96-554: Barry Leopold Letts (26 March 1925 – 9 October 2009) was an English actor, television director, writer and producer, best known for being the producer of Doctor Who from 1969 to 1974. Born in Leicester , he worked as an actor in theatre, films and television before retiring in his early forties and becoming a television director. He then became the producer of the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who for five years, overseeing almost
192-516: A "renewal", and the Second Doctor underwent a "change of appearance". The device has allowed for the recasting of the actor various times in the show's history, as well as the depiction of alternative Doctors either from the Doctor's relative past or future. The serials The Deadly Assassin (1976) and Mawdryn Undead (1983) established that a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times, for
288-455: A 16-year hiatus of in-house production. Eccleston left after one series and was replaced by David Tennant . Davies left the production team in 2009. Steven Moffat , a writer under Davies, was announced as his successor, along with Matt Smith as the new Doctor. Smith decided to leave the role of the Doctor in 2013, the 50th anniversary year. He was replaced by Peter Capaldi . In January 2016, Moffat announced that he would step down after
384-503: A Nigerian television relay station in Jos . Six of the eleven films discovered were the six-part serial The Enemy of the World (1968), from which all but the third episode had been missing. The remaining films were from another six-part serial, The Web of Fear (1968), and included the previously missing episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6. Episode 3 of The Web of Fear is still missing. The Doctor
480-449: A century" and "secured his place in TV history" with Doctor Who . He was associated with the series for many years, with active involvement in the television programme from 1967 to 1981 (as a director, producer, executive producer and writer) and with later contributions to its spin-offs in other media. Letts was an assistant stage manager at Leicester's Theatre Royal in his teens and took up
576-537: A challenge to find missing Doctor Who episodes with the promise of a full-scale Dalek model as a reward. In December 2011, it was announced that part 3 of Galaxy 4 (1965) and part 2 of The Underwater Menace (1967) had been returned to the BBC by a fan who had purchased them in the mid-1980s without realising that the BBC did not hold copies of them. On 10 October 2013, the BBC announced that films of eleven episodes, including nine missing episodes, had been found in
672-558: A disembodied brain falling to the floor in The Brain of Morbius and the Doctor apparently being drowned by a villain in The Deadly Assassin (both 1976). Mary Whitehouse's complaint about the latter incident prompted a change in BBC policy towards the series, with much tighter controls imposed on the production team, and the series' next producer, Graham Williams , was under a directive to take out "anything graphic in
768-464: A hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor known as the War Doctor in the run-up to the show's 50th-anniversary special " The Day of the Doctor ". He is shown in mini-episode " The Night of the Doctor " retroactively inserted into the show's fictional chronology between McGann's and Eccleston's Doctors, although his introduction was written so as not to disturb the established numerical naming of
864-664: A lengthy discussion piece on The Daily Politics with Andrew Neil on BBC2 . Letts also wrote the scripts for two radio plays based on the show, starring Jon Pertwee with Nicholas Courtney as the Brigadier and Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane, broadcast in the 1990s: The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space . He wrote the novelisations of the TV story The Dæmons ( Target Books , 1974) and of both of his radio plays The Paradise of Death (Target, 1994) and The Ghosts of N-Space ( Virgin Books , 1995, published as part of
960-501: A lot of choice—we only had the Dalek serial to go ... We had a bit of a crisis of confidence because Donald [Wilson] was so adamant that we shouldn't make it. Had we had anything else ready we would have made that." Nation's script became the second Doctor Who serial – The Daleks (also known as The Mutants ). The serial introduced the eponymous aliens that would become the series' most popular monsters, dubbed "Dalekmania", and
1056-539: A more compassionate figure and was eventually revealed to be a Time Lord , whose race are from the planet Gallifrey , which the Doctor fled by stealing the TARDIS. Producers introduced the concept of regeneration to permit the recasting of the main character. This was prompted by the poor health of the original star, William Hartnell . The term "regeneration" was not conceived until the Doctor's third on-screen regeneration; Hartnell's Doctor merely described undergoing
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#17327806957241152-756: A national institution in the United Kingdom, with a large following among the general viewing audience. The show received controversy over the suitability of the series for children. Morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse repeatedly complained to the BBC over what she saw as the programme's violent, frightening and gory content. According to Radio Times , the series "never had a more implacable foe than Mary Whitehouse". A BBC audience research survey conducted in 1972 found that, by their own definition of violence ("any act[s] which may cause physical and/or psychological injury, hurt or death to persons, animals or property, whether intentional or accidental"), Doctor Who
