The Complete Novice’s Guide to Doctor Who (And Why It’s a Perfect Fit for PlayStation Home)
by HearItWow, HSM Editor Emeritus
Imagine this: You’re sitting in your Roman front hall, feet dangling carelessly in a reflecting pool as toga-clad people wander about with endless platters of figs and lamb. A button press or two later, you find yourself in a gleaming space station, futuristic spaceships ferrying back and forth to the Earth below. If this sounds familiar, you’re either a user of PlayStation Home or a companion of The Doctor.
It’s easy to tell which you are: If you’re being chased by monsters bent on galactic domination, you’re with The Doctor.
So Who’s This Who Chap, Anyway?
Bow ties are cool.
Unless you’ve spent the last 50 years on Millinocket V, a planet who’s unfortunate location near a pulsar renders regular wireless communication impossible, you’ve likely at least heard of Doctor Who, which celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first broadcast on November 23 of this year. The title of 50-year-old science fiction program is an honor that Doctor Who shares with precisely nothing, so if you’re an English-speaking sentient creature with access to a television, radio, books or the Internet, you’ve missed quite a bit of history. Fortunately for you, it’s a show about time travel, so The Doctor’s history is still being written, making now as good a time as any to jump in.
The Doctor is a 1,000-year-old Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Humans look like Gallifreyans, which makes it easy to blend in on his adopted home planet of Earth, although his second heart, common to all Gallifreyans, and his intelligence make it possible for those with the right means to identify him.
The Doctor fled his homeworld in a stolen time machine in his younger years to learn more about the universe, and because he loathed his people’s policy of non-interference with other life forms. The Doctor has an unshakable moral core, an endless belief in the goodness and potential of all living things and a strong aversion to firearms, preferring to enter combat armed with his genius intellect and a Sonic Screwdriver that can open most locks and reprogram machines.
Faced with mortal injury, The Doctor also has the ability to regenerate, completely replacing his current form and personality while retaining the memories of his past. This peculiar trait, born of declining health that forced the first Doctor, William Hartnell, to leave the show, is one of the reasons why Doctor Who has endured for nearly five decades. Each new actor to inhabit the role has brought new quirks and personality traits within the confines of The Doctor’s strict morality and genius.
Twelve actors have portrayed The Doctor on the screen to date: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davidson, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy (currently appearing as Radagast in “The Hobbit”), Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant and Matt Smith. Peter Cushing, perhaps best known to American audiences as Grand Moff Tarkin in “Star Wars,” had two outings as The Doctor in feature films released in 1965 and 1966.
Slightly more reliable than a late-night local subway.
Who Needs a Bugatti Veryon When You Have The TARDIS?
The Doctor’s transport is a time machine pilfered from the Time Lords known as the TARDIS, short for Time And Relative Dimensions in Space. Grown from living coral and powered by an artificial black hole, a TARDIS actually occupies two separate points in space and time, with a small exterior that acts as a dimensional gateway to a much larger interior, making it unnervingly bigger on the inside for first-time visitors. Although cavernous and home to thousands of rooms connected by miles of corridors, the interior of a TARDIS is finite, and portions of the ship can be jettisoned to lighten its interdimensional weight when the craft is under threat.
A TARDIS can travel anywhere in time and space, and each TARDIS has a Chameleon Circuit that allows it to mimic its surroundings, enabling the owner to hide it in plain sight no matter where it lands. The Chameleon Circuit on The Doctor’s TARDIS shorted out during a trip to London in 1963, leaving it stuck as a Police Call Box of the era. This is one of several problems with The Doctor’s TARDIS, which was an unreliable and decommissioned model when he stole it. It’s chief problem is a lack of navigational accuracy, which frequently results in it landing anywhere from a few minutes to several star systems away from its intended destination.
There are some additional causes for this lack of navigational accuracy. TARDIS controls take six people to operate properly, although The Doctor and a few other determined Time Lords have managed to fly them solo with largely accurate results. A TARDIS is also sentient and will, on occasion, ignore its programmed destination in favor of a place where it wants to go.
The practical upshot of this is that a TARDIS is about as likely to get you where you want to go as a local-service subway after 10PM on a Saturday night, with the added caveat that when it fails it will leave you on a distant planet gripped by civil war two million years into the future, instead of a ten-dollar cab ride away. This quirk makes TARDIS travel ideal for those with a great love of spontaneous adventure and no particular need to show up to things on time.
