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Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterrestrial being called the Doctor, part of a humanoid species called Time Lords. The Doctor travels in the universe and in time using a time travelling spaceship called the TARDIS, which externally appears as a British police box. While travelling, the Doctor works to save lives and liberate oppressed peoples by combating foes. The Doctor often travels with companions.

Beginning with William Hartnell, fourteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor; as of 2024^[update], Ncuti Gatwa leads the series as the Fifteenth Doctor. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the series with the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation, a plot device in which, when a Time Lord is fatally injured, their cells regenerate and they are reincarnated, into a different body with mannerisms and behaviour, but the same memories, explaining each actor's distinct portrayal, as they all represent different stages in the life of the Doctor and, together, they form a single lifetime with a single narrative. The time-travelling nature of the plot means that different incarnations of the Doctor occasionally meet. The Doctor can also change ethnicity or gender; in 2017, Jodie Whittaker became the first woman cast in the lead role, and in 2024, Gatwa became the first black actor to headline the series.

The series is a significant part of popular culture in Britain and elsewhere; it has gained a cult following. It has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. Fans of the series are sometimes referred to as Whovians. The series has been listed in Guinness World Records as the longest-running science-fiction television series in the world, as well as the "most successful" science-fiction series of all time, based on its overall broadcast ratings, DVD and book sales. (Full article...)

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"Meat" is the fourth episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was first broadcast on BBC Two on 6 February 2008. It was written by Catherine Tregenna, who had previously written episodes for the first series of the show, directed by Colin Teague and produced by Richard Stokes. The episode featured the five initial series regulars John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Burn Gorman, Naoko Mori and Gareth David Lloyd plus recurring actor Kai Owen in a central role.

Torchwood initially depicts a small team of alien-hunters known as Torchwood, based in Cardiff. In the premiere episode of the first series Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) is introduced as a newcomer to the organisation who keeps her job secret from boyfriend Rhys Williams (Kai Owen). The episode "Meat" depicts the two aspects of Gwen's double life coming into conflict as Rhys finds himself caught up in Torchwood's investigation into a corrupt meat trade stemming from human exploitation of a stranded benevolent alien. Rhys helps Torchwood in their attempts to apprehend the human villains of the episode and his bravery makes Gwen realise that she should no longer keep secrets from him. (Full article...)
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The Keys of Marinus is the fifth serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC TV/BBC1 in six weekly parts from 11 April to 16 May 1964. Written by Terry Nation and directed by John Gorrie, the serial takes on a "mini-adventures" format, in which the First Doctor (William Hartnell), his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), and her teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell), and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) search for four keys to restore the Conscience of Marinus, a computer which maintains law and order. The group travel to two cities, a jungle, and an icy wasteland in search of the keys.

The Keys of Marinus was written to replace a different script which was deemed problematic. When commissioned to write the script, Nation was intrigued by the idea of the TARDIS crew searching for pieces of a puzzle; he and script editor David Whitaker decided to construct the serial around a series of "mini-adventures", each with a different setting and cast. Incidental music was composed by Norman Kay, while Raymond Cusick, Daphne Dare, and Jill Summers worked as designers. The serial premiered with nine million viewers, maintaining audience figures for several weeks before seeing a significant drop from the fifth episode. Response for the serial was mixed, and it received several print adaptations and home media releases. (Full article...)
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The Edge of Destruction (also referred to as Inside the Spaceship) is the third serial of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by David Whitaker, and first broadcast on BBC TV in two weekly parts on 8 February and 15 February 1964. The first episode was directed by Richard Martin, while Frank Cox directed the second. In the story, the Doctor (William Hartnell), his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), and her teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) are in the Doctor's time and space machine the TARDIS when it appears to be taken over by an outside force. The travellers begin acting strangely and turn against each other.

