The Doctor Turns 46

By: Dennis Rayburn
11/24/2009

The date was November 23, 1963. In the United States, there was mourning throughout the land as the country was grieving the loss of it's 35th President, John F. Kennedy. All regular network television shows were canceled till after the President's funeral on Monday, November 25.

In England, while the country joined the USA in mourning, the BBC continued to show some of it's regular programing. Among the shows that aired on this day was the premiere episode of what was to become the longest running science fiction show in history. The unfortunate events in Dallas, Texas the day before almost caused the show major problems as people's attention was on that instead of being entertained. Thankfully, the BBC realized this and the very next week, rebroadcast the first episode before the second one. This was a very good thing to do as in the beginning of the show, it was presented as a serial, each show ending with a cliffhanger that was dealt with the next episode.

According to sources, the first storyline, which took the Doctor (originally played by William Hartnell) and his companions back to the time of cavemen, was not that well received. However, the next storyline introduced those infernal metal foes that have given the Doctor nothing but trouble over the years, when he visited the home world of the Daleks. British fans loved those things and the show was on it's way.

Thanks to the storyline that the Doctor could regenerate 12 times into new forms, the show continued on the BBC from 1963 till 1989 when it was canceled, but with promises that it would return. The first attempt to bring the Doctor back was in the form of a TV movie, produced by Universal, Fox, and the BBC with Paul McGann becoming the Eighth Doctor. The movie did well in the UK, but not so well in the US, thus no series was launched from it. Finally, with Christopher Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor, the show returned to the BBC in 2005 and has remained ever since. The revived show was shown in the US on what is now the Syfy Channel, but this year was moved to BBC America who has been showing the final appearances of David Tennant and the premiere of the Eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith.

And this incredible journey of the longest running science fiction genre, of which Steven Spielberg has said, “...the world would be a poorer place without Doctor Who” all begin with a thirty minute show on November 23, 1963.

See you next time!

Photos:  Wikipedia.org

Author: Dennis Rayburn

Dennis Rayburn is a columnist for Roddenberry.com. His column, "Two Strips of Latinum" appears every Sunday through Thursday.
Contact: drayburn@roddenberry.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/drayburn
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