The Doctor Who Portal
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS. The TARDIS exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. With various companions, the Doctor combats foes, works to save civilisations, and helps people in need.
Beginning with William Hartnell, thirteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. As of 2022, David Tennant leads the series as the Fourteenth Doctor. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the series with the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation, a plot device in which a Time Lord "transforms" into a new body when the current one is too badly harmed to heal normally. Each actor's portrayal is distinct, but all represent stages in the life of the same character, and together, they form a single lifetime with a single narrative. The time-travelling nature of the plot means that different incarnations of the Doctor occasionally meet. In 2017, Jodie Whittaker became the first woman to be cast in the lead role as the Thirteenth Doctor.
The series is a significant part of popular culture in Britain and elsewhere; it has gained a cult following. It has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. Fans of the series are sometimes referred to as Whovians. The series has been listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science-fiction television series in the world, as well as the "most successful" science-fiction series of all time, based on its overall broadcast ratings, DVD, and book sales. (Full article...)
Recognized quality articles
"Fear Her" is the eleventh episode of the second series of the British science-fiction series Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 24 June 2006. It was written by Matthew Graham and directed by Euros Lyn.
The episode takes place in London on the day of the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony. In the episode, the alien time traveller the Doctor (David Tennant) and his travelling companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) investigate the lonely girl Chloe Webber (Abisola Agbaje), who has the ability to make people disappear by drawing them. (Full article...)- "Army of Ghosts" is the twelfth and penultimate episode in the second series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who which was first broadcast on BBC One on 1 July 2006. It is the first episode of a two-part story; the concluding episode, "Doomsday", was first broadcast on 8 July.
The episode is set in London, some time after the events of the 2006 episode "Love & Monsters". In the episode, the Cybermen come to Earth from a parallel world by following a spherical ship through an interdimensional breach. The Torchwood Institute intends to open this breach further for use as an energy source. (Full article...) - "The Snowmen" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on Christmas Day 2012 on BBC One. It is the eighth Doctor Who Christmas special since the show's 2005 revival and the first to be within a series. It was written by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat and directed by Saul Metzstein, with the special produced in August 2012, and filmed on location in Newport, Wales and Bristol.
Set in the Victorian era, the story sees the Doctor (Matt Smith), an alien time traveller, retired and in hiding. He is soon forced out of hiding to investigate mysterious, sentient snowmen that are building themselves and meets Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman), a governess also investigating the snowmen. With the help of allies – Silurian Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), her human wife Jenny Flint (Catrin Stewart), and Sontaran Strax (Dan Starkey) – they discover that the snowmen are being animated by the Great Intelligence (voiced by Ian McKellen) with the help of a man named Dr Simeon (Richard E. Grant). (Full article...) - Oswald Danes is a fictional character in the BBC television programme Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who and is portrayed by American actor Bill Pullman. The character was promoted as one of five new main characters to join Torchwood in its fourth series, Torchwood: Miracle Day (2011), as part of a new co-production between Torchwood's British network, BBC One, and its American financiers on US premium television network Starz. Pullman appears in eight of the ten episodes, and is credited as a series regular. Whilst reaction to the serial and Pullman's character was mixed, Pullman's portrayal was praised by critics and in 2012 he received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor on Television.
Danes is a former schoolteacher who molested several of the little girls he taught, and eventually killed one of them. He was sentenced to death, but on the day of his execution - the so-called Miracle Day, when death ceases worldwide - Danes survives his own lethal injection. His survival draws global attention, and he subsequently is released from prison on a legal technicality. After being offered both exposure and protection by public relations expert Jilly Kitzinger (Lauren Ambrose), he becomes her client, which helps him gain more publicity. Following a series of events he ends up aiding Torchwood, a team composed of two former alien-hunters and two former CIA agents, on their mission to restore death to the world. Danes is killed off in the final episode of the series; when death is restored he takes one of the Torchwood team's enemies out in a murder–suicide. (Full article...) - "The Vampires of Venice" is the sixth episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was broadcast on 8 May 2010 on BBC One. It was written by Toby Whithouse, who previously wrote "School Reunion", and was directed by first-time Doctor Who director Jonny Campbell.
