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What is Doctor Who?Doctor Who is the longest running sci-fi show on television. It was first introduced by BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in 1963 and last year it celebrated its 50th anniversary. Not only is it amazing that there has been a series on television this long but the amount of episodes and spin-offs from the show is a rather large amount. There have been over 800 episodes, two spin-offs and one full length movie made since its creation.

Who is Doctor Who?

Doctor Who, most commonly known as The Doctor, is a time travelling alien. He is a, roughly, 1,200 year old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. The series is based upon his travels through time and space in the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimensions In Space). As The Doctor travels he goes on adventures and helps those in need.

How Have They Kept the Show Running Show Long?

The main reason that the show has been able to continue is because an idea thought up by producer John Wiles and script editor Donald Tosh. When William Hartnell, the First Doctor, became too ill to continue the show they decided that they would just replace Hartnell. This process of changing from one actor was simplified by the idea of the Doctor having the ability to change faces and personalities when they are right about to die. This is called regeneration. The Doctor is a Time Lord, and in

his own words, they can “cheat death”. A Time Lord just has to regenerate and he walks away looking like a completely new person. This has allowed the show to continue over the past 50 years.

Throughout its time on the air Doctor Who has had 12 actors play The Doctor. Some have stayed for long periods of time while others only appeared for one season, or like the 8th Doctor, for a full-length movie. The actors who have played the Doctor are: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi. In the 50th Anniversary special John Hurt played The War Doctor, but he is not counted with the other Doctors because he only made the appearance in that episode.

Here is a nice little joke. He is the same man so… yeah this is technically a selfie.

Fantastic!Allons-y!

GERONIMO!Doctor Who, What, When, Where and Why

What is The Doctor’s Magic Toy?

Frodo had the ring, Harry Potter had the wand, and Luke had the light saber. So what is it that the Doctor has? It is called a sonic screwdriver. Doesn’t sound too impressive does it? In the words of Captain Jack Harkness in “The Empty Child”, “Who looked at a screwdriver and said ‘Oh it could be more sonic’”. Well it actually does come in handy. I don’t know all that the screwdriver can do, but it does unlock doors, blow things up, and reverses the polarity of time fissures (which is a weakness in time and space). It does not however have a wood setting, so if The Doctor gets attacked by a tree (which has happened) his screwdriver isn’t going to be much help.

This is the 11th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver.

Forget the Ferrari and Give Me a TARDIS

As mentioned earlier the TARDIS is a time-travelling space ship. The TARDIS is a blue police call box that were very popular in Britain during the 1960s. But it

wasn’t always a big blue box. In The Name of the Doctor, it can be seen that the TARDIS started out as a more cylindrical shape. But to keep it safe from prying eyes there is a protection feature, called the chameleon circuit, which transforms the TARDIS into something that makes it

almost unnoticeable in its surroundings. In his adventures to London in the 60s the TARDIS’s chameleon circuit gets stuck and forever more we have the blue box. It is usually driven by 6 Time Lords. There are different sections on the console and each is supposed to be driven by a Time Lord. This box always surprises those who come on board. This is because it is actually bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. How could such a large spaceship that has infinite amounts of rooms be

stored in such a small box? Well, the Doctor only ever says “It’s Time Lord science.

The TARDIS

Why Does The Doctor Take Companions?

When I first started watching the show, I started with the 9th Doctor instead of the 1st. That means I still have 8 Doctors whose episodes I have not gotten to see. But starting with Nine we are able to see that he has been travelling alone. Now why would there be only one Time Lord in a TARDIS that is supposed to be flown by six? Long story short there was a war; The Time War. In this war The Doctor had to make the worst decision he had ever made. The Time Lords were fighting the Daleks (more on them later). The Daleks were all over the planet of Gallifrey and the Doctor had to make a decision. Do nothing and possibly let the Daleks take his planet and then the universe orrrrrrr… destroy Gallifrey, the Daleks, Time Lords, and other Gallifreyans to save the rest of time and space from the terrible foes that they were fighting. He chose to destroy his planet and his people to save the universe.

So it is kind of easy to understand why he takes companions. He is lonely. There is no one else for him to turn to. So every now and then he picks up a human and they travel the universe. But they always have to leave. They cannot stay with him forever. And that shows us into the heart of the Doctor. He has to let them go, even when he doesn’t want to. Because they cannot live as long as he can. He will always see the end of them, but they can never see him to his end.

The Bad Guys That the Fans Can’t Get Enough Of

As the Doctor flies throughout time and space he is obviously going to encounter some not so nice people… or aliens.

Probably the favorite enemy of Doctor Who fans would have to be the Daleks. These metal, salt shaker looking beings first appeared in one of the earliest episodes over 50 years ago and it seems they won’t be going away any time soon. These evil aliens want to eliminate all inferior races and it is the Doctor who always steps in to save the day from those who are in hearing distance of “EXTERMINATE!” Over and over fans get to see the Doctor triumph over these creatures.

