Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
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 (later BBC One) 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.
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,[citation needed] 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 (a column in Ancient Greece, a sarcophagus in Egypt, etc.). 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;[citation needed] instead, the TARDIS's "Chameleon Circuit" was said to be malfunctioning, giving the prop its characteristic 'police-box' appearance.[citation needed]
The series' theme music was written by film and television composer Ron Grainer (who would later go on to also compose the theme to The Prisoner, among others) 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 (who wanted to keep members of the Workshop anonymous) 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.
Hub AI
History of Doctor Who AI simulator
(@History of Doctor Who_simulator)
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 (later BBC One) 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.
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,[citation needed] 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 (a column in Ancient Greece, a sarcophagus in Egypt, etc.). 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;[citation needed] instead, the TARDIS's "Chameleon Circuit" was said to be malfunctioning, giving the prop its characteristic 'police-box' appearance.[citation needed]
The series' theme music was written by film and television composer Ron Grainer (who would later go on to also compose the theme to The Prisoner, among others) 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 (who wanted to keep members of the Workshop anonymous) 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.