Doctor Who
Doctor Who was a British sci-fi show that started in 1963. It
was a national institution and had a fantastic following.
Children used to love to watch it from behind the sofa, as it
was scary, but also addictive to watch.
But the years took its toll. Each BBC Controller had their
own idea about Doctor Who, some even wanted it to be
scrapped. The writing quality for the show declined and
eventually Doctor Who was cancelled after 26 years on our
TVs.
The fans of the show lobbied to get the show back onto our
screens and in 1996 it looked like their prayers had been
answered. A Doctor Who TV film was commissioned, in
collaboration with Universal and FOX Television.
It was hoped
that a TV series would be commissioned on the back
of this, but after mixed reviews it didn't happen.
Russell T Davies was a writer that loved Doctor Who
when he was a child and wanted to have the chance to
bring it kicking and screaming back to the small
screen. The BBC gave him this chance and he has
been hailed as the person who resurrected Doctor
Who.
Christopher Eccleston had worked with Russell T Davies in the past. He admired Russell's work
and is probably one of the main reasons why he wanted to portray the Doctor.
Doctor Who has famous fans, most were children when they first saw it and were sad when it
stopped filming all those years ago. But when they knew it was returning, they started to queue up
to be in it or write for it.
The producers have rightly tried to keep this to a minimum, otherwise the show starts to look like a
who's who and it dilutes the show.
Mark Gatiss from 'The League of Gentlemen' has written for the show. Simon Callow (4 Weddings
and a Funeral) has starred as Charles Dickens'.
Richard Wilson who played Victor Meldrew in the series
'One Foot in the Grave' has also been in the show.
A number of Doctor Who spin off series have now been
created. The most memorable is 'Torchwood', which
stars Eve Myles who appeared in New Series 1 Episode
2 as a different character. Also John Barrowman stars
as Captain Jack Harkness in the show.
The 2nd spin off is 'The Sarah Jane Adventures' which
is a children's TV show, which follows an ex-companion
of Doctor Who (Elisabeth Sladen).
Story
The Doctor is a time traveller from the planet Galifrey and is a Time Lord. He may look human, but
isn't, he has two hearts!.
He travels around in his time ship called the TARDIS, which stands for 'Time And Relative
Dimension In Space'. If you've ever seen it before, it looks like an old British Police Box.
It wasn't meant to look like that all the time, as the TARDIS was supposed to change shape and
blend in with its surroundings.
But its chameleon circuit broke and so it stayed as the
last form it had taken, a Police Box. Another strange
thing about the TARDIS is that it is much bigger on the
inside than the outside, which really confuses new
people when they see it.
This is not the only thing that changes shape, the
Doctor does too. If he gets mortally wounded then he
can regenerate his form and its as if he is reborn. He
has a new body and a new personality, but he does
remember everything from before.
Doctor Who Characters
The Doctor (9th Doctor) (played by Christopher Eccleston)
He is the last of the Time Lords, who were killed in the Time Wars. In this
war, the Doctor helped kill all the Daleks (or so he thought). During this
time his planet was destroyed. It seems that he is always around when a
disaster strikes. He was even a passenger on the Titanic!
The Doctor comes across as very cocky, which most of the time he is.
He is 900 years old (give or take a year).
He needs a companion to travel with him, to look after him and watch his back. But more than
anything, he needs them to pull him back from the brink of some terrible things he could carry out.
Rose Tyler became that companion, and it is debateable who needed who the most. He has
become so close to Rose that they could be classed as a couple, even though nothing physical
has happened between them (and the Doctor would deny anything). Could this be the reason why
he always forgets about Mickey, maybe he wants all of Rose's attention all to himself?
It is when he is confronted by his enemies that all his rational thoughts go out of the window. Such
as the time he was scared stiff of the Dalek that Henry Van Staton captured.
He wanted it wiped from the face of the Earth, even if it had developed feelings. Rose even
thought he was wrong.
He carries around a Sonic Screwdriver which is a useful thing to carry around as it seems to get
him out of bad situations, such as opening locked doors. Not only that, he has Physic Paper that
shows the person reading it exactly what they are expecting to see, which is mostly ID.
