Doctor Who (1963-1989) - EOFFTV - The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television

UK, 23 November 1963-6 December 1989
26 series, 713 episodes, average 30m each
videotape, 26mm film, black and white (to 1969), colour (from 1970), 4:3
mono, stereo, English

The first incarnation of the long-running British science fiction show produced and broadcast by the BBC. The first episode aired on 23 November 1963 and the show eventually ran for 26 series, ending on 6 December 1989 after 695 episodes. one-off TV movie was produced in 1996 but proved unsuccessful though a second attempt to revive the format from 2005 to date has proved hugely popular. The second incarnation of the show resulted in a number of spin-offs (including Torchwood (2006-2011), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-2011) and Class (2016)) but the original show only managed three, two feature films in the 1960s starring Peter Cushing and a pilot for a series that was never made, K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981) although there were suggestions that military operation UNIT would be spun-off at several times in the 1970s.

Premise

A renegade alien known only as The Doctor (who has frequently claimed to be anything up to 1000 years old – possibly even older) travels through time and space accompanied by an ever-changing roster of mostly female companions. Their vehicle of choice is the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension(s) in Space) which should have the ability to change its appearance to blend into its surroundings but which assumed the shape of a police box during a visit to 1960s London and has remained that shape ever since thanks to a malfunctioning chameleon circuit. The Doctor – subsequently revealed to be a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey – has the ability to regenerate when their body wears out or is damaged and, as of 2014 and not counting Peter Cushing in two big screen adventures, fan productions, actors who have stood in for others (like Richard Hurndall and David Bradley who have both played the First Doctor) or comedy skits, has been portrayed by fourteen actors since 1963. Along the way, they have repeatedly battled enemies like the power-crazed Daleks, the half-man/half-machine Cybermen and fellow Time Lord renegade The Master.

Links

Sequels
Doctor Who (1996)
Doctor Who (2005-)

See also
An Adventure in Space and Time (2013)
Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965)
Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (1966)

Episodes

Introduction
With one exception, each series of Doctor Who consisted of several multi-episode serials of anywhere between 2 and 12 episodes in length. During the third series, a one-off episode Mission to the Unknown served as a prelude to the much longer serial The Daleks' Master Plan and the whole of series 23 was made up of a single story The Trial of a Time Lord, though it was made and is often referred to as three discrete productions. A further one-off special, The Five Doctors was broadcast on 25 November 1983 as part of the annual BBC appeal telethon Children in Need and was made to celebrate Doctor Who‘s twentieth anniversary.

From the first series through to almost the end of the third, each weekly episode had its own title and there was no overall story title shown on screen. The titles given here for those stories are the ones used for video and DVD releases though over the years some serials have been known by other names. For example, the overall title for the serial listed here as The Daleks has also been given as The Mutants (the title originally given on BBC paperwork but not used after 1972 when a Third Doctor story used the same title) or The Dead Planet (the title of the first episode).

Pilot
An Unearthly Child (pilot) ¹

Series One
An Unearthly Child (23 November 1963-14 December 1963)
The Daleks (21 September 1963-1 February 1964)
The Edge of Destruction (8 February 1964-15 February 1964)
Marco Polo (22 February 1964-4 April 1964) – all seven episodes are missing
The Keys of Marinus (11 April 1964-16 May 1964)
The Aztecs (23 May 1964-13 June 1964)
The Sensorites (20 June 1964-1 August 1964)
The Reign of Terror (8 August 1964-12 September 1964) – two of the six episodes are missing

Series Two
Planet of Giants (31 October 1964-14 November 1964)
The Dalek Invasion of Earth (21 November 1964-26 December 1964)
The Rescue (2 January 1965-9 January 1965)
The Romans (16 January 1965-6 February 1965)
The Web Planet (13 February 1965-20 March 1965)
The Crusade (27 March 1965-17 April 1965) – two of the four episodes are missing
The Space Museum (24 April 1965-15 May 1965)
The Chase (22 May 1965-26 June 1965)
The Time Meddler (3 July 1965-24 July 1965)

Series Three
Galaxy 4 (11 September 1965-2 October 1965) – three of the four episodes are missing
Mission to the Unknown (9 October 1965) – the episode is missing
The Myth Makers (16 October 1965-6 November 1965) – all four episodes are missing
The Daleks' Master Plan (13 November 1965-29 January 1966) – nine of the twelve episodes are missing
The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve (5 February 1966-26 February 1966) – all four episodes are missing
The Ark (5 March 1966-26 March 1966)
The Celestial Toymaker (2 April 1966-23 April 1966) – three of the four episodes are missing
The Gunfighters (30 April 1966-21 May 1966)
The Savages (28 May 1966-18 June 1966) – all four episodes are missing
The War Machines (25 June 1966-16 July 1966)

