CONTENTS
COVER
ABOUT THE BOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
TITLE PAGE
INTRODUCTION
ONE
THE 50-YEAR DIARY: A DOCTOR WHO TIMELINE
TWO
EVERYONE’S FAVOURITE TIME LORD: THE MANY LIVES AND CHANGING FACES OF THE DOCTOR
First and Last Words
Doctor Who – The Original Trailer
The Doctor by Numbers
Who’s Who – The Twelve Doctors
What’s in a Name?
John Who?
The Doctor’s Height
Who Goes There
Doctor Doubles
Doctor… Who?
A Doctor of What?
The Doctor Is In
Unseen Adventures
The Last Great Time War
Mid-Life Crisis: The Changing Age of the Doctor
A Mere Slip of a Girl?
A Young, Old Face
Fish Fingers and Custard
The Doctor’s Abilities
Other Time Lord Abilities
The Doctor’s Family Tree
The Many Wives of Doctor Who
The Doctor’s Twin – The Other Doctor
The Doctor’s Companion – The TARDIS
The Doctor’s Daughter – Jenny
Extended Family
The Doctor’s Physiology
Capacious Pockets
The Finest Swordsman in All of Gallifrey
Reasons for Regeneration
Equipment to Aid Regenerative Crisis
THREE
THE DOCTOR’S BEST FRIENDS: COMPANIONS AND OTHER ALLIES
Companions by Numbers
Companion Roll Call: The 1960s
Hello, Goodbye
Haven’t I Seen You Somewhere Before?
Return Performances
Happy Birthday to Who
Companion Roll Call: The 1970s
Mustering the Troops – The Creation of UNIT
UNIT Personnel
The Unknown Soldiers
UNIT Call Signs
The Life and Times of Nicholas Courtney
The Men From UNIT
Companion Roll Call: The 1980s
The Sorry Ballad of Kamelion
Off-Screen Companions
Companion Roll Call: The 1990s
Kissing Companions
Companion Roll Call: The 2000s
Hello Sweetie
Companion Roll Call: The 2010s
They Keep Killing Rory
Occasional Companions
Family Ties
Extended (Unseen) Families
Reasons for Leaving the Doctor
FOUR
A CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS
Monstrous First Lines
Returning Monsters
The Silurians
Dinosaurs in Doctor Who
Designing Dinos
Monster Maker –The Bluffer’s Guide To…
The Lives and Deaths of Davros
Bringing Davros to Life
Monster Maker – The Bluffer’s Guide To…
A Dalek A-Z
Armed and Dangerous
Dalek Servants
The Only Daleks With Names
Dalek Operators
Voices of the Daleks
Familiar Voices
Dalek Variants
Colour-Coded Daleks
40 Ways to Defeat a Dalek
Universal Monsters
Warlords of Mars
Bred for War – Sontaran Factoids
Sontaran Roll Call
Sontaran Forces
Worlds of the Cybermen
Cyber-Spotter
Cyber Converts
Mapping the Web of Fear
Monster Make-Up
FIVE
LOTS OF PLANETS HAVE A NORTH: A ROUGH GUIDE TO EARTH AND OTHER WORLDS
The Doctor’s World Map
The Changing Face of the Oval Office
Namedropper
Historical Celebrities
The Nemesis Comet
Celebrity Culture
Not Quite Themselves
Medical Establishments on Earth
The Mysterious World of Doctor Who
The Moving Earth
TARDIS Log
Solar System Stories
Welcome to Gallifrey
Notable Time Lords
The Master Mad-o-meter
The Things of Rassilon and Other Gallifreyan Stuff
Planets Attacked by the Daleks
Shockeye’s Kitchen
SIX
A KETTLE AND A PIECE OF STRING: TECHNOLOGY IN DOCTOR WHO
TARDIS Components and Equipment
The Time Rotor
Console Room Designers
Some TARDIS Disguises
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Sonic Screwdrivers Galore
Using the Sonic Screwdriver
Known Limitations
Psychic Paper
The Doctor’s Toolkit
Who’s Driving This Thing?
Good Old Bessie
14 Facts About the Whomobile
SEVEN
RELATIVE DIMENSIONS: DOCTOR WHO AND POPULAR CULTURE
Soap Who
Connecting Doctor Who and The Archers
The Name’s Who. Doctor Who
To Boldly Go Where No TARDIS Has Gone Before
Carry On Doctor
A Gallifrey Far, Far Away
Harry Potter and the Bigger on the Inside
TARDIS Library
Songs for Eleven
Original Songs
Doc of the Pops
Variations on a Theme
Pop Picks
Desert Island Discs
Doctor Who, This is Your Life
Big Screen / Small Screen
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Whoniverse
The Other Doctors
EIGHT
THE MATRIX: BEHIND THE SCENES
The Long and Short of it
The Architects of Doctor Who
Prolific Guest Stars
Repeat Performance
Doctor Who’s Most Prolific Writers
Director Who
Stage Plays and Performances
TV Spin-Offs
Wireless Who
Doctor Who on the Big Screen
Stories That Name-Check Themselves
How Long Would it Take to Watch Doctor Who?