1248-648: A poorer place without Doctor Who ". On 4 August 2013, a live programme titled Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor was broadcast on BBC One, during which the actor who was going to play the Twelfth Doctor was revealed. The live show was watched by an average of 6.27 million in the UK, and was also simulcast in the United States, Canada and Australia. Doctor Who originally ran for 26 seasons on BBC One, from 23 November 1963 until 6 December 1989. During
1344-492: A restructuring of the BBC Drama Department meant that Head of Series and Serials Graeme MacDonald was unable to offer the support previous producers had received. As it happened, 'JNT' (as he was known) stayed for nine years, overtaking Letts as the longest serving producer on Doctor Who . When the programme returned in 2005, Letts was involved in the hectic round of interviews to promote the show, appearing for
1440-428: A series. Licensed media such as novels and audio plays provided new stories , but as a television programme, Doctor Who remained dormant. In September 2003, BBC Television announced the in-house production of a new series, after several years of attempts by BBC Worldwide to find backing for a feature film version. The 2005 revival of Doctor Who is a direct plot continuation of the original 1963–1989 series and
1536-504: A stop. No 1960s episodes exist on their original videotapes (all surviving prints being film transfers), though some were transferred to film for editing before transmission and exist in their broadcast form. Some episodes have been returned to the BBC from the archives of other countries that bought prints for broadcast or by private individuals who acquired them by various means. Early colour videotape recordings made off-air by fans have also been retrieved, as well as excerpts filmed from
1632-464: A total of 13 incarnations. This line became stuck in the public consciousness despite not often being repeated and was recognised by producers of the show as a plot obstacle for when the show finally had to regenerate the Doctor a thirteenth time. The episode " The Time of the Doctor " (2013) depicted the Doctor acquiring a new cycle of regenerations, starting from the Twelfth Doctor , due to
1728-543: Is a significant part of popular culture in Britain and elsewhere; it has gained a cult following . It has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. Fans of the series are sometimes referred to as Whovians . The series has been listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science-fiction television series in the world, as well as
1824-546: Is like comparing Monopoly with the property market in London: both are fantasies, but one is meant to be taken seriously." During Jon Pertwee 's second season as the Doctor, in the serial Terror of the Autons (1971), images of murderous plastic dolls, daffodils killing unsuspecting victims, and blank-featured policemen marked the apex of the series' ability to frighten children. Other notable moments in that decade include
1920-488: Is the first woman to be cast as the character. The show introduced the Time Lords' ability to change sex on regeneration in earlier episodes, first in dialogue, then with Michelle Gomez 's version of The Master and T'Nia Miller 's version of The General. Upon Whittaker's final appearance as the character in " The Power of the Doctor " on 23 October 2022, she regenerated into a form portrayed by David Tennant , who
2016-654: The Daily Telegraph in 2009, the revival of Doctor Who had consistently received high ratings, both in number of viewers and as measured by the Appreciation Index . In 2007, Caitlin Moran , television reviewer for The Times , wrote that Doctor Who is "quintessential to being British". According to Steven Moffat , the American film director Steven Spielberg has commented that "the world would be
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#17327806957242112-463: The 2017 finale , to be replaced by Chris Chibnall in 2018. Jodie Whittaker , the first female Doctor, appeared in three series, the last of which was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic . Both Whittaker and Chibnall announced that they would depart the series after a series of specials in 2022. Davies returned as showrunner from the 60th anniversary specials , twelve years after he had left
2208-496: The BBC Television Service at 17:16:20 GMT on 23 November 1963; this was eighty seconds later than the scheduled programme time, because of announcements concerning the previous day's assassination of John F. Kennedy . It was to be a regular weekly programme, each episode 25 minutes of transmission length. Discussions and plans for the programme had been in progress for a year. The head of drama Sydney Newman
2304-710: The Common Market (the Galactic Federation in Doctor Who parlance) were all presented within a format of child-friendly derring-do." One of Letts' final tasks as producer was to cast Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor . Baker was recommended to him by Bill Slater, an experienced former director who was then serving as the Head of Serials at the BBC. After one story with Baker, Robot , Letts left