The serial was commissioned as a "filler", in case the show was not renewed beyond the approved 13 weeks. Whitaker wrote the scripts in two days, based on an idea he had developed during the show's formative weeks; he sought to explore the characters in more depth, as well as the facets of the TARDIS. The serial's original director, Paddy Russell, left the project due to other commitments. The serial premiered with ten million viewers, maintaining the figures from the previous story, and received generally positive responses. The BBC Programme Board voiced concerns regarding a scene in which Susan uses scissors as a weapon, noting that it violated code. The serial received print adaptations, as well as home media releases. (Full article...)
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The fourth series of British science fiction television programme Doctor Who was preceded by the 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned". Following the special, a regular series of thirteen episodes aired, starting with "Partners in Crime" on 5 April 2008 and ending with "Journey's End" three months later on 5 July 2008. The series incorporates a loose story arc consisting of recurring mentions of the disappearance of various planets and moons.

"Partners in Crime" marked the debut of Donna Noble, as played by Catherine Tate, as a full-time companion to the Tenth Doctor, after she first appeared in the 2006 Christmas special, "The Runaway Bride". Freema Agyeman also returns as the Doctor's companion Martha Jones from the previous series. John Barrowman, Elisabeth Sladen, Noel Clarke and Camille Coduri also returned to appear in the series finale, as well as Billie Piper, who appeared as Rose Tyler in six episodes of the series. (Full article...)
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The seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who was broadcast concurrently on BBC One in the United Kingdom, and was split into two parts as the previous series had been. Following its premiere on 1 September 2012, the series aired weekly with five episodes until 29 September. The remaining eight episodes were broadcast between 30 March and 18 May 2013. The 2012 Christmas special, "The Snowmen", aired separately from the main series and introduced a new TARDIS interior, title sequence, theme tune, and outfit for the Doctor.

Doctor Who's seventh series was the show's third and final series to feature Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. They reprised their roles of the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, respectively, from the previous series. Gillan and Darvill departed the series in the fifth episode, "The Angels Take Manhattan", after which a new companion named Clara Oswald joined the Doctor, played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, remaining with the series for its second half. The main story arc of the series focused on the significance of the character of Clara, whom the Doctor had encountered twice before as Oswin in "Asylum of the Daleks" and as a governess in "The Snowmen". It also features the recurring appearance of the Doctor's enemy, The Great Intelligence, who is later revealed to be trying to gain the Doctor's true name for his own purposes. Smith stayed for one year longer than Gillan and Darvill, and departed after the 2013 specials, with his final appearance being in the 2013 Christmas special "The Time of the Doctor". (Full article...)
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"Asylum of the Daleks" is the first episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, broadcast on BBC One on 1 September 2012. It was written by executive producer Steven Moffat and directed by Nick Hurran.

The episode features the alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) being captured by the Daleks, along with his companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), who are about to divorce. They are sent by the Daleks to the Asylum, a planet where insane Daleks are exiled, to enable the Asylum to be destroyed before the insane Daleks can escape. The Doctor is helped along the way by Oswin (Jenna-Louise Coleman), a woman whose spaceship had crashed on the planet a year ago and has been trapped there since then. (Full article...)
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"The Church on Ruby Road" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2023 as the fourteenth Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005. It is the first Christmas special since "Twice Upon a Time" (2017), with the programme producing New Year's specials from 2018 to 2022. Ncuti Gatwa makes his first regular appearance as the Fifteenth Doctor and the episode introduces Millie Gibson as his companion Ruby Sunday.

The story focuses on the Doctor meeting orphan Ruby Sunday, who was abandoned at a church on Ruby Road, hence her name, and her plight to find her birth parents. Following an interview with Davina McCall (playing a fictional version of herself), the two begin experiencing bad luck wherever they go, because of the antics of goblins, who eventually kidnap a new foster baby. (Full article...)
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"Amy's Choice" is the seventh episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It first broadcast on BBC One on 15 May 2010. It was written by sitcom writer Simon Nye and directed by Catherine Morshead.

