Dr Who began life as a children's drama serial on BBC television in the early 1960s. In good BBC children's TV tradition, it planned to try and educate while entertaining. Since November 1963, it's become an international institution, spawned two cinema movies, at least one stage play, one Hollywood production, umpteen conventions and hundreds of Web pages. It remains, to date, the world's longest running science fiction programme. For a series that the BBC tried to kill off ten years ago, that's not bad going.
The Doctor (he's never referred to as anything else in the TV series) is a mystery. He's appeared in eight different guises, played by eight different actors as the series stretched over three decades (cynics might say this lent the BBC a certain power when it came to contract renegotiation time). He is an alien being, an intergalactic meddler who sets out to fight evil in all its forms. He's worked his way through dozens of companions who've joined him in his adventures through time and space.
Why has a children's TV series proved to be such a phenomenon? I guess if anyone knew the answer, they'd bottle it and sell it to the networks.
Exterminate!,
Until December 1963, extermination was something that happened when you called the pest control man in to get rid of rats or mice. But the debut of the Daleks, Dr Who's chief adversaries, changed that forever. Created by writer Terry Nation, they became a fixture on the series as the monsters everyone loved to hate. Many a ten-year-old spent Saturday evening hidden behind the sofa while the Daleks wreaked death and destruction, grating "exterminate" to all and sundry on the small screen.
The Daleks were the first monsters that the Doctor met (in his second adventure). They are shaped like pepper pots, gliding around on smooth metal floors, and speak in grating, mechanical voices. We are led to believe that inside the metallic armour is a mutated being so revolting and shapeless that it couldn't be shown on TV. Daleks were evil personified. It's no wonder they were a success.
A phenomenon is born
The Daleks took Britain (and eventually the rest of the world) by storm. There were Dalek badges, pens, games, toys, models, playsuits... you name it, they put a Dalek in it. The world had never seen anything like it. Today, we're used to seeing spin-off toys in the shops. In fact, there are entire TV series with no other aim but to sell merchandise based on their characters. But in the 1960s, this was a first. Dr Who was probably one of
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