Doctor Who: Who-ology (Dr Who)
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English electronic dance duo Orbital included a version of the Doctor Who theme on their album Altogether (2001), entitled ‘Doctor?’ They regularly perform the track live. Matt Smith joined them on stage at the Glastonbury festival in 2010.
Kylie Minogue (Astrid Peth in Voyage of the Damned) has released 11 albums since 1988, and 51 singles, seven of which have charted at number one. Her stage shows have featured Doctor Who elements, including a section titled ‘Silvanemesis’ in her 2002 Fever tour.
In 1998, at the age of 15, Billie Piper became one of the youngest artistes ever to have a debut number one single in the UK when ‘Honey To The B’ went straight to the top of the charts.
Doctor Who incidental music composer Keff McCulloch was one of the minds behind novelty record ‘The Birdie Song’, released by The Tweets in 1981.
DESERT ISLAND DISCS
Three Doctors have so far appeared on BBC Radio 4’s long-running programme. Here are their choices:
WILLIAM HARTNELL
Broadcast 23 August 1965
Interviewed by Roy Plomley
Paul Robeson – ‘Trees’
Alexander Borodin – ‘Polovtsian Dances’ (from Prince Igor)
Ludwig van Beethoven – Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 ‘Kreutzer’
Peggy Cochrane and Jack Payne and his Orchestra – El Alamein Concerto
Louis Armstrong – ‘Lawd, You Made The Night Too Long’
Sergey Vasilievich Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor
Flanagan and Allen – ‘Underneath The Arches’
Charlie Chaplin – ‘The Spring Song’ from A King in New York
Record: ‘The Spring Song’ by Charlie Chaplin
Book: English Social History by G.M. Trevelyan
Luxury Item: Cigarettes
JON PERTWEE
Broadcast 12 October 1964
Interviewed by Roy Plomley
Ray Charles – ‘Georgia On My Mind’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – ‘Venite Inginocchiatevi’ from The Marriage of Figaro
Choir of the Russian Church of the Metropolitan of Paris – ‘Multos Annos’ (Russian Orthodox Liturgy)
Lonnie Donegan – ‘Love Is Strange’
Rafael Romero and Montoya Jarrito – ‘Cuatro Saetas’
John Lee Hooker – ‘Dimples’
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – ‘Der Hölle Rache’ from The Magic Flute
Miriam Makeba – ‘Suliram’ (Indonesian Lullaby)
Record: ‘Georgia On My Mind’ by Ray Charles
Book: The Culture of the Abdomen: A Cure of Obesity and Constipation by F.A. Hornibrook
Luxury Item: Guitar
DAVID TENNANT
Broadcast 27 December 2009
Interviewed by Kirsty Young
The Proclaimers – ‘Over And Done With’
Elvis Costello – ‘Oliver’s Army’
The Housemartins – ‘Me And The Farmer’
Deacon Blue – ‘Dignity’
Eddie Izzard – ‘The Starship Enterprise’
Kaiser Chiefs – ‘Ruby’
Tim Minchin – ‘White Wine In The Sun’
Billy Bragg – ‘Greetings To The New Brunette’
Record: ‘White Wine In The Sun’ by Tim Minchin
Book: A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust
Luxury item: A solar-powered DVD player loaded with all seven seasons of The West Wing.
DOCTOR WHO, THIS IS YOUR LIFE
This Is Your Life ran on British television from 1955 to 2003, hosted by Eamonn Andrews and, later, Michael Aspel, surprising celebrities and public figures with the famous red book in hand. Over the years, three Doctors were the unsuspecting subjects…
JON PERTWEE
Broadcast 14 April 1971
On 3 March 1971, the TARDIS was erected in a BBC car park, supposedly to allow Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning to reshoot location scenes for Colony in Space. Jon was more than a little surprised when Eamonn Andrews (a close friend of Katy Manning’s parents) arrived in an IMC buggy and presented him with the famous red book.
