The Daleks as seen in the third Doctor story 'Day of the Daleks' (1972)
Doctor Who was created by BBC's head of drama Sydney Newman in 1963. His idea was to broadcast a fantasy children's programme every Saturday evening inbetween the football results and Juke Boy Jury. The role of producer was awarded to Verity Lambert, and the role of associate producer to Mervyn Pinfield. With the producers chosen and preproduction underway the first job given to Verity Lambert was to cast the main parts. The first story titled 'An Unearthly Child' written by Anthony Coburn stated that the main character who be the Doctor, a mysterious old man who operates a strange craft called the TARDIS, standing for Time and Relative Dimension in Space. Although the space craft looks like an old 1950's police box it is indeed a machine that can travel through space and time. He should have three companions, his granddaughter called Susan, and two school teachers who stumble into the tardis in the first part of the story called Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. Verity Lambert cast William Hartnell in the role probably because of his successful parts in the 1950's comedy The Army Game (1958 - 1962) and the film Carry On Sargeant (1958) in whcih he played the Sargeant. With the lead cast it was now her job to find his companions. She cast young actress Carole Ann Ford as his granddaughter Susan and Jacqueline Hill as the school teacher Barbara Wright. Now she just needed to cast the role of Ian Chesterton, which was awarded to actor William Russell. Now the main cast was complete, and work was underway for filming the pilot the first part of 'An Unearthly Child' which was recorded in a single day on 27th September 1963. However BBC bosses were unhappy with it, so filming resumed on the same episode a month later. After this they were given the go ahead to produce the entire 4 part story of 'An Unearthly Child'. The first epsiode was broadcast on 23rd November 1963 and was rather overshadowed by the assassination of President Kennedy which had taken place the day before. Because of this it was repeated the following week along with episode 2. The last episode of 'An Unearthly Child' was broadcast on 14th December 1963. By the end of this Doctor Who's ratings were average and it was crucial that the next story was impressive. It was on 21st December 1963 that British viewers were first given the sight of a Dalek, well, a Dalek's plunger at least and ratings double overnight hitting the 7 million mark. The BBC was then aware of the show's potential and it's longevity was assured.
On this site there is a full episode guide of Doctor Who from William Hartnell's first story to the last story 'Survival' produced in 1989. There is also a brief introduction to each Doctor from the season in which they started. I have concentrated mainly on behind the scenes so each story has a list of the cast and crew involved, some trivia and my opinions on the story.
I hope this provides some useful information on the series for all it's fans!
Doctor Who Episode Guide
Doctor Who Locations
Dalek Photo: Copyright: BBC. Logo: Copyright: BBC.