2400-555: The Eleventh Doctor being the product of the Doctor's twelfth regeneration from his original set. Although the idea of casting a woman as the Doctor had been suggested by the show's writers several times, including by Newman in 1986 and Davies in 2008, until 2017, all official depictions were played by men. Jodie Whittaker took over the role as the Thirteenth Doctor at the end of the 2017 Christmas special and
2496-548: The First Doctor transforming into the Second . The only portion of this in existence, barring a few poor-quality silent 8 mm clips, is the few seconds of the regeneration scene, as it was shown on the children's magazine show Blue Peter . With the approval of the BBC, efforts are now underway to restore as many of the episodes as possible from the extant material. "Official" reconstructions have also been released by
2592-770: The Virgin Missing Adventures line). He also wrote two original Doctor Who novels published by BBC Books : Deadly Reunion (co-written with Terrance Dicks , 2003) and Island of Death (2005). He, like Terrance Dicks, also wrote radio dramas for the Big Finish company's series of productions starring Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, released on CD. In June 2008 he recorded a long in-vision interview covering his entire career, and his Doctor Who years in particular, excerpts of which continued to be widely used on future DVD releases, most notably on an obituary documentary "Remembering Barry Letts" which
2688-402: The "classic series" eventually fell behind other science fiction in production values and reputation, leading to its cancellation The BBC drama department produced the programme for 26 seasons, broadcast on BBC One . Due to his increasingly poor health, William Hartnell , first actor to play the Doctor, was succeeded by Patrick Troughton in 1966. In 1970, Jon Pertwee replaced Troughton and
2784-475: The "most successful" science-fiction series of all time, based on its overall broadcast ratings, DVD and book sales. The series originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot in the form of a television film titled Doctor Who . The series was relaunched in 2005 and was produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff . Since 2023,
2880-403: The 1996 television film. The executive producers of the new incarnation of the series were Queer as Folk writer Russell T Davies and BBC Cymru Wales head of drama Julie Gardner . From 2005, the series switched from a multi-camera to a single-camera setup. Starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, Doctor Who returned with the episode "Rose" on BBC One on 26 March 2005, after
2976-403: The 4-episode and 6-episode format dominating the schedules for the following fifteen years. He also retired the original howl-around title sequence used, with variations, from 1963 until 1973, introducing as its replacement the classic time tunnel special effects sequence which would run, until 1980, behind the opening and closing credits for every episode produced in seasons 11 to 17. When he
Barry Letts - Misplaced Pages Continue
3072-467: The 45-minute run time; notably, the episodes " Journey's End " from 2008 and " The Eleventh Hour " from 2010 were longer than an hour. 883 Doctor Who instalments have been televised since 1963, ranging between 25-minute episodes (the most common format for the classic era), 45/50-minute episodes (for Resurrection of the Daleks in the 1984 series, a single season in 1985, and the most common format for
3168-626: The Antarctic and The Cruel Sea , in supporting roles. From 1950 he appeared in various live television productions including Gunpowder Guy (broadcast on 5 November 1950) in which future Doctor Who actor Patrick Troughton played Guy Fawkes and Letts a fellow conspirator. He also appeared as Colonel Herncastle in the 1959 television adaptation of Wilkie Collins 's novel The Moonstone , and played roles in The Last Man Out and The Avengers . Much of his television work
3264-804: The BBC on VHS, on MP3 CD-ROM , and as special features on DVD. The BBC, in conjunction with animation studio Cosgrove Hall , reconstructed the missing episodes 1 and 4 of The Invasion (1968), using remastered audio tracks and the comprehensive stage notes for the original filming, for the serial's DVD release in November 2006. The missing episodes of The Reign of Terror were animated by animation company Theta-Sigma, in collaboration with Big Finish , and became available for purchase in May 2013 through Amazon.com. Subsequent animations made in 2013 include The Tenth Planet , The Ice Warriors (1967) and The Moonbase (1967). In April 2006, Blue Peter launched
3360-673: The Baskervilles (starring Tom Baker ), The Invisible Man , Pinocchio , Gulliver in Lilliput , Alice in Wonderland , Lorna Doone , Little Lord Fauntleroy , The Children of the New Forest , Beau Geste and Sense and Sensibility . Many actors with whom he had worked on Doctor Who were to feature in these classic serials, including Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Caroline John, and Paul Darrow. His final directing work
3456-421: The Doctor and the dictator "Salamander" in the same story and sometimes in the same scenes – a rare and demanding directorial requirement for the 1960s. However, in his memoir Who and Me , Letts related how he naively used matte boxes to allow Troughton to act face to face with himself, when in fact optical printing was already available and the same could have been accomplished in post-production. He became
