Doctor Who: Who-ology (Dr Who)
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Download strategic, tactical and military protocols straight into cerebral cortex.
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EXTENDED FAMILY
Away from the television screens, the Doctor’s family gets even bigger!
John and Gillian: the Doctor’s other grandchildren
Travelled with the First and Second Doctors in the pages of TV Comic. They made their first appearance in The Klepton Parasites (issue 674, 14 November 1964) and left the TARDIS in Invasion of the Quarks (issue 876, 28 September 1968) when the Doctor enrolled them at Zebadee University.
Miranda Dawkins: the Doctor’s adopted daughter
Introduced in the novel Father Time, Miranda was the daughter of an assassinated Time Lord, the Emperor. The Eighth Doctor adopted her as his daughter. She would go on to become supreme ruler of the entire universe before being killed in the novel Sometime Never…
Zezanne: the Doctor’s adopted granddaughter
The daughter of Miranda Dawkins.
Alexander David Campbell: the Doctor’s Great-Grandson
In An Earthly Child (Big Finish audio adventure, 2009) the Doctor discovers that Susan married David Campbell and had a half-human son, Alex. He died defending the Earth from the Daleks.
Irving Braxiatel: the Doctor’s Brother
First introduced in the novel Theatre of War, the Doctor’s older brother would go on to found the Braxiatel Collection, the foremost art gallery in the known universe (and according to Romana, better than the Louvre).
Scarlette: the Doctor’s Wife
In The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel, 2001) the Doctor married an 18th-century woman called Scarlette to symbolically bind himself to Earth. She died soon after the wedding.
HALF-HUMAN?
The Doctor once claimed he was half-human on his mother’s side, something apparently confirmed by the Master after the renegade Time Lord invaded the Doctor’s TARDIS when it landed in San Francisco in 1999. But the truth remains unclear. (Doctor Who)
THE DOCTOR’S PHYSIOLOGY
Binary Vascular System (two hearts to you and me).
Normal pulse rate: 170 beats per minute.
Body temperature: 60 degrees.
Left and right sides of the brain work in unison via a specialised neural super-ganglia. The reflex link, which allowed him to ‘tune himself’ into the thousand super-brains of the Time Lord intelligentsia was cut off when the Doctor was exiled by his people.
Short-sighted in his right eye (in his fifth body at least).
Vulnerable to certain gases in the Praxis range of the spectrum.
Can travel through time thanks to the Rassilon Imprimatur, a form of symbiotic print.
Aspirin intolerant. Thanks to his metabolism the common drug would probably kill him.
Has size 10 feet in his eleventh body. They are also quite wide.
CAPACIOUS POCKETS
The Doctor’s pockets are bigger on the inside. They’d have to be. Look at some of the stuff he’s pulled out of them:
A pen light (An Unearthly Child, The Edge of Destruction, The Monster of Peladon)
Contracts (The Highlanders)
Conkers (The Highlanders)
Magnifying glass (The Highlanders, Genesis of the Daleks)
Lemon sherbets (The Wheel in Space)
Pins (The Space Pirates)
Marbles (The Space Pirates)
A tuning fork (The Space Pirates)
Sample jars (Colony in Space)
Freedom of the city of Skaro (Robot)
Pilot’s licence for the Mars-Venus Rocket Run (Robot)
Honorary membership card for the Alpha Centauri Table Tennis Club (Robot)
Cricket ball (The Ark in Space)
Yo-yo (The Ark in Space, Genesis of the Daleks)
Handcuffs (Genesis of the Daleks)
Rocks (Genesis of the Daleks)
Etheric beam locator (Genesis of the Daleks)
French picklock given to him by Marie Antoinette (Pyramids of Mars)
Expanding cane (The Hand of Fear)
Clockwork egg timer (The Face of Evil)
Telescopic breathing tube (The Robots of Death)
Stuffed mouse (The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
Toy Batmobile (The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
Hammer (The Power of Kroll)
Golden star stickers (The Horns of Nimon)
Safety pin (The Visitation)
Firework (Galactic Glitter) (The Five Doctors)
Alien coins (Planet of Fire, Battlefield)
Conjuror’s flowers (The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids)
Electronic picklock (The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids)
Catapult (Battlefield, The Hungry Earth)
Robot Santa remote control (The Runaway Bride)
Christmas decorations (The Runaway Bride)
Toothbrush – containing Venusian toothpaste (The Shakespeare Code)
Ultraviolet lamp (The Vampires of Venice)
Not pockets, but the Doctor has sometimes kept the TARDIS key in one of his shoes (Spearhead from Space, Robot) and the Seventh Doctor kept the UNIT passes belonging to his third incarnation and Liz Shaw in his hat. (Battlefield)
THE FINEST SWORDSMAN IN ALL OF GALLIFREY
The Doctor claimed to have learned the art of sword fighting from a captain of Cleopatra’s guard. In which stories has he swashed his buckle?
