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 Plenty of new time and space on the airwaves.
The BBC is throwing a broadcasting blowout for the sci-fi show,
which began with little fanfare and few expectations on Nov. 23,
1963, but is now one of its biggest hits and major exports.
A 75-minute anniversary episode will be shown simultaneously
Saturday in almost 80 countries, and there are 3-D screenings in
movie theaters around the world.
The anniversary week features hours of supporting programs, online
teasers and mini-episodes, and a "Doctor Who" festival at a London
conference center. And then there's "An Adventure in Space and
Time," a 90-minute drama about the origins of the show, which will
be broadcast in Britain on Thursday and on BBC America on Friday.
"An Adventure in Space and Time" recounts how a group of
inexperienced program-makers "set out to create a bit of teatime
telly and instead created magic," scriptwriter Mark Gatiss said at a
preview screening.
"Doctor Who" even has royal approval — Britain's royal family threw
a Buckingham Palace reception this week for its stars and creators.
The hoopla contrasts sharply with the BBC's initially careless
attitude to the show. "Doctor Who" has had as many narrow escapes as
its hero, a charismatic Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey who
travels the universe in the Tardis, a time-and-space machine shaped
like a blue British police phone box that is bigger on the inside
than it looks.
The Doctor — he's always called the Doctor; the "Who" of the title
is an existential question — has been played by 11 actors in six
decades. He's had dozens of traveling companions and saved the
world countless times. He has visited ancient Rome and the Stone
Age, distant galaxies and the end of time. He has battled robotic
Cybermen, rampaging Yeti and — repeatedly — the Daleks, those
pepperpot-shaped metal aggressors whose favorite word is
"Exterminate!"
Yet the show almost never happened.
The pilot was a disaster and had to be reshot. The first episode was
broadcast, inauspiciously, a day after John F. Kennedy's
assassination. The show was almost cancelled after four episodes.
Higher-ups at the BBC hated the Daleks.
"From the beginning it had a lot of enemies, people who thought it
was stupid, too expensive, too much of a demand on the (BBC) drama
department," said cultural historian and "Doctor Who" fan Matthew
Sweet. "Lots of people wanted it to fail."
Scores of early episodes were lost because the BBC wiped the tapes
for reuse. Nine "lost" episodes were recently found in a storeroom
in Nigeria, but about 100 remain missing.
Over the years there were sometimes shaky production values and
variable-quality scripts. There was also a 16-year gap starting in
1989 when "Doctor Who" was not on TV screens at all, save for a
one-off TV movie in 1996.
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 But the fans never forgot, even during the lean
years, and when the show was revived in 2005 it was an immediate
hit.
"It sort of spread like a virus," Sweet said. "It's the kind of show
that plants seeds in people. It just sort of gets hold of you in a
funny sort of way."
Today, "Doctor Who" is an institution that draws
intense loyalty from millions of fans around the world. Generations
of British children grew up on it. Hordes of American teens and
adults have recently discovered it.
One of the secrets of its longevity is that The Doctor can
regenerate into a new body when the old one wears out, so the show
can outlive any individual star.
A character who began as a crotchety older man (William Hartnell) is
currently a cheery young charmer in a bow tie played by 31-year-old
Matt Smith. A 12th Doctor, played by Scottish actor Peter Capaldi,
is due to make his entrance in a Christmas Day episode.
The anniversary episode, "The Day of the Doctor" was written by
Steven Moffat, who has been the show's executive producer since
2009. It promises fans the rare chance to see multiple Doctors
onscreen at the same time. Smith teams up with his predecessor David
Tennant, while John Hurt plays a hitherto unknown, darker
incarnation of the character.
The concept of regeneration happened almost by
accident. Poor health forced Hartnell to retire in 1966. But by then
the TV show was a hit and the BBC had to think up a way to continue
without him.
"There is an alternate universe in which he was well and 'Doctor
Who' ran for about five years," said Gatiss, who has written for
"Doctor Who" and co-created the hit detective drama "Sherlock."
''The extraordinary thing was, by dint of (Hartnell's) illness,
change is inbuilt into the structure of the program."
Sweet said that flexibility is balanced by an unwaveringly upbeat
message which has helped "Doctor Who" endure through changing times
and multiple stars.
"If it has a message, it's 'Don't judge people by appearances, don't
tolerate oppression, be skeptical, value life and don't let the
bullies win,'" he said.
[Associated
Press; JILL LAWLESS]
Jill Lawless can be
reached at
http://twitter.com/JillLawless.
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