A Highlander, a Journalist and a Robot Dog Walk Into a Bar…
The average person, given access to a machine that can go anywhere in time and space, complete with on-board bedrooms, swimming pool and, one can assume, a well-stocked wet bar, would inevitably grab some close friends and set off for adventure. This is precisely what The Doctor does, and the changing cast of companions, some of whom have met tragic ends, is another significant contributor to Doctor Who’s enduring popularity.
Across the series’ run, The Doctor’s companions have served to offer familiar human perspective on this alien time traveler’s actions, as aliens expressing their wonder at life beyond their homeworlds or as staunch supporters helping The Doctor figure things out. Mostly, however, The Doctor’s companions press the wrong buttons, open the wrong door or run down the wrong corridor, resulting in their inevitable capture and need to be rescued. The Doctor takes the welfare of his charges very seriously, often risking his own life to ensure their safety.
Through the decades of Doctor Who, there have been dozens of companions, each beloved by audiences. As a comprehensive list would cut into the BBC’s book sales, deny Wikipedia approximately 8,000 daily pageviews and add nothing to your popularity at the next cocktail party you attend, a very incomplete list of fan favorites follows:
If Amy Pond was The Girl Who Waited, then Clara was The Girl Who Died. Twice.
Susan Foreman: The titular character of the very first Doctor Who serial, “An Unearthly Child,” Susan is presented as The Doctor’s teenage granddaughter. Our adventures with The Doctor begin when two of Susan’s teachers, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, follow her home and discover the TARDIS, only to be kidnapped by William Hartnell’s Doctor and whisked back to 10,000 BC.
Jamie McCrimmon: A Scottish highlander and fierce warrior who joined Patrick Troughton’s Doctor following the Battle of Culloden in 1746.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: The head of U.N.I.T., the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, a forerunner of Torchwood dealing with alien threats to Earth. A strict military man, The Brigadier has a keen interest in science and a willingness to let The Doctor lead the way. His daughter, Kate Stewart, was recently revealed as the new head of U.N.I.T.
Jo Grant: A junior member of U.N.I.T. and a thoroughly modern young Londoner, Jo traveled with Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor.
Sarah Jane Smith: Perhaps the most popular of The Doctor’s companions, Sarah Jane traveled with both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker and was the first classic companion to appear in the rebooted Doctor Who, starring alongside David Tennant before earning her own spin-off series, “The Sarah Jane Adventures.”
Romana: A Time Lady who traveled with Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor, Romana would eventually return to Gallifrey and play a pivotal role in the planet’s politics in Doctor Who books and audio dramas
K-9: A robotic dog who traveled with the Fourth Doctor, K-9 was equipped with defensive lasers and the ability to interface with nearly any computer, making him an invaluable asset. The Doctor eventually gave K-9 to Sarah Jane Smith, leading to the first Doctor Who spinoff, “K-9 and Company.” K-9 later returned in the rebooted Doctor Who, still owned by Sarah Jane Smith, and subsequently appeared in “The Sarah Jane Adventures.”
Rose Tyler: A teenaged shop girl from a council estate, Rose met Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor in the first episode of the rebooted series. Rose would later fall in love with David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor, marking only the second time that The Doctor showed a romantic interest in one of his companions, the first being the Time Lady Romana.
Captain Jack Harkness: An intergalactic con man and Time Agent, Captain Jack becomes immortal after Rose Tyler resurrects him. He eventually settles on Earth to run the Torchwood Institute in the spin-off series “Torchwood.”
River Song: The daughter of companions Amy and Rory Pond, River was born with Time Lord DNA as a result of having been conceived on the TARDIS. Raised as an assassin by The Silence to kill The Doctor, she instead falls in love with and eventually marries Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor. Due to a disturbance in time that has yet to be explained, she is traveling backwards in time relative to The Doctor. She knows his future, but he is still learning about her.
Clara Oswin Oswald: The Doctor’s newest companion, she has met the Eleventh Doctor twice and died both times, making her the first non Time Lord, other than the immortal Jack Harkness, whom The Doctor has encountered twice. Discovering Clara’s origin will be a central theme of the upcoming episodes of Doctor Who.
You’ll forget this as soon as you look away.
The Monsters
All of this mucking about in time and space should be great fun, and indeed it would be, were it not for the TARDIS’ tendency to materialize at points of great crisis, where either the fate of the Earth or the universe itself is at stake. The Doctor takes most of this in stride, having managed to defeat the diabolical plans of the most dangerous creatures in the universe, as well as rescue his companions, who just can’t help but touch a Dalek on their first encounter.
The list below includes the most prominent monsters The Doctor has faced, all of which have appeared in multiple seasons of the show.
