Dr Who

''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterrestrial being called the Doctor, part of a humanoid species called Time Lords. The Doctor travels in the universe and in time using a time travelling spaceship called the TARDIS, which externally appears as a British police box. While travelling, the Doctor works to save lives and liberate oppressed peoples by combating foes. The Doctor usually travels with companions.

Beginning with William Hartnell, fourteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor; the most recent being Ncuti Gatwa, who portrayed the Fifteenth Doctor from 2023 to 2025. The transition between actors is written into the plot of the series with the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation, a plot device in which, when a Time Lord is fatally injured, their cells regenerate and they are reincarnated into a different body with new mannerisms and behaviour but the same memories. This explains each actor's distinct portrayal, as they all represent different stages in the Doctor's life and, together, form a single lifetime with a single narrative. The time-travelling nature of the plot means that different incarnations of the Doctor occasionally meet. The Doctor can change ethnic appearance or gender; in 2017, Jodie Whittaker became the first woman cast in the lead role, and in 2023, Gatwa became the first black actor to lead the series.

The series is a significant part of popular culture in Britain and elsewhere; it has gained a cult following. It has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. Fans of the series are sometimes referred to as ''Whovians''. The series has been listed in ''Guinness World Records'' as the longest-running science-fiction television series in the world, as well as the "most successful" science-fiction series of all time, based on its overall broadcast ratings, DVD and book sales.

The series originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot in the form of a television film titled ''Doctor Who''. The series was relaunched in 2005 and was produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff. Since 2023, the show has been co-produced by Bad Wolf and BBC Studios Productions in Cardiff. ''Doctor Who'' has spawned numerous spin-offs as part of the Whoniverse, including comic books, films, novels and audio dramas, and the television series ''Torchwood'' (2006–2011), ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' (2007–2011), '' K9'' (2009–2010), ''Class'' (2016), '' Tales of the TARDIS'' (2023–2024), and the upcoming '' The War Between the Land and the Sea''. It has been the subject of many parodies and references in popular culture.

Premise

''Doctor Who'' follows the adventures of the title character, a rogue Time Lord with somewhat unknown origins who goes by the name "the Doctor". The Doctor fled Gallifrey, the planet of the Time Lords, in a stolen TARDIS ("Time and Relative Dimension(s) in Space"), a time machine that travels by materialising into, and dematerialising out of, the time vortex. The TARDIS has a vast interior but appears smaller on the outside, and is equipped with a "chameleon circuit" intended to make the machine take on the appearance of local objects as a disguise. Because of a malfunction, the Doctor's TARDIS remains fixed as a blue British police box.

Across time and space, the Doctor's many incarnations often find events that pique their curiosity, and try to prevent evil forces from harming innocent people or changing history, using only ingenuity and minimal resources, such as the versatile sonic screwdriver. The Doctor rarely travels alone and is often joined by one or more companions on these adventures; these companions are usually humans, owing to the Doctor's fascination with planet Earth, which also leads to frequent collaborations with the international military task force UNIT when Earth is threatened. The Doctor is centuries old and, as a Time Lord, has the ability to regenerate when there is mortal damage to their body. The Doctor's various incarnations have gained numerous recurring enemies during their travels, including the Daleks, their creator Davros, the Cybermen, and the renegade Time Lord the Master.

History

''Doctor Who'' was originally intended to appeal to a family audience as an educational programme using time travel as a means to explore scientific ideas and famous moments in history. The programme first appeared on the BBC Television Service at 17:16:20 GMT on 23 November 1963; this was eighty seconds later than the scheduled programme time, because of announcements concerning the previous day's assassination of John F. Kennedy. It was to be a regular weekly programme, each episode 25 minutes of transmission length. Discussions and plans for the programme had been in progress for a year. The head of drama Sydney Newman was mainly responsible for developing the programme, with the first format document for the series being written by Newman along with the head of the script department (later head of serials) Donald Wilson and staff writer C. E. Webber; in a 1971 interview Wilson claimed to have named the series, and when this claim was put to Newman he did not dispute it. Writer Anthony Coburn, story editor David Whitaker and initial producer Verity Lambert also heavily contributed to the development of the series.

On 31 July 1963, Whitaker commissioned Terry Nation to write a story under the title ''The Mutants''. As originally written, the Daleks and Thals were the victims of an alien neutron bomb attack but Nation later dropped the aliens and made the Daleks the aggressors. When the script was presented to Wilson, it was immediately rejected as the programme was not permitted to contain any " bug-eyed monsters". According to Lambert, "We didn't have a lot of choice—we only had the Dalek serial to go ... We had a bit of a crisis of confidence because Donald ilsonwas so adamant that we shouldn't make it. Had we had anything else ready we would have made that." Nation's script became the second ''Doctor Who'' serial – ''The Daleks'' (also known as ''The Mutants''). The serial introduced the eponymous aliens that would become the series' most popular monsters, dubbed "Dalekmania", and was responsible for the BBC's first merchandising boom.