3552-646: The Doctors. The show later introduced another such unknown past Doctor with Jo Martin 's recurring portrayal of the Fugitive Doctor , beginning with " Fugitive of the Judoon " (2020). An example from the classic series comes from The Trial of a Time Lord (1986), in which Michael Jayston 's character the Valeyard is described as an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor's nature, somewhere between
3648-610: The Land and the Sea . It has been the subject of many parodies and references in popular culture . Doctor Who follows the adventures of the title character, a rogue Time Lord with somewhat unknown origins who goes by the name " the Doctor ". The Doctor fled Gallifrey , the planet of the Time Lords, in a stolen TARDIS ("Time and Relative Dimension(s) in Space"), a time machine that travels by materialising into, and dematerialising out of,
3744-802: The Pertwee era: The Dæmons (credited under the pen-name Guy Leopold); The Time Monster ; The Green Death ; and Planet of the Spiders , which was Pertwee's swansong. Letts later provided an official obituary for Sloman in December 2005, published in The Guardian . Letts was a Buddhist and also held liberal political views . According to Toby Hadoke , who contributed to his Guardian obituary, "Letts's liberal worldview led him to commission stories with contemporary resonance – eco-parables, critiques on colonialism and apartheid , even entry into
3840-700: The TARDIS' blue police box design in merchandising associated with Doctor Who . In 1998, the Metropolitan Police Authority filed an objection to the trademark claim; but in 2002, the Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC. The 21st-century revival of the programme became the centrepiece of BBC One's Saturday schedule and "defined the channel". Many renowned actors have made guest-starring appearances in various stories including Kylie Minogue , Sir Ian McKellen , and Andrew Garfield among others. According to an article in
3936-651: The ability to regenerate when there is mortal damage to their body. The Doctor's various incarnations have gained numerous recurring enemies during their travels, including the Daleks , their creator Davros , the Cybermen , and the renegade Time Lord the Master . Doctor Who was originally intended to appeal to a family audience as an educational programme using time travel as a means to explore scientific ideas and famous moments in history. The programme first appeared on
Barry Letts - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-543: The adventures of an extraterrestrial being called the Doctor , part of a humanoid species called Time Lords . The Doctor travels in the universe and in time using a time travelling spaceship called the TARDIS , which externally appears as a British police box . While travelling, the Doctor works to save lives and liberate oppressed peoples by combating foes . The Doctor often travels with companions . Beginning with William Hartnell , fourteen actors have headlined
4128-456: The best known outside Doctor Who itself, due to the popularity of his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy works. The serial format changed for the 2005 revival , with what was now called a series usually consisting of thirteen 45-minute, self-contained episodes (60 minutes with adverts, on overseas commercial channels) and an extended 60-minute episode broadcast on Christmas Day. This system
4224-649: The brain's frontal lobe . The phrase retains this association with Doctor Who , to the point that in 1991 the Museum of the Moving Image in London named its exhibition celebrating the programme Behind the Sofa . The electronic theme music too was perceived as eerie, novel, and frightening at the time. A 2012 article placed this childhood juxtaposition of fear and thrill "at the center of many people's relationship with
4320-683: The character. His other work included producing and co-creating the tv series Moonbase 3 with Terrance Dicks in 1973. After leaving Doctor Who he remained with the BBC, doing a mixture of directing and producing. He directed for numerous series and serials (including on Doctor Who in 1975), before settling into the role of producer of the BBC's Sunday classic serials (where he appointed his friend and former Doctor Who collaborator, Terrance Dicks, as his script editor). He oversaw more than 25 serials in this capacity, over an 8-year period, including Nicholas Nickleby , Great Expectations , A Tale of Two Cities , Dombey and Son , The Hound of
4416-485: The convention and as a small tribute the end credits of the recently recoloured Planet of the Daleks Part Three, shown at the event, were changed to end with an 'In Memory of Barry Letts 1925–2009' caption. Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman , C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson , depicts
4512-519: The demands on the studio scenic crews, who only had to erect and strike the sets once a fortnight instead of once a week. This was a profoundly significant change: it allowed much more rehearsal time, in a much less frantic atmosphere; it ended a long running dispute with the unions representing the technical crews; it reduced wear-and-tear on the sets (and the budget allocations for repairing the damage); and it meant that, forever after, serials could only be made in multiples of 2 episodes—a primary reason for