PETER DAVISON
Broadcast 25 March 1982
18 March 1982 saw Peter Davison in full costume on London’s Trafalgar Square. He was under the impression he was to record publicity material for overseas sales of Doctor Who – until Eamonn Andrews emerged from the TARDIS to declare ‘Peter Davison, this is your life.’
TOM BAKER
18 March 2000
While promoting his book The Boy Who Kicked Pigs at a shop in Kingston upon Thames, Tom Baker was confronted by his past when a Dalek arrived at the signing. He was even more taken aback when Michael Aspel appeared behind him with the famous book in hand.
BIG SCREEN / SMALL SCREEN
‘Sorry, that’s The Lion King.’
The Doctor, The Christmas Invasion
A selection of the films and television programmes referenced or seen in Doctor Who.
FILMS
TV SHOWS
HITCHHIKER’S GUIDE TO THE WHONIVERSE
Some connections between Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, written by Doctor Who writer and script editor Douglas Adams.
The Doctor owns a copy of The Origins of the Universe by Oolon Coluphid. (Destiny of the Daleks) In Hitchhiker’s, Colluphid (with two ‘l’s) is the celebrated writer of a trilogy of philosophical blockbusters.
The Doctor asks, ‘Who was it said Earthmen never invite their ancestors round for dinner?’ (Ghost Light) It was Douglas Adams in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
The Doctor claims to have met The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’s dressing gown-wearing hero Arthur Dent, commenting, ‘Now, there was a nice man.’ (The Christmas Invasion)
Six weeks before his on-screen debut as the Doctor in Logopolis Part Four, Peter Davison had a bovine-themed cameo appearance under heavy make-up as the Dish of the Day in the fifth episode of the Hitchhiker’s TV series.
An early script proposal from Douglas Adams to the Doctor Who production office was ‘The Krikkitmen’, in which the Doctor and Sarah take on androids from the planet Krikkit. The script was never taken forward, although Adams would use elements from the story in the Key to Time season, and adapt the plot for the third Hitchhiker’s book, Life, the Universe and Everything.
Never one to waste a plot, Adams refurbished story elements from the Doctor Who stories City of Death and the unfinished Shada for his novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Both Shada and Dirk Gently feature Professor Chronotis.
THE OTHER DOCTORS
As early as December 1963, other TV programmes were spoofing Doctor Who, a sure sign of its popularity. Over the years, a wide variety of actors have donned scarves and hats in the name of comedy Who.
Daleks featured in the infamous ‘Pakistani Dalek’ sketch from Spike Milligan’s Q series in 1975. Dr Emu and Rod Hull battled the strangely familiar Deadly Dustbins in 1977’s Emu’s Broadcasting Company, and the Daleks themselves also appeared in a sketch featured on a BBC2 Red Dwarf night, discussing the merits or otherwise of the popular sitcom.
In the 1984 Channel 4 sitcom Chelmsford 123, the TARDIS materialises in the background of a scene. Seen only in silhouette, the Fourth Doctor is clearly unimpressed with ancient Britain and immediately dematerialises.
The Fourth Doctor has made three cameo appearances in The Simpsons.
In A Quack in the Quarks, an episode of 1990s animated series Tiny Toon Adventures featuring characters from the ‘Looney Tunes’ cartoons, the TARDIS can clearly be seen in a space station loading bay. The 1960s movie Daleks also made an appearance in the cinematic Looney Tunes Back in Action in 2003.
As well as The Web of Caves spoof sketch in which Mark Gatiss plays the Doctor, 1999’s Doctor Who Night featured two further sketches. The Pitch of Fear saw Gatiss and David Walliams ‘recreating’ the first pitch session for Doctor Who, plus The Kidnappers, in which Gatiss and Walliams played fans who kidnapped Pe
ter Davison. Good sport Peter Davison appears in a non-speaking role. As himself.
EIGHT
THE MATRIX
BEHIND THE SCENES
‘For some people, small, beautiful events are what life is all about.’
The Doctor, Earthshock
As our crazy, wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey journey through Doctor Who nears its end, we salute the people who make the magic with the kind of behind-the-scenes trivia that so many Doctor Who fans love.
THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT
The shortest regular episode of Doctor Who is The Mind Robber Episode 5 which ran for just 18 minutes. The longest was The Five Doctors at 90 minutes and 23 seconds.
But how mini are those minisodes? The shortest so far is the second part of Space / Time at 2 minutes 54 seconds, while Time Crash is the relatively feature-length 7 minutes 42 seconds. As for Dimensions in Time, you’re looking at 7 minutes 34 seconds for Part 1 and 5 minutes 27 seconds for Part 2.
THE ARCHITECTS OF DOCTOR WHO
Who created Doctor Who? Certain editions of the popular board game Trivial Pursuit give the answer as ‘Terry Nation’, a popular misconception (although his contribution of the Daleks shouldn’t be underestimated). This is a question that has no single answer; the development of the series throughout 1963 was an enormous group effort. Here are some of the names that can be considered the pioneering architects of Doctor Who.
Donald Baverstock – Controller of BBC Television in 1963. First identified the need for a Saturday evening family drama series.
Sydney Newman – BBC Head of Drama, 1962–1967. Canadian-born Newman arguably had the biggest influence over the creation of Doctor Who. He co-ordinated the efforts of the Drama department at the BBC to come up with a science fiction adventure series and provided comment on all proposals.
Donald Wilson – BBC Head of Serials in 1963, reporting directly to Sydney Newman, with a similar supervisory role in the overall development of the series.
Alice Frick – BBC Drama story editor. Contributed to various key reports on producing a science-fiction drama serial in 1962–1963.
John Braybon – BBC story editor, present for early discussions on the prospect of a sci-fi drama serial.
C.E. ‘Bunny’ Webber – BBC staff writer. Present at various meetings throughout 1963, and produced the first and subsequent series proposal for ‘Dr. Who’, along with several storylines.
Rex Tucker – ‘Caretaker’ producer of Doctor Who before the appointment of Verity Lambert. Would return in 1966 to direct The Gunfighters.
Verity Lambert – Doctor Who’s first full-time producer from 1963 to 1965. Instrumental in casting William Hartnell as the Doctor and shaping the first two years of the series.
Mervyn Pinfield – associate producer, working closely with Verity Lambert throughout the first year of Doctor Who.
David Whitaker – Doctor Who’s first story editor and subsequently prolific scriptwriter.
Anthony Coburn – BBC staff writer hired to script the first Doctor Who story, drawing on existing proposal documents, in particular the work of C.E. Webber.
Waris Hussein – BBC director responsible for helming the first story, An Unearthly Child. Along with Verity Lambert, was key in the casting of William Hartnell.
Peter Brachacki – BBC staff designer on the pilot episode, An Unearthly Child, responsible for designing the original TARDIS control room.
William Hartnell, Jacqueline Hill, William Russell, Carole Ann Ford – The original cast. Without whom…
PROLIFIC GUEST STARS
Doctor Who has played host to some much-loved guest stars, and many have made return appearances across the decades. Here are some of the most prolific Doctor Who guest stars and the number of episodes they have appeared in (not including companions, their families, UNIT personnel, extras, voice artistes and monsters!)
Roger Delgado (37)
Anthony Ainley (31)
Michael Wisher (24 – not including voices)
Kevin Stoney (22)
Bernard Kay (19)
Michael Sheard (17)
Peter Miles (17)
John Abineri (17)
Graham Leaman (17)
Norman Jones (15)
Philip Madoc (15)
Bernard Horsfall (15)
Jean Marsh (15)
Milton Johns (15)
Peter Halliday (15 – not including voices)
Alan Rowe (15)
Prentis Hancock (14)
Lynda Bellingham (14)
Michael Jayston (14)
Christopher Benjamin (13)
Alex Kingston (13)
John Ringham (13)
Wanda Ventham (13)
Ronald Allen (12)
Donald Pickering (12)
David Savile (12)
George Pravda (11)
Frederick Jaeger (11)
REPEAT PERFORMANCE
Some actors have returned as the same character in different stories. Here are some examples (excluding companions, families, UNIT personnel, voice artistes and monster operators).