The BBC drama department produced the programme for 26 seasons, broadcast on BBC One. Due to his increasingly poor health, William Hartnell, first actor to play the Doctor, was succeeded by Patrick Troughton in 1966. In 1970, Jon Pertwee replaced Troughton and the series began production in colour. In 1974, Tom Baker was cast as the Doctor. His eccentric personality became hugely popular, with viewing figures for the series returning to a level not seen since the height of "Dalekmania" a decade earlier. After seven years in the role, Baker was replaced by Peter Davison in 1981, and Colin Baker replaced Davison in 1984. In 1985, the channel's controller Michael Grade cancelled the upcoming twenty-third season, forcing the series into an eighteen-month hiatus. In 1986, the series was recommissioned on the condition that Baker left the role of the Doctor, which was recast to Sylvester McCoy in 1987. Falling viewing numbers, a decline in the public perception of the series and a less-prominent transmission slot saw production ended in 1989 by Peter Cregeen, the BBC's new head of series. Although it was effectively cancelled, the BBC repeatedly affirmed over several years that the series would return.

While in-house production concluded, the BBC explored an independent production company to relaunch the series. Philip Segal, a British expatriate who worked for Columbia Pictures' television arm in the United States, had approached the BBC as early as July 1989, while the 26th season was still in production.Doctor Who Magazine Eighth Doctor Special, Panini Comics 2003 Segal's negotiations eventually led to a ''Doctor Who'' television film as a pilot for an American series, broadcast on the Fox Network in 1996, as an international co-production between Fox, Universal Pictures, the BBC and BBC Worldwide. Starring Paul McGann as the Doctor, the film was successful in the UK (with 9.1 million viewers), but 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. In September 2003, BBC Television announced the in-house production of a new series, after several years of attempts by BBC Worldwide to find backing for a feature film version. The 2005 revival of ''Doctor Who'' is a direct plot continuation of the original 1963–1989 series and the 1996 television film. The executive producers of the new incarnation of the series were '' Queer as Folk'' writer Russell T Davies and BBC Cymru Wales head of drama Julie Gardner. From 2005, the series switched from a multi-camera to a single-camera setup.

Starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, ''Doctor Who'' returned with the episode "Rose" on BBC One on 26 March 2005, after a 16-year hiatus of in-house production. Eccleston left after one series and was replaced by David Tennant. Davies left the production team in 2009. Steven Moffat, a writer under Davies, was announced as his successor, along with Matt Smith as the new Doctor. Smith decided to leave the role of the Doctor in 2013, the 50th anniversary year. He was replaced by Peter Capaldi.

In January 2016, Moffat announced that he would step down after the 2017 finale, to be replaced by Chris Chibnall in 2018. Jodie Whittaker, the first female Doctor, appeared in three series, the last of which was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Both Whittaker and Chibnall announced that they would depart the series after a series of specials in 2022. Davies returned as showrunner from the 60th anniversary specials, twelve years after he had left the series previously. Bad Wolf co-produces the series in partnership with BBC Studios Productions. Bad Wolf's involvement sees Gardner return to the series alongside Davies and Jane Tranter, who recommissioned the series in 2005.

The programme has been sold to many other countries worldwide .

Public consciousness

It has been claimed that the transmission of the first episode was delayed by ten minutes due to extended news coverage of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy the previous day; in fact, it went out after a delay of eighty seconds. The BBC believed that coverage of the assassination, as well as a series of power blackouts across the country, had caused many viewers to miss this introduction to a new series, and it was broadcast again on 30 November 1963, just before episode two.

The programme soon became a national institution in the United Kingdom, with a large following among the general viewing audience. The show received controversy over the suitability of the series for children. Morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse repeatedly complained to the BBC over what she saw as the programme's violent, frightening and gory content. According to ''Radio Times'', the series "never had a more implacable foe than Mary Whitehouse".

A BBC audience research survey conducted in 1972 found that, by their own definition of violence ("any act which may cause physical and/or psychological injury, hurt or death to persons, animals or property, whether intentional or accidental"), ''Doctor Who'' was the most violent of the drama programmes the corporation produced at the time. The same report found that 3% of the surveyed audience believed the series was "very unsuitable" for family viewing. Responding to the findings of the survey in ''The Times'' newspaper, journalist Philip Howard maintained that, "to compare the violence of ''Dr Who'', sired by a horse-laugh out of a nightmare, with the more realistic violence of other television series, where actors who look like human beings bleed paint that looks like blood, is like comparing Monopoly with the property market in London: both are fantasies, but one is meant to be taken seriously."