APPENDIX STORY LIST
THANKS
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE BOOK
Do you know your Sontarens from your Silurians? What are the 40 best ways to defeat a Dalek? What are the galactic coordinates of Gallifrey?
Test your knowledge of the last Time Lord and the worlds he’s visited in Who-ology, an unforgettable journey through 50 years of Doctor Who.
Packed with facts, figures and stories from the show’s entire run, this unique tour of space and time takes you from Totters Lane to Trenzalore, taking in guides to UNIT call signs, details of the inner workings of sonic screwdrivers, and a reliability chart covering every element of the TARDIS.
You won’t believe the wonders that await. Are you ready? Then read on, you clever boy. And remember…
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Cavan Scott has written numerous books, audio dramas and comics strips based on such series as The Sarah Jane Adventures, Skylanders, Judge Dredd and, of course, Doctor Who. He has written about the good Doctor’s adventures in such magazines as SFX and Doctor Who Magazine and regularly appears at Doctor Who conventions around the country.
Mark Wright is a journalist and author and has written many a
udios, short stories and comic strips featuring new adventures for the Doctor, along with tie-ins to other series such as The Power Rangers and The Sarah Jane Adventures. He is a regular contributor to Doctor Who Magazine.
INTRODUCTION
‘Have you ever thought what it’s like to be wanderers in the fourth dimension?’
The Doctor, An Unearthly Child
The Doctor started running on 23 November 1963 and hasn’t stopped since. Fifty years of adventure have given us hundreds of stories, at least 11 Doctors and more monsters than you can shake a sink plunger at.
Who-ology is a miscellany, a rattle-bag of facts, figures and trivia from five decades of time travel in the company of a madman with a box. From that junkyard on Totter’s Lane to a snow-dusted Victorian London at Christmas, we cover the companions that have accompanied him, the planets he has visited and the terrors he has faced.
Above all, Who-ology is a love letter to one of the craziest shows on television. What is it about this mad science-fantasy series that fans get excited about UNIT call-signs or how many episodes Sarah Jane Smith appeared in? After scouring over 200 stories, we still don’t have the answer, but we do know how many times the Daleks say ‘Exterminate’.
Happy Times and Places,
Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
A note about stories and statistics
The statistics in this book include all regular televised episodes and stories of Doctor Who between An Unearthly Child (1963) and The Snowmen (2012), not including the untelevised story Shada (1979).
ONE
THE 50-YEAR DIARY
A DOCTOR WHO TIMELINE
‘I tried keeping a diary once. Not chronological, of course. But the trouble with time travel is, one never seems to find the time.’
The Doctor, The Caves of Androzani
The Doctor’s adventures began in a junkyard at 76 Totter’s Lane on 23 November 1963, where an impossible police box awaited two inquisitive school teachers. It was the beginning of the trip of a lifetime.
Since then, there have been many firsts and lasts, comings and goings, tearful farewells and exciting new beginnings. Tales of what went on behind the scenes on Doctor Who are as compelling as the Doctor’s on-screen adventures.
A man is the sum of his memories, a Time Lord even more so… Who-ology presents the 50-year diary of Doctor Who.
The 1960s
March 1962–June 1963 The BBC initiates a survey of published science fiction to establish its relevance to television drama. A series of reports and meetings involving Head of Serials Donald Wilson and staff writers Alice Frick, John Braybon and CE ‘Bunny’ Webber culminates in the detailed development of a new science fiction drama serial. Sydney Newman, the BBC’s new Head of Drama, and CE Webber subsequently produce a proposal document under the title ‘Dr Who: General Notes on Background and Approach’. Newman goes on to appoint Verity Lambert as Doctor Who’s series producer.
12 July 1963 Actor William Hartnell attends a lunch with Verity Lambert and director Waris Hussein to discuss playing the Doctor. Initially reluctant, Hartnell eventually agrees to the offer.
27 September 1963 Studio recording takes place at the BBC’s Lime Grove Studios, London, for the very first episode, An Unearthly Child. Head of Drama Sydney Newman is unhappy with the result and orders that the episode be recorded again.
18 October 1963 A second version of An Unearthly Child is recorded at Lime Grove Studios using a revised script.
21 November 1963 The Radio Times, the BBC’s listing magazine, previews Doctor Who for the very first time.
23 November 1963 The first episode of Doctor Who is broadcast at 5.16pm and watched by 4.4 million people.
21 December 1963 An early Christmas present as the Daleks make their first appearance. In fact audiences only see a plunger held by Assistant Floor Manager Michael Ferguson, who would later direct several Doctor Who stories.
1 February 1964 The final episode of The Daleks is watched by an audience of 10.4 million, more than double that of An Unearthly Child ten weeks before.