He is so well travelled, that he has learnt to speak 5 billion languages.
Rose Tyler (played by Billie Piper)
Rose is 19 years old. Before she met the Doctor, Rose used to work in a
central London department store called 'Hendriks'. That was until her
encounter with the Doctor and the Autons, and their campaign of terror.
She lived with her mother Jackie in a flat in London. She has no A-
Levels (education) but used to like gymnastics, which she used to great
effect helping the Doctor get rid of the Nestene Consciousness and the
Autons from Earth.
After this the Doctor offered Rose the chance of a lifetime, to join him on his adventures (but not
Mickey, her boyfriend), but she initially turned him down.
When he returned seconds later, in the Tardis, and told her it was a time machine, she accepted
on the spot (do you blame her?). She idolises the Doctor and quickly forgets about her past life,
including her mother and boyfriend.
She returned 12 months later and reality hits home that there has been a manhunt for her and she
was presumed dead.
Because of this, the Doctor modified her mobile phone so that she could always call her mother
wherever she was in the Universe or in time.
Rose has become extremely close with the Doctor and romance seems to be on the cards.
Jackie Tyler (played by Camille Coduri)
She is Rose's mother. Years ago her husband was killed in a hit and run
accident and she hasn't remarried. But she is always on the lookout for
a new boyfriend and even tried her luck with the Doctor. She was quite
upset when he wasn't interested.
She doesn't have any airs and graces, but she does speak her mind.
The trouble is that she doesn't stop talking once she's started!!
Jackie tells Rose that her father was the most fantastic man in the world, but when he was alive
she didn't treat him very well. She kept telling him that he was a waste of space and had his head
in the clouds. Once he died, she realised what a lovely man he really was.
She doesn't trust the Doctor and wonders what his real motives are concerning her daughter.
Peter Tyler (played by Shaun Dingwall)
He is Rose's dad, who was killed in a 'hit and run' road accident when
Rose was very young. Peter and Jackie had a really turbulent marriage
and was mainly on a verbal tongue lashing from Jackie. He had lots of
ideas running through his head and wanted to invent lots of things. The
trouble was that these things never materialised.
Rose decided to go back in time to make sure he didn't die alone (as
her mother had said), the trouble is that she saved him.
This in turn upset the balance of time, which released creatures intent on destroying humanity.
Pete quickly realised that he had upset this balance and the only way to put history right again
was to sacrifice himself and get run over by the same car. There was one main difference this
time, he didn't die alone, Rose was there with him.
Mickey Smith (played by Noel Clarke)
He was Rose's boyfriend before she met the Doctor. He didn't really appreciate her and thought more of watching his
favourite football (soccer) team than spending quality time with her. He also lives on the same housing estate as Rose and
her mother.
When he was helping Rose track down the Doctor, he was copied by the Autons (a plastic wheelie bin ate him). This was to
lure the Doctor into a trap. Luckily they kept Mickey alive to stop the copy from disintegrating.
The Doctor treats him as a fun figure and tries to belittle him (he purposely forgets his name) and is mainly due to being
defensive of Rose and knowing that Mickey did have a relationship with her. He's probably scared he will take Rose away from him.
When Rose disappeared for 12 months with the Doctor, he was the prime suspect for her murder. He was quizzed by the police on numerous
occasions and hounded by Jackie Tyler as she thought he had killed her.
Mickey really does love Rose and can't get her out of his head, but he just can't play second fiddle to the Doctor. When he sees how much she has
changed and that she would leave him at the drop of a hat, it breaks his heart.
So he decides its time to go back to his old life and forget Rose...or does he?
Captain Jack Harkness (played by John Barrowman)
He is a time traveller who first became known to the Doctor in war torn Britain in 1941. He is an American who was
masquerading as a Captain in the Royal Airforce.
He is very charming and does things for effect, like tethering his Tular Spaceship up to Big Ben (it was invisible). But for all
this, he does have a darker side. He is a con artist.
He used to be a Time Agent, but quit after he found out that they had stole 2 years of his memories from him. After this he
decided to go freelance and try to earn some money on the side, by conning people.