4608-401: The depiction of violence". John Nathan-Turner produced the series during the 1980s and said in the documentary More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS that he looked forward to Whitehouse's comments because the ratings of the series would increase soon after she had made them. Nathan-Turner also got into trouble with BBC executives over the violence he allowed to be depicted for season 22 of
4704-487: The development of the series. On 31 July 1963, Whitaker commissioned Terry Nation to write a story under the title The Mutants . As originally written, the Daleks and Thals were the victims of an alien neutron bomb attack but Nation later dropped the aliens and made the Daleks the aggressors. When the script was presented to Wilson, it was immediately rejected as the programme was not permitted to contain any " bug-eyed monsters ". According to Lambert, "We didn't have
4800-482: The entirety of Jon Pertwee 's tenure as the Third Doctor and casting Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor . He produced or directed many of the BBC's Sunday Classic drama serials from 1976 to 1986, and returned to Doctor Who in 1980 to be the executive producer for its eighteenth season . The Guardian described Letts on his death as "a pioneer of British television" who "served the medium for more than half
4896-429: The first multiple Doctor story, The Three Doctors . When he took over, a recent BBC decision had cut the season length from over 40 episodes a year to 26. Notable changes Letts made, as related in his autobiography Who and Me , included producing the show in two-episode blocks, rather than as separate episodes: rehearsing two episodes for a fortnight, and then recording those two episodes back-to-back, thereby reducing
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#17327806957244992-400: The first time and an improved budget which enabled more location filming and action sequences than had previously been possible. Letts also embraced the technological innovations which came with moving the series into colour, most notably his enthusiasm for Colour Separation Overlay . He also oversaw the celebration of the programme's tenth anniversary in 1973, uniting the first three Doctors in
5088-420: The first two Doctors: William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton . In all, 97 of 253 episodes produced during the programme's first six years are not held in the BBC's archives (most notably seasons 3, 4, and 5, from which 79 episodes are missing). In 1972, almost all episodes then made were known to exist at the BBC, while by 1978 the practice of wiping tapes and destroying "spare" film copies had been brought to
5184-689: The job full-time after leaving Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys . His initial work was as a repertory actor, following his service as a Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy during the Second World War . He later played one of the leading characters in the Terence Fisher directed film, To the Public Danger , a heartfelt plea against dangerous driving. He also appeared in the highly regarded Ealing Studios productions, Scott of
5280-406: The narrative of one story flowing into the next and each episode having its own title, although produced as distinct stories with their own production codes. Following The Gunfighters (1966), however, each serial was given its own title, and the individual parts were assigned episode numbers. Of the programme's many writers , Robert Holmes was the most prolific, while Douglas Adams became
5376-462: The original run, each weekly episode formed part of a story (or "serial")—usually of four to six parts in earlier years and three to four in later years. Some notable exceptions were: The Daleks' Master Plan , which aired twelve episodes (plus an earlier one-episode teaser, " Mission to the Unknown ", featuring none of the regular cast ); almost an entire season of seven-episode serials (season 7);
5472-417: The position of producer in 1974, having been the longest serving producer on the programme until that time. In 1980, he returned to Doctor Who to be executive producer during John Nathan-Turner 's first season as producer, between The Leisure Hive and Tom Baker's final story, Logopolis . Letts' return to the programme was because Nathan-Turner had not previously been either a director or producer, and
5568-514: The revival era since 2005), two feature-length productions (1983's " The Five Doctors " and the 1996 television film ), twelve Christmas specials (most of approximately 60 minutes' duration, one of 72 minutes), and four additional specials ranging from 60 to 75 minutes in 2009, 2010, and 2013. Four mini-episodes, running about eight minutes each, were also produced for the 1993, 2005, and 2007 Children in Need charity appeals, while another mini-episode
5664-400: The room to watch the remainder of it. The Economist presented "hiding behind the sofa whenever the Daleks appear" as a British cultural institution on a par with Bovril and tea-time . Paul Parsons, author of The Science of Doctor Who , explains the appeal of hiding behind the sofa as the activation of the fear response in the amygdala in conjunction with reassurances of safety from
