History Analysis / DoctorWho

''Technically'', the BBC classify (and have always classified) ''Doctor Who'' as a drama series, created under the aegis of BBC Drama, rather than a children's series under the aegis of the BBC Children's department. The Beeb has no such thing as a "Family Show" department.

The show isn't formatted into serials since its return. It follows the more recent pattern of ''TheXFiles'', ''{{Buffy}}'', etc., of standalone episodes (sometimes with two-parters and even one three-parter) that develop a season-long (or longer!) arc.

The original theme recording was used, with various edits and mixes, until 1980, when a totally [[EvolvingMusic new recording]] was made by Radiophonic Workshop member Peter Howell. Subsequent remixes were provided by Dominic Glynn, Keff [=McCulloch=] and John Debney (Debney arranged the theme for the American TV movie). All of the themes since the show returned have been arranged by Murray Gold, with the first (Series 1-3) remixing the original recording with orchestral and electronic embellishments, and was extended for the start of Series 2 to include a tribute to the 'Middle Eight' section of the original theme. Another version was recorded for Series 4, this one with more of a rock-n-roll feel (electric guitar, bass and drumkit). This theme was remixed for the the four specials that transitioned from Ten to Eleven with an orchestral backing. There's a rather different one for Series 5, featuring electronic instruments in a more central position as well as a strong brass sound at the beginning.

''Technically'', the BBC classify (and have always classified) ''Doctor Who'' as a drama series, created under the aegis of BBC Drama, rather than a children's series under the aegis of the BBC Children's department. The Beeb has no such thing as a "Family Show" department.

Since the beginning, the show has had a high number of [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath deaths which are unpleasant in many cases]] (the show has been mild on blood since it returned). However, sometimes the level of violence and gore can be downright brutal, ranging from stabbing to graphic dismemberments, impalements, blood squibs and implied decapitation. The show occasionally features difficult subject matter such as implied rape, racial hatred, genocide, drug use and very discreet references to child molestation.

In 2006, the BBC and animation studio Cosgrove Hall released an animated reconstruction of Parts 1 and 4 of Patrick Troughton serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]", using remastered audio tapes and the original stage notes. For the next few years, fans were disappointed that no similar reconstructions were made, with the company in charge of releasing episodes to DVD claiming that it was too expensive to hire an animation company to do a couple of one-off episodes. However, in 2011 it was announced that "[[{{Recap/DoctorWhoS1E8TheReignOfTerror}} The Reign of Terror]]" would be released in 2012 with two missing episodes similarly reconstructed.

No discussion of the show is complete without mentioning its ThemeTune, which has a number of variations (as do the logos and {{Title Sequence}}s). The original 1963 version of the ''Doctor Who'' theme is a hallmark of pre-synthesizer electronic music and, when paired with the trippy feedback titles, looked forward to late-60s psychedelica. Ron Grainer composed the music, and Delia Derbyshire, working in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, realized it by taping a variety of electronic tones and distorted instruments, and splicing the tapes together by hand over many hours. It was so popular that it was one of the [[TropeCodifier Trope Codifiers]] of early {{electronic music}}.

Unfortunately, in the United States, the show isn't as widely popular and is often considered the [[SciFiGhetto territory of nerds]] and [[{{PBS}} public television]]. The 1996 movie was partially an attempt to gain enough American recognition to warrant an American co-produced revival of the series (which failed). Since its revival in 2005, the show ''has'' been acknowledged by the mainstream television press as among the best shows on television, and pulls consistently high ratings for a basic (when it was on SciFiChannel) and digital (now that it's on [[TheBBC BBC America]]) cable television show. In fact, "The Impossible Astronaut" is the highest rated BBC America programme ''in the network's history''. Since "A Christmas Carol" at Christmas 2010, the show now airs in the United States only a few hours after its original British airing (except for "The Almost People" and "A Good Man Goes To War", both delayed one week due to Memorial Day weekend). Compare this to the weeks or ''months'' of wait that SciFiChannel imposed on fans when they aired the first four revival series. Examples of the show's slow acceptance into American pop culture include the mentioning of the series on ''TheLateLateShow with Craig Ferguson'' (being the only host on a US late night talk show that has talked to three of the Steven Moffat-era main cast, complete with making a song and having a miniature TARDIS prop), and the parody ''InspectorSpacetime'', which appeared as a ShowWithinAShow on the third season premiere of the sitcom ''Series/{{Community}}'', which has become a bit of meme here at TV Tropes (sadly, given ''Community'''s own low ratings and cult status, that isn't exactly a ''mainstream'' mention just yet).

