140-662: High Council may refer to: Fiction [ edit ] High Council of Time Lords, the governing body of the Time Lords in Doctor Who Royal Institute of Maigic: The High Council, the 6th and last book of the Royal Institute of Magic series. High Council, the governmental body of The Covenant faction in the Halo video game series High Council,
280-516: 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
420-455: 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
560-503: 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
700-612: A Time Lord can regenerate twelve times (thirteen incarnations in all). There were exceptions to this rule, however: when the Master reached the end of his regenerative cycle, he took possession of the body of another person to continue living. In " The Five Doctors ", the Master was offered a new cycle of regenerations by the High Council to save the Doctor from the Death Zone, which may indicate that there are methods to circumvent
840-683: A Time Lord. This story element was notably featured in Series 3 ; the Doctor uses it to hide himself from the Family of Blood and becomes a schoolteacher in Edwardian England. His nemesis the Master used it to disguise himself as a human to escape the Time War. The story element is later revisited in the Series 12 episode " Fugitive of the Judoon " when a mysterious, unknown incarnation of
980-537: 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
1120-446: A crack in time to grant him a full new regeneration cycle. The revelation in 2020's The Timeless Children that The Doctor is, in fact, not Gallifreyan and instead had their DNA used to give Gallifreyans the ability to regenerate, calls into doubt whether or not the Doctor does in fact have a limit to their regenerations, or if they merely believed they did due to all other Time Lords being limited. The Time Lord homeworld, Gallifrey ,
1260-442: A culture of custodianship and time-related technologies based on this perception which includes strictly controlled space /time travel machines (known as " TARDISes ") and monitoring devices to travel through time and to prevent time from being subverted or abused—although actual action was described as rare in practice due to their traditional policy of strict non-interference and neutrality. They can act to manipulate timelines of
1400-675: A different concept of ageing from humans. In " The Stolen Earth ", the Tenth Doctor refers to when who he thought was his original incarnation was a "kid" at 90 years old. However, within a specific incarnation, a Time Lord is able to age, albeit much more slowly than a human. The War Doctor and Eleventh Doctor , over the course of the Last Great Time War and the Battle of Trenzalore , respectively, are seen to age within their respective incarnations to what would appear to
1540-558: 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
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#17327658481631680-596: A female. The Doctor also regenerated as a woman in " Twice Upon A Time ", as the Thirteenth Doctor . Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In " The Impossible Astronaut ", a future version of the Eleventh Doctor is shot, causing him to begin his regeneration cycle. He is shot again before the regeneration completes, causing him to die instantly. However, in " The Wedding of River Song ", it
1820-399: A hand. Also seen in " Journey's End ", is the apparent ability to siphon off regeneration energy in order to cancel the effect of changing appearance; which requires them to have a "bio-matching receptacle" (in this case the Doctor's severed hand), which is usually impractical. However, this "non-regeneration" was revealed as "counting" towards the Doctor's twelve possible regenerations during
1960-464: 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
2100-498: A human to be old age; both conflicts are suggested within the series to last hundreds if not thousands of Earth years. In The Two Doctors , the Second Doctor states that the "Rassilon Imprimatur" allows Time Lords to safely travel through time, becoming symbionts with their TARDISes, and that the reason other species are incapable of developing time travel is that they lack the imprimatur. However, he implies later that he
2240-501: 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
2380-539: 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
2520-756: 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
2660-554: A new personality. Regenerations can be traumatic. In Castrovalva , the Fifth Doctor requires the use of a Zero Room, a chamber shielded from the outside universe that provides an area of calm for him to recuperate. The Time Lord's personality also sometimes goes through a period of instability following a regeneration, such as in The Christmas Invasion . It was first stated in The Deadly Assassin that
2800-648: 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
2940-544: A race called Time Lords, and in Spearhead from Space (1970), the Doctor's earlier description of himself as a human is retconned when the Third Doctor explicitly states that he is not human. In The Time Warrior (1973–1974), the name of the Doctor's home planet, Gallifrey , was revealed on screen for the first time. The Time Lords are considered one of the oldest and most technologically powerful races in