5760-422: The same memories, explaining each actor's distinct portrayal, as they all represent different stages in the life of the Doctor and, together, they form a single lifetime with a single narrative. The time-travelling nature of the plot means that different incarnations of the Doctor occasionally meet. In 2017, Jodie Whittaker , as the Thirteenth Doctor , became the first woman to be cast in the lead role. The series
5856-473: The series as the Doctor; as of 2024 , Ncuti Gatwa leads the series as the Fifteenth Doctor . The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the series with the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation , a plot device in which, when a Time Lord is fatally injured, their cells regenerate and they are reincarnated, into a different body with mannerisms and behaviour, but
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#17327806957245952-484: The series began production in colour. In 1974, Tom Baker was cast as the Doctor. His eccentric personality became hugely popular, with viewing figures for the series returning to a level not seen since the height of "Dalekmania" a decade earlier. After seven years in the role, Baker was replaced by Peter Davison in 1981, and Colin Baker replaced Davison in 1984. In 1985, the channel's controller Michael Grade cancelled
6048-434: The series in 1985, which was publicly criticised by controller Michael Grade and given as one of his reasons for suspending the series for 18 months. The phrase "hiding behind the sofa " (or "watching from behind the sofa") entered British pop culture , signifying the stereotypical but apocryphal early-series behaviour of children who wanted to avoid seeing frightening parts of a television programme while remaining in
6144-400: The series previously. Bad Wolf co-produces the series in partnership with BBC Studios Productions . Bad Wolf's involvement sees Gardner return to the series alongside Davies and Jane Tranter , who recommissioned the series in 2005. The programme has been sold to many other countries worldwide ( see § Viewership ). It has been claimed that the transmission of the first episode
6240-418: The series", and a 2011 online vote at Digital Spy deemed the series the "scariest TV show of all time". The image of the TARDIS has become firmly linked to the series in the public's consciousness; BBC scriptwriter Anthony Coburn , who lived in the resort of Herne Bay, Kent , was one of the people who conceived the idea of a police box as a time machine. In 1996, the BBC applied for a trademark to use
6336-570: The series' producer in October 1969, replacing Derrick Sherwin , with Jon Pertwee recently cast as the Doctor. Letts' first story as producer was Pertwee's second, Doctor Who and the Silurians , and he remained the producer for the rest of the Pertwee serials, becoming the father figure in the 'family' atmosphere that had developed on the show at that time. It was an era of substantial change for Doctor Who , with episodes broadcast in colour for
6432-595: The show and his work on it and indeed other aspects of his career. He enjoyed a lifelong friendship with Terrance Dicks, established in 1969, and they frequently attended events as a team. Letts' work on the show is inextricably linked with the character of the Third Doctor , as played by Jon Pertwee . With the exceptions of The Enemy of the World , Robot , The Android Invasion and his one season as executive producer in 1980–81, every Doctor Who story regardless of media in which Letts has been involved – whether as producer, director or writer – involved this version of
6528-534: The show has been co-produced by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios Productions in Cardiff. Doctor Who has spawned numerous spin-offs as part of the Whoniverse , including comic books, films, novels and audio dramas, and the television series Torchwood (2006–2011), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), K9 (2009–2010), Class (2016), Tales of the TARDIS (2023–2024), and the upcoming The War Between
6624-436: The television screen onto 8 mm cine film and clips that were shown on other programmes. Audio versions of all lost episodes exist from home viewers who made tape recordings of the show. Short clips from every story with the exception of Marco Polo (1964), " Mission to the Unknown " (1965) and The Massacre (1966) also exist. In addition to these, there are off-screen photographs made by photographer John Cura , who
6720-491: The ten-episode serial The War Games ; and The Trial of a Time Lord , which ran for fourteen episodes (albeit divided into three production codes and four narrative segments) during season 23 . Occasionally, serials were loosely connected by a story line, such as season 8 focusing on the Doctor battling a rogue Time Lord called the Master , season 16 's quest for the Key to Time , season 18 's journey through E-Space and
6816-548: The terms of a deal between BBC Worldwide and SMG Pictures in China, the company has first right of refusal on the purchase for the Chinese market of future series of the programme until and including Series 15. Between 1967 and 1978, large amounts of older material stored in the BBC's various video tape and film libraries was either destroyed or wiped . This included many early episodes of Doctor Who , those stories featuring
6912-418: The theme of entropy, and season 20 's Black Guardian trilogy. The programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule. It initially alternated stories set in the past, which taught younger audience members about history, and with those in the future or outer space, focusing on science. This was also reflected in the Doctor's original companions, one of whom