In the episode, the Eleventh Doctor, a time travelling alien played by Matt Smith, and his human travelling companions Amy (Karen Gillan) and Rory (Arthur Darvill), are in a trap set by the mysterious "Dream Lord" (Toby Jones), wherein they repeatedly fall asleep and wake up in a different reality. In one, Amy and Rory are happily married but pursued by elderly people possessed by aliens, while in another they are on board the Doctor's time machine, the TARDIS, where they anticipate being frozen to death by a nearby astronomical phenomenon. They must decide which is the real reality and die in the dream, to wake up in reality and escape the trap. At the episode's conclusion, the Dream Lord is ultimately revealed to be a manifestation of the Doctor's dark side and self-loathing. (Full article...)
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"The Beast Below" is the second episode of the fifth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by executive producer and head writer Steven Moffat and broadcast on BBC One and BBC HD on 10 April 2010.

In the episode, the Eleventh Doctor—a time travelling alien played by Matt Smith—and his new companion Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) arrive in the distant future aboard the Starship UK, a ship constructed to transport the population and major cultural artefacts of the United Kingdom (apart from Scotland, who "wanted their own ship") away from Earth to escape the deadly solar flares that made Earth uninhabitable. However, they discover that the government of the ship secretly tortures a Star Whale that guides the ship, the abandonment of which is believed will destroy the ship and kill everyone on board. (Full article...)
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The first series of the 2005 revival of the British science fiction programme Doctor Who began on 26 March 2005 with the episode "Rose". This marked the end of the programme's 16 year absence from episodic television following its cancellation in 1989, and the first new televised Doctor Who story since the broadcast of the television movie starring Paul McGann in 1996. The finale episode, "The Parting of the Ways", was broadcast on 18 June 2005. The show was revived by longtime Doctor Who fan Russell T Davies, who had been lobbying the BBC since the late 1990s to bring the show back. The first series comprised 13 episodes, eight of which Davies wrote. Davies, Julie Gardner and Mal Young served as executive producers, Phil Collinson as producer.

The show depicts the adventures of a mysterious and eccentric Time Lord known as the Doctor, who travels through time and space in his time machine, the TARDIS, which normally appears from the exterior to be a blue 1950s British police box. With his companions, he explores time and space, faces a variety of foes and saves civilizations, helping people and righting wrongs. (Full article...)
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Vislor Turlough is a fictional character played by Mark Strickson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He was a companion of the Fifth Doctor, being a regular in the programme from 1983 to 1984. Turlough is an alien from the planet Trion who seeks to kill the Fifth Doctor on orders from the antagonist known as the Black Guardian. Turlough later chooses to side with the Doctor, accompanying him until Turlough's departure from the series in the 1984 serial Planet of Fire.

Turlough was created during a script meeting with script editor Eric Saward, who liked the concept of a companion who existed to try and kill the Doctor. Strickson was requested to be cast in the part by his agent, and was one of the last actors producer John Nathan-Turner saw in the auditions for Turlough's character. Nathan-Turner enjoyed Strickson's performance and offered him the part, with Strickson turning down a potential role in the series Angels to appear in Doctor Who. (Full article...)
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"Empire of Death" is the eighth and final episode of the fourteenth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was simultaneously released on BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom on 22 June 2024 and released on Disney+ in the United States on 21 June. It was broadcast on BBC One later on the same day. The episode was written by Russell T Davies and directed by Jamie Donoughue. It is the second part of a two-part story following "The Legend of Ruby Sunday". The combined story was also given a limited theatrical release.

In this episode, the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) attempt to stop the god-like being Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf) from destroying all life in the universe. Filming for the story took place in June and July 2023. General praise was given to the cast's performances, though many critics and viewers criticised the resolution of the series overall story arc, feeling that revealing Ruby's mother to be a regular person was unsatisfactory and underwhelming following the build up in earlier episodes. (Full article...)
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Costumes and prop from Doctor Who, displayed at the Doctor Who Experience in Cardiff.

"Day of the Moon" is the second episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by show runner Steven Moffat, and directed by Toby Haynes, the episode was first broadcast on 30 April 2011 on BBC One in the United Kingdom and on BBC America in the United States. The episode is the second of a two-part story that began with "The Impossible Astronaut" on 23 April.

