Ep 63: Doctor Who Tutorial

Topic: Doctor Who Tutorial

 

This week, we discuss the strangest Doctor you’ve ever met.  The series is a long running British TV show, practically a staple of any nerd convention, and with the start of a new era in 2005, a modern fixture of Nerds everywhere.  His name doesn't matter, he's simply the 'Doctor' and for our first British Tv Show, we couldn't have picked a greater show.  Come fine out about Doctor Who!

 

 

What

Doctor Who is a British Science Fiction TV series about a fictional character, known as ‘the Doctor’ who travels through-out time and space, fixing, interacting, and generally learning about events within history, even those that haven’t happened yet. 

 

Typically, the show follows ‘the Doctor’ an alien creature with multiple lives as he and a traveling companion, or more, transverse the galaxy/time/universe to encounter various species, bad guys, and historical figures and events, either to help interact with them, or to watch them play out.  Following a monster/adventure of the week element, the characters typically travel to a place, either for purpose or because the TARDIS takes them there, and the job of the Doctor is to preserve time or uncover the disturbance and the nature of events happening.  The companion typically acts as the show’s self-insert character, so that the world being unique and new is the same for them as well. 

 

The series is known as ‘Doctor Who’ due to the ongoing joke of the Doctor not having a last name, and characters being introduced to him, replying, “Doctor who?”

 

When

Originally airing in the 1963s, it continued through various iterations until 1989, with the series seemingly put on Hiatus for the time being.  The series continued as reruns in British TV and occasionally in America, where it developed a cult following.  In 2005, the series was brought back and has continued since then.

 

Typical seasons in the early years lasted about 26 episodes, but later seasons since the 1980s ran for only 13-14 episodes each a season, with a new season each year.  With the return of the series in 2005, the individual seasons are typically only 13 episodes long, but tend to take a one year break every two seasons or between Doctors.  Currently, the series began airing the 12th Season in January and finished in March.

 

 

Who

the Doctor

The Doctor is an alien known as a Time Lord, from the planet Gallifrey.  The fictional Race was in charge of watching over the Universe and Time, ensuring that events played out as they were intended to.  However, after a fictional war with the Dalek, in which the Daleks won, the planet Gallifrey and all Timelords were destroyed and lost, leaving only the Doctor.  The Doctor himself stole an Obsolete TARDIS and used it to travel the universe. 

 

As a Time Lord, the Doctor has access to multiple regeneration cycles, or lives.  Once the Doctor spends all of his energy or life, he then goes through a process where we changes into a new person, still containing all the memories and knowledge from his past life, but taking on new personality and characteristics.  This mechanic allowed the series to continue on when another actor left the role.  To date, there have been 14 different actors who have portrayed the Doctor over time.  Typically an actor takes on the role for roughly 3 seasons, though some have lasted longer and shorter. 

 

While each actor adds or prays the Doctor in different ways, they typically continue to have several key personality traits, such as curiosity, Disarming and Mercurial, wise, melancholy, but holding back some form of darkness.  While often childlike and jovial, when pushed, the Doctor can be serious and even threatening.  This also includes a deep sense of right and wrong, but is usually dislikes violence of any kind, often being critical of those who use it.  The doctor typically knows about every event that has ever happened, along with most major figures of history that play in them, though not necessarily everyone involved.

 

To aid the Doctor he has his trusty Sonic Screwdriver.  The Device is like a universal tool, capable of doing just about anything the plot needs, from unlocking mechanical locks, hacking computers, a flashlight, conducting medical scans, microphone, and even as a weapon.  The tool basically lets the doctor do just about anything, though it isn’t perfect, and the Doctor often has issues getting the device to work properly.  As well, the Doctor carries Psychic Paper: while purely white, if the Doctor mentions credentials or a status, the paper will show such information to anyone who sees it. 