7008-540: The time vortex. The TARDIS has a vast interior but appears smaller on the outside, and is equipped with a " chameleon circuit " intended to make the machine take on the appearance of local objects as a disguise. Because of a malfunction, the Doctor's TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British police box . Across time and space, the Doctor's many incarnations often find events that pique their curiosity, and try to prevent evil forces from harming innocent people or changing history, using only ingenuity and minimal resources, such as
7104-628: The twelfth and final incarnation. The most recent example is when Richard E. Grant , who previously portrayed an alternate version of the Doctor known as the Shalka Doctor in the animated series Scream of the Shalka (2003), appeared as a hologram of a past Doctor in " Rogue " (2024). Colour Separation Overlay Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
7200-435: The upcoming twenty-third season, forcing the series into an eighteen-month hiatus. In 1986, the series was recommissioned on the condition that Baker left the role of the Doctor, which was recast to Sylvester McCoy in 1987. Falling viewing numbers, a decline in the public perception of the series and a less-prominent transmission slot saw production ended in 1989 by Peter Cregeen , the BBC's new head of series. Although it
7296-401: The versatile sonic screwdriver . The Doctor rarely travels alone and is often joined by one or more companions on these adventures; these companions are usually humans, owing to the Doctor's fascination with planet Earth , which also leads to frequent collaborations with the international military task force UNIT when Earth is threatened. The Doctor is centuries old and, as a Time Lord, has
7392-523: The year. Letts was survived by his three children: Dominic, Crispin and Joanna. His sons, Dominic and Crispin, had followed him into the acting profession. Following Letts' death, Tom Baker was interviewed for BBC Radio 4 's Last Word to pay tribute. He described Letts as "the big link in changing my entire life". Doctor Who executive producer Russell T Davies also wrote a personal tribute to him in issue No.415 of Doctor Who Magazine . The November 2009 Doctor Who episode " The Waters of Mars "
7488-493: Was a science teacher and another a history teacher. However, science fiction stories came to dominate the programme, and the history-oriented episodes, which were not popular with the production team, were dropped after The Highlanders (1967). While the show continued to use historical settings, they were generally used as a backdrop for science fiction tales, with one exception: Black Orchid (1982), set in 1920s England. The early stories were serialised in nature, with
7584-575: Was confirmed to be the Fourteenth Doctor and the first actor to play two incarnations, having previously played the Tenth Doctor . In the same year, Ncuti Gatwa was revealed to be portraying the Fifteenth Doctor , making him the first black actor to headline the series. In addition to those actors who have headlined the series, others have portrayed versions of the Doctor in guest roles. Notably, in 2013, John Hurt guest-starred as
7680-702: Was dedicated to his memory. Issue No.417 of Doctor Who Magazine included a 12-page tribute to Letts and featured contributions from former colleagues including Frazer Hines , Mary Peach , Terrance Dicks , Nicholas Courtney , Graeme Harper , Katy Manning , Christopher Barry , Elisabeth Sladen and Baker. It had been intended for Letts to attend the Doctor Who Appreciation Society 's convention 'Time and Again' at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith that year, until it became clear his health would not allow this. He died shortly before
7776-468: Was delayed by ten minutes due to extended news coverage of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy the previous day; in fact, it went out after a delay of eighty seconds. The BBC believed that coverage of the assassination, as well as a series of power blackouts across the country, had caused many viewers to miss this introduction to a new series, and it was broadcast again on 30 November 1963, just before episode two. The programme soon became
7872-402: Was effectively cancelled , the BBC repeatedly affirmed over several years that the series would return. While in-house production concluded, the BBC explored an independent production company to relaunch the series. Philip Segal , a British expatriate who worked for Columbia Pictures ' television arm in the United States, had approached the BBC as early as July 1989, while the 26th season
7968-403: Was filmed in 1080i for HDTV and broadcast simultaneously on BBC One and BBC HD . To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show, a special 3D episode, " The Day of the Doctor ", was broadcast in 2013. In March 2013, it was announced that Tennant and Piper would be returning and that the episode would have a limited cinematic release worldwide. In June 2017, it was announced that due to
8064-485: Was for the BBC . Letts gave up his acting career after completing the BBC's director's course. His early directorial work included episodes of the long-running police drama Z-Cars and a soap opera, The Newcomers . Letts' first involvement with Doctor Who was in 1967 when he directed the Patrick Troughton serial The Enemy of the World . This was a complex serial to direct as Troughton played both