In 1969 America, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) along with his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), archaeologist River Song (Alex Kingston) and FBI agent Canton Everett Delaware III (Mark Sheppard), attempt to lead the human race into a revolution against the Silence, a religious order of aliens who cannot be remembered after they are encountered. (Full article...)
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The fourteenth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who premiered on 11 May 2024, and aired through to 22 June. The marketing for the series refers to it as "Season One", following the production changes and the acquisition of Doctor Who's international broadcasting rights by Disney+. It is the fifth series led by Russell T Davies as head writer and executive producer and the first since his return to the show, having previously worked on it from 2005 to 2010. This series is the fourteenth to air since the programme's revival in 2005, and the fortieth season overall. The fourteenth series was announced with Davies' return for its 60th anniversary in 2023 and beyond, with Bad Wolf becoming a co-producer.

The series is the first to star Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, a new incarnation of the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in the TARDIS, which appears to be a British police box from the outside. The Fifteenth Doctor was introduced in "The Giggle" (2023) through a "bi-generation", in which he split from his predecessor, the Fourteenth Doctor (David Tennant), rather than replacing him. The series also introduces Millie Gibson as the Doctor's newest companion, Ruby Sunday. (Full article...)
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The Crusade is the sixth serial of the second season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by David Whitaker and directed by Douglas Camfield, the serial was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 27 March to 17 April 1965. In this serial, the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his travelling companions Ian Chesterton (William Russell), Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), and Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) arrive in 12th century Palestine during the Third Crusade, and find themselves entangled in the conflict between King Richard the Lionheart (Julian Glover) and Saladin (Bernard Kay). They also meet King Richard's sister Lady Joanna (Jean Marsh) and Saladin's brother Saphadin (Roger Avon).

Whitaker wrote the serial after departing his role as the show's story editor in 1964. He was fascinated by the Third Crusade, and found the historical figures effective material for a character drama, particularly the relationship between King Richard and his sister. Story editor Dennis Spooner was impressed by the maturity and near-Shakespearean nature of Whitaker's scripts, and Camfield considered them the best he directed for the show. Viewership fell from the previous serial and dropped throughout the four weeks, but was considered acceptable. The Crusade received positive reviews, with praise directed at the writing, performances, and set design. Two of the four episodes remain missing after the BBC wiped them from archives. The story received several print adaptations and home media releases, with the missing episodes reconstructed using off-air recordings. (Full article...)

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The Crusade is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from March 27 to April 17, 1965. It starred William Hartnell as the First Doctor, Jacqueline Hill as Barbara Wright, William Russell as Ian Chesterton, and Maureen O'Brien as Vicki; and featured guest appearances by Julian Glover and Jean Marsh.

In Palestine, near Jerusalem, during the Third Crusade, The Doctor and his companions become ensnared in the political struggles between Richard the Lionheart and Saladin.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that "The Christmas Invasion" led to Christmas specials becoming a staple for Doctor Who?
... that three-quarters of Doctor Who's longest story are missing?
... that due to legal and union restrictions, the production team for the Doctor Who episode "Space Babies" occasionally had to replace real babies with props?
... that the producers of Doctor Who only wrote a queer romance into the programme's 2022 special episodes after viewers began shipping two characters?
... that after being wiped by the BBC, all four episodes of the Doctor Who serial The Time Meddler were discovered in Nigeria in 1984?
... that while filming the Doctor Who serial The Myth Makers, William Hartnell was jealous of being upstaged by the other actors?

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“

'Cause that's how I see the universe. Every waking second, I can see what is, what was, what could be, what must not. That's the burden of a Time Lord, Donna. And I'm the only one left.

”

— Tenth Doctor, The Fires of Pompeii

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Events

**Recent scheduled events**
Date	Event
29 August 2022	Another SMTV Live crossover episode
1 January 2022	2022 specials
December 2021	Big Finish audio play The Year of Martha Jones [1]
February 2022	Second volume of the Big Finish audio play The Lone Centurion [2]
May 2022	Series 2 of the audio play Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures

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More did you know?

... that actress Carole Ann Ford described her character in the Doctor Who serial The Keys of Marinus as "pathetic"?
... that Rose is the first new episode of Doctor Who to be shown since 1996?
... that a rough cut of "Deep Breath", the first episode of the eighth series of Doctor Who, was leaked online six weeks before the episode was due to air?

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