Allons-y!
The Doctor first flew onto our screen in 1963 with the 1st Doctor played by William Hartnell. This BBC produced show was depicted as a science fiction about a Time Lord who steals a time machine (called the TARDIS) to gallivant across worlds and universes.
Since its 1963 airing, Doctor Who was canceled in 1989, an attempted revitalization happened in 1993, but Doctor Who wouldn’t whoosh back onto our screens until 2005.
In its original series, Doctor Who was meant to be an educational show which utilize the time machine to travel time to explore important historical moments. However, that was soon abandoned, and the series became what it is known for today, with a dash of historical moments, loads of different planets and aliens.
Oh, and obviously, spoilers.
Midnight Binge: Doctor Who – Utter Randomness with Lulu
The Many Faces of the Doctor and Regeneration
The Doctor doesn’t die like us merry old humans, instead, the Doctor regenerates. However, this regeneration has a price, a price that not many fans are too keen for when it happens. The Doctor becomes an entirely new person when they regenerate. The Doctor describes regenerating as physically and mentally dying. Everything that made them, well them, essentially dies. Also, if the Doctor reaches their 13th incarnation, they will in fact, die. The Time Lords only have 12 regenerations and die on their 13th. But…it’s a little more complicated than that, especially regarding the Doctor.
While they are at their most powerful before and during regeneration because of the immense energy it takes to regenerate, the Doctor is also at their weakest in this state. If the Doctor dies while regenerating, they truly die.
As of 2021, the Doctor has had 13 official regenerations. This is where time gets all wibbly-wobbly because you know, Time Lord. The 13 official Doctors are William Hartnell (1st), Patrick Troughton (2nd), Jon Pertwee (3rd), Tom Baker (4th), Peter Davison (5th), Colin Baker (6th), Sylvester McCoy (7th), Paul McGann (8th), Christopher Eccleston (9th), David Tennant (10th), Matt Smith (11th), Peter Capaldi (12th) and Jodie Whittaker (13th). However, the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant regenerated once without changing or actually regenerating. The War Doctor, played by the late John Hurt for Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary, never considered himself the Doctor due to the horrific actions and decisions that he had to make during the Time War. Then there is Ruth Clayton, a Doctor on the run with her personality hidden within a fob watch thanks to a chameleon arch. This Doctor is played by Jo Martin during the 13th Doctor’s time. So, technically, there has been 16 incarnations of the Doctor.
The idea of the Doctor regenerating came about when William Hartnell, the 1st Doctor, became ill during his time as the Doctor. In order to keep the newly formed series going, the writers came up with regeneration. Since then, when an actor’s time is up for whatever reason, their incarnation passes on the mantel of being the Doctor to another.
When the first female Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, took up the mantel. There were many questions and concerns that Jodie Whittaker could be the last. Once again, this is because a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times, making their 13th incarnation their last. During the 11th Doctor’s (Matt Smith) time, Clara, the then companion of the Doctor, begged the other Time Lords to give the 11th Doctor more time. The Time Lords seemingly obliged, allowing the 11th to regenerate into the 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi). At first, it was believed that the other Time Lords gave the Doctor more regenerations, allowing them to regenerate 12 more times. However, regeneration just got a whole lot more complicated thanks to the Master, one of the Doctor’s arch-enemies. But…spoilers, and it’s also supremely complicated and not quite fleshed out because this is the storyline of the latest Doctor, which isn’t finished. But I’ll give you two words: Timeless Child.
Opinion: Everyone has their Doctor. The Doctor that introduced them to the series, that they, well, fell in love with. Mine? The 10th Doctor. I watched my first episode which was David Tennant’s first episode, The Christmas Invasion. The 10th Doctor will always be a personal favorite. But I do implore you to NOT skip a Doctor. While you can pretty much start from anywhere and not miss much, the series is pretty much self-contained, I do advise not doing so. Mostly this is because timelines, storylines, companions, and more bleed into current seasons. A prime example is River Song, a companion that first popped onto our screens during the 10th Doctor’s timeline. However, her timeline goes all the way to the 12th Doctor, and her timeline is immense and confusing. So, no skipping.
Time and relative Dimension in Space
Named by Susan Foreman, one of the first companions of the 1st Doctor, T.A.R.D.I.S is short for time and relative dimension in space. The Tardis is a time machine and the most faithful companion of the Doctor.
