New Era of Doctor Who Begins

Doctor Who was BBC television's longest-running scripted entertainment program, 26 years, and one of the most recognizable television shows in the world. It was also the longest-running science fiction series on television ever. Beginning in 1963 as a cheap afternoon kids show shot live, like a soap opera, with cheap special effects, it quickly became one of BBC's hit shows. The premise was of a mysterious man known only as The Doctor with his time traveling machine called the TARDIS ( Time And Relative Dimensions In Space ), a vehicle which resembled a police box on the outside but was a vastly large spaceship on the inside. The TARDIS could travel to any point in time and space, which meant writers could set their stories anywhere and any time, although the Doctor seemed to have an affinity for London on Earth in the late 20th century. Whenever the Doctor became sick or injured he could save himself by regenerating into a completely new body with a completely new personality. This allowed other actors to take over the lead role without ruining the continuity of the series. In its initial run seven actors played The Doctor. Even though Doctor Who had become the BBC's most successful series in the U.K. and in syndication worldwide, it was canceled in 1989 by the BBC's new controller, Jonathan Powell, who despised science fiction shows on the channel.

Part of the decision for the cancellation was that the BBC was beginning to feel embarrassed by the poor quality of special effects. Even though the special effects had been upgraded in the mid 80's, shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation were now using expensive cinema quality special effects and sets. The BBC felt that the cheapness of Doctor Who was making them look bad to the rest of the world. Officially Doctor Who was not really cancelled. The BBC would no longer be producing episodes in house, but would gladly bring the show back should an outside production company be willing to continue producing episodes. The sticking point was the episodes had to have the same production values as Star Trek:TNG. No British production company could afford to pay the $6 million an episode that Paramount was giving each Star Trek episode, so Doctor Who remained off the air indefinitely. A Hollywood executive named Philip Segal took interest in producing Doctor Who for American television, and was able to get the Fox network to agree to air a pilot movie for the possible series. The new series was to pick up where the old one left off and Sylvester McCoy, who had played the seventh Doctor on the BBC, returned for a brief cameo in the Fox pilot to regenerate into a new Doctor ( played by Paul McGann ). The pilot was filmed and broadcast on Fox as a movie, but after lackluster ratings Fox decided not to pick Doctor Who up as a series. There was some rumors of a theatrical movie version starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Doctor, but otherwise for the remainder of the 90's it looked as if Doctor Who had come to an end for good.

But things in television were gradually changing, including the birth of many cable television networks. Now with new outlets to sell a series to, BBC Wales realized it could afford to give Doctor Who the budget the BBC demanded. Another thing going for BBC Wales was that thanks to advances in computers, special effects were now cheaper to produce than ever. But the real driving force behind getting Doctor Who back on the air was television producer Russell T Davies, who was a lifelong Doctor Who fan. Davies envisioned not only reviving the series but its potential as a franchise the same way Star Trek had spun off several series. On March 26, 2005, Doctor Who returned to the airwaves with actor Christopher Eccleston in the lead role and pop star Billie Piper cast as his traveling companion Rose Tyler. Aside from the special effects, sets and soundtrack that were all cinema quality, the show had other changes. The original series was broken up into weekly 30-minute chapters, each ending in a cliffhanger. A single story could be anywhere from three to 12 weeks of chapters. In the new series each story would be contained in a single 45-minute episode, with exception to a few two-part episodes. Another addition was the introduction of Rose Tyler's family and friends as recurring characters. For fans that were worried that the new series would be a reboot of the original was relief that the updated version of Doctor Who would be a continuation, although for the first time a new Doctor would show up without a regeneration scene from the previous Doctor. This would later be explained as occurring during a war between the Doctor's home planet and a race called The Daleks, an epic story that took place during the 7 years Doctor Who had been off the air and had apparently been so devastating that it both wiped out the Doctors race known as the Time Lords and The Dalek race. (Of course, since this is a science fiction series nothing stays dead for long.)

Fans of Doctor Who were also relieved that the episodes had the feel of the original series, even with the advanced production qualities. And they were pleased with Christopher Eccleston as the new Doctor. But as the first season drew to an end Eccleston announced that he would not be returning to the series for fear of being typecast. Upset viewers who believed Eccleston's departure could be the end of the series voiced their disapproval on the Internet. They also complained that it had already been established that the Doctor could only regenerate 12 times, and with eight actors playing the Doctor in the original series this meant that the new series could only have four more regenerations, ending when the 13th actor to play the Doctor left the series. Fans had hoped that each actor playing the Doctor would have at least stuck around for three seasons. It had turned out that Eccleston had agreed to a single season only and that his departure and the regeneration into the next doctor was to have been a surprise for the season finale. But because of internal errors the BBC had prematurely released his statement, which was not to have been released until after his final episode had aired.

The new Doctor was David Tennant, and to the surprise of fans of the show they liked him more than Eccleston. Davies also made good his promise to turn Doctor Who into a franchise. There had been an attempt back in the 1970s for a spin-off series with a popular traveling companion of The Doctor named Sarah Jane Smith. The character was played by actress Elisabeth Sladen, who, after four seasons, decided to leave the show. The BBC tempted her with a spin off series along with another popular Doctor Who character, the robot dog K-9. Only one episode of the spin off show K-9 and Company was made as the BBC decided not to go ahead with a full series. Deciding to revive the idea two decades later Davies brought Sladen back to reprise her Sarah Jane Smith character along with the K-9 robot in a single episode of Doctor Who. The purpose was to reintroduce both characters for a planned spin-off series, but the K-9 character was owned by the writers who created it for the original Doctor Who series, and they had decided to produce their own K-9 series independent of the BBC. Davies went ahead with Sladen on a series called Sarah Jane Adventures. Another spin-off series was based on a mysterious government agency called Torchwood that had been introduced in the second season. The head of this agency was Captain Jack Harkness, a popular traveling companion introduced in the first season. Torchwood followed much the same formula as The X Files and later Fringe.

After four successful years of producing the Doctor Who franchise, Davies announced he was stepping down. Tenth Doctor David Tennant also announced he would be leaving the series at the end of 2009. His departure now opens the door for an entirely new series of Doctor Who episodes with a new Doctor, new traveling companions and a new producer. Will the series be as good as it had been in the past four years? Only time can tell. Episodes with Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor are scheduled to air in spring of 2011. But for Doctor Who fans, Davies has given the series five outstanding seasons, two successful spin-off series and has successfully reinvented the series without having to reboot it. For a series that a few years ago was as dead as Captain Video, this is a remarkable achievement.