by Roy Barton

Created on: April 15, 2008

An alien travelling through time and space in a craft shaped like a 1950's police emergency call box, which is bigger on the inside than on the outside, showing shocked and surprised people the wonders of the universe.

The premise, devised by Sydney Newman, was simple, albeit bizarre-sounding.

Newman, on joining the BBC the year before, was keen on moving the corporation forward and was equally eager to create a new science-fiction family drama with the requirements that it be entertaining and educational.

Ultimately, Doctor Who was created and commenced broadcast on 23rd November 1963. A series that set out to visit alien planets and historic events in a multi-episodic format, echoing the days of Saturday Morning Cinema films by having cliff-hangers to hook the viewer in to next weeks section.

As experimental and unconventional as the series sounded, it broke the mould by being as creative behind the scenes. Verity Lambert was the first woman to produce a programme for the BBC and Waris Hussein, its first director, was far from the typical British white middle class that dominated within the corridors of the TV broadcaster.

With an initial run of thirteen weeks, it struck gold by the fifth, when the Daleks appeared, capturing the nations' imagination and helping to secure the continuation of the programme.

In the next few years the changing crew inside the police box (given the acronym TARDIS, meaning Time And Relative Dimensions in Space) went back to the beginning of the Universe, the French Revolution, the land of the Aztecs, a planet ruled by insects and a world of toys, among many other times and adventures.

The series had survived and flourished for nearly three years until it was hit by a real crisis. Its' main star, William Hartnell, was too unwell to continue in the role. In a mixture of inventiveness and desperation the idea was raised that the central character, being an alien, could be capable of changing. Regeneration was the answer.

On 29th October 1966, after defeating the Cybermen in first of many battles against them, the face of the Doctor changed in front of everybody's eyes. The replacement actor, Patrick Troughton, then became the second of many to take on the role of the time-traveller.

The series reached its peak of popularity in the seventies, when it was regularly seen by 110 million people in 55 countries, but near the end of the eighties it had ceased to be seen as of any importance by the BBC. Shifted around the schedules and starved of finance, the last episode of the original series was shown on 6th December 1989, just over 26 years after the initial thirteen week run had commenced.

It briefly returned as a one-off TV movie starring Paul McGann in the title role, with an appearance by the previous incarnation, Sylvester McCoy passing on the baton. Despite reasonable figures, the copyrights were tied up for years within organisations that weren't interested in furthering the franchise and, once again, Doctor Who vanished from the schedules.

In 2004, Russell T Davies entered the BBC. His ambition was to create a science-fiction series that would entertain and educate and be watched by all the family.

Four years on, with an impressive budget and emotional, personal stories, Doctor Who has once again found a place on television screens around the world, spawning other shows such as Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures and a massive range of toys and books.

Its' future appears more assured than ever, with a new generation of fans watching the exploits of an adventurer battling evil at any point in time and space, from a police box that is bigger on the inside than on the outside.

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