He placed a container in time to lure Time Agents to him, so that he could trade alien artefacts that were out of their time period. He mistook the
Doctor and Rose as Time Agents and was asking a lot of money to trade a Tular Warship (the last one in existence).
But as with all good con artists, it didn't actually exist and was in fact space junk. But this space junk was dangerous. It was a large medical container
that seemed to be empty, but actually contained a Nano Genes.
These Nano Genes would rewrite a humans DNA to be similar to the first person who touched the container, which was a little boy in a gas mask.
They were passed from human to human via touch and it looked like everyone would look like they had a gas mask fused to their head.
Even though Jack is a con artist, he didn't want to harm anyone. So with the aid of the Doctor and Rose, he tried to fix what he had caused. He knew
that a bomb was going to land on the site of the container, so used his ship to beam it aboard.
But once he beamed it aboard, he found out that he couldn't dispose of it without detonating it. With no escape pod he resigned himself to an early
death, but luckily the Doctor managed to come to his rescue using the Tardis.
He carries a Sonic Blaster, which was made in the same factory as the Sonic Screwdriver. Also he is bi-sexual and uses this to great effect when he
needs to get people to do things (both sexes are attracted to his good looks).
Daleks (played by various)
These are one of the Doctor's oldest and fiercest enemies. They want to exterminate everything they come across.
What you see on the outside is not really a Dalek, but instead its armour. Inside the casing is quite a helpless creature that
looks like a green blob with one eye. But don't let that fool you, they are an evil race with no emotions.
They have two main weapons, a blaster and a sucker which sucks the life out of people. It has the ability to regenerate itself
by using electricity.
When Rose touched a Dalek and it regenerated (using her DNA) it developed emotions. This is one thing that Daleks cannot have and it would rather
die than feel them. In the last time war, 10 million Dalek ships burned and were wiped out in 1 second.
But it seemed that all the Daleks didn't die in the Time War, and instead they were rescued by the Emperor Dalek. They fell through time, into dark
space, where they were damaged and here they started to rebuild themselves.
They took control of the Media Station orbiting Earth, without the Earth's inhabitants knowing. Here they created game shows where contestants were
disintegrated (or should that be exterminated).
They used this as a front, as the contestants weren't disintergrated, but were beamed straight to the Daleks. Here they were killed and their bodies
broken down, and only a few had the right cells to be transformed into Daleks.
So slowly they started to build up their numbers for a full scale invasion of Earth. The trouble is the Doctor, as usual, got in the way.
This is when the Doctor found out that the Daleks had found religion and that the Emperor had pronounced himself to be the God of the Daleks. He
wanted to burn the surface of the Earth and have a temple built in his honour, on the remains .
In Dalek legend, they call the Doctor the "Oncoming Storm".
Slitheen (played by various)
They are a cunning family of aliens, who tried to take over the UK Government. Initially they created a diversion, by getting a
spaceship to crash into Big Ben in London.
While everyone's attention was focussed on this event, they were busy killing the Prime Minister and replacing certain
members of the cabinet (the inner circle of Government).
They wore the skin of the original person they killed (like a rubber costume), and spoke just like them. It was very
convincing. But there was a down side to wearing these costumes, they constantly kept farting (breaking wind).
When the the organisation called UNIT was brought in (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce) to gather information about the aliens on Earth, the
Slitheen acted quickly and killed their top advisors.
This was a defence tactic to stop their plans from being discovered, which was to start World War Three and bring on a nuclear war, which would
devastate the planet. Once this happened, then they would carve up the Earth and sell it chunk by chunk, where the radioactive rock could be used to
power multitudes of spacecraft.
But they do have a weakness, acetic acid (vinegar), which if it comes in contact with them can make them explode!!
The trouble is that there isn't enough vinegar to go around, so instead the Doctor hacks into the defence computers to send a missile straight at 10
Downing Street to kill the Slitheen, with the Doctor, Rose and Harriet Jones still in there!!
Harriet Jones (played by )
She is the MP (Member of Parliament) for Flydale North in the UK. She plays a minor role in Government and is mostly
interested in local issues, which she tries to bring to the attention of the Government.