The Daleks: The Doctor’s oldest and most formidable foes, these cyborgs first appeared in the second Doctor Who serial in December 1963, immediately cementing Doctor Who as a cultural icon. Resembling pepper shakers fitted with an eye stalk, a plunger and a telescope, Daleks are rolling tanks that encase mutant creatures bred to be the ultimate warriors. Lacking all compassion and reason, Daleks are bent on the elimination of all non-Dalek life from the universe. They were created on the planet Skaro by Davros, a brilliant scientist who is The Doctor’s intellectual equal. The Daleks include time travel among their advanced technologies, and their ongoing Time War with the Time Lords eventually led The Doctor, sometime between his eighth and ninth incarnations, to seal every Dalek and every Time Lord in a Time Bubble around Gallifrey. In spite of this act of apparent genocide, Daleks continue to pop up around the universe.
The Cybermen: Another enemy that traces its history to the First Doctor, The Cybermen are cyborgs powered by human brains that have had every trace of emotion wiped away. The Cybermen consider themselves superior to other life forms and will attempt to “upgrade” any humans they encounter into additional Cybermen. They frequently travel with Cybermats, small, rodentlike mechanical creatures with remarkable strength and agility that can incapacitate humans ahead of an upgrade.
The Sontarans: Genetic clones bred for warfare, Sontarans are single-minded and only truly happy when they are on a battlefield. Like Cybermen, Sontarans are not evil by nature, but their endless desire to declare war on the rest of the universe makes them unpopular on more civilized worlds. Individual Sontarans have shown near-human compassion, and the Eleventh Doctor counts Strax, a Sontaran nurse attempting to redeem his genetic collective, as a trusted companion.
The Silurians: These humanoid reptilians were the original alpha species on Earth, retreating into hibernation during prehistoric times when they sensed that the arrival of the moon would bring tremendous geological change. Some Silurians emerged from their hibernation in a state of madness and attempted to retake the Earth from humans, while others sought to preserve their prehistoric world. Highly intelligent and fierce in battle, they have both opposed and befriended The Doctor. Madame Vastra, the Silurian inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, is a trusted companion of the Eleventh Doctor.
The Ice Warriors: These reptilian humanoids originate in Mars and can survive for thousands of years frozen in ice. They are a featured monster in an upcoming episode of Doctor Who.
The Master: A renegade Time Lord, The Master was The Doctor’s most dangerous enemy, as well as a childhood friend. His genius mind was driven mad by exposure to The Vortex, the source of time travel, as a child. The Master believed himself superior to all other living creatures and frequently sought absolute power, using complex and diabolical traps to keep The Doctor at bay. Despite their battles, The Doctor remains hopeful that The Master can be swayed back to a positive path in life. This belief prevents The Doctor from destroying The Master when he has the chance.
The Weeping Angels: First appearing as an adversary of the Tenth Doctor, the Weeping Angels are multi-dimensional creatures that send people to the past and feed on the time energy created by the paradox. Weeping Angels can move faster than light, but they can only do so when no other living creature, including a Weeping Angel, is looking at them. When seen, Weeping Angels look like ordinary statues. Most appear as human-sized stone statues, but they can take forms as large as the Statue of Liberty.
The Silence: Not a race but a religious order, The Silence is a mysterious entity that is host to a large number of humanoid aliens bearing a striking resemblance to the prominent figure at the front of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” Whether this is a specific alien race affiliated with the religion or the form of those who have achieved a level of enlightenment has yet to be explained. The Silence have the ability to absorb living creatures, ending their existence, as well as the ability to hide in plain sight, as anyone who encounters a Silent will immediately forget the creature upon looking away. A group of Silence have been stranded on Earth for some time, influencing humanity to explore space in the hope of escaping the planet.
Anything Else I Need to Know?
Doctor Who began as Saturday afternoon tea-time entertainment for children, using an episodic format with a cliffhanger at the end of each episode to encourage viewers to come back during its original run from 1963 to 1989. Most serials from this era ran for four episodes, although serials ran as few as one episode and as many as ten.
“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” author Douglas Adams served as Doctor Who’s script editor in 1979, and wrote 1978’s “The Pirate Planet” as well as “City of Death” and “Shada,” which was unfinished due to a labor strike at the BBC. A fourth script, “Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen,” was rejected and later adapted by Adams into the third book of the Hitchhiker’s Trilogy, “Life, The Universe, and Everything.”
If you’re ever invited to Colin Baker’s or Nicola Bryant’s homes for a cocktail party, you probably shouldn’t bring this up.