Following from the end of "Flesh and Stone" where his companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) had kissed him, the alien time traveller the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) picks up Amy's fiancé Rory (Arthur Darvill) and takes the two on a romantic trip to Venice in 1580. There they are intrigued by a girls' school whose students appear to be vampires and discover that they are really alien refugees in disguise, who plot to make Venice their new home. (Full article...) <abbr title="
'"`UNIQ--nowiki-0000000E-QINU`"'
">No.
storyNo. in
seasonSerial title Episode titles Directed by Written by Original air date Prod.
codeUK viewers
(millions)<abbr style="color:white" title="
'"`UNIQ--nowiki-0000000F-QINU`"'
">AI1 1 An Unearthly Child "An Unearthly Child" Waris Hussein Anthony Coburn and
C. E. Webber (uncredited)23 November 1963 A 4.4 63 "The Cave of Skulls" Anthony Coburn 30 November 1963 5.9 59 "The Forest of Fear" Anthony Coburn 7 December 1963 6.9 56 "The Firemaker" Anthony Coburn 14 December 1963 6.4 55 2 2 The Daleks "The Dead Planet" Christopher Barry Terry Nation 21 December 1963 B 6.9 59 "The Survivors" Christopher Barry 28 December 1963 6.4 58 "The Escape" Richard Martin 4 January 1964 8.9 63 "The Ambush" Christopher Barry 11 January 1964 9.9 63 "The Expedition" Christopher Barry 18 January 1964 9.9 63 "The Ordeal" Richard Martin 25 January 1964 10.4 63 "The Rescue" Richard Martin 1 February 1964 10.4 65 3 3 The Edge of Destruction "The Edge of Destruction" Richard Martin David Whitaker 8 February 1964 C 10.4 61 "The Brink of Disaster" Frank Cox 15 February 1964 9.9 60 4 4 Marco Polo "The Roof of the World" Waris Hussein John Lucarotti 22 February 1964 D 9.4 63 "The Singing Sands" Waris Hussein 29 February 1964 9.4 62 "Five Hundred Eyes" Waris Hussein 7 March 1964 9.4 62 "The Wall of Lies" John Crockett 14 March 1964 9.9 60 "Rider from Shang-Tu" Waris Hussein 21 March 1964 9.4 59 "Mighty Kublai Khan" Waris Hussein 28 March 1964 8.4 59 "Assassin at Peking" Waris Hussein 4 April 1964 10.4 59 5 5 The Keys of Marinus "The Sea of Death" John Gorrie Terry Nation 11 April 1964 E 9.9 62 "The Velvet Web" 18 April 1964 9.4 60 "The Screaming Jungle" 25 April 1964 9.9 61 "The Snows of Terror" 2 May 1964 10.4 60 "Sentence of Death" 9 May 1964 7.9 61 "The Keys of Marinus" 16 May 1964 6.9 63 6 6 The Aztecs "The Temple of Evil" John Crockett John Lucarotti 23 May 1964 F 7.4 62 "The Warriors of Death" 30 May 1964 7.4 62 "The Bride of Sacrifice" 6 June 1964 7.9 57 "The Day of Darkness" 13 June 1964 7.4 58 7 7 The Sensorites "Strangers in Space" Mervyn Pinfield Peter R. Newman 20 June 1964 G 7.9 59 "The Unwilling Warriors" Mervyn Pinfield 27 June 1964 6.9 59 "Hidden Danger" Mervyn Pinfield 11 July 1964 7.4 56 "A Race Against Death" Mervyn Pinfield 18 July 1964 5.5 60 "Kidnap" Frank Cox 25 July 1964 6.9 57 "A Desperate Venture" Frank Cox 1 August 1964 6.9 57 8 8 The Reign of Terror "A Land of Fear" Henric Hirsch Dennis Spooner 8 August 1964 H 6.9 58 "Guests of Madame Guillotine" 15 August 1964 6.9 54 "A Change of Identity" 22 August 1964 6.9 55 "The Tyrant of France" 29 August 1964 6.4 53 "A Bargain of Necessity" 5 September 1964 6.9 53 "Prisoners of Conciergerie" 12 September 1964 6.4 55
^† Episode is missing (Full article...)- "The Rings of Akhaten" is the seventh episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 6 April 2013. It was written by Neil Cross and directed by Farren Blackburn.