She is determined to get her point of view across and keeps trying to be seen by the Prime Minister. This is when she
accidentally finds out that the Slitheen had replaced certain members of the Cabinet. She then sets her sights at removing
them, helped by the Doctor.
Autons (played by various)
They look like shop window mannequins, but are much deadlier. They can fold back their hands to reveal built in guns and
will kill anything that moves. They are made out of living plastic which is controlled by relays.
Even if you rip off their head, arms etc then each body part will continue to work (such as the time when an Auton arm tried
to kill the Doctor and Rose).
They are controlled by the Nestene Conciousness who is made out of living plastic. It's main aim is to overthrow the human
race and destroy them.
Henry Van Statton (played by Corey Johnson)
He is a powerful businessman from Earth. He uses his agents from all over the world, and his influence, to help him create
the largest collection of alien artefacts on Earth. Currently he has 53+ floors dedicated to the artefacts he's collected, which
are in a hidden underground base.
He is an American and is very brash. Because of the power he wields, he thinks that he rules the planet and claims to own
the internet.
His prized possession is his only living artefact, a Dalek. He has been trying to talk to the Dalek, but it ignored him. So he
got his technicians to try to break through the outer casing of the Dalek to see what was inside, but to little effect. That was
until Rose and the Doctor came along and rejuvenated it.
Once he realised that the Dalek might kill him, then he wanted to run for the hills. But Rose stopped the Dalek from killing him, and instead his
assistant ordered his memories to be erased, for the terrible things he had done.
Cassandra O'brien (voiced by Zoe Wanamaker)
She classes herself as the last 'pure' human, even though there are other humans throughout the galaxy.
If there is one person that would put you off cosmetic surgery, then it's Cassandra. This is because she's had too many nip
and tucks and she is now just one piece of stretched skin with a face on it, that hangs up.
She needs moisturising constantly, otherwise she will dry out and rip. Cassandra is very proud of these operations, even
boasting that she was up to 708 operations. The trouble is, it costs a fortune to stay flat and so she needed money to help.
As she is such a shallow person she hatched a kidnap plan where she and other influential people would be held to ransom
by a terrorist gang (controlled by her). This way she would be able to pocket the money without anyone knowing it was her idea. But as we all know,
things never go to plan when the Doctor is around.
The Face of Boe
He is very wise and doesn't say a lot, but when he does then it is a significant event. He looks like a massive head in a jar.
He is from the Silver Devastation and was the main sponsor of the 'End of the World' party, where Earth would be engulfed
by the sun..
Doctor Who Images
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Doctor Who
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Doctor Who Video Intro
Doctor Who Episodes
New Series 1 (2005)
1. Rose
2. The End of the World
3. The Unquiet Dead
4. Aliens of London
5. World War Three
6. Dalek
7. The Long Game
8. Father's Day
9. The Empty Child
10. The Doctor Dances
11. Boom Town
12. Bad Wolf
13. The Parting of the Ways
New Series 2 (2006)
1. New Earth
2. Tooth and Claw
3. School Reunion
4. The Girl in the Fireplace
5. Rise of the Cybermen
6. The Age of Steel
7. The Idiot's Lantern
8. The Impossible Planet
9. The Satan Pit
10. Love & Monsters
11. Fear Her
12. Army of Ghosts
13. Doomsday
New Series 3 (2007)
1. Smith and Jones
2. The Shakespeare Code
3. Gridlock
4. Daleks in Manhattan
5. Evolution of the Daleks
6. The Lazarus Experiment
7. 42
8. Human Nature
9. The Family of Blood
10. Blink
11. Utopia
12. The Sound of Drums
13. Last of the Time Lords
New Series 4 (2008)
1. Partners in Crime
2. The Fires of Pompeii
3. Planet of the Ood
4. The Sontaran Stratagem
5. The Poison Sky
6. The Doctor's Daughter
7. The Unicorn and the Wasp
8. Silence in the Library
9. Forest of the Dead
10. Midnight
11. Turn Left
12. The Stolen Earth
13. Journey's End
New Series Specials
1. The Christmas Invasion (2005)
2. Attack of the Graske (2006) - Interactive
Episode
3. The Runaway Bride (2006)
4. Voyage of the Damned (2007)
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