That said, of the most controversial discussions in fandom is whether ''Doctor Who'' is a (to quote a line from a newspaper article which used to explain the show's appeal on the blurbs of the {{novelization}}s) "the children's own program [[PeripheryDemographic that adults adore]]", a "family show" or a "[[DarkerAndEdgier dark and edgy]] show like ''BattlestarGalactica'' meets ''{{The X-Files}}'', at midnight in an unlit cellar! Constant death and misery! Pain! Lots of pain!" That ''Doctor Who'' can plausibly be described in ''all'' of these terms is a possible key to its long-term appeal. In the opinion of Creator/StevenMoffat it's fundamentally a children's programme that adults can appreciate; if an episode of ''Doctor Who'' isn't keeping kids entertained, it isn't doing its job properly. A large part of this disagreement is down to the fact that most American ''Who'' fans would have discovered the show as teens or adults, while many older Brits remember the show as a ubiquitous childhood favorite. An examination of broadcast schedules for the show around the world reveals the schism in its audience: in the UK, the show traditionally airs around the supper hour on Saturdays. In the US, Canada, and other countries the "classic" series is often shown late at night, and newer episodes often air in prime time, often at "late hours" such as 8 and 9 PM.

Unfortunately, in the United States, the show isn't as widely popular and is often considered the [[SciFiGhetto territory of nerds]] and [[{{PBS}} public television]]. The 1996 movie was partially an attempt to gain enough American recognition to warrant an American co-produced revival of the series (which failed). Since its revival in 2005, the show ''has'' been acknowledged by the mainstream television press as among the best shows on television, and pulls consistently high ratings for a basic (when it was on SciFiChannel) and digital (now that it's on [[TheBBC BBC America]]) cable television show. In fact, "The Impossible Astronaut" is the highest rated BBC America programme ''in the network's history''. Since "A Christmas Carol" at Christmas 2010, the show now airs in the United States only a few hours after its original British airing (except for "The Almost People" and "A Good Man Goes To War", both delayed one week due to Memorial Day weekend). Compare this to the weeks or ''months'' of wait that SciFiChannel imposed on fans when they aired the first four revival series. An example of the show's slow acceptance into American pop culture is the parody ''InspectorSpacetime'', which appeared as a ShowWithinAShow on the third season premiere of the sitcom ''Series/{{Community}}'', which has become a bit of meme here at TV Tropes (sadly, given ''Community'''s own low ratings and cult status, that isn't exactly a ''mainstream'' mention just yet).

In TheSixties and TheSeventies, [[TheBBC BBC]] policy was to junk or overwrite the media of television programs that had already aired[[labelnote:6]]Yes, this was short-sighted, but give them a bit of a break--the tapes they used were ''very'' expensive, and they didn't view such ephemera as having lasting cultural value, and there was no such thing as a "home video" secondary market. In addition, union performance contracts of the day only allowed for so many broadcasts of a programme.[[/labelnote]] The upshot is that, out of around 700 episodes filmed, 106 are lost, with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's eras being the most affected, though audio tapes of all missing episodes still exist from fans who made recordings of the show when it aired (the BBC has released most of these commercially on cassette and CD, and occasionally have also produced reconstructions of missing episodes for DVD using them). Every Jon Pertwee onwards episode still exists, though a number of them exist only in black and white even though they were filmed in colour.

Companions are predominantly human, [[ParentService young, female, and attractive]]. In the early episodes there would also be a companion who was young, male, and heroic. Sometimes they are humanoid aliens, or, famously, a robot dog. They have joined and left the TARDIS for various reasons. The Doctor reserves the right to kick a companion out of the TARDIS for bad behaviour (''The Long Game'' is the only episode in which he has done it so far), or to take on a new companion even over the objections of present companions. Classic Series companions tended to have few or no ties to their homes (and often lose such ties, like in ''The Evil of the Daleks''), and--anniversary specials aside--did not cross paths with the Doctor after leaving the TARDIS[[labelnote:4]]unless the companion in question is Sarah Jane Smith, who did indeed return in the RTD era episode "School Reunion" and was a mite ticked about being ignored for thirty years[[/labelnote]]. [[RussellTDavies RTD era]] companions don't divide their lives as neatly: they continue to interact with their families while away with the Doctor, and with the Doctor before.