13 February 1964 Doctor Who features for the first time on the cover of the listings magazine Radio Times. The series will make the cover more times than any other television programme over the next 50 years.
22 February 1964 Marco Polo becomes the first historical figure to be depicted in Doctor Who.
15 August 1964 The second episode of The Reign of Terror features the first ever use of location footage in the series as elements of the story are shot outside the confines of the TV studio.
12 September 1964 The first season of Doctor Who comes to an end.
31 October 1964 After a seven-week break, Doctor Who returns for its second season with Planet of Giants.
November 1964 Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks, the first Doctor Who novelisation, is published.
21 November 1964 The Daleks make their second appearance in the series – this time invading future Earth.
26 December 1964 Carole Ann Ford makes her final appearance as the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, marking the first departure of a companion.
2 January 1965 The first time the Doctor uses the term ‘materialise’ to describe the TARDIS landing.
26 June 1965 The final appearances of William Russell and Jacqueline Hill as Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, leaving room for the Doctor Who debut of companion Steven Taylor, played by Peter Purves.
17 July 1965 The first appearance in the series of a TARDIS other than the Doctor’s. The TARDIS belongs to a mysterious monk, played by Peter Butterworth. The Monk is the first member of the Doctor’s own people to appear apart from Susan.
23 August 1965 The cinema release of Dr. Who and the Daleks, the first of two big-screen adventures starring Peter Cushing as ‘Dr Who’. In colour!
September 1965 The first publication of The Dr Who Annual by World Distributors, priced 9s 6d. It contains text stories featuring TV monsters the Voord and the Zarbi, as well as puzzles and features.
9 October 1965 Broadcast of Mission to the Unknown, the first and only episode not to feature either the Doctor or any of his companions.
13 November 1965 The first appearance of actor Nicholas Courtney, here playing Bret Vyon. Courtney will go on to play a significant character in the Doctor’s lives.
4 December 1965 The first on-screen death of a companion, as Adrienne Hill’s Katarina is killed.
21 December 1965 The Curse of the Daleks, a stage play by David Whitaker and Terry Nation, opens at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre.
25 December 1965 Doctor Who’s first broadcast on Christmas Day, an event that will not be repeated until 2005.
28 May 1966 Broadcast of The Savages Episode 1. Up to now each episode has been given individual titles; from now on, they are grouped together under story titles with numbered episodes.
6 August 1966 The official announcement to the press that William Hartnell is to leave the role of the Doctor. On this day, Patrick Troughton signs a contract to appear as the Doctor for 22 episodes.
8 October 1966 The Cybermen make their first appearance, giving Doctor Who its second enduring monster.
29 October 1966 In the closing minutes of The Tenth Planet, the Doctor regenerates for the first time (though that term won’t be used until the Third Doctor changes into the Fourth), and William Hartnell makes his final regular appearance in the series. Patri
ck Troughton briefly makes his Doctor Who debut.
5 November 1966 Patrick Troughton’s first full episode as the Doctor also sees the return of the Daleks.
17 December 1966 The first appearance of Frazer Hines as Jamie Macrimmon. He will clock up 113 regular episodes of Doctor Who, the most of any companion.
4 March 1967 The series sees its first use of an optical special effect, as the Cybermen blast a hole in the wall of a moonbase with a space cannon.
11 March 1967 The debut of a revamped title sequence featuring the face of Patrick Troughton. This creates a tradition of using the Doctor’s face in the titles that lasts until 1989 – a custom absent from the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth and early Eleventh Doctors’ eras but reintroduced on 25 December 2012.
1 July 1967 The Daleks make what is intended to be their final appearance in Doctor Who. This ‘final end’ is brought about by writer Terry Nation’s desire to launch his creations in their own series. The BBC has turned down the chance to make such a spin-off, and Nation has opened talks with American broadcasters. The monsters that helped cement Doctor Who’s popularity will not return to the series in a new story for nearly five years.
30 September 1967 The first appearances of the Yeti and the Great Intelligence.
11 November 1967 The first appearance of the Ice Warriors.
17 February 1968 The first appearance of Nicholas Courtney as Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart. The character’s feet have appeared in close-up a week earlier, provided by extra Maurice Brooks.
16 March 1968 The first appearance of the sonic screwdriver.
9 November 1968 The first full appearance of UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, under the command of Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, now a Brigadier, played once again – and many times in the future – by Nicholas Courtney.
7 January 1969 The announcement to the press that Patrick Troughton is to leave Doctor Who.
7 June 1969 The first use of ‘Time Lord’ to describe the Doctor’s people, uttered by an unnamed scientist played by Vernon Dobtcheff in The War Games.
17 June 1969 Jon Pertwee is announced as the third actor to take on the TV role of the Doctor in a press call held at BBC Broadcasting House. The actor is accompanied by a Yeti.
21 June 1969 Patrick Troughton’s final regular appearance as the Doctor. This episode features the first trip to the Doctor’s as yet unnamed home planet.