Series Four
The Smugglers (10 September 1966-1 October 1966) – all four episodes are missing
The Tenth Planet (8 October 1966-29 October 1966) – one of the four episodes is missing
The Power of the Daleks (5 November 1966-10 December 1966) – all six episodes are missing
The Highlanders (17 December 1966-7 January 1967) – all four episodes are missing
The Underwater Menace (14 January 1967-4 February 1967) – two of the four episodes are missing
The Moonbase (11 February 1967-4 March 1967) – two of the four episodes are missing
The Macra Terror (11 March 1967-1 April 1967) – all four episodes are missing
The Faceless Ones (8 April 1967-13 May 1967) – four of the six episodes are missing
The Evil of the Daleks (20 May 1967-1 July 1967) – six of the seven episodes are missing

Series Five
The Tomb of the Cybermen (2 September 1967-23 September 1967)
The Abominable Snowmen (30 September 1967-4 November 1967) – five of the six episodes are missing
The Ice Warriors (11 November 1967-16 December 1967) – two of the six episodes are missing
The Enemy of the World (23 December 1967-27 January 1968)
The Web of Fear (3 February 1968-9 March 1968) – one of the six episodes is missing
Fury from the Deep (16 March 1968-20 April 1968) – all six episodes are missing
The Wheel in Space (27 April 1968-1 June 1968) – four of the six episodes are missing

Series Six
The Dominators (10 August 1968-7 September 1968)
The Mind Robber (14 September 1968-12 October 1968)
The Invasion (2 November 1968-21 December 1968) – two of the eight episodes are missing
The Krotons (28 December 1968-18 January 1969)
The Seeds of Death (25 January 1969-1 March 1969)
The Space Pirates (8 March 1969-12 April 1969) – five of the six episodes are missing
The War Games (19 April 1969-22 June 1969)

Series Seven
Spearhead from Space (3 January 1970-24 January 1970)
Doctor Who and the Silurians (31 January 1970-14 March 1970)
The Ambassadors of Death (21 March 1970-2 May 1970)
Inferno (9 May 1970-20 June 1970)

Series Eight
Terror of the Autons (2 January 1971-23 January 1971)
The Mind of Evil (30 January 1971-6 March 1971)
The Claws of Axos (13 March 1971-3 April 1971)
Colony in Space (10 April 1971-15 May 1971)
The Dæmons (22 May 1971-19 June 1971)

Series Nine
Day of the Daleks (1 January 1972-22 January 1972)
The Curse of Peladon (29 January 1972-19 February 1972)
The Sea Devils (26 February 1972-1 April 1972)
The Mutants (8 April 1972-13 May 1972)
The Time Monster (20 May 1972-24 June 1972)

Series Ten
The Three Doctors (30 December 1972-20 January 1973)
Carnival of Monsters (27 January 1973-17 February 1973)
Frontier in Space (24 February 1973-31 March 1973)
Planet of the Daleks (7 April 1973-12 May 1973)
The Green Death (19 May 1973-23 June 1973)

Series Eleven
The Time Warrior (15 December 1973-5 January 1974)
Invasion of the Dinosaurs (12 January 1974-16 February 1974)
Death to the Daleks (23 February 1974-16 March 1974)
The Monster of Peladon (23 March 1974-27 April 1974)
Planet of the Spiders (4 May 1974-8 June 1974)

Series Twelve
Robot (28 December 1974-18 January 1975)
The Ark in Space (25 January 1975-15 February 1975)
The Sontaran Experiment (22 February 1975-1 March 1975)
Genesis of the Daleks (8 March 1975-12 April 1975)
Revenge of the Cybermen (19 April 1975-10 May 1975)

Series Thirteen
Terror of the Zygons (30 August 1975-20 September 1975)
Planet of Evil (27 September 1975-18 October 1975)
Pyramids of Mars (25 October 1975-15 November 1975)
The Android Invasion (22 November 1975-13 December 1975)
The Brain of Morbius (3 January 1976-24 January 1976)
The Seeds of Doom (31 January 1976-6 March 1976)

Series Fourteen
The Masque of Mandragora (4 September 1976-25 September 1976)
The Hand of Fear (2 October 1976-23 October 1976)
The Deadly Assassin (30 October 1976-20 November 1976)
The Face of Evil (1 January 1977-22 January 1977)
The Robots of Death (29 January 1977-19 February 1977)
The Talons of Weng-Chiang (26 February 1977-2 April 1977)

Series Fifteen
Horror of Fang Rock (3 September 1977-24 September 1977)
The Invisible Enemy (1 October 1977-22 October 1977)
Image of the Fendahl (29 October 1977-19 November 1977)
The Sun Makers (26 November 1977-17 December 1977)
Underworld (7 January 1978-28 January 1978)
The Invasion of Time (4 February 1978-11 March 1978)

Series Sixteen (The Key to Time)
The Ribos Operation (2 September 1978-23 September 1978)
The Pirate Planet (30 September 1978-21 October 1978)
The Stones of Blood (28 October 1978-18 November 1978)
The Androids of Tara (25 November 1978-16 December 1978)
The Power of Kroll (23 December 1978-13 January 1979)
The Armageddon Factor (20 January 1979-24 February 1979)