In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) takes his new companion Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) to the Rings of Akhaten, where several planetoids in a ring system are orbiting a larger planet. They attend a religious festival where the young Queen of Years, Merry Gejelh (Emilia Jones), is about to be sacrificed to the parasite of Akhaten. (Full article...) - "The End of the World" is the second episode of the first series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. Written by executive producer Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn, the episode was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 April 2005 and was seen by approximately 7.97 million viewers in the United Kingdom.
In the episode, the alien time traveller the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) takes his new companion Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) five billion years into the future where many rich alien delegates have gathered on a space station called Platform One to watch the Sun expand into a red giant and destroy the Earth, but the human guest Lady Cassandra (Zoë Wanamaker) is plotting to profit from the event by fabricating a hostage situation. (Full article...) - "Blink" is the tenth episode of the third series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 9 June 2007 on BBC One. The episode was directed by Hettie MacDonald and written by Steven Moffat. The episode is based on a previous short story written by Moffat for the 2006 Doctor Who Annual, entitled "'What I Did on My Christmas Holidays' By Sally Sparrow".
In the episode, the Tenth Doctor—a time travelling alien played by David Tennant—is trapped in 1969 and tries to communicate with a young woman in 2007, Sally Sparrow (Carey Mulligan), to prevent the statue-like Weeping Angels from taking control of the TARDIS. Sparrow and her best friend's brother, Larry Nightingale (Finlay Robertson), must unravel a set of cryptic clues sent through time by the marooned Doctor, left in DVD Easter eggs. (Full article...) - "The Power of Three" is the fourth episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who that aired on BBC One and BBC One HD on 22 September 2012. It was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Douglas Mackinnon.
In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) spends time on Earth with his travelling companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill) while he awaits activity from millions of small cubes that appeared overnight. (Full article...) - "Day One" is the second episode of the first series of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. Directed by Brian Kelly, the episode was first broadcast on the digital channel BBC Three on 22 October 2006 with the series pilot, "Everything Changes", and later repeated on terrestrial channel BBC Two on 25 October. It was the first work in the Doctor Who universe to be written by future Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall.
The episode centres on Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) working her first case with the alien hunters Torchwood in Cardiff, when she lets loose a purple alien gas that survives on the energy of orgasms. Over the course of the episode, the team hunt for Carys before the gas kills her. (Full article...) - "Hide" is the ninth episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 20 April 2013. It was written by Neil Cross and directed by Jamie Payne.
In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companion Clara Oswald (Jenna-Louise Coleman) visit a mansion in 1974 owned by Professor Alec Palmer (Dougray Scott), which appears to be haunted. Palmer's assistant, Emma Grayling (Jessica Raine), is an empath who is able to connect to the ghost. The Doctor discovers that the ghost is really a time traveller from the future (Kemi-Bo Jacobs) who is trapped in a pocket universe, and he travels there to rescue her. There he discovers a bizarre "Crooked Man" (Aiden Cook), who also seeks to escape the pocket universe and be reunited with its mate in the mansion. (Full article...) - Harriet Jones is a fictional character played by Penelope Wilton in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Having worked previously with lead writer and executive producer Russell T Davies, Wilton was keen to involve herself with his 2005 revival of Doctor Who after he sought to cast her. Jones is introduced in the two-part story "Aliens of London" and "World War Three" as a Member of Parliament who aids the Ninth Doctor against an alien invasion of London. The episode introduces a running joke associated with the character which would see her frequently introduce herself by holding up her ID and stating her name and rank; in subsequent episodes this was usually met with the response "Yes, I/we know who you are," even occurring with the Daleks and the Sycorax.
Wilton returned for the series' 2005 Christmas special as Davies wanted to include a familiar character whose presence would ease the transition following a change in the series' lead actor. Despite her character having been introduced as fair-minded and hard-working, Harriet is depicted as an uncompromising Prime Minister, which led to comparisons to real-life politicians. Response to the character's political decisions prompted mixed commentary from the media; some reviewers felt that the character had acted unreasonably whilst others sympathised with her actions and felt her scripted political demise was unjust. (Full article...) - "Night Terrors" is the ninth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC America on 3 September 2011. It was written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Richard Clark.