That said, of the most controversial discussions in fandom is whether ''Doctor Who'' is a (to quote a line from a newspaper article which used to explain the show's appeal on the blurbs of the {{novelization}}s) "the children's own program [[PeripheryDemographic that adults adore]]", a "family show" or a "[[DarkerAndEdgier dark and edgy]] show like ''BattlestarGalactica'' meets ''{{The X-Files}}'', at midnight in an unlit cellar! Constant death and misery! Pain! Lots of pain!" That ''Doctor Who'' can plausibly be described in ''all'' of these terms is a possible key to its long-term appeal. In the opinion of StevenMoffat it's fundamentally a children's programme that adults can appreciate; if an episode of ''Doctor Who'' isn't keeping kids entertained, it isn't doing its job properly. A large part of this disagreement is down to the fact that most American ''Who'' fans would have discovered the show as teens or adults, while many older Brits remember the show as a ubiquitous childhood favorite. An examination of broadcast schedules for the show around the world reveals the schism in its audience: in the UK, the show traditionally airs around the supper hour on Saturdays. In the US, Canada, and other countries the "classic" series is often shown late at night, and newer episodes often air in prime time, often at "late hours" such as 8 and 9 PM.

The show, because of its heyday in the seventies and eighties, has resulted in children growing up and starting careers ''[[PromotedFanboy for the sole purpose of working on the show]]'': RussellTDavies started his screenwriting career with a (failed) submission to the BBC; DavidTennant has confessed that the show got him into acting; and StevenMoffat has joked that he applied to be the executive producer when he was seven. Other people on the show also work [[SoMyKidsCanWatch so their kids can see their parents]] in something that's not inappropriate, such as JohnSimm, known more for gritty dramas before taking the role of the Master[[labelnote:7]]Try not to think too hard about the fact that the apparently 'family-appropriate' role is a ''genocidal psychopath''[[/labelnote]]. Even if an actor wasn't a fan when he was a kid, it's almost certain their little kid will be.

!!"The Doctor"[[hottip:?:Not his real name, hardly anyone knows his real name, but the viewers might learn it soon thanks to StevenMoffat.]]

([[IAmNotShazam The Doctor, not "Doctor Who"]][[hottip:*:Except when it is, like in ''The Highlanders'']]), a HumanAlien who [[TimeTravel travels through time]] and [[WalkingTheEarth space]]. He started off as an AntiHero (or even AntiVillain) but soon settled into the [[KnightErrant hero role]]. He usually (though not always) functions as the series' moral center.

The Doctor has been played by eleven different actors in the TV series to date. [[hottip:1:That sound you heard was all the hardcore ''Who''-fans going "Actually..." Some of the more knowledgeable ones can tell you which Doctors were played by more than one actor.]] That's them in the picture at the top of the main page.

Stands for ''Time And Relative Dimension In Space'' (but not [[AC:[[RecycledInSpace In Space!]]]])[[hottip:2:or, alternatively, Time And Relative ''Dimensions'' In Space]] A combination CoolShip, LivingShip, SapientShip, [[AllegedCar Alleged Ship]], TimeMachine and BiggerOnTheInside (the trope-namer for that last one), who as well as having TimeTravel abilities and the power to traverse the universe, can do pretty much anything. In a subversion, while the TARDIS is a product of Time Lord über-tech, it was gradually revealed as old, obsolete, and barely functional. It's gotten worse since then--like the alien equivalent of a jalopy held together with duct tape--though it's still light years ahead of all other such technology currently known to exist. The [[MostWonderfulSound TARDIS dematerialisation noise]] is the distorted sound of a door key being scraped along the bass strings of a piano. This sound effect, dating back to the very first serial in the sixties, is still used as of today, and still gives millions an inevitable chill through their spines ''whenever'' they hear it.

It's BiggerOnTheInside (to this day, nobody knows exactly ''how'' big other than "ridiculously huge") and has the exterior appearance (because the chameleon circuit broke in the first episode) of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_box police box]][[hottip:3:The Doctor's tried to fix it a couple of times, but eventually gave up - the in-story reason being that he'd grown fond of the police box appearance]]. That appearance has become so iconic of the show that when the BBC trademarked the TARDIS in 1996, the British police took them to court over it and ''lost!''

Companions are predominantly human, [[ParentService young, female, and attractive]]. In the early episodes there would also be a companion who was young, male, and heroic. Sometimes they are humanoid aliens, or, famously, a robot dog. They have joined and left the TARDIS for various reasons. The Doctor reserves the right to kick a companion out of the TARDIS for bad behaviour (''The Long Game'' is the only episode in which he has done it so far), or to take on a new companion even over the objections of present companions. Classic Series companions tended to have few or no ties to their homes (and often lose such ties, like in ''The Evil of the Daleks''), and--anniversary specials aside--did not cross paths with the Doctor after leaving the TARDIS[[hottip:4:unless the companion in question is Sarah Jane Smith, who did indeed return in the RTD era episode "School Reunion" and was a mite ticked about being ignored for thirty years]]. [[RussellTDavies RTD era]] companions don't divide their lives as neatly: they continue to interact with their families while away with the Doctor, and with the Doctor before, after or between their travels with him. [[StevenMoffat SM era]] companions are like the Classic Who companions.

