Britain celebrates the 60th anniversary of science-fiction series Doctor Who today as fans hail a program that has enthralled generations since it was first broadcast. Six million people watched the first episode when it was aired at teatime on Nov. 23, 1963, following the adventures of “The Doctor,” a fugitive Time Lord with two hearts from the planet Gallifrey. The enduring series — the longest-running of its genre in the world — is expected to release a new season next year
In the beginning, not everyone was immediately won over, particularly by the TARDIS, his hybrid spacecraft/time machine mostly in the form of an old-fashioned British police call box that is bigger on the inside.
“A police box with flashing beacon traveling through interstellar space — what claptrap!” said one viewer surveyed by the BBC.
Photo: AFP
A more prophetic view came from parents who said it promised to be “very entertaining” and accurately predicted their children “would love it.”
Life-long fan Tony Jordan, 64, has a full-sized TARDIS replica in his garden.
He said some of his first memories were of being petrified by foes of the doctor as he watched with his mother as a young boy.
“It was the monsters — the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Ice Warriors — that just really got my imagination,” said Jordan, from Heath Hayes, central England.
Jordan said financial constraints were a big part of Doctor Who’s success.
“When people are under budget pressure it does force them to be more creative than maybe they might have been,” he said “Especially in the early days, they couldn’t just CGI everything because that technology simply didn’t exist so it forced them to come up with something that captures people’s imaginations.”
The anniversary will be marked with three television specials with the first — “Star Beast” — due to go out on the BBC and Disney+ on Saturday.
DALEKS RETURN
The three specials feature Scottish actor David Tennant, who played The Doctor between 2005 and 2010.
One of Doctor Who’s most popular and enduring enemies — the Daleks — are also returning in the form of a one-off 75-minute film.
The new film colorises and weaves together the seven original episodes from 1963/4 that introduced the extraterrestrial race of xenophobic mutants with their chant of “Exterminate! Exterminate!”
The program quickly established itself as a cultural landmark in the UK.
Its longevity was assured by a decision to “regenerate” the lead character when the first Doctor, played by actor William Hartnell, left the show in 1966.
The humanoid Time Lords can cheat death by changing their entire appearance — a cornerstone of the show which has now featured more than a dozen actors in the title role.
“It was born out of production demands but they took the idea and ran with it to reboot the show every few years when they need,” said Jordan.
He recalls being “a little bit confused” at seeing one of the early switches.
“I didn’t know why The Doctor was now a man in a leather jacket rather than a 1960s gentleman character, but I got over that quite quickly,” he said.
GLOBAL APPEAL
Doctor Who’s journey to world-wide popularity began when the US sci-fi community embraced it after the series was bought by PBS.
Fans — of all ages, and from all over the world — now regularly meet at huge arena-sized events to meet their idols and fellow enthusiasts.
The 50th anniversary special episode a decade ago was shown in 94 countries.
Although the BBC shelved Doctor Who in 1989, it was revived in 2005 under the stewardship of screenwriter and producer Russell T Davies.
The show is now a BBC co-production with Disney and the three specials are due to be broadcast on successive Saturdays from this week.
After that, 15th doctor Ncuti Gatwa — the first actor of color to play the part — will take over from Jodie Whittaker, the first woman in the role.
“It seems like it’s going to be bigger than ever,” said Jordan.
But while the new series will undoubtedly be slicker, he said it would remain true to the vision of the early program makers.
“It’s that cliche of children hiding behind the sofa while their parents watch it, it’s an opportunity for people to get together and be swept away by a magical sci-fi adventure,” he said. “That will always be the core of Doctor Who.”
Desperate dads meet in car parks to exchange packets; exhausted parents slip it into their kids’ drinks; families wait months for prescriptions buy it “off label.” But is it worth the risk? “The first time I gave him a gummy, I thought, ‘Oh my God, have I killed him?’ He just passed out in front of the TV. That never happens.” Jen remembers giving her son, David, six, melatonin to help him sleep. She got them from a friend, a pediatrician who gave them to her own child. “It was sort of hilarious. She had half a tub of gummies,
The wide-screen spectacle of Formula One gets a gleaming, rip-roaring workout in Joseph Kosinski’s F1, a fine-tuned machine of a movie that, in its most riveting racing scenes, approaches a kind of high-speed splendor. Kosinski, who last endeavored to put moviegoers in the seat of a fighter jet in Top Gun: Maverick, has moved to the open cockpits of Formula One with much the same affection, if not outright need, for speed. A lot of the same team is back. Jerry Bruckheimer produces. Ehren Kruger, a co-writer on Maverick, takes sole credit here. Hans Zimmer, a co-composer previously, supplies the thumping
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
RSS