In the episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill) decide to make a "house call" to Croydon, to an eight-year-old boy named George (Jamie Oram) who is terrified of almost everything and especially dreads the cupboard in his bedroom. While the Doctor discusses this with George's father Alex (Daniel Mays), Amy and Rory become trapped in a doll house with terrifying life-size peg dolls. (Full article...)
Selected story
The Smugglers is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from September 10 to October 1, 1966.
In the episode, the Doctor arrives on the coast of seventeenth century Cornwall, much to the astonishment of Polly and Ben. Pirates led by Captain Samuel Pike and his henchman Cherub are searching for a hidden treasure, while a smuggling ring masterminded by the local Squire is trying to off-load contraband.
Related portals
Did you know (auto-generated)
- ... that the Doctor Who serial The Chase was to feature the Beatles dressed as old men, performing as part of a fictional 50th-anniversary concert, but the idea was rejected by their manager?
- ... that depictions of a sexual relationship between Richard the Lionheart and his sister Lady Joanna were cut from the script of the Doctor Who serial The Crusade?
- ... that after being wiped by the BBC, all four episodes of the Doctor Who serial The Time Meddler were discovered in Nigeria in 1984?
- ... that the fifteen bags of seaweed used as set dressing for the Doctor Who serial The Web Planet emanated an overpowering vegetable smell under the hot studio lights?
- ... that William Hartnell was the only original Doctor Who cast member who remained by the end of the second season?
- ... that before writing The Space Museum, Glyn Jones had never seen Doctor Who?
Selected quote
| “ | Homo sapiens. What an inventive, invincible species. It's only a few million years since they crawled up out of the mud and learned to walk. Puny, defenceless bipeds. They've survived flood, famine and plague. They've survived cosmic wars and holocausts. And now, here they are, out among the stars, waiting to begin a new life. Ready to outsit eternity. They're indomitable. | ” |
| — Fourth Doctor, The Ark in Space | ||
Events
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 29 August 2022 | Another SMTV Live crossover episode |
| 1 January 2022 | 2022 specials |
| December 2021 | Big Finish audio play The Year of Martha Jones |
| February 2022 | Second volume of the Big Finish audio play The Lone Centurion |
| May 2022 | Series 2 of the audio play Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures |
More did you know?
- ... that for his role in the Doctor Who serial The Aztecs, actor John Ringham was told to "make all the children in the country hate you"?
- ... that the budget for the Doctor Who serial The Daleks allowed for only four Daleks (one pictured) to be made?
.jpg.webp)
- ... that actress Carole Ann Ford described her character in the Doctor Who serial The Keys of Marinus as "pathetic"?
Topics
| Programme |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plot devices |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Related media |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Publications |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Things you can do
- Where possible, replace fair use images on Doctor Who pages with free content.
- Ensure that all remaining fair use images on Doctor Who pages are appropriately tagged with valid fair use rationales.
- Make sure that all of the featured and good Doctor Who articles contain reliable, inline citations.
- Help expand any Doctor Who lists to include a reasonable mixture of both in-universe and out-of-universe information.
- Add information about production and reception to all episode and serial pages to do with Doctor Who, Torchwood, and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
You may be able to receive more help and editing tips from the Doctor Who WikiProject.
WikiProjects
- WikiProject Doctor Who
- Torchwood Taskforce
- WikiProject Doctor Who
- WikiProject BBC
- WikiProject British TV shows
- WikiProject Science Fiction
Subcategories
Doctor Who
Big Finish Productions
Doctor Who characters
Doctor Who concepts
Doctor Who technology
Doctor Who element redirects to lists
Doctor Who fandom
Doctor Who images
Doctor Who lists
Doctor Who locations
Non-canon Doctor Who episodes
Doctor Who organisations
Doctor Who regeneration stories
Doctor Who series
Doctor Who sounds
Doctor Who spin-offs
Doctor Who stories
Works about Doctor Who
Works based on Doctor Who
Doctor Who stubs
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
Discover Wikipedia using portals
-
List of all portalsList of all portals -
The arts portal -
Biography portal -
Current events portal -
Geography portal -
History portal -
Mathematics portal -
Science portal -
Society portal -
Technology portal -
Random portalRandom portal -
WikiProject PortalsWikiProject Portals
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.