The Doctor detests Torchwood on general principle (the feeling is mutual--the Doctor is specifically named in Torchwood's charter as its first alien enemy known), though Captain Jack, former companion and leader of Torchwood 3 [[hottip:5:until ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'', when he takes command of a kind of resistance movement of the same name]], has been doing his best to change the Doctor's mind. The Doctor's relations with UNIT are much more cordial--he's even ''worked'' for UNIT, as a scientific advisor, for much of his third incarnation and occasionally since then--though he has little patience with its bureaucracy, established procedures, and chains of command, just as he did with his own people's.

In TheSixties and TheSeventies, [[TheBBC BBC]] policy was to junk or overwrite the media of television programs that had already aired[[hottip:6:Yes, this was short-sighted, but give them a bit of a break--the tapes they used were ''very'' expensive, and they didn't view such ephemera as having lasting cultural value, and there was no such thing as a "home video" secondary market. In addition, union performance contracts of the day only allowed for so many broadcasts of a programme. ]] The upshot is that, out of around 700 episodes filmed, 106 are lost, with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's eras being the most affected, though audio tapes of all missing episodes still exist from fans who made recordings of the show when it aired (the BBC has released most of these commercially on cassette and CD, and occasionally have also produced reconstructions of missing episodes for DVD using them). Every Jon Pertwee onwards episode still exists, though a number of them exist only in black and white even though they were filmed in colour. There are currently 106 episodes missing.

The show, because of its heyday in the seventies and eighties, has resulted in children growing up and starting careers ''[[PromotedFanboy for the sole purpose of working on the show]]'': RussellTDavies started his screenwriting career with a (failed) submission to the BBC; DavidTennant has confessed that the show got him into acting; and StevenMoffat has joked that he applied to be the executive producer when he was seven. Other people on the show also work [[SoMyKidsCanWatch so their kids can see their parents]] in something that's not inappropriate, such as JohnSimm, known more for gritty dramas before taking the role of the Master[[hottip:7:Try not to think too hard about the fact that the apparently 'family-appropriate' role is a ''genocidal psychopath'']]. Even if an actor wasn't a fan when he was a kid, it's almost certain their little kid will be.

Those aspects of the show that would normally be set by the series creator--style, tone, mythology--are largely the province of the executive producer, or ''showrunner'', who may or may not write episodes. Over its forty years, the show has seen several executive producers (producers in the old days), each of whom has left his or her mark for better or for worse. ''Every'' showrunner is, for ''some'' fan, [[ScapegoatCreator the one]] who [[DarthWiki/RuinedForever Ruined It Forever.]] Possibly even VerityLambert and SydneyNewman, who co-''created'' the show.

Those aspects of the show that would normally be set by the series creator--style, tone, mythology--are largely the province of the executive producer, or ''showrunner'', who may or may not write episodes. Over its forty years, the show has seen several executive producers (producers in the old days), each of whom has left his or her mark for better or for worse. ''Every'' showrunner is, for ''some'' fan, [[ScapegoatCreator the one]] who [[RuinedForever Ruined It Forever.]] Possibly even VerityLambert and SydneyNewman, who co-''created'' the show.

It's BiggerOnTheInside (to this day, nobody knows exactly ''how'' big other than "ridiculously huge") and has the exterior appearance (because the chameleon circuit broke in the first episode) of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_box police box]][[hottip:3:The Doctor's tried to fix it [[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E7Logopolis a couple]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E1AttackOfTheCybermen of times]], but eventually gave up - the in-story reason being that he'd grown fond of the police box appearance]]. That appearance has become so iconic of the show that when the BBC trademarked the TARDIS in 1996, the British police took them to court over it and ''lost!''

The Doctor has been played by eleven different actors in the TV series to date. [[hottip:1:That sound you heard was all the hardcore ''Who''-fans going "Actually..." Some of the more knowledgeable ones can tell you which Doctors were played by more than one actor. Also, some of the actors played more than one Doctor - Sylvester McCoy ([[FakeShemp 6]] and 7) and Richard E Grant (alternate 11th Doctor and the Shalka Doctor)]] That's them in the picture at the top of the main page.

''Doctor Who'' was originally intended to be an educational show explaining science and history to children in an entertaining science-fiction context (this is why two of the first three companions were a science teacher and a history teacher). However, the popularity of the outer-space romps and outlandish aliens (particularly the Daleks) eventually shifted the series' emphasis from education to adventure. The TARDIS' police box appearance was, apparently, a matter of budget. Just as the StarTrek transporters papered over the ''Enterprise'''s budgetary inability to send shuttles, the TARDIS' supposed shape-shifting circuit was jammed from the outset to avoid having to create a new TARDIS prop for each episode. The First Doctor acts as if this is the first time it's happened: "It's still a police box! Why hasn't it changed? Dear dear, how very disturbing."

