Dr Who fans to mark anniversary (40 years!)

BBCi ^ | 11/22/03

[Hazzardgate]

Doctor Who fans are preparing for the 40th anniversary of the sci-fi show's television debut on Sunday.

The show first appeared on the BBC in 1963, with William Hartnell taking the lead role as the time-travelling hero

It grew into a much-loved institution, before being axed in 1989, by which time Sylvester McCoy was the seventh actor to play the Doctor.

Now fans are speculating as to who will take the lead role in a revival of Dr Who, due to be broadcast in 2005.

The new series is in the early stages of development, and is being written by TV dramatist Russell T Davies.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Anthony Head was voted favourite in a recent poll for Radio Times magazine.

Whoever gets the role will also follow in the footsteps of Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, and Colin Baker.

Hopes were raised of a comeback in 1996 when Paul McGann recreated the role in a TV movie version, co-produced by the BBC and the US Fox network.

But while it was a success in the UK, it failed to get the backing in the US for a new series to be made.

Since then, McGann, Colin Baker and Richard E Grant have provided the voice of the Doctor for animated adventures on the BBC website, and radio versions of the series have also been made.

Doctor Who was first conceived as an educational programme to slot into Saturday evening schedules.

Viewers discovered in the first episode that the Doctor was not a human, but an alien who travelled through time in his time and space machine - a Tardis - disguised as a police call box.

Later, when Hartnell left the series to be replaced by Troughton, he was written out by "regenerating" the Doctor.

At the end of a battle with the deadly Cybermen, the Doctor announced that his old body was beginning to "wear out" and he collapsed onto the floor of the Tardis, where special effects made the character change into his second form - played by Troughton.

Later it was explained that the Doctor was a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, and the process of regeneration was something that happened to all Time Lords 12 times before they finally died.

[sushiman]

" Another great series from Masterpiece Theater: "Upstairs/Downstairs."

Yep , there were SO many great English dramas and comedies on PBS ( Ch. 13 out of NY ) back in the 70's / 80's . I came to Japan in 1985 so don't know what it is like now .

[Cultural Jihad]

Cool! How much is a roll of tekkamaki where you live? I hear living is expensive there.

[sushiman]

" And it is difficult to understand in person......
Made a special trip to Askrigg (Darrowby) and stood outside Skeldale House, 10 yrs ago or so. Looks just like
"All Creatures...", with the exception of the tour buses.
And the Yorkshire dales are beautiful. "

A friend and I visited Askrigg in 1983 , and of course saw " Skeldale " . Got an autographed copy of the book " James Herriots's Yorkshire " while in the area ! Our primary purpose for being in Yorkshire was to do an as extensive as possible in two weeks " pub crawl " ! Wonderful time ...unforgettable experiences .

[kb2614]

I'm not alone. That's scary.

[evilC]

dum de dum, dum de dum, diddly dum, diddly dum, dum de dum, dum de dum, diddly dum, diddly dum, Woooooaaaaaaa

[evilC]

Dr Who was good but these guys

were cool (in a late 70s early 80s kind of way)!

[miloklancy]

I commemorated the anniversary by watching the first two episodes of An Unearthly Child last night.

[Hazzardgate]

Nice one! I did a double bill of TALONS OF WENG CHIANG and INFERNO .... was great!

[miloklancy]

Cool! Those two stories are some of my favorites.

[Liberal Classic]