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#17327658481633080-428: 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
3220-504: 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
3360-464: 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
3500-520: A trial is a "very rare" event for the Time Lords. Exceptions to this policy are made only in extreme circumstances when they feel they have to, such as where the Doctor calls them for help in the serial. At the start of the 2005 television series, Gallifrey was thought to have been destroyed and the Time Lords functionally extinct as a result of a mutually destructive Time War with the Dalek race;
3640-688: A warrior greater than either", which is "half-Dalek, half-Time Lord", while in " Hell Bent " (2015), the General, while describing the prophecy of the Hybrid, mentions the Time Lords as one of two warrior races along with the Daleks . In " Before the Flood " (2015), the Fisher King describes the Time Lords as "cowardly, vain curators, who suddenly remembered they had teeth, and became the most warlike race in
3780-567: A wide range of events and individuals, so long as they do not cross back into their own timeline. Over subsequent episodes their history, their development of time manipulation, and their internal politics were touched upon, with Time Lord society portrayed as a stagnated ceremony-bound oligarchy and their past having descended into myth and legend . The Doctor became at times an ally, being appointed their president during his fourth , fifth , and twelfth incarnations and assisting them on many other occasions. In an audio commentary recorded for
3920-543: 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
4060-498: Is able to interface with his spaceship in ways that only a 'time-sensitive' is supposed to be able to. In " Utopia ", the Tenth Doctor states that he finds it difficult to look at Captain Jack Harkness because Jack's existence has become fixed in time and space. In the Series 4 episode " Journey's End ", the Tenth Doctor was shown to use his telepathic abilities to wipe Donna Noble's mind of certain memories, specifically
4200-495: Is an Earth-like planet in the fictional constellation of Kasterborous. It is located in a binary star system 250 million light years from Earth. The points in time when Gallifrey appears are never definitively stated. As the planet is often reached by means of time travel, its relative present could conceivably exist almost anywhere in the Earth's past or future, as well as anywhere in the conceivable universe. From space, Gallifrey
4340-546: 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
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4480-400: Is revealed this was a shape shifting android the Doctor used to fake his death, making this questionable. It's a bit dodgy, this process, you never know what you're gonna end up with. In cases of non-fatal injury, Time Lords who have recently regenerated can use left over cellular energy to heal and even regrow severed limbs, as seen in " The Christmas Invasion " where the Tenth Doctor regrows
4620-536: Is seen as a yellow-orange planet and was close enough to central space lanes for spacecraft to require clearance from Gallifreyan Space Traffic Control as they pass through its system. The planet was protected from physical attack by an impenetrable barrier called the quantum force field, and from teleportation incursions by the transduction barrier—which could be reinforced to repel most levels of this type of technological attack. The Doctor's granddaughter Susan first describes her home world (not named as "Gallifrey" at
4760-553: Is seen using this method to query a cat about the goings-on of the flat in " The Lodger ". In " A Good Man Goes to War " and " Closing Time " he is apparently able to even understand babies, as well as horses in " A Town Called Mercy ". In " The Girl in the Fireplace ", the Tenth Doctor reads the mind of Madame de Pompadour —and in the process, to his surprise, she is able to read his mind as well. In " The End of Time ",
4900-403: Is somehow innately able to sense which events in time are 'fixed' and which are in 'flux'. The Eleventh Doctor slightly amends what was said earlier in " The Doctor's Wife ", saying that he could only sense if there were other Time Lords in this universe. In the original series episode Warriors' Gate , Romana is called a 'time-sensitive' by a marauding slaver and, though she seems to deny this,
5040-453: Is speculated by Donna Noble in " The Doctor's Daughter " (2008) to be a surviving Time Lord, though the Doctor initially rejects the suggestion. Two other Time Lord-like beings appeared in " Journey's End " (2008): Donna, briefly empowered with the mind and knowledge of a Time Lord, and a half-human clone of the Tenth Doctor. Donna's memories related to the Doctor, as well as her Time Lord knowledge, are buried in order to save her life, while
5180-419: Is still conscious and able to return to return to the TARDIS and Pandorica respectively. In Death of the Doctor , the Eleventh Doctor responds to a question from Clyde Langer by saying he can regenerate "507" times. Early news reports, before the episode was broadcast, suggested he would say there is no limit to the number of regenerations. Writer Russell T Davies stated in an interview with SFX that
