As we approach the dawn of a new era for Doctor Who, the most indefatigable science-fiction series in British television history, it is easy to forget the long and winding road it took to the precipice of the mega franchise it looks poised to become, with Russell T. Davies’ Bad Wolf now in bed with Disney. The sky looks the limit currently.
Yet it began as the quirkiest of quirky shows at the beginning of a 1960s BBC landscape that was vastly different from the one either we inhabit now, or Doctor Who existed within during heydays of the 1970s even and 2010s. Looking back at many of those original serials (given Who was produced in the now archaic children’s television format of 25 minute weekly episodes), for years filmed in black and white with a budget so low it these days wouldn’t probably even cover the catering, they could be from another universe entirely.
1963 was when William Hartnell first led an ensemble cast as the eccentric Doctor (later christened the First Doctor), an alien old man who travelled space and time in his TARDIS, permanently camouflaged as a blue police box, with his granddaughter Susan and following first serial ‘An Unearthly Child’, school teacher companions Ian & Barbara. Sixty years later, Doctor Who is iconic; as key to British television history as Coronation Street or Match of the Day. Despite many attempts over the years to end it, even before it officially began, it is indestructible.
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