Doctor Who
| Name: | Doctor Who |
| Abbreviation(s): | DW |
| Creator: | various (See subpages) |
| Date(s): | 1963-1989, 2005- |
| Medium: | Television series |
| Country of Origin: | United Kingdom |
| External Links: | |
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Subpages for Doctor Who: Fandom Glossary · Fanfic · Fanzines · Martha Jones · Offline · Online · Rose Tyler
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Doctor Who is a British science fiction television show that first aired on BBC One in 1963. The central character is a humanoid alien adventurer known as "the Doctor", who travels through time and space in his ship, the TARDIS (an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space), which appears in the form of a blue police box from the 1950s. Due to its transdimensional nature, it is much larger on the inside. Each episode finds the Doctor visiting another planet or a moment in Earth history.
The Doctor often travels with one or more companions or assistants, the majority of whom are human women. The Doctor "regenerates" into a new body rather than dying, allowing a variety of actors to play the role. Fans often refer to each different incarnation numerically; for example, the incarnation of the Doctor portrayed by Christopher Eccleston would be referred to as "The Ninth Doctor" or simply "Nine".
Doctor Who originally ran for 26 seasons from 1963 to 1989. A TV movie was also made in 1996. This was a co-production between the BBC and Universal; it was intended as a backdoor pilot for an ongoing American series, which never eventuated. The TV movie aired on Fox in the US, where it received poor ratings and reviews. It was more successful in the UK.
In the period between the cancellation of the original series in 1989 and the revival in 2005, there was a proliferation of semi-canonical material mostly concerning the Seventh and Eighth Doctors. These books and radio plays were created by fans but published professionally, and in some cases by the BBC.
(INSERT: Virgin novels about Seven, BBC novel series about Eight, BBC Past Doctor Adventures, Big Finish audio plays and spinoffs, more?)
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Doctor Who Fandom
Doctor Who has one of the oldest media fandoms. See Doctor Who -- offline fandom for information about the physical manifestations of the fandom; Doctor Who -- online fandom for the internet fandom.
The main off-Livejournal archive for Doctor Who fanfic is A Teaspoon and an Open Mind, which also includes fanfic for all Doctor Who spinoffs. This archive was created before the new series began.
Spin-off Fandoms
- The television show Torchwood was spun-off of the "new" Doctor Who around the character of Captain Jack Harkness. Though characters like Captain Jack and Martha Jones have crossed over between the two shows, many fandom communities focus on only one show or the other.
- The Sarah Jane Adventures is another television spin-off with Sarah Jane Smith, who was a companion of the Third and Fourth Doctors in the 1970s and made guest appearances on New Who, as its main character. It is designed for a younger audience than Doctor Who.
- Big Finish creates a number of audio dramas for Doctor Who.
Conventions
Below are conventions that are/were either centered around Doctor Who or often have/had significant Doctor Who related guests.
- Gallifrey One, Los Angeles, February
- Destiny, Northampton, UK
- Whovention, Sydney Australia
- PanoptiCon, Manchester, UK
- Cult TV Convention Liverpool, UK, Oct.
- Dimensions, Stockton on Tees, UK, November
- Ascension, Cardiff, UK, Nov.
- United Fan Con, Massachusetts, US, Nov.
- Chicago T.A.R.D.I.S., Chicago, US., Nov.
- Sci-Fi Sea Cruise, various dates and departure locations
Directions for Knitting the Scarf
Online Links
- Outpost Mâvarin A blogger talks about the early days of cons and fan fiction (specifically Dr. Who and Quantum Leap) via the newly-born internet
