Doctor Who (1963)

Name: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Drama, Action & Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Released: November 23, 1963

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Doctor Who: Season 4 (Trailer 1)

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Series Details & Credits

BBC-1 | BBC | Release Date: November 23, 1963

Summary: "My name is William Hartnell, and as Doctor Who, I make my debut on Saturday 23rd November at 5.15."

Doctor Who is the longest-running science fiction TV series in history, airing initially from 1963 to 1989. The series told the story of the Doctor, a mysterious traveller in space and time, whose TARDIS can take him and his companions"My name is William Hartnell, and as Doctor Who, I make my debut on Saturday 23rd November at 5.15."

Doctor Who is the longest-running science fiction TV series in history, airing initially from 1963 to 1989.

The series told the story of the Doctor, a mysterious traveller in space and time, whose TARDIS can take him and his companions anywhere in time and space. Inevitably he finds evil at work wherever he goes…

The series was postponed indefintely in 1989, but fans of the series would not allow it to die, and a whole cottage industry was created around original novels and audio-only productions.

There was an abortive attempt to renew the franchise as a series of telemovies in the U.S., but ratings for the pilot were judged insufficient.

In 2003, the BBC announced that, at long last, it would commission a revival of Doctor Who. The series, initially starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, was launched in 2005. You can read about the new series here.

Traditionally listed by production, the data on this site has now been amended to TV.com standards and lists each of the 697 broadcast episodes from the original series. I hope that you find the site useful, and that it might act as a springboard to the wider world of Doctor Who appreciation.

TheOldBill… Expand

Genre(s): Drama, Action & Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

Recent Episodes

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User Reviews

doctor_whom

Sep 12, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Doctor Who, the televised run from 1963 - 1989, commonly referred to as the "Classic" series, has a number of excellent stories and a number of awful ones. Almost every story, of which all except one are made up of multiple parts, can be categorised into three distinct qualities:

Excellent

All Right

Hideous

There are some exceptions, of course, but on the whole, the majority of the stories are All Right. If you watch this programme, keep in mind that it may take a number of years. The first few series are all right, but some episodes (Galaxy 4, 4 example) have such bad effects and resort to still images to tell the story. I knew the budget was low but that really was a bit of a bummer. Watching photographs!? I thought this was about moving pictures!

After three and a bit series, the Doctor, William Hartnell, is replaced by continuously extraneous actors, brought on to replace him. As if no viewer would notice! Troughton was obviously far different, with hair of hues beyond white, but rather the opposite (black). He was all right but again, still images crop up in his stories.

The third Doc' was quite all right, mostly, not very interesting.

Fourth was OK, he started well and generally maintained a consistent quality.

Fifth was absolutely splendid.

Sixth was mostly rubbish, but what can you expect? By now, clearly Verity Lambert (the producer) was getting on a bit. In fact, she kept changing her name, to remain anonymous. By now, she went by the mysterious initials "JNT", which I am lead to believe stands for "John Nathan-Turner". I thought that was a bus in Brighton...

Sylvester was the real McCoy, he was great, apart from his first story.

Over the twenty-six series of Doctor Who, most of them were all right, but, let's just simplify it down:

1 - 4: Good
5 - 6: All Right
7 - 10: Excellent
11: All Right
12 - 14: Amazing
15: Rubbish
16 - 18: Really Good
19 - 21: Mostly Great
22 - 24: Bad? No, it's disastrous!
25 - 26: Rather good

So, if you intend to trek through Dr. Who, here are some stories I recommend:

The Celestial Toymaker
The Web Planet
Galaxy 4
The Space Prats
The Curse of Peladon
The Monster of Peladon
Genesis of the Daleks
The Invasion of Time
Underworld
The Sixth Doctor
Time and the Rani

I absolutely, whole-heartedly recommend you avoid those stories, in that order.
Compared to the "Modern", or, "Revived" series, this classic lot is usually far from classical. Most of it is tired humour, running up and down corridors, getting locked up twice an episode, characters reduced to "What, Doctor?", silly monsters, cliched, all that. In conclusion, it could have been a lot better. It could have been slightly better written, especially the fourth part of "Planet of Giants". Nevertheless as a fan I have to praise it, so, yes, Doctor Who is completely brilliant and must fore'er and e'er be adored, amen. That's my review. :) (Adric dies)… Expand

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Seasons & Episodes

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Series Overview
Season 28

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- Season 28 Overview
  Air Date: November 23, 1963
- No episode information is currently available for this season
Season 27

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- Season 27 Overview
  Air Date: November 26, 1993
Season 26

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- Season 26 Overview
  Air Date: September 6, 1989
Season 26

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- Season 26 Overview
  Air Date: September 6, 1989
Season 25

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- Season 25 Overview
  Air Date: October 5, 1988
Season 25

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- Season 25 Overview
  Air Date: October 19, 1988
Season 25

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- Season 25 Overview
  Air Date: October 19, 1988
Season 24

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- Season 24 Overview
  Air Date: September 7, 1987
Season 23

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- Season 23 Overview
  Air Date: September 6, 1986
Season 22

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- Season 22 Overview
  Air Date: January 5, 1985
Season 21

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- Season 21 Overview
  Air Date: January 5, 1984
Season 20

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- Season 20 Overview
  Air Date: January 3, 1983
Season 20

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- Season 20 Overview
  Air Date: January 13, 1983
Season 20

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- Season 20 Overview
  Air Date: January 13, 1983
Season 19

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- Season 19 Overview
  Air Date: January 4, 1982
Season 18

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- Season 18 Overview
  Air Date: August 30, 1980
Season 17

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- Season 17 Overview
  Air Date: September 1, 1979
Season 16

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- Season 16 Overview
  Air Date: September 2, 1978
Season 15

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- Season 15 Overview
  Air Date: September 3, 1977
Season 14

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- Season 14 Overview
  Air Date: September 4, 1976
Season 13

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- Season 13 Overview
  Air Date: August 30, 1975
Season 12

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- Season 12 Overview
  Air Date: December 28, 1974
Season 11

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- Season 11 Overview
  Air Date: December 15, 1973
Season 10

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- Season 10 Overview
  Air Date: December 30, 1972
Season 9

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- Season 9 Overview
  Air Date: January 1, 1972
Season 8

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- Season 8 Overview
  Air Date: January 2, 1971
Season 7

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- Season 7 Overview
  Air Date: January 3, 1970
Season 6

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- Season 6 Overview
  Air Date: August 10, 1968
Season 5

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- Season 5 Overview
  Air Date: September 2, 1967
Season 4

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- Season 4 Overview
  Air Date: September 10, 1966
Season 4

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- Season 4 Overview
  Air Date: September 10, 1966
Season 3

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- Season 3 Overview
  Air Date: September 11, 1965
Season 3

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- Season 3 Overview
  Air Date: September 11, 1965
Season 2

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- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: October 31, 1964
Season 1

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- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: November 23, 1963
Season 1

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- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: November 23, 1963