Every Tardis is equipped with a chameleon circuit, a unique piece of technology that hides the Tardis within its environment so that it blends into whatever planet it lands on, and whatever time. However, the Doctor’s Tardis’s chameleon circuit is broken, and the Tardis’s form is stuck as a 1963 police box. Which, when the Tardis landed on Earth for the first time, it was the 1960s, and police boxes were a common sight.
While the chameleon circuit is broken for the outside of the Tardis, it still retains the ability to change on the inside. During the episode The Doctor’s Wife, Idris (or the Tardis, the Doctor wished really hard) mentioned she had thirty console rooms archived, but the Doctor has only changed it about a dozen times. The console room typically changes their design and style when the Doctor regenerates, not always, but it isn’t unusual.
A neat fact about the Tardis is that it’s sort of alive. This is because Tardises are grown, and it sometimes depends on the season how alive the Tardis is. However, it is evident that she has a soul at the very least, because in The Doctor’s Wife the Tardis’s soul gets transplanted into a living person, Idris. The Tardis’s soul has even been in a companion, Rose Tyler, which unfortunately didn’t end well.
The Tardis is the Doctor’s oldest and most faithful companion. With a busted navigation, it doesn’t always take the Doctor where they want to go, but it always takes them where they need to go.
The Doctor Shouldn’t Travel Alone
The Doctor has had many companions, they joined and left for their own reasons.
Those who have been privileged in being the Doctor’s companion tend to have similar sentiments when they leave. Don’t allow the Doctor to travel alone. Now, I’m not saying that the Doctor hasn’t traveled alone before, because they have. It’s just not advised that they do. And why, one might ask, should the Doctor not travel alone? Because companions make the Doctor human, companions ground the Doctor. Now, remember, the Doctor is anywhere between 900 to almost 2000 years old. The Doctor has saved worlds, universes, people, and aliens over and over. They’ve had to make unspeakable decisions, but the companions, the Doctor’s friends, are so much bigger on the inside, and very important. Pun intended.
Opinion: Favorite companion? It’s a bit of a mix bag, honestly. Donna Noble is definitely top of the list. Making her appearance on a Christmas episode, The Runaway Bride, (unless you want to get technical, her first appearance would be at the end of Doomsday) she wouldn’t be a permanent companion until season 4. Donna’s banter with the 10th Doctor is hilarious and a breath of fresh air, especially after the romantic pining of Rose Tyler and Martha Jones. Nothing against it, just lovely to watch 10 and Donna just enjoying time and space together. Nothing more.
Another companion top of the list is Amelia Pond, commonly known as Amy, and her husband Rory. Out of the companions, Amy and Rory are actually one of the few couples that become companions. Sure, companions get married, but they don’t usually travel together. Sometimes falling in love is one of the main reasons why a companions leave the Doctor.
Amy, is a complicated child/woman. I say child, because that’s how the Doctor meets her, as a young girl as he is regenerating from 10 to 11. Now Rory I was a bit cynical of because male companions don’t always have the best of luck. At first I thought that Rory would be an unfortunate rehash of Micky Smith or even Danny Pink, Rose Tyler’s boyfriend (Micky), Clara Oswald’s boyfriend (Danny) and eventual husband to Martha Jones (Micky). However, Rory is a supremely rational, logical and even calm character. Pretty much asking all the right questions and saying all the right things. He’s also a nurse, making him essentially a very kind person, but he’s a hero in his own right too.
Tick Toc Goes the Clock, even for the Doctor
Doctor Who became the longest running science fiction series with 862+ episodes. It surpassed shows such as Star Trek and The X-Files, and was even awarded and placed in the Guinness Book of Records. It has come with a few spinoffs such as Torchwood, The Sara Jane Adventures, Class, K-9 and Company, and more. It has gained cult following, with a robust fandom called Whovians. Not only is it the longest running series, it has fulfilled some firsts, such as the first female and the first BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) Doctors, played by Jodie Whittaker and Jo Martin.
Doctor Who has been gracing our screens since 1963 and was originally cancelled in 1989. Doctor Who received the axe midway through Sylvester McCoy’s incarnation due to its poor viewership. In 1996, their was an attempt to revitalize the program in a televised film, basically a stand alone pilot, but the attempt was unsuccessful. Doctor Who wasn’t relaunched successfully until 2005. Unfortunately, Doctor Who has been in the rumor mill with a possible cancelation. Due to the pandemic, season 13 of Doctor Who has been postponed until 2021. While it would be sad to see the Doctor leaves our screens, if the first cancelation has told us anything, that sometimes a hiatus isn’t the worse thing to happen, and that the Doctor will always regenerate.
Until next time – Geronimo!
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