Unfortunately, in the United States, the show isn't as widely popular and is often considered the [[SciFiGhetto territory of nerds]] and [[{{PBS}} public television]]. The 1996 movie was partially an attempt to gain enough American recognition to warrant an American co-produced revival of the series (which failed). Since its revival in 2005, the show ''has'' been acknowledged by the mainstream television press as among the best shows on television, and pulls consistently high ratings for a basic (when it was on SciFiChannel) and digital (now that it's on [[TheBBC BBC America]]) cable television show. In fact, "The Impossible Astronaut" is the highest rated BBC America programme ''in the network's history''. Since "A Christmas Carol" at Christmas 2010, the show now airs in the United States only a few hours after its original British airing (except for "The Almost People" and "A Good Man Goes To War", both delayed one week due to Memorial Day weekend). Compare this to the weeks or ''months'' of wait that SciFiChannel imposed on fans when they aired the first four revival series. An example of the show's slow acceptance into American pop culture is the parody ''InspectorSpacetime'', which appeared as a ShowWithinAShow on the third season premiere of the sitcom ''{{Community}}'', which has become a bit of meme here at TV Tropes (sadly, given ''Community'''s own low ratings and cult status, that isn't exactly a ''mainstream'' mention just yet).

In 2006, the BBC and animation studio Cosgrove Hall released an animated reconstruction of Parts 1 and 4 of Patrick Troughton serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion The Invasion]]", using remastered audio tapes and the original stage notes. Sadly, as of 2011 there haven't been any more animated reconstructions like this, with the company in charge of releasing episodes to DVD claiming it's too expensive to hire an animation company to do a couple of one-off episodes.

The Doctor has been played by eleven different actors in the TV series to date. [[hottip:1:That sound you heard was all the hardcore ''Who''-fans going "Actually..." Some of the more knowledgeable ones can tell you which Doctors were played by more than one actor. Also, some of the actors played more than one Doctor - Slyvester McCoy ([[FakeShemp 6]] and 7) and Richard E Grant (alternate 11th Doctor and the Shalka Doctor)]] That's them in the picture at the top of the main page.

It's BiggerOnTheInside (to this day, nobody knows exactly ''how'' big other than "ridiculously huge") and has the exterior appearance (because the chameleon circuit broke in the first episode) of a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_box police box]]. That appearance has become so iconic of the show that when the BBC trademarked the TARDIS in 1996, the British police took them to court over it and ''lost!''

Companions are predominantly human, [[ParentService young, female, and attractive]]. In the early episodes there would also be a companion who was young, male, and heroic. Sometimes they are humanoid aliens, or, famously, a robot dog. They have joined and left the TARDIS for various reasons. The Doctor reserves the right to kick a companion out of the TARDIS for bad behaviour (''The Long Game'' is the only episode in which he has done it so far), or to take on a new companion even over the objections of present companions. Classic Series companions tended to have few or no ties to their homes (and often lose such ties, like in ''The Evil of the Daleks''), and--anniversary specials aside--did not cross paths with the Doctor after leaving the TARDIS[[hottip:3:unless the companion in question is Sarah Jane Smith, who did indeed return in the RTD era episode "School Reunion" and was a mite ticked about being ignored for thirty years]]. [[RussellTDavies RTD era]] companions don't divide their lives as neatly: they continue to interact with their families while away with the Doctor, and with the Doctor before, after or between their travels with him. [[StevenMoffat SM era]] companions are like the Classic Who companions.

The Doctor detests Torchwood on general principle (the feeling is mutual--the Doctor is specifically named in Torchwood's charter as its first alien enemy known), though Captain Jack, former companion and leader of Torchwood 3 [[hottip:4:until ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'', when he takes command of a kind of resistance movement of the same name]], has been doing his best to change the Doctor's mind. The Doctor's relations with UNIT are much more cordial--he's even ''worked'' for UNIT, as a scientific advisor, for much of his third incarnation and occasionally since then--though he has little patience with its bureaucracy, established procedures, and chains of command, just as he did with his own people's.

In TheSixties and TheSeventies, [[TheBBC BBC]] policy was to junk or overwrite the media of television programs that had already aired[[hottip:5:Yes, this was short-sighted, but give them a bit of a break--the tapes they used were ''very'' expensive, and they didn't view such ephemera as having lasting cultural value, and there was no such thing as a "home video" secondary market. In addition, union performance contracts of the day only allowed for so many broadcasts of a programme. ]] The upshot is that, out of around 700 episodes filmed, 106 are lost, with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's eras being the most affected, though audio tapes of all missing episodes still exist from fans who made recordings of the show when it aired (the BBC has released most of these commercially on cassette and CD, and occasionally have also produced reconstructions of missing episodes for DVD using them). Every Jon Pertwee onwards episode still exists, though a number of them exist only in black and white even though they were filmed in colour. There are currently 106 episodes missing.