During Jon Pertwee's second season as the Doctor, in the serial ''Terror of the Autons'' (1971), images of murderous plastic dolls, daffodils killing unsuspecting victims, and blank-featured policemen marked the apex of the series' ability to frighten children. Other notable moments in that decade include a disembodied brain falling to the floor in ''The Brain of Morbius'' and the Doctor apparently being drowned by a villain in ''The Deadly Assassin'' (both 1976). Mary Whitehouse's complaint about the latter incident prompted a change in BBC policy towards the series, with much tighter controls imposed on the production team, and the series' next producer, Graham Williams, was under a directive to take out "anything graphic in the depiction of violence". John Nathan-Turner produced the series during the 1980s and said in the documentary '' More Than Thirty Years in the TARDIS'' that he looked forward to Whitehouse's comments because the ratings of the series would increase soon after she had made them. Nathan-Turner also got into trouble with BBC executives over the violence he allowed to be depicted for season 22 of the series in 1985, which was publicly criticised by controller Michael Grade and given as one of his reasons for suspending the series for 18 months.

The phrase "hiding " (or "watching from behind the sofa") entered British pop culture, signifying the stereotypical but apocryphal early-series behaviour of children who wanted to avoid seeing frightening parts of a television programme while remaining in the room to watch the remainder of it."Still, the Daleks are the boss space horrors, something to get the children hiding behind the sofa." ''The Economist'' presented "hiding behind the sofa whenever the Daleks appear" as a British cultural institution on a par with Bovril and tea-time. Paul Parsons, author of ''The Science of Doctor Who'', explains the appeal of hiding behind the sofa as the activation of the fear response in the amygdala in conjunction with reassurances of safety from the brain's frontal lobe. The phrase retains this association with ''Doctor Who'', to the point that in 1991 the Museum of the Moving Image in London named its exhibition celebrating the programme ''Behind the Sofa''. The electronic theme music too was perceived as eerie, novel, and frightening at the time. A 2012 article placed this childhood juxtaposition of fear and thrill "at the center of many people's relationship with the series", and a 2011 online vote at Digital Spy deemed the series the "scariest TV show of all time".

The image of the TARDIS has become firmly linked to the series in the public's consciousness; BBC scriptwriter Anthony Coburn, who lived in the resort of Herne Bay, Kent, was one of the people who conceived the idea of a police box as a time machine. In 1996, the BBC applied for a trademark to use the TARDIS' blue police box design in merchandising associated with ''Doctor Who''. In 1998, the Metropolitan Police Authority filed an objection to the trademark claim; but in 2002, the Patent Office ruled in favour of the BBC.

The 21st-century revival of the programme became the centrepiece of BBC One's Saturday schedule and "defined the channel". Many renowned actors have made guest-starring appearances in various stories including Kylie Minogue, Sir Ian McKellen, and Andrew Garfield among others. According to an article in the ''Daily Telegraph'' in 2009, the revival of ''Doctor Who'' had consistently received high ratings, both in number of viewers and as measured by the Appreciation Index. In 2007, Caitlin Moran, television reviewer for ''The Times'', wrote that ''Doctor Who'' is "quintessential to being British". According to Steven Moffat, the American film director Steven Spielberg has commented that "the world would be a poorer place without ''Doctor Who''".

On 4 August 2013, a live programme titled ''Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor'' was broadcast on BBC One, during which the actor who was going to play the Twelfth Doctor was revealed. The live show was watched by an average of 6.27 million in the UK, and was also simulcast in the United States, Canada and Australia.

Episodes

''Doctor Who'' originally ran for 26 seasons on BBC One, from 23 November 1963 until 6 December 1989. During the original run, each weekly episode formed part of a story (or "serial")—usually of four to six parts in earlier years and three to four in later years. Some notable exceptions were: '' The Daleks' Master Plan'', which aired twelve episodes (plus an earlier one-episode teaser, " Mission to the Unknown", featuring none of the regular cast); almost an entire season of seven-episode serials (season 7); the ten-episode serial ''The War Games''; and '' The Trial of a Time Lord'', which ran for fourteen episodes (albeit divided into three production codes and four narrative segments) during season 23. Occasionally, serials were loosely connected by a story line, such as season 8 focusing on the Doctor battling a rogue Time Lord called the Master, season 16's quest for the Key to Time, season 18's journey through E-Space and the theme of entropy, and season 20's Black Guardian trilogy.

The programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule. It initially alternated stories set in the past, which taught younger audience members about history, and with those in the future or outer space, focusing on science. This was also reflected in the Doctor's original companions, one of whom was a science teacher and another a history teacher.

However, science fiction stories came to dominate the programme, and the history-oriented episodes, which were not popular with the production team, were dropped after '' The Highlanders'' (1967). While the show continued to use historical settings, they were generally used as a backdrop for science fiction tales, with one exception: '' Black Orchid'' (1982), set in 1920s England.

The early stories were serialised in nature, with the narrative of one story flowing into the next and each episode having its own title, although produced as distinct stories with their own production codes. Following '' The Gunfighters'' (1966), however, each serial was given its own title, and the individual parts were assigned episode numbers.

Of the programme's many writers, Robert Holmes was the most prolific, while Douglas Adams became the best known outside ''Doctor Who'' itself, due to the popularity of his '' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' works.

The serial format changed for the 2005 revival, with what was now called a series usually consisting of thirteen 45