The Adventures of Doctor Who
 Doctor Who is a long-running British science fiction television programme (and 1996 television movie) produced by the BBC about the adventures of a mysterious time-traveller known as "the Doctor", who explores time and space with his companions, solving problems and righting wrongs.
The programme is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running science fiction television series in the world and is also a significant part of British popular culture.
It has been recognised for its imaginative stories, creative low-budget special effects during its original run and pioneering use of electronic music (originally produced by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop).
In Britain and elsewhere, the show has become a cult television favourite and has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. It has received recognition from critics and the public as one of the finest British television programmes, including the BAFTA Award for Best Drama Series in 2006.
The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. A television movie was made in 1996, and the programme was successfully relaunched in 2005, produced in-house by BBC Wales. (Some development money for the new series is contributed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which is credited as a co-producer, although they do not have creative input into the show).
Doctor Who has also spawned spin-offs in multiple media, including the current television series Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
The relaunch of the programme has seen Christmas Day special episodes broadcast between series, the most recent being The Runaway Bride. Series 3 of the relaunched programme, starring David Tennant as the Doctor and Freema Agyeman as his companion Martha Jones.
Doctor Who Audio Books
Doctor Who - Adventures in History
Doctor Who - Death Comes to Time
Doctor Who - Fury from the Deep
Doctor Who - Galaxy 4
Doctor Who - Genesis of the Daleks & Exploration Earth
Doctor Who - Marco Polo
Doctor Who - Slipback
Doctor Who - Space Pirates
Doctor Who - Tales from the Tardis - Volume One
Doctor Who - Tales from the Tardis - Volume Two
Doctor Who - The Abominable Snowmen
Doctor Who - The Ark
Doctor Who - The Art of Destruction
Doctor Who - The Celestial Toymaker
Doctor Who - The Dalek Conquests
Doctor Who - The Daleks Master Plan
Doctor Who - The Enemy of the World
Doctor Who - The Evil of the Daleks
Doctor Who - The Faceless Ones
Doctor Who - The Feast of the Drowned
Doctor Who - The Ghosts of N-Space
Doctor Who - The Gunfighters
Doctor Who - The Highlanders
Doctor Who - The Macra Terror
Doctor Who - The Moonbase
Doctor Who - The Nightmare of Black Island
Doctor Who - The Paradise of Death
Doctor Who - The Power of the Daleks
Doctor Who - The Price of Paradise
Doctor Who - The Resurrection Casket
Doctor Who - The Savages
Doctor Who - The Smugglers
Doctor Who - The Stone Rose
Doctor Who - the Tenth Planet
Doctor Who - The Tomb of the Cybermen
Doctor Who - The Underwater Menace
Doctor Who - Yeti Attack !
Doctor Who at the BBC: The Plays
Doctor Who at the BBC: Volume 1
Doctor Who at the BBC: Volume 2
Doctor Who at the BBC: Volume 3
Although it was for all intents and purposes cancelled (as series co-star Sophie Aldred reported in the documentary Doctor Who: More Than 30 Years in the TARDIS), the BBC maintained the series was merely "on hiatus" and insisted the show would return.
While in-house production had ceased, the BBC was hopeful of finding an independent production company to re-launch the show. Philip Segal, a British expatriate who worked for Columbia Pictures' television arm in the United States, approached the BBC about such a venture. Segal's negotiations eventually led to a television movie.
The Doctor Who television movie was broadcast on the Fox Network in 1996 as a co-production between Fox, Universal Pictures, the BBC, and BBC Worldwide. Although the film was successful in the UK (with 9.1 million viewers), it was less so in the United States and did not lead to a series.
Licensed media such as novels and audio plays provided new stories, but as a television programme Doctor Who remained dormant until 2003. In September of that year, BBC Television announced the in-house production of a new series after several years of unsuccessful attempts by BBC Worldwide to find backing for a feature film version.
The new series debuted with the episode Rose on BBC One on 26 March 2005 and the show has since been sold to many other countries. The BBC subsequently commissioned two more series and Christmas specials. The Christmas specials aired in 2005 and 2006, and Series 3 commenced in the UK at 7pm on 31 March 2007.
Doctor (Doctor Who)
The character of the Doctor was initially shrouded in mystery. All that was known about him in the programme's early days was that he was an eccentric alien traveller of great intelligence who battled injustice while exploring time and space in an unreliable old time machine called the TARDIS.
The TARDIS is much larger on the inside than on the outside and, due to a chronic malfunction, stuck in the shape of a 1950s-style British police box.
However, not only did the initially irascible and slightly sinister Doctor quickly mellow into a more compassionate figure, it was eventually revealed that he had been "on the run" from his own people, the Time Lords of the planet Gallifrey.
Like all Time Lords, the Doctor has the ability to "regenerate" his body when near death, allowing for the convenient recasting of the lead actor. A Time Lord can regenerate twelve times, for a total of thirteen incarnations. The Doctor has gone through this process and its resulting after-effects on nine occasions, with each of his incarnations having his own quirks and abilities:
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First Doctor, played by William Hartnell (1963–1966)
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Second Doctor, played by Patrick Troughton (1966–1969)
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Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee (1970–1974)
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Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker (1974–1981)
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Fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison (1981–1984)
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Sixth Doctor, played by Colin Baker (1984–1986)
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Seventh Doctor, played by Sylvester McCoy (1987–1989, 1996)
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Eighth Doctor, played by Paul McGann (1996)
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Ninth Doctor, played by Christopher Eccleston (2005)
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Tenth Doctor, played by David Tennant (2005–present)
Other actors have also played the Doctor, though rarely more than once (see the list of actors who have played the Doctor for details).
A full and detailed account of the Dr Who series can be found here.
Doctor Who information supplied courtesy of wikipedia under the GNU Free Documentation License
The BBC drama department's Serials division produced the programme for twenty-six series, broadcast on BBC One. Viewing numbers that had fallen (though comparably increased at some points), a decline in the public perception of the show and a less prominent transmission slot saw production suspended in 1989 by Jonathan Powell, Controller of BBC One.
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