Another fan favorite would have to be the Weeping Angels. Ever since their premiere in the Season 3, episode “Blink” the Angels have become an absolute favorite. These Angels look like statues.

But that is only a disguise. The moment you blink or look away, they move.

They creatures don’t kill you. Not really. All it takes is one touch and they send you back in time where you must live out the rest of your life.

The villains help to make the show. And even though there are hundreds of other creatures that I could go over I need to get on with this article. It would take a while to talk about all of the Doctor’s enemies.

So is Doctor Who Just a Sci-Fi Show?

Well it is a sci-fi show but there are several underlying themes that are presented throughout the show. One of these themes that seems to occur over and over is the difficulty of making the right choices. In Season 5

Episode 2, “The Beast Below”, the Doctor is presented with a dilemma. He and his companion Amy have travelled into the future and people of London are now living on a large spaceship called The Starship UK. Here is an excerpt from the episode to explain the situation. This is the Queen explaining, through a recorded video, the reasons behind the secretive power moving their ship.

“The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travelers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales. We trapped it, we built our ship around it, and we rode on its back to safety. If you wish our voyage to continue, then you must press the Forget button. Be again the heart of this nation, untainted. If not, press the other button. Your reign will end, the Star Whale will be released, and our ship will disintegrate. I hope I keep the strength to make the right decision.”

And sorry ahead of time for the spoilers but I have to tell you how this ends. Earlier in the episode The Doctor tells Amy that he tries not to interfere with the goings-on of other planets. Then he heads straight for a little girl with tears running down her face. Amy later laughs and says that The Doctor only interferes in the affairs of other planets when children are crying.

When The Doctor realizes that the Star Whale is being tortured so that it will continue carrying the ship he has to make a decision about what he must do and he becomes quite upset. He says, “Look, three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor anymore.” So what is he going to do? He decides to send a powerful electric shock through its body, basically making it a vegetable.

Amy is not happy with this decision. She starts thinking about what the Queen said and before we know it she makes the Queen hit the resign button, which should have released the Star Whale and disintegrated the ship. However, nothing really happens. The Doctor makes her explain why she did what she did.

“The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago. It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.”

The Doctor’s Opposition Off Screen

Even though Doctor Who is a rather popular show there are those that feel that it is not appropriate and possibly even down right bad. There was a religious group a few years ago that the writers compared The Doctor to Christ in the episode “Voyage of the Damned”. In this episode The Doctor is taken prisoner by a group of clockwork angels. Here is the controversial scene that seems to depict him as Christ.

A religious group felt that this was a parallel of The Doctor as Christ when he ascended into heaven.

The Whovians AKA Doctor Who’s Greatest Fans

Other than that there is not much opposition to the show. Contrary it seems that the show has become quite popular. When I scroll through Pinterest I see hundreds of Doctor Who pictures. This one pretty much sums up how most of the fandom (fandom is a term used to describe a group of people that share a common interest) feels about the show.

The fans are very devoted to their beloved show and they go above and beyond to prove that. But there has been little oppo-sition to the continuation of the show. It has been on the air for over 50 years and it has become a world-wide phenomenon.

The following for Doctor Who has spread around the globe. More and more people have been exposed to the show since its addition to Netflix. But the fan base for the show is amazing. There are thousands of fan written stories (fanfiction) or artworks and even some musical pieces that are based on the show. I have even seen food arrangements, marching band

shows and Jell-O molds based on the show.

Here is a fan made piece in honor of the 11th Doctor and his love for bow ties.

Or maybe more people will like this one of the 10 th

Doctor entering the TARDIS.

With all of the following that this show has, it seems that this show may continue on for a while longer. Maybe we will sit down in front of the television in 2063 to watch the 100th anniversary episode.

The Doctor’s DictionaryChameleon Circuit- the component of a TARDIS which changed its outer shell to assume a shape which blended in with its surroundings

Daleks- Iconic villain from the British TV series Doctor Who

Fan art- Art of any form, usually electronic or drawn free hand that uses characters or settings from a popular television show, novel, cartoon, anime, or movie as the subject

Fanfiction- when someone takes either the story or characters (or both) of a certain piece of work, whether it be a novel, TV show, movie, etc., and create their own story based on it.

Gallifrey- Home planet of the Time Lords. Also known as The Shining World of the Seven Systems.

TARDIS- Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. A time/space machine conceived by the Time Lords. It has infinite rooms inside, including several console rooms, from which the ship can be piloted

Time Fissure- a weakness in time and space, a rent in the fabric of the Web of Time itself.

Time Lord- one of several of the oligarchic rulers of Gallifrey.

Whovian- A fan of the popular sci-fi show Doctor Who.