REASONS FOR REGENERATION
‘We can live for ever, barring accidents.’
The Doctor, The War Games
What doesn’t kill you…
First regeneration – Old age (The Tenth Planet)
Second regeneration – Forcibly regenerated by the Time Lords prior to his exile on Earth (The War Games)
Third regeneration – Exposure to Metebelis III crystal radiation in the cave of the Great One (Planet of the Spiders)
Fourth regeneration – Fall from a great height, specifically the Pharos Project radio telescope (Logopolis)
Fifth regeneration – Fatal contraction of Spectrox Toxaemia after handling raw spectrox (The Caves of Androzani)
SYMPTOMS OF SPECTROX TOXAEMIA
Rash
Cramp
Spasms
Slow paralysis of the thoracic spinal nerve
Thermal death
ONLY KNOWN CURES OF SPECTROX TOXAEMIA
The milk of a queen bat
Regeneration
Sixth regeneration – TARDIS shot down by the Rani, who then tried to confuse and control the Doctor in his befuddled post-regenerative state (Time and the Rani)
Seventh regeneration – Shot by local gang and operated upon by Grace Holloway, who accidentally administered a lethal anaesthetic (Doctor Who)
Eighth regeneration – Unknown. So far…
Ninth regeneration – Absorbing the Time Vortex to save Rose Tyler, and nobody’s meant to do that (The Parting of the Ways)
Tenth regeneration – Radiation poisoning (The End of Time, Part Two)
EQUIPMENT TO AID REGENERATIVE CRISIS
TARDIS Zero Room
Metamorphic Symbiosis Regenerator
Flask of tea
THREE
THE DOCTOR’S BEST FRIENDS
COMPANIONS AND OTHER ALLIES
COMPANIONS BY NUMBERS
Companions come and go, but which have made the most appearances? Overleaf is a rundown on the Doctor’s travelling companions based on the number of regular stories they appeared in. Where there’s a tie, we use the number of episodes as a tiebreaker – the Doctor Who equivalent of goal difference.
If we were ordering companions by episode number alone the top ten would be:
Jamie Macrimmon
Sarah Jane Smith
Ian Chesterton
Barbara Wright
Jo Grant
Tegan Jovanka
K-9 Mark II
Susan Foreman
Zoe Heriot
Nyssa
BOYS AND GIRLS COME OUT TO PLAY
The percentage of girls, boys and mechanical companions over the years.
COMPANION ROLL CALL: THE 1960s
IAN CHESTERTON
played by WILLIAM RUSSELL
First regular Doctor Who appearance: An Unearthly Child Episode 1 (1963)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Chase Episode 6 (1965)
Thanks to his starring role in Sir Lancelot, William Russell Enoch was a familiar face on British television by the time he was cast as Ian Chesterton. With a career spanning six decades, Russell has worked extensively in the theatre and on TV, appearing as Ted Sullivan in Coronation Street in the 1990s.
History teacher Ian was a dependable, heroic and loyal member of the TARDIS crew – even if the Doctor did abduct him! Always willing to tackle any new monstrous threat, Ian enjoyed his travels, but when the opportunity came to return to Earth, he took it without hesitation.