8160-468: Was hired by various production personnel to document many of their programmes during the 1950s and 1960s, including Doctor Who . These have been used in fan reconstructions of the serials. The BBC has tolerated these amateur reconstructions, provided they are not sold for profit and are distributed as low-quality copies. One of the most sought-after lost episodes is part four of the last William Hartnell serial, The Tenth Planet (1966), which ends with
8256-476: Was included on the BBC DVD release of The Dæmons . He continued to record commentaries and interviews for DVD releases of his Doctor Who episodes until shortly before his death in 2009. His involvement with Doctor Who was far wider than simply his professional work of writing, directing and producing the show. He frequently gave interviews, attended conventions, and made personal appearances in connection with
8352-492: Was initially shrouded in mystery. In the programme's early days, the character was an eccentric alien traveller of great intelligence who battled injustice while exploring time and space in an unreliable time machine , the " TARDIS " (an acronym for Time and Relative Dimension in Space), which notably appears much larger on the inside than on the outside. The initially irascible and slightly sinister Doctor quickly mellowed into
8448-486: Was mainly responsible for developing the programme, with the first format document for the series being written by Newman along with the head of the script department (later head of serials) Donald Wilson and staff writer C. E. Webber ; in a 1971 interview Wilson claimed to have named the series, and when this claim was put to Newman he did not dispute it. Writer Anthony Coburn , story editor David Whitaker and initial producer Verity Lambert also heavily contributed to
8544-408: Was offered the chance to become producer on the series, Letts made it a condition that he be allowed to also continue to direct. The Head of Serials agreed to this, and Letts directed three Doctor Who serials during his time as producer: Terror of the Autons , Carnival of Monsters and Planet of the Spiders . Letts also directed most of the studio scenes for Inferno after Douglas Camfield
8640-509: Was on the BBC soap opera EastEnders which he worked on periodically from 1990 to 1992. He also taught directing for the BBC at Elstree Studios . He had a small cameo role in the film Exodus , broadcast on UK Channel 4. His autobiography, Who and Me , was published posthumously in November 2009, then released as a talking book on CD, read by Letts himself, and later broadcast on BBC Radio 7 . Letts suffered from cancer for many years before his death. His wife, Muriel, had died earlier in
8736-561: Was produced in 2008 for a Doctor Who –themed edition of The Proms . The 1993 two-part story, entitled Dimensions in Time , was made in collaboration with the cast of the BBC soap-opera EastEnders and was filmed partly on the EastEnders set. A two-part mini-episode was also produced for the 2011 edition of Comic Relief . Starting with the 2009 special " Planet of the Dead ", the series
8832-422: Was responsible for the BBC's first merchandising boom. We had to rely on the story because there was little we could do with the effects. Star Wars in a way was the turning point. Once Star Wars had happened, Doctor Who effectively was out of date from that moment on really, judged by that level of technological expertise. — Philip Hinchcliffe , producer of Doctor Who from 1974 to 1977, on why
8928-434: Was shortened to twelve episodes and one Christmas special following the revival's eighth series , and ten episodes from the eleventh series . Each series includes standalone and multiple episodic stories, often linked with a loose story arc resolved in the series finale. As in the early "classic" era, each episode has its own title, whether stand-alone or part of a larger story. Occasionally, regular-series episodes will exceed
9024-495: Was still in production. Segal's negotiations eventually led to a Doctor Who television film as a pilot for an American series, broadcast on the Fox Network in 1996, as an international co-production between Fox, Universal Pictures , the BBC and BBC Worldwide . Starring Paul McGann as the Doctor, the film was successful in the UK (with 9.1 million viewers), but was less so in the United States and did not lead to
9120-450: Was taken ill during the production. Letts's final work as a director on the series was when he returned in 1975 to direct The Android Invasion during the era of Philip Hinchcliffe as producer. Letts formed a particularly close partnership with two other contributors to the programme: Terrance Dicks , who was the script editor on the programme between 1968 and 1974; and playwright Robert Sloman , with whom Letts co-wrote four serials in
9216-584: Was the most violent of the drama programmes the corporation produced at the time. The same report found that 3% of the surveyed audience believed the series was "very unsuitable" for family viewing. Responding to the findings of the survey in The Times newspaper, journalist Philip Howard maintained that, "to compare the violence of Dr Who , sired by a horse-laugh out of a nightmare, with the more realistic violence of other television series, where actors who look like human beings bleed paint that looks like blood,
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