DOCTOR WHO’S MOST PROLIFIC WRITERS
The writers with the most story-writing credits between 1963 and 2012
Russell T Davies – 25 story credits
Steven Moffat – 17 story credits
Robert Holmes – 15 story credits
Terry Nation – 11 story credits
Bob Baker – 9 story credits
David Whitaker / Dave Martin – 8 story credits each
Malcolm Hulke – 7 story credits
Brian Hayles – 6 story credits
Terrance Dicks / Gareth Roberts – 5 story credits each
Dennis Spooner / Louis Marks / Gerry Davis / David Fisher / Eric Saward / Mark Gatiss / Toby Whithouse / Chris Chibnall – 4 story credits each
DIRECTOR WHO
The most prolific directors by number of episodes they are credited with directing
Douglas Camfield – 52 episodes
David Maloney – 45 episodes
Christopher Barry – 42 episodes
Michael E. Briant – 29 episodes
Lennie Mayne – 28 episodes
Barry Letts – 24 episodes
Pennant Roberts – 24 episodes
Richard Martin / Ron Jones – 22 episodes each
Derek Martinus / Michael Ferguson – 21 episodes each
Peter Moffat – 20 episodes
Paddy Russell / Graeme Harper – 18 episodes each
Paul Bernard / Peter Grimwade / Fiona Cumming – 16 episodes each
Chris Clough – 15 episodes
Michael Hayes – 14 episodes
Morris Barry / Timothy Combe / Euros Lyn – 13 episodes each
Gerald Blake / Nicholas Mallet – 12 episodes each
Waris Hussein – 11 episodes (plus the Pilot episode)
Mervyn Pinfield / Hugh David / Rodney Bennett – 10 episodes each
Julia Smith / George Spenton-Foster / Norman Stewart / Andrew Morgan – 8 episodes each
John Crockett / Alan Wareing / James Strong – 7 episodes each
John Gorrie / Henric Hirsch / Gerry Mill / Tristan de Vere Cole / Michael Hart – 6 episodes each
STAGE PLAYS AND PERFORMANCES
There have been all manner of amateur and unlicensed stage versions of Doctor Who – as well as ‘guest’ appearances by characters, monsters, Daleks… But there have been relatively few officially licensed live Doctor Who shows. Enter, stage left: The Doctor – along with some of his greatest enemies too!
The Curse of the Daleks by David Whitaker and Terry Nation
Original run: 21 December 1965–Saturday 15 January 1966, Wyndham’s Theatre, London
No Doctor but lots of Daleks (well, five at least).
Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday
by Terrance Dicks
Original run: 16 December 1974–11 January 1975, Adelphi Theatre, London
Trevor Martin stars as an alternative Fourth Doctor with
former companion Wendy Padbury as Jenny.
Hot Ice ’86
Original run: 14 June–1 November 1986, Blackpool Ice Dome
Each performance included an officially licensed eight-minute Doctor Who ice adventure featuring skater David McGrouther as the Sixth Doctor with Julie Sharrock as Peri.
Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure by Terrance Dicks
Original run: Various venues from 23 March 1989 (first night at Wimbledon Theatre, London) to 19 August 1989 (final performance at Congress Theatre, Eastbourne)
A national tour starring first Jon Pertwee, then Colin Baker and, for one night only, David Banks as the Doctor.
Doctor Who Meets Albert Einstein by Justin Richards
Original run: February 2005, The Young Scientist Exhibition, Dublin
Produced by the Institute of Physics in association with BBC Worldwide, this short play starred Declan Brennan as the Doctor. Staged multiple times during the exhibition, the play explained the concepts of relativity to children in a fun way.
Doctor Who: A Celebration
Original performance: 19 November 2006, Wales Millennium Centre
A Children in Need charity concert of Doctor Who music and monsters, hosted by David Tennant.
Doctor Who Prom
Original performance: 27 July 2008, Royal Albert Hall, London
Presented by Freema Agyeman, this celebration of Doctor Who music included the Music of the Spheres minisode.
Doctor Who Prom 2010
Original run: 24–25 July 2010, Royal Albert Hall, London