And another thing: Russell almost returned in 1983’s Mawdryn Undead, although scheduling conflicts meant that the role was rewritten for the Brigadier.
BARBARA WRIGHT
played by JACQUELINE HILL
First regular Doctor Who appearance: An Unearthly Child Episode 1 (1963)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Chase Episode 6 (1965)
Jacqueline Hill worked on stage and screen before and after Doctor Who, collaborating with her future husband, director Alvin Rakoff on a 1957 TV play for which she recommended Sean Connery for a role. She guest starred in 1980 Doctor Who story Meglos, and her final screen role was as Mrs Mallard-Greene in Paradise Postponed, again directed by her husband. She passed away in 1993.
Barbara’s adventures with the Doctor brought the history she loved as a teacher to life before her eyes – even passionately clashing with the Doctor on wanting to change the destiny of the Aztecs. Like Ian, she always wanted to return home, and happily took the chance to return to Earth in a Dalek time machine.
And another thing: Barbara was the first character in the series to actually see a Dalek.
SUSAN FOREMAN
played by CAROLE ANN FORD
First regular Doctor Who appearance: An Unearthly Child Episode 1 (1963)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Dalek Invasion of Earth Episode 6 (1964)
Final guest Doctor Who appearance: The Five Doctors (1983) (She also appeared in the Children in Need special, Dimensions in Time in 1993.)
Carole Ann Ford had already clocked up appearances in Emergency – Ward 10, Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green and the film The Day of the Triffids before her casting as Susan in Doctor Who. She appeared in The Great St Trinian’s Train Robbery in 1966, and returned to the role of Susan for Big Finish in 2003, going on to play the Doctor’s granddaughter opposite the Eighth Doctor, Paul McGann.
Susan was the Doctor’s granddaughter and original companion, fleeing their home world in the TARDIS with him to become wanderers in the fourth dimension. The Doctor knew Susan would never leave him voluntarily. When she fell in love with David Campbell, it was the Doctor who locked her out of the TARDIS, urging her to live her life.
And another thing: Carole Ann Ford’s official BBC publicity photo omitted the ‘e’ from her first name – so she added it herself while signing autographs.
VICKI
played by MAUREEN O’BRIEN
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Rescue Episode 1 (1965)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Myth Makers Episode 4 (1965)
Merseyside-born actress Maureen O’Brien had never seen Doctor Who when she was cast as the Doctor’s surrogate granddaughter Vicki, her first television role. Never particularly pleased with her character, Maureen was quite relieved when Vicki was written out of the series and she returned to her first love, theatre. O’Brien starred as Elizabeth Straker in BBC One’s Casualty from 1986 to 1987. She published her first crime novel in 1989.
After her mother died in 2493, Vicki set out on spacecraft 201 with her father to start a new life on the planet Astra. But the ship crashed, and the crew were all killed except for Vicki and a man called Bennett. When it was revealed that Bennett had murdered the other survivors to cover up previous crimes, Vicki decided to travel with the Doctor, Ian and Barbara.
And another thing: The producers of Doctor Who originally asked O’Brien to die her hair black to mimic Carole Ann Ford. She refused.
STEVEN TAYLOR
played by PETER PURVES
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Chase Episode 6 (1965)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Savages Episode 4 (1966)
Before being cast in Doctor Who, first as hillbilly tourist Morton Dill and then as Steven Taylor, Peter Purves appeared in many popular TV series including Z-Cars, The Saint, Dixon of Dock Green and World of Wooster. In 1967, Purves joined Blue Peter as a presenter, appearing in over 850 editions of the legendary children’s magazine programme until he left just over ten years later in 1978.
After crashing in the jungles of the planet Mechanus, Pilot Flight Red Fifty Steven Taylor was captured by the robot Mechonoids and spent two years in solitary confinement. Brave and headstrong, Steven was helped to escape by the Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicki and stumbled into the TARDIS before it dematerialised.
And another thing: The only other ‘survivor’ of Steven’s crash was his mascot, a cuddly panda he called Hi-Fi.