The show, because of its heyday in the seventies and eighties, has resulted in children growing up and starting careers ''[[PromotedFanboy for the sole purpose of working on the show]]'': RussellTDavies started his screenwriting career with a (failed) submission to the BBC; DavidTennant has confessed that the show got him into acting; and StevenMoffat has joked that he applied to be the executive producer when he was seven. Other people on the show also work [[SoMyKidsCanWatch so their kids can see their parents]] in something that's not inappropriate, such as JohnSimm, known more for gritty dramas before taking the role of the Master[[hottip:6:Try not to think too hard about the fact that the apparently 'family-appropriate' role is a ''genocidal psychopath'']]. Even if an actor wasn't a fan when he was a kid, it's almost certain their little kid will be.

In TheSixties and TheSeventies, [[TheBBC BBC]] policy was to junk or overwrite the media of television programs that had already aired[[hottip:5:Yes, this was short-sighted, but give them a bit of a break--the tapes they used were ''very'' expensive, and they didn't view such ephemera as having lasting cultural value, and there was no such thing as a "home video" secondary market. In addition, union performance contracts of the day only allowed for so many broadcasts of a programme. ]] The upshot is that, out of around 700 episodes filmed, 106 are lost, with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's eras being the most affected, though audio tapes of all missing episodes still exist from fans who made recordings of the show when it aired (the BBC has released most of these commercially on cassette and CD, and occasionally have also produced reconstructions of missing episodes for DVD using them). Every Jon Pertwee onwards episode still exists, though a number of them exist only in black and white even though they were filmed in colour. There are currently 108 episodes missing.

The Doctor has been played by eleven different actors in the TV series to date. [[hottip:1:That sound you heard was all the hardcore ''Who''-fans going "Actually..." Some of the more knowledgeable ones can tell you which Doctors were played by more than one actor.]] That's them in the picture at the top of the main page.

The Doctor is rarely alone in his travels. For the purposes of {{Exposition}} and for [[AudienceSurrogate someone the audience can identify with]], he has had a large number of companions (''mostly'' non-romantic, though Fanfic disagrees). In the show's very early days, he just traveled with his granddaughter and two of her high school teachers--who, in the very first episode, he actually kidnapped in a HeKnowsTooMuch scenario. The idea was that the companions would be the "point-of-view" characters for the audience at home, in contrast to the mysterious, anti-heroic Doctor. Even as the Doctor became more identifiable and less of a curmudgeon, the companion remains the human element to tie him down, especially post-revival. They also give him someone to talk to. In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]'', the lone serial without a companion or substitutes (other than ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E2MissionToTheUnknown Mission to the Unknown]]'', which didn't feature the Doctor) the writers found it difficult to explain what he was thinking. In-universe, he claims that he's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E01TheEleventhHour lonely]]", while others have [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E9TheFamilyOfBlood surmised the same]] and that he "[[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride needs someone to stop him]]" from making drastic and, sometimes, awful decisions to rectify situations.

Companions are predominantly human, [[ParentService young, female, and attractive]]. Sometimes they are men, or humanoid aliens, or, famously, a robot dog. They have joined and left the TARDIS for various reasons. The Doctor reserves the right to kick a companion out of the TARDIS for bad behaviour, or to take on a new companion even over the objections of present companions. Classic Series companions tended to have few or no ties to their homes, and--anniversary specials aside--did not cross paths with the Doctor after leaving the TARDIS[[hottip:3:unless the companion in question is Sarah Jane Smith, who did indeed return in the RTD era episode "School Reunion" and was a mite ticked about being ignored for thirty years]]. [[RussellTDavies RTD era]] companions don't divide their lives as neatly: they continue to interact with their families while away with the Doctor, and with the Doctor before, after or between their travels with him.

It's most common for the Doctor to have one companion along at a time, though periods with two or even three companions are not unknown. Older Doctors usually referred to their companions as "friends" or "assistants"; Recent Doctors, in a bit of AscendedFanon, tend to use "companion".

Companions are stereotyped in pop culture memory as [[DistressedDamsel helpless]] [[ScreamingWoman screaming women]] (and the show accused of sexism), but a number of them have been [[ActionGirl surprisingly kickass]]. They're not always female, either.