5320-429: 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
5460-654: 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
5600-514: The 2005 series , the Ninth Doctor claims that he can sense the movement of the Earth through space as well as being able to perceive the past and all possible futures. He is also able to concentrate and time his motions well enough to step safely through the blades of a rapidly spinning fan, and later claims that if any Time Lords still existed, he would be able to sense them. As the Tenth Doctor he repeats this assertion, adding also that he
5740-463: 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
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5880-697: The BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman , C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson , depicts 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
6020-496: 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
6160-480: The Doctor Who universe. In The Time Warrior , the Time Lords are characterised by Sontaran military intelligence, quoted by Commander Linx , as "a race of great technical achievement, but lacking the morale to withstand a determined assault". In " The Witch's Familiar " (2015), Davros mentions a prophecy on the Doctor's world that spoke of a hybrid made up of "two great warrior races forced together to create
6300-488: 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
6440-548: 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
6580-744: The Krillitane Mr Finch in " School Reunion " (2006). In " Father's Day " (2005), the Ninth Doctor remarks that before Time Lords were "all gone", they would have prevented or repaired paradoxes such as that which attracted the Reapers to 1987 Earth. In " Rise of the Cybermen " (2006), the Tenth Doctor mentions, "When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could pop between realities , home in time for tea. Then they died, and took it all with them. Walls of reality closed,
6720-561: The Ninth Doctor describes his planet as "just rocks and dust" in " The End of the World " (2005), and mentions in " Dalek " (2005) that the Time Lords "burnt" with the Daleks at the end of the "Last Great Time War", and the Tenth Doctor tells the Master in " The Sound of Drums " (2007) that the Time Lords are "dead" and "all [they've] got is each other". The Doctor describes himself as the last of his kind and says his planet burned on numerous other occasions, as do other individuals, such as
6860-517: The Series 5 episode " The Big Bang " the Doctor telepathically left a message in Amy Pond 's head before sealing her into the Pandorica so that she would know what was happening when she woke up. Time Lords also have the ability to regenerate their bodies when their current body is mortally wounded. This process results in their body undergoing a transformation, gaining a new physical form and
7000-402: 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
7140-475: 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,
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#17327658481637280-403: 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
7420-445: The 2009 DVD release of The War Games (1969), producer Derrick Sherwin mentioned how in a discussion with the serial's co-writer Terrance Dicks the previous day, Dicks was "absolutely certain" that Sherwin created the Time Lords for the serial, although Sherwin could not remember himself. Later in the commentary, Dicks recalled Sherwin telling him in the discussions with Dicks and Dicks' fellow co-writer Malcolm Hulke that because
7560-414: 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
7700-804: 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
7840-509: The British science fiction television series Doctor Who . Time Lords are so named for their command of time travel technology and their non-linear perception of time. Originally, they were described as a powerful and wise race from the planet Gallifrey , from which the Doctor was a renegade; details beyond this were very limited for the first decade of the series. They later became integral to many episodes and stories as their role in
7980-519: The Doctor had always been established as being on the run from his own people, that if he has to appeal to them, the Doctor would be in trouble. In a 2016 interview with The Essential Doctor Who magazine, Dicks mentioned how when Sherwin and he were discussing The War Games one day, Sherwin said, "He belongs to this mysterious race called the Time Lords, doesn't he?" with "everything" ultimately coming from that discussion. In The War Games DVD commentary, Sherwin mentioned that he recalled hearing about
8120-723: The Doctor " (2013), it is shown that the Eighth Doctor regenerates into the War Doctor to fight in the Time War. Many years later, as shown during " The Day of the Doctor " (2013) and also described by the Partisan in "The End of Time", the War Doctor originally planned to use a Time Lord weapon known as the Moment to destroy the Time Lords and Daleks. However, after being shown the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors during "The Day of