KATARINA
played by ADRIENNE HILL
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Myth Makers Episode 4 (1965)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Daleks’ Master Plan Episode 4 (1965)
Born in Plymouth, Adrienne Hill impressed production assistant Viktors Ritelis while acting as understudy for Maggie Smith in a performance of Mary Mary and was invited to read for the role of Joanna in The Crusade. While Jean Marsh eventually won the role, Hill was cast as Katarina later the same year. Following Doctor Who, Hill took a major role in BBC Radio’s long-running Waggoner’s Walk. She died in 1997.
Handmaiden to Cassandra, High Priestess of Troy, Katarina met the Doctor when the TARDIS landed in 1184 bc. Befriending Vicki, the servant helped carry the seriously injured Steven back to the TARDIS and was carried away from Earth when the ship dematerialised.
And another thing: In 1983, Adrienne Hill made a rare appearance on Children in Need with her fellow Doctor Who companions.
DOROTHEA ‘DODO’ CHAPLET
played by JACKIE LANE
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The Massacre Episode 4 (1966)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The War Machines Episode 2 (1966)
In 1963, Jackie Lane auditioned for the role of Susan Foreman. Three years later she was approached by producer John Wiles to play Dodo, although her character disappeared off-screen just five stories later. After an appearance in American spy comedy Get Smart, Hill gave up acting, moving to Paris to work as a secretary at the Australian Embassy. On returning to England, she became a theatrical agent, representing Tom Baker and Janet Fielding among others.
In 1966, Dodo witnessed a little boy getting hurt in an accident on Wimbledon Common and ran to what she thought was the nearest police box to summon the authorities, only to be whisked off on board the TARDIS. Not that she cared – the independent young woman soon admitted that she lived with a great aunt who wouldn’t care if she never saw her again!
And another thing: Later in life, former Doctor Who producer Innes Lloyd asked Jackie Lane to find him work. Remembering how she had been dropped from the series, she declined.
BEN JACKSON
played by MICHAEL CRAZE
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The War Machines Episode 1 (1966)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Faceless Ones Episode 6 (1967)
Discovered through an appearance in a Boy Scout Gang Show, 12-year old Craze went on to win understudy roles at Drury Lane theatre. TV and film work followed including a leading role in the 1960 ABC science fiction series Target Luna.
After leaving Doctor Who, Craze would appear in episodes of Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Armchair Theatre and Crossroads. In 1974, Craze moved into the catering and hotel industry. He occasionally returned to acting, his last television role before his death in 1998 being a one-off play entitled The Healer.
Able Seaman Ben Jackson’s life changed in 1966 when he met a pretty secretary by the name of Polly in a nightclub called the Inferno. After helping the Doctor foil the rogue computer system, WOTAN, the courageous cockney sailor inadvertently hitched a lift on board the TARDIS back to 17th-century Cornwall.
And another thing: Michael Craze met his wife Edwina while filming The Tenth Planet. Before joining the Doctor Who cast Craze underwent surgery to repair a badly broken nose. He was worried that the polystyrene snow from a fake snow machine might hurt his nose and asked for it to be angled away from him. Edwina, the Production Assistant operating the machine blew it right at him. He forgave her and they were married three years later.
POLLY WRIGHT
played by Anneke Wills
First regular Doctor Who appearance: The War Machines Episode 1 (1966)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Faceless Ones Episode 6 (1967)
One of the actresses considered for the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, Anneke Wills had made her acting debut at the age of eleven. Later, after dropping out of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, the former child actor took roles in Armchair Theatre, The Saint and The Avengers. Following Doctor Who, Wills starred as Evelyn McLean in Strange Report, before giving up acting. Following times living in India, America and Canada, Wills settled in Devon in 1996.
Polly met the Doctor while she was working as Secretary to Professor Brett, creator of the WOTAN computer. Like Ben, Polly accidentally joined the Doctor on his travels while trying to return his TARDIS key. Practical and level-headed, blonde bombshell Polly was a Sixties girl through and through.