Doctor Who - One Of Sci-Fi's Greats

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Doctor Who - One Of Sci-Fi's Greats - By: Jay Evans, Posted on: 2008-04-14

Doctor Who is a long-running award-winning British science fiction television show developed by the BBC. As a matter of fact Doctor who's the longest-running science fiction television serial in history, airing initially from 1963 to 1989 and then again from 2005 until the time of writing with seasons promised all the way up to 2010!

Doctor Who's 1st ever came out on BBC TV at 5:15 pm (Greenwich Mean Time) on 23 November 1963, after discussions and plans that had been ongoing for a year. Doctor who has always appeared on the BBC's mainstream BBC 1 channel, obtaining viewing audiences as high as 1000000 Television viewers. In addition to this it has in been transmitted from other TV channels all over the world! The program quickly converted into a national institution, the subject of innumerable pranks, newspaper publisher acknowledgments and additional popular culture acknowledgments.

The program describes the adventures of a mystifying time-traveler called "the Doctor" who journeys in his time ship, the TARDIS, which appears from the outside to be a blue police force phone box. The Doctor just about always shares his adventures with up to 3 journeying accompanies, and as of 1963 more than thirty-five role players have featured in these roles. One of Doctor who's keys to success over the years, has been that fact that it has always changed to the era it's in, making sure that it always connects with it's TV audience. This holds true to this day with the new Doctor Who serials.

Famous antagonists of the Doctor in the original series include the Autons, the Cybermen, the Sontarans, the Zygons, the Sea Devils, the Silurians, the Ice Warriors, the Wirrn, the Yeti, the Master (a Time Lord with a thirst for universal conquest), and, most notably, the Daleks. Of all the monsters and villains, the ones that have most guaranteed the series place in the public's imagination are the Daleks.

The Daleks are Kaled mutants in tank-like mechanistic armour shells from the planet Skaro. The Daleks were created by author Terry Nation (who designated them to be an allegory of the German Nazis) and BBC designer Raymond Cusick. The Daleks' first appear in the program's 2nd serial, The Daleks (1963-64) and caused an enormous response in the viewing numbers and the public, putting Doctor Who on the ethnical map.

Doctor Who's Sci-Fi themes and stage settings entailed that a lot of audio effects had to be specially made for the series, although a few basic audio effects (such as crowds, horses and jungle sounds) were sourced from stock recordings. Most likely the most unforgettable of all the audio created for the series was the theme music. It genuinely is an incredibly unique piece of electronic music; as a matter of fact it is among the 1st pieces of electronic music to ever be created! To this day it still sounds like nothing else, which makes it a truly timeless piece.

The popularity of Doctor Who has been so extensive that the BBC has been able to expand the franchise with spin-offs in multiple Medias, including the current television programs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures, radio episodes and even a substantial collection of stories on audio book. The Doctor has also appeared in webcasts and in audio plays; prominent among the last mentioned were those developed by Big Finish Productions from 1999 onwards. Big Finish have been responsible for a whole range of audio plays issued on CD and in the 2006's eight-part BBC 7 series starring Paul McGann.

Doctor who's amassed 1000s of fans from all across the globe both through it's television episodes, radio and Audio. In GB and elsewhere, the show has become a cult TV favorite and has influenced generations of people.

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Jay Evans runs a Doctor Who Audio website. It features audio from the Doctor Who New series and old, as well as all the latest Torchwood audio book releases. All titles are available for easy download.