%%The 14-episode The Trial of a Time Lord arc was officially split into 4 stories, however all 14 episodes carried the single title, and "Part 10" , "Part 13", etc.

%%Above number includes the 2 Comic Relief mini-episodes aired in March 2011, the Children in Need episodes aired in 2005 and 2007, and the mini-episode produced for the 2009 Doctor Who at the Proms concert special.

In TheSixties and TheSeventies, [[TheBBC BBC]] policy was to junk or overwrite the media of television programs that had already aired[[hottip:5:Yes, this was short-sighted, but give them a bit of a break--the tapes they used were ''very'' expensive, and they didn't view such ephemera as having lasting cultural value, and there was no such thing as a "home video" secondary market. In addition, union performance contracts of the day only allowed for so many broadcasts of a programme. ]] The upshot is that, out of around 700 episodes filmed, 106 are lost, with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's eras being the most affected, though audio tapes of all missing episodes still exist from fans who made recordings of the show when it aired (the BBC has released most of these commercially on cassette and CD, and occasionally have also produced reconstructions of missing episodes for DVD using them). Every one of Jon Pertwee's episodes still exist, though a number of them exist only in black and white even though they were filmed in colour.

There is also a lot of material on episodes that weren't made (such as the original Season 23, which would have included the return of the Celestial Toymaker), some of which has been used by BigFinish, a production company that since 1999 has produced more than 100 BBC-licensed and sanctioned ''Doctor Who'' audio dramas featuring original cast members.

Secret (or, in some stories, not-so-secret) organizations designed to kick alien ass and/or aid the Doctor. UNIT, a Unified (originally United Nations) Intelligence Taskforce that deals specifically with alien or superscientific threats, was introduced in 1968. Torchwood, an organisation funded by the British royalty (as opposed to the government) with the specific aim of arming TheBritishEmpire with alien technology, was introduced in the 2005 Christmas special, ten months before the DarkerAndEdgier [[{{Torchwood}} spinoff series]].

The Doctor detests Torchwood on general principle (the feeling is mutual--the Doctor is specifically named in Torchwood's charter as its first alien enemy known), though Captain Jack, former companion and leader of Torchwood 3 [[hottip:4:until ''Torchwood: Children of Earth'' in 2009, at least]], has been doing his best to change the Doctor's mind. The Doctor's relations with UNIT are much more cordial--he's even ''worked'' for UNIT, as a scientific advisor, for much of his third incarnation and occasionally since then--though he has little patience with its bureaucracy, established procedures, and chains of command, just as he did with his own people's.

Along with countless books and semi-canonical audio/video releases, the show has three official television spin-offs: DarkerAndEdgier ''{{Torchwood}}'' ([[EveryoneIsBi bisexual]] alien hunters [[AliensInCardiff in Cardiff]]); the (somewhat) LighterAndSofter ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'' (beloved ex-companion and a handful of [[YouMeddlingKids Meddling Kids]] fight aliens in London); and ''{{K9}}'' by Park Entertainment, which was filmed in Australia and [[ShortRunInPeru initially aired in Scandinavia]] in early 2010 before being broadcast on a UK cable network in the summer of 2010 and a terrestrial network there in the autumn; a US broadcast has yet to occur as of May 2011. It also falls into the LighterAndSofter category. A fourth spinoff, ''K-9 & Company'', was stillborn in 1981, only producing a pilot episode. A fifth, ''Rose Tyler: Earth Defence'', was actually given space in the BBC budget before the production team went back on the idea. There is also a behind the scenes documentary series called ''DoctorWhoConfidential'' which has immediately followed every episode since "Rose" on BBC Three. An additional behind the scenes series, aimed more for children, was titled ''TotallyDoctorWho'' and aired for two series; its primary claim to fame was broadcasting the first-ever ''animated'' Doctor Who serial for television, ''The Infinite Quest'', in 2007.

First, a quick note: Classic Who tends to be referred to by ''serial'', not by episode. A serial is a multi-episode story. For most of the show's history--aside from a little experimentation with 45 minute episodes--episodes lasted 25 minutes (give or take a few minutes). From the early '70s onwards, serials were usually four episodes in length, with six or two episode serials here and there. During the [=McCoy=] years, when the series had its number of episodes halved, the production team instituted a mix of three episode and four episode serials. A few one-off epic serials lasting 8, 10, 12 (''The Daleks Master Plan'') and even 14 (''Trial of a Time Lord'') episodes were also broadcast.