Doctor Who was cancelled in 1989 amid spiraling budgets, limited international interest in syndication and a decline in UK ratings. This was not the first time that a cancellation was rumored. In 1985, budget cuts at the BBC led to a possible cancellation. Several cast members, including Sixth Doctor Colin Baker. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart actor Nicholas Courtney, Master actor Anthony Ainsley and members of The Moody Blues, rallied for the show with an ill-conceived charity single titled “Doctor In Distress,” generally considered one of the worst songs ever recorded.*
Doctor Who would survive until 1989 before the BBC finally pulled the plug on the television series. The Doctor would continue in novelizations and Big Finish audiobooks from 1999 on.
The first attempt to resurrect Doctor Who took place in 1996, when the BBC partnered with Fox Television on a two-hour pilot. The episode was the last television appearance of Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy, who regenerated into Eighth Doctor Paul McGann. Weak U.S. ratings doomed any hopes of a new television series. Eric Roberts appeared as The Master, making Doctor Who the first science fiction franchise the actor doomed to an ongoing hiatus.**
Doctor Who was successfully rebooted as a one-hour drama in 2005 by Russel T. Davies, who had earned so much money for the BBC with “Queer as Folk” that they felt compelled to let him do whatever he wanted. Davies would go on to launch “Torchwood” and “The Sarah Jane Adventures.” Current show-runner Steven Moffat shared Davies’ passion for the program, and kept the Doctor Who tradition alive by sneaking a Dalek into a dream sequence in his brilliant comedy series, “Coupling,” which got its own nod in Moffat’s first Doctor Who episode as show-runner, “The Eleventh Hour.”
Neil Gaiman is the latest in a series of highly regarded authors to write scripts for Doctor Who. During the sixth season of the reboot, he expanded on the relationship between the TARDIS and The Doctor in “The Doctor’s Wife.” The upcoming season features a Gaiman-penned story about The Cybermen.
Douglas Adams continues to influence the series past his time on this planet. Writer Chris Chibnall has inserted numerous Adams references in his scripts. “Voyage of the Damned,” the 2008 Christmas special starring Kylie Minouge, features several references to Douglas Adams’ computer game of the same name.
Some 106 episodes of Doctor Who are currently missing, owing to a BBC policy of the 1960s and early 1970s of wiping old broadcast tapes and reusing them. All of the missing episodes belong to the Hartnell and Troughton eras of the show, and recovering them is a top priority for the BBC. 16mm “screener copies” of these missing episodes are known to exist around the world, and anyone who finds and returns one to the BBC will earn a lasting place in the history of Doctor Who.
The Doctor Comes Home
LOOT’s upcoming release of Doctor Who items, and Saturday’s launch of the next Doctor Who series, provides the perfect opportunity for those who’ve been on the outside looking in to get a handle on The Doctor. Yes, suddenly investing in a series with a 50-year history is a bit more intimidating than trying to catch up on “The Walking Dead,” but a new companion always means a new start for the show and a chance for the uninitiated to join in on the fun.
Like the average Home user, The Doctor will experience varied times and places, ranging from the historical to the fantastic, over the course of a season. He’ll do his best to make friends wherever he goes, and he’ll encounter a wide range of personalities with views that are sometimes similar and sometimes exactly dissimilar to his own. Fueled by his love of adventure and exploration, The Doctor will always find a way to save the world, protect his companions and make it back to the TARDIS in time for the next adventure.
Doctor Who and PlayStation Home are a perfect fit, because the things that fans love about The Doctor are the same things that fans love about Doctor Who. For those experiencing The Doctor’s adventures for the first time, strap in. You’re in for a wild and wonderful ride.
*The author of this article is, in fact, a proud owner of an original 1985 vinyl pressing of “Doctor in Distress,” complete with picture sleeve, ordered from the pages of the U.S. Doctor Who fan newsletter. If asked nicely, he will even play it on his radio show. Though the song is not expressly ghastly, one cannot help but wonder what Hans Zimmer was thinking when he signed on for this, or imagine that anyone left the recording studio feeling all Bob Geldof-y.
March 27th, 2013 by HearItWow | 1 comment
HearItWow is the former producer of HomeCast, which may have entertained some people as recently as 2012. He is currently attempting to reinvent talk radio and occasionally pokes his head up to write about really cool things happening in PlayStation Home. His weekly radio show can be heard live on wmfo.org from 7 to 9 PM Eastern on Wednesday nights.
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Thanks for this run down of the show, being a newbie this is a great synopsis for me and gave me a better understanding about what all of this is about. Great read HW.