8260-548: The Doctor (played by Jo Martin ), is revealed to have been hiding on Earth as a tour guide named “Ruth Clayton” using a Chameleon Arch. Time Lords can communicate by telepathy , and can link their minds to share information and enhance their powers. In Castrovalva , the Doctor activates the TARDIS' Zero Room mentally. Additionally, both the Doctor and the Master demonstrate significant hypnotic abilities which may be supplemented by their telepathic abilities. These powers were elaborated upon from 2005. The Eleventh Doctor
8400-425: The Doctor engages in astral projection , but warns that if he is disturbed while doing so, his mind could become severed from his body and he could die. In " Last of the Time Lords ", the Doctor telepathically interfaces with a network tapped into the human population who collectively chant his name. The focus of psychic energy granted the Doctor the ability to de-age himself, float through the air, deflect shots from
8540-513: The Doctor forever. This again implies that regeneration is not inevitable and can indeed be refused. Upon encountering the remains of fellow Time Lord the Corsair in " The Doctor's Wife ", the Doctor refers to the Corsair as both male and female, hinting that Time Lords can switch genders upon their regenerations; this is confirmed in " Dark Water ", in which the Master , previously seen in various male incarnations for over forty years, returned as
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#17327658481638680-509: The Doctor is able to shake off an electrocution attempt which is fatal to a number of humans, and appears unaffected by the energy whip wielded by the Sycorax in " The Christmas Invasion ". In " Smith and Jones " the Tenth Doctor says that the radiation given off by X-rays pose no real threat to Time Lords, and proceeds to absorb an amount that would be lethal to a human, which he subsequently expels through his foot. "The End of Time" shows
8820-420: The Doctor remarks upon her ability, she comments that he should have stayed in university. However, despite showing several appearances, Romana regenerated only once on that occasion. In " Utopia ", the Master, just before regeneration, claimed that he would become "young and strong", implying that he could choose the form of his new body. The human-Time Lord hybrid River Song in " Let's Kill Hitler " claimed she
8960-485: The Doctor spends centuries believing he burnt Gallifrey until the Eleventh Doctor's time; this is because the time streams are out of sync after the War Doctor meets his future selves and the altered events are only known to the Doctor once they occur in the Eleventh Doctor's experience and become part of his memory. Indeed, earlier on in the episode, both the Tenth and the Eleventh Doctors mistakenly believe that
9100-426: The Doctor there to begin with for questioning—and exile him in "Hell Bent" before running off again. Time Lords and human beings look alike, however they differ in many respects. Physiological differences from humans include two hearts which normally beat at 170 beats per minute, and a "respiratory bypass system" that allows them to survive strangulation. The Twelfth Doctor was able to survive direct exposure to
9240-455: The Doctor", he works together with them to change the assumed outcome of the Time War : thirteen incarnations of the Doctor team up together to freeze Gallifrey in time and place it outside of their universe (protecting it and the remaining Time Lords), while the Daleks destroy themselves in their own crossfire once Gallifrey is gone. The War Doctor does not retain the memory of these events and
9380-481: The Doctor's, Madame Vastra , reminds the Doctor that the Time Lord race developed due to their billions of years' exposure to the time vortex. The Doctor then recalls that Rory and Amy had spent their wedding night in the TARDIS; therefore it is theorised by Vastra that River's conception mirrored that of the Time Lords' genesis and therefore she herself developed Time Lord genetic characteristics. In " The Night of
9520-593: 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
9660-610: 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,
9800-571: The Master uses the same technique, allowing the Tenth Doctor to hear the drumming sound the Master constantly hears. The Doctor later displays his telepathic communion powers in " Fear Her " and in " The Shakespeare Code ", where by using his mind melding technique he is partially able to relieve a man of his mental illness as he traces back through his memories. In " Planet of the Ood ", the Tenth Doctor seems able to temporarily confer some degree of telepathy on his companion Donna Noble, so that she can hear
9940-590: The Master's laser screwdriver, and telekinetically disarm the Master. In addition, Time Lords may be clairvoyant , or have additional time-related senses. In The Time Monster , and Invasion of the Dinosaurs , the Third Doctor is able to resist fields of slow time, being able to move through them even though others are paralysed . In City of Death , both the Fourth Doctor and Romana notice distortions and jumps in time that no one else does. In
