by D. F. Mackwood

Created on: April 16, 2008

"Do you want to come with me? Cause if you do then I should warn you, you're gonna see all sorts of things: ghosts from the past; aliens from the future; the day the Earth died in a ball of flame. It won't be quiet, it won't be safe and it won't be calm. But I'll tell you what it will be: the trip of a lifetime." Thus the Doctor invites his human companion, along with the television viewing audience, to gallivant through time and space with him in the most unlikely of all vehicles: the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space).

"It has the ability to blend in with its surroundings," explains the Doctor about the exterior of the TARDIS, which resembles a 1950's English police call box. "One day the chameleon circuit malfunctioned and it sort of got stuck." This occurred in the first episode of the original series and even though the Doctor has since fixed the malfunction, he decided to keep the familiar shape that saw him through centuries of adventures.

While the exterior of the TARDIS has not changed since the series began, the interior has evolved from a malfunctioning, misguided relic to a telepathic living alien entity, with its own quirks. In addition, the interior far exceeds the confines of the exterior, an effect of fourth dimension manipulation.

Through nine regenerations, the good Doctor has retained his former memories, knowledge and ethics. Yet, at the moment of each of his nine deaths, he has transformed into another humanoid form with his own unique personality. Thus he claims to have been around for thousands of years. In the original series (1963 to 1989), the Doctor was portrayed as a renegade, exiled Time Lord from his home planet, Gallifrey, who possesses a fondness for Earth and its inhabitants. While his fondness for humans has not diminished, perhaps due to his two hearts, in the new series (launched in 2005) the Doctor believes himself to be the only surviving Time Lord of the Time War, initiated by the Daleks, whose primary purpose in life is to exterminate beings that they perceive as inferior.

Through 740 episodes (and counting), the Doctor and companions have seen wondrous things, while defeating a number of monsters and villains. Probably the best known villains are the aforementioned Daleks, a few of whom also survived the Time War to threaten human existence. Mutant Kaleds from the planet Skaro, the Daleks are small, organic beings encased in metallic armor, mounted with a laser cannon.

Cybermen, adversaries from the original series,

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