 

Similarly, the Doctor’s has a particular look that remains consistent throughout the doctor’s tenure.  IE: if the doctor jeans, a black shirt, and a black leather jacket, they are always wearing this exact same costume.  The Doctor’s clothes even work like Psychic Paper to locals, so while still wearing the same bit of clothes, locals believe he is wearing period piece clothing.  Because the clothing stays consistent throughout the tenure of the Doctor, there have been various signature items that have been worn:

Sixth Doctor – Multi-colored Jacket

Seventh Doctor – two Long scarves and a straw hat

Ninth Doctor – Leather Jacket

Eleventh Doctor – bow ties

Twelfth Doctor – Bolo, looks like a magician.

 

All incarnations of the Doctors have been Caucasian, British, none of which have had red/ginger hair, which the doctor laments each time.  While all previous Doctors have been male, with the Thirteenth Doctor, it was the first time the character was played by a woman.

 

 

TARDIS

Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space

To do so, they travel in the TARDIS, a time-traveling space ship that takes on the form of a 1960s British police box.  The TARDIS is perhaps only a 1x1 meter box approximately 2 meters tall, however the internal form of the TARDIS is actually bigger than a house, housing various rooms, closets, a kitchen and an elaborate control system, stylized around a circular room and central control console.  While the insides of the TARDIS stretch seemingly forever, the outside remains the same.  Originally the TARDIS would change to mirror the location the TARDIS arrived at, as to allow for camouflage with the local area.  However at some point toward the beginning of the series, the form got stuck as a 1960s era British Police box and hasn’t been fixed ever since.  The TARDIS, itself, is characterized as having its own personality sometimes, either faulting or malfunctioning until a moral or lesson is learned, and acting of its own accord if necessary.  Depending on the series, the interior of the TARDIS has also changed to reflect the Doctor’s current life.

 

 

Companions

Companions are characters of our own time period(of which the series was filmed) that act as the primary audience POV for a majority of the show.  These characters act as surrogates for the audience, allowing the new elements of the scene or world to be seen with fresh eyes.  The Doctor has always traveled with atleast one Companion, if not more, depending on the seasons.  Companions often stick around for around two seasons, with some transitioning in to the next Doctor upon regeneration. 

 

As of 2005, the Companions have largely been Female, in order to balance out the male lead.  While the Doctor has no romantic relationship with most Companions, often seeing them as children who are just following along, but in some cases, the doctor has had some relationships with Companions and other characters in the past. 

 

 

Various bad guys have been introduced to the series over time:

Daleks - Riding in mechanical armor shells, they are the oldest and longest lasting villains of the series, having been the villains that defeated and destroyed the Time Lords.

Cybermen – Cyborg humans from either a sister world to Earth or a parallel world.  They exist as coldly logical and emotionless cyborgs bent on replicating by turning humans in to Cybermen.

Weeping Angels – Statues that only move when not looking, they feed off of people by sending back to the moment of their birth and leaching off the ‘Potential Energy’ of a person as they continue to live out their life.

The Master – The Archenemy of ‘the Doctor’, he is a renegade Time Lord who wishes to rule over the universe.

 

A number of villains are usually Monsters or Aliens of some sort.

 

 

Why?

The series is a beloved Science Fiction series, often spinning in to different genre at a whim and with ease.  One week might be a western, the next a steam punk future, a very technological future, the next week a monster, and so forth, allowing the series to play in different time periods or with different setting each episode. 

 

Various spins have been created over time, including the most well known, Torchwood, an anagram of Doctor Who.  Torchwood would focus on the present and follow exploits of a team dealing with various issues in and around England and Great Britian, though with less Time Travel as Doctor Who.

 

 

Homework:

Series 1, Episode 1: Rose

Series 9, Episode 11: Heaven Sent

Series 3, Episode 10: Blink 

Series 2, Episode 13: Doomsday

Series 2, Episode 4: Girl in the Fireplace 

Series 11, Episode 3: Rosa

Series 5, Episode 10: Vincent and the Doctor