10080-700: 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
10220-536: The Tenth Doctor as being capable of surviving (for a short period) a massive burst of radiation that would have killed anything else instantly. However, the radiation burst caused enough damage to start a regeneration. Time Lords are extremely long-lived, routinely counting their ages in terms of centuries; the Second Doctor claimed in The War Games that Time Lords could live "practically forever, barring accidents". The series has suggested that Time Lords have
10360-457: The Tenth Doctor explains to Wilfred Mott that a Time Lord can die before they have a chance to regenerate, in which case they die outright. In The Deadly Assassin at least one of the murders was carried out with a 'staser', possibly a weapon designed to both kill and prevent regeneration (stasers are also stated to have little effect on non-living tissue). In the Series 4 episode " Turn Left ",
10500-423: The Tenth Doctor's body is shown on a stretcher following the parallel events of " The Runaway Bride ". A UNIT officer states that the Doctor's death must have been too quick to allow for regeneration. In Destiny of the Daleks , Romana showed the ability to rapidly change form several times in a row during her first regeneration, and apparently had the ability to change into whatever appearance she desired. When
10640-411: The Time Lords are attempting to return to the universe and will come back if he speaks his true name. Due to "half the universe" surrounding Trenzalore, a siege begins that lasts centuries as the Doctor knows that if the Time Lords return, the Time War will begin anew. With the Doctor on the verge of death, Clara Oswald pleads with the Time Lords through the crack to intervene and save the Doctor. Through
10780-529: The Time Lords at the beginning of the series, but as no one else remembered this, it "might have come out of [his] dreams". Elaborating on this genesis in a 2014 interview in Doctor Who Magazine , Sherwin said of The War Games , "It was a case of what shall we do, how can we end this? Let's go back to the beginning and say [the Doctor] was a Time Lord, a renegade Time Lord, a pain in the arse for
10920-409: The Time Lords have the ability to grant more regenerations: at the behest of Clara Oswald they granted the Doctor himself a new cycle when he was at the point of death from old age, having used up his entire cycle. Regeneration, regardless of how many regenerations the individual Time Lord has already undergone, is a conditional and non-inevitable phenomenon. This is stated in " The End of Time " when
11060-465: The Time War. During the episode "The Doctor's Wife" it is revealed that several Time Lords and their TARDISes had been trapped and destroyed by an entity called House who lived in a separate bubble universe. In " A Good Man Goes to War " (2011), it is revealed that the daughter of Amy Pond and Rory Williams , Melody Pond (who later goes by her transliterated name " River Song "), has been born with Time Lord-like genetic traits. An old acquaintance of
11200-442: The War Doctor killed all of the Time Lords on the last day of the Time War. After being informed that the plan to save Gallifrey was successful, the Eleventh Doctor sets out to find Gallifrey and restore the Time Lords. In " The Time of the Doctor ", the Doctor visits the planet Trenzalore where he discovers a question being broadcast through all of time and space through a crack in the universe: "Doctor Who?" The Doctor realizes that
11340-546: 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
11480-483: The ability to stay conscious for moments after events that would outright kill other lifeforms instantly, giving them the opportunity to regenerate. This is seen in Logopolis (fall from a great height), and The Caves of Androzani (fatal disease). In both " The Stolen Earth " and " The Big Bang ", the Doctor is shot by a Dalek's energy weapon, which has almost always been shown to instantly kill any other lifeform, yet
11620-456: 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
11760-582: The body made up of the Chief of the Staff, active Commissioners, and active Territorial Commanders Other fields [ edit ] High Council of State (Algeria) , a collective Algerian presidency set up by the military in 1992 following the annulled elections in December 1991 High Council of State (Netherlands) High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council , an institution responsible for many aspects of
11900-649: 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
12040-405: The clone lives out his existence in a parallel universe with Rose Tyler . " The End of Time " (2009–10) shows the High Council of Time Lords, led by Lord President Rassilon , attempting to escape the Time War by materialising Gallifrey in the place of Earth at Christmas. However, the Tenth Doctor destroys the device which allows their passage into the present, sending them back into the events of
12180-467: The crack, the Time Lords grant the Doctor a new regeneration cycle, saving his life before sealing the crack again. In " Hell Bent " (2015), it is revealed that Gallifrey returned to the universe around the time of its end. After escaping his confession dial in " Heaven Sent " (2015), still furious over the death of Clara Oswald in " Face the Raven " (2015), the Doctor manages to depose Rassilon—who had put
