Background and Setting
Background
This BBC television series made between 1963 and 1989 was the longest
running Fantasy/Science Fiction TV show in history.
The format consisted of a number of 25 minute episodes telling a
self-contained story over usually four or six episodes.
Each episode would contain a short recap of the previous episode and
would be concluded on a cliffhanger.
For most of its run, Dr Who episodes would be shown at around
5:30pm on Saturday afternoons, although this did change in the
last few seasons.
No new episodes have been produced for several years, with exception
of a short piece of the BBC's Children in Need Telethon.
However, a new TV movie was shown recently in
the US and the UK.
Setting
The series revolves around the travels of a renegade `Time Lord',
known simply as the Doctor, who travels around all of space and time
in a time travel machine known as the TARDIS, which looks for most of the
time like an old Police box:
The Doctor has an unusual physiology which includes two hearts and the
ability to `regenerate' into a new physical appearance when the
existing body becomes old or damaged.
For most of his adventures, he is accompanied by at least one
companion, often more. Although many of the companions have been
humans from Earth, there have been others who were either robots
or aliens.
Thus far, seven different actors
have played the Doctor on TV, and Paul McGann in
the new TV movie.
Choose:
Dr Who Main Index
B.King@ee.surrey.ac.uk & D.White@ee.surrey.ac.uk
29th April 1996