minimal comment and was repeated the following week immediately before the second episode.
It was not until the second serial, The Daleks, that the programme caught the imaginations of viewers and began to ingrain itself in the popular consciousness. This was primarily due to the Dalek creatures introduced in this story. Devised by scriptwriter Terry Nation and designer Raymond Cusick, they were completely un-humanoid and like nothing that had been seen on television before. Lambert had in fact been strongly advised against using Nation's script by her direct superior Donald Wilson but used the excuse that they had nothing else ready to produce it. Once it was clear what a great success it had been, Wilson admitted to Lambert that he would no longer interfere with her decisions as she clearly knew the programme better than he did.
Hartnell's Doctor was not initially paternal or sympathetic; he described himself and Susan simply as "wanderers in the 4th dimension". He was cantankerous, bossy and occasionally showed a streak of ruthlessness. However, the character mellowed as he grew closer to his companions, and he soon became a popular icon, especially among children who watched the series. This alteration in the portrayal of the Doctor began during the fourth serial, Marco Polo. The Doctor's role was minimal during episode two, "The Singing Sands", and from the later episodes his portrayal of the character mellowed considerably.
The programme became a great success, frequently drawing audiences of 12 million or more, and the Daleks came back for several return appearances. Whitaker left the show early in the second season, being briefly replaced by Dennis Spooner, who in turn was replaced by Donald Tosh at the end of the season. Pinfield also left halfway through the season due to poor health but was not replaced.
By the time of the third season in 1965, however, some difficulties were beginning to arise. Lambert had moved on, to be replaced as producer by John Wiles, who did not have a good working relationship with Hartnell. The lead actor himself was finding it increasingly difficult to remember his lines as he was suffering from the early stages of the arteriosclerosis that would later cause his death. Wiles and Tosh came up with a way of writing Hartnell out in the story The Celestial Toymaker, by having the Doctor made invisible for part of the story, intending that when he re-appeared he would be played by a new actor. However, Wiles was forbidden to replace Hartnell by the new Head of Serials, Gerald Savory. Wiles had also hoped to make other bold changes, such as introducing a companion with a cockney accent, and resigned shortly afterwards, with Tosh also resigning on principle.
By 1966, however, it was clear that Hartnell's health was affecting his performances, and that he would not be able to carry on playing the Doctor for a long period of time. By this point, Savory had moved on as Head of Serials and his successor, Shaun Sutton, was more agreeable to change, allowing Wiles' replacement, Innes Lloyd, to make many of the very changes that Wiles had been barred from. Lloyd discussed the situation with Hartnell and the actor agreed that it would be best to leave, although later in life he would claim that he had not wanted to go.