12320-401: 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
12460-487: 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
12600-530: The events of " The Time of the Doctor ". In "The End of Time", the Tenth Doctor was able to postpone his regeneration long enough so that he could travel in time and space to see his past companions for one last time before he regenerated. The Fifth Doctor had also shown a similar ability in The Caves of Androzani , fighting off the effects of an impending regeneration so he can return to Androzani Minor to save his companion Peri. Time Lords appear to have
12740-420: 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
12880-514: The galaxy". In the very distant past, the Time Lords fought a genocidal war against the Great Vampires, which led to such a catastrophic loss of life that the Time Lords renounced violence. In The War Games , the Second Doctor mentions that the Time Lords' "great powers" are hardly ever used due to their policy of non-intervention into the affairs of other planets, and that they instead observe and gather knowledge. Because of this, holding
13020-682: The judicial system in Bosnia and Herzegovina Spanish High Council for Scientific Research , a council in Spain High Council of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia , charged with the peaceful settlement of disputes. Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title High Council . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
13160-780: The leadership of the Alliance in the Star Wars New Jedi Order novel series High Council of the Landsraad , an inner circle of the Landsraad which arbitrated disputes among Houses in the Dune universe Jedi High Council , an institution from the Star Wars film series Klingon High Council , the supreme ruling body of the Klingon Empire in the fictional Star Trek universe Asgard High Council .
13300-424: The line was not intended to be taken seriously and is instead a commentary. He said that the "thirteen lives" rule was too deeply entrenched in the viewer consciousness for his throwaway line to affect it. It is revealed in " The Time of the Doctor " that this was in fact false and that due to his various regenerations, the Eleventh Doctor was in fact his last incarnation. However, the Time Lords intervened through
13440-441: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=High_Council&oldid=1178944815 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Time Lord The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial people in
13580-411: The memories of her travels in the TARDIS and to 'implant' a defence mechanism which is activated in " The End of Time ". The War Games showed that other Time Lords are also able to erase people's memories, as in that story, Jamie and Zoe 's travels with the Doctor were erased from their memory, and the council of Time Lords also put a memory block on the Doctor so he could not pilot the TARDIS. In
13720-406: 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
13860-462: 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);
14000-439: The other Time Lords who stole his TARDIS and buggered off around the universe. So if he's going to be called to book let's bring in the Time Lords." Early on in the series, the Doctor was identified as a human being; however, his home planet, which from the start of the series is explicitly established as not being Earth , was not named. In The War Games (1969), the Doctor's people appeared, who from then on are known as
14140-514: 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
14280-400: 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
14420-422: 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
14560-657: The scanners being programmed to "detox" humans and therefore being unaware of what elements the Doctor requires. A Time Lord is able to conceal their Time Lord nature, and become a human, by using the Chameleon Arch – a device that stores their "essence" and memories in an innocuous device such as a fob watch , and replaces them with false counterparts until the object is later re-opened. The process allows them to disguise themselves as humans physiologically and psychologically, meaning they only have one heart and are stripped of non-human powers, and of any memory of having been
14700-473: 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
14840-484: 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
14980-434: 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
15120-400: 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
15260-418: 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
15400-534: 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
15540-508: The supreme ruling entity of the Asgard race in the fictional Stargate franchise Religion [ edit ] High council (Latter Day Saints) , a governing body that has existed in the church hierarchy of many Mormon/Latter Day Saint denominations High Council of B'nei Noah , a group of Noahides who gathered in Israel on Monday January 10, 2006 High Council of The Salvation Army ,