Series Seventeen
Destiny of the Daleks (1 September 1979-22 September 1979)
City of Death (29 September 1979-20 October 1979)
The Creature from the Pit (27 October 1979-17 November 1979)
Nightmare of Eden (24 November 1979-15 December 1979)
The Horns of Nimon (22 December 1979-12 January 1980)
Shada (unaired) ²

Series Eighteen
The Leisure Hive (30 August 1980-20 September 1980)
Meglos (27 September 1980-18 October 1980)
Full Circle (25 October 1980-15 November 1980)
State of Decay (22 November 1980-13 December 1980)
Warrior's Gate (3 January 1981-24 January 1981)
The Keeper of Traken (31 January 1981-21 February 1981)
Logopolis (28 February 1981-21 March 1981)

Series Nineteen
Castrovalva (4 January 1982-12 January 1982)
Four to Doomsday (18 January 1982-26 January 1982)
Kinda (1 February 1982-9 February 1982)
The Visitation (15 February 1982-23 February 1982)
Black Orchid (1 March 1982-2 March 1982)
Earthshock (8 March 1982-16 March 1982)
Time-Flight (22 March 1982-30 March 1982)

Series Twenty
Arc of Infinity (3 January 1983-12 January 1983)
Snakedance (18 January 1983-26 January 1983)
Mawdryn Undead (1 February 1983-9 February 1983)
Terminus (15 February 1983-23 February 1983)
Enlightenment (1 March 1983-9 March 1983)
The King's Demons (15 March 1983-16 March 1983)

Special
The Five Doctors (23 November 1983)

Series Twenty-One
Warriors of the Deep (5 January 1984-13 January 1984)
The Awakening (19 January 1984-20 January 1984)
Frontios (26 January 1984-3 February 1984)
Resurrection of the Daleks (8 February 1984-15 February 1984)
Planet of Fire (23 February 1984-2 March 1984)
The Caves of Androzani (8 March 1984-16 March 1984)
The Twin Dilemma (22 March 1984-30 March 1984)

Series Twenty-Two
Attack of the Cybermen (5 January 1985-12 January 1985)
Vengeance on Varos (19 January 1985-26 January 1985)
The Mark of the Rani (2 February 1985-9 February 1985)
The Two Doctors (16 February 1985-2 March 1985)
Timelash (9 March 1985-16 March 1985)
Revelation of the Daleks (23 March 1985-30 March 1985)

Series Twenty-Three
The Trial of a Time Lord (6 September 1986-

Series Twenty-Four
Time and the Rani (7 September 1987-28 September 1987)
Paradise Towers (5 October 1987-26 October 1987)
Delta and the Bannermen (2 November 1987-16 November 1987)
Dragonfire (23 November 1987-7 December 1987)

Series Twenty-Five
Remembrance of the Daleks (5 October 1988-26 October 1988)
The Happiness Patrol (2 November 1988-16 November 1988)
Silver Nemesis (23 November 1988-7 December 1988)
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (14 December 1988-4 January 1989)

Series Twenty-Six
Battlefield (6 September 1989-27 September 1989)
Ghost Light (4 October 1989-18 October 1989)
The Curse of Fenric (25 October 1989-15 November 1989)
Survival (22 November 1989-6 December 1989)

References

Periodicals

Infinity no.1 (2017) pp.8-15 – illustrated article (Who's who? by Richard Hollis)
Infinity no.30 (2020) pp.14-19 – illustrated articles (The dandy Doctor by Brian J. Robb; Kill Bill! A brief history of regeneration)
Infinity no.37 (2021) pp.14-17 – illustrated article (I am usually referred to as The Master. Universally… by Paul F. Cockburn)
Radio Times 1-9 January 1970 p.6 – note (Welcome to 1970 Dr Who, Val Doonican, Ivanhoe, A Question of Sport, Barry Humphries's Scandals and many more besides…)
Radio Times 2-8 January 1982 p.9 – illustrated interview with Peter Davison (New Who by Renate Kohler)
Starburst vol.1 no.6 (January 1979) pp.4-11 – illustrated interview with Terry Nation (Terry Nation by John Fleming)
Starburst no.98 (1986) pp.30-32 – illustrated set report (Visiting the future by Timothy Robins)
Starburst no.99 ((1986) pp.28-29 – illustrated review of the Panopticon VII and Cybercon conventions
Starburst no.100 (1986) pp.46-48 – illustrated article (Doctor Who special effects by Peter Newell)
Starburst no.102 (February 1987) pp.32-35 – illustrated review (by Paul Mount)
Starburst no.104 (April 1987) pp.34-35 – article (Who? by Stephen Payne)
Starburst no.105 (May 1987) pp.13; 32-33 – article (by Arnold Harris); illustrated article (Patrick Trougton remembered by Jeremy Bentham)
Starburst no.106 (June 1987) pp.32-33 – illustrated article (Location Who by Stephen Payne)
Starburst no.108 (August 1987) p.5 – note (Doctor Who – the movie?)
Starlog no.105 (April 1986) pp.23-25, 50 – illustrated interview with Colin Baker (Colin Baker: The cat who walks by himself by Patrick Daniel O'Neill)

Premise

Links

Episodes

References

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