''Doctor Who'' serials vary wildly in its style and tone, depending on writers and executive producers. Serials and episodes range from comedic to gothic or nihilistic, and the ScienceFiction goes all over the place on MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness. Officially there have been 222 serials aired to date, counting season 24's ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' as one arc, and not counting the abandoned ''Shada''. Since the series returned in 2005 there have also been 5 canonical mini-episodes broadcast as of March 2011, each lasting no more than 8 minutes, aired as charity specials or during special events. Making matters even more confusing, BBC Radio has also produced or co-produced a number of audio-only ''Doctor Who'' serials since 1985.

!!"The Doctor"[[hottip:?:Not his real name, very few characters in the series know his name, and the viewers likely never will.]]

([[IAmNotShazam The Doctor, not "Doctor Who"]][[hottip:*:Except when it is]]), a HumanAlien who [[TimeTravel travels through time]] and [[WalkingTheEarth space]]. He started off as an AntiHero (or even AntiVillain) but soon settled into the [[KnightErrant hero role]]. He usually (though not always) functions as the series' moral center.

The Doctor is rarely alone in his travels. For the purposes of {{Exposition}} and for [[AudienceSurrogate someone the audience can identify with]], he has had a large number of companions (''mostly'' non-romantic, though Fanfic disagrees). In the show's very early days, he just traveled with his granddaughter and two of her high school teachers--who, in the very first episode, he actually kidnapped in a HeKnowsTooMuch scenario. The idea was that the companions would be the "point-of-view" characters for the audience at home, in contrast to the mysterious, anti-heroic Doctor. Even as the Doctor became more identifiable and less of a curmudgeon, the companion remains the human element to tie him down, especially post-revival. They also give him someone to talk to. In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]'', the lone serial without a companion (other than ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E2MissionToTheUnknown Mission to the Unknown]]'', which didn't feature the Doctor) the writers found it difficult to explain what he was thinking. In-universe, he claims that he's "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E01TheEleventhHour lonely]]", while others have [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E9TheFamilyOfBlood surmised the same]] and that he "[[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride needs someone to stop him]]" from making drastic and, sometimes, awful decisions to rectify situations.

First, a quick note: Classic Who tends to be referred to by ''serial'', not by episode. A serial is a multi-episode story. For most of the show's history--aside from a little experimentation with 45 minute episodes--episodes lasted 25 minutes (give or take a few minutes). From the early '70s onwards, serials were usually four episodes in length, with six or two episode serials here and there. During the [=McCoy=] years, when the series had its number of episodes halved, the production team instituted a mix of three episode and four episode serials. A few one-off epic serials lasting 8, 10, 12 and even 14 episodes were also broadcast.

''Doctor Who'' serials vary wildly in its style and tone, depending on writers and executive producers. Serials and episodes range from comedic to gothic or nihilistic, and the ScienceFiction goes all over the place on MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness. Officially there have been 221 serials aired to date, counting season 24's ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' as one arc. Since the series returned in 2005 there have also been 5 canonical mini-episodes broadcast as of March 2011, each lasting no more than 8 minutes, aired as charity specials or during special events. Making matters even more confusing, BBC Radio has also produced or co-produced a number of audio-only ''Doctor Who'' serials since 1985.

The tone surrounding regenerations has changed over the years. Early regenerations were treated as a mere change in appearance. For example, when the Second Doctor was forcibly regenerated into the Third, his main concern was his new appearance. Newer episodes treat regeneration more like an actual death. The Tenth Doctor says that when he regenerates, it feels like he dies and a new man takes his place.

In TheSixties and TheSeventies, [[TheBBC BBC]] policy was to junk or overwrite the media of television programs that had already aired[[hottip:5:Yes, this was short-sighted, but give them a bit of a break--the tapes they used were ''very'' expensive, and they didn't view such ephemera as having lasting cultural value, and there was no such thing as a "home video" secondary market. In addition, union performance contracts of the day only allowed for so many broadcasts of a programme. ]] The upshot is that, out of around 700 episodes filmed, 108 are lost, with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton's eras being the most affected, though audio tapes of all missing episodes still exist from fans who made recordings of the show when it aired (the BBC has released most of these commercially on cassette and CD, and occasionally have also produced reconstructions of missing episodes for DVD using them). Every one of Jon Pertwee's episodes still exist, though a number of them exist only in black and white even though they were filmed in colour.

([[IAmNotShazam The Doctor, not "Doctor Who"]][[hottip:*:Except when it is]]), a HumanAlien who [[TimeTravel travels through time]] and space. He started off as an AntiHero (or even AntiVillain) but soon settled into the [[KnightErrant hero role]]. He usually (though not always) functions as the series' moral center.

The Doctor has been played by eleven different actors in the TV series to date. [[hottip:1:That sound you heard was all the hardcore ''Who''-fans going "Actually..." Some of the more knowledgeable ones can tell you which Doctors were played by more than one actor.]] That's them in the picture at the top of the page.