15680-473: The telepathic song of the Ood. When she is unable to bear the song, the Doctor removes the ability. In " The Lodger ", the Eleventh Doctor (pressed for time and needing to convey a great deal of information to someone) smashed his forehead into another person's forehead, causing a massive instantaneous transfer of information. The Doctor also contacts the Time Lords by going into a trance and creating an assembling box in The War Games . In The Two Doctors ,
15820-436: 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
15960-491: 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
16100-548: 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
16240-418: 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
16380-540: 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
16520-488: The time) as having bright, silver-leafed trees and a burnt orange sky at night in the serial The Sensorites (1964). This casts an amber tint on anything outside the city, as seen in The Invasion of Time . However, Gallifrey's sky appears blue and Earth-like in " The Five Doctors " (1983) within the isolated Death Zone. Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series broadcast by
16660-457: The twelve regeneration limit. The Master says in " The Sound of Drums " that the Time Lords "resurrected" him to fight in the Time War . It was revealed in The Brain of Morbius that the Time Lords also use the Elixir of Life in extreme cases, where regeneration is not possible. It is confirmed in " The Time of the Doctor " that a Time Lord can normally regenerate only twelve times but that
16800-413: The universe developed. For the first eight years after the series resumed in 2005, the Time Lords were said to have been destroyed during the Last Great Time War at some point in the show's continuity between the television movie in 1996 and the show's revival. In 2013, the 50th anniversary special " The Day of the Doctor " concerned this supposed destruction and their eventual survival. They developed
16940-435: 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
17080-503: The vacuum of space in " Oxygen ". Time Lords also seem to have an increased resilience to higher frequencies of sound, as seen in " The Christmas Invasion " and " Partners in Crime ". If severely injured, Time Lords can go into a healing coma which lowers their body temperature to below freezing which the Doctor did in Planet of the Daleks . In the serial Destiny of the Daleks , Romana
17220-401: 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
17360-558: The worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind." In " The Satan Pit " (2006), the Tenth Doctor states that his people "practically invented black holes. Well, in fact, they did." Both the Beast (in "The Satan Pit") and the Doctor (in "The Sound of Drums" and " The Doctor's Wife ", 2011) believe the Doctor ended the War by killing all of the Time Lords and many of the Daleks. The Tenth Doctor's artificially created "daughter" Jenny
17500-429: Was "focusing on a dress size", but subsequently weighed herself, seeming unsure of how her new body had truly developed. The Doctor said on several occasions he wished he was "ginger", which he has seemed unable to control in previous regenerations. In " Last of the Time Lords ", when the Master is fatally wounded, he chooses not to regenerate, essentially committing suicide rather than regenerate and be kept prisoner by
17640-493: 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
17780-533: Was able to voluntarily stop both of her hearts beating, to fool the Daleks into believing that she was dead. The Doctor also shows a greater tolerance to cold compared to humans in The Seeds of Doom and " Planet of the Ood " and even Romana in The Ribos Operation , and in " 42 ", the Tenth Doctor states he is able to survive at absolute zero for a short period of time. In " World War Three ",
17920-515: 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
18060-468: 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
18200-402: 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
18340-403: 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
18480-468: 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
18620-492: 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
18760-658: Was lying about at least some of this information to mislead the Sontarans . At the beginning of The Trial of a Time Lord , the Sixth Doctor suggests that a number of elder Time Lords were able to use their combined mental energy to summon his TARDIS against his will. In the episode " Cold Blood ", the Eleventh Doctor experiences excruciating pain when the Silurian attempts to decontaminate him of surface bacteria. The Doctor states this would kill him, most likely due to
18900-486: 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
19040-561: 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
19180-422: 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
19320-434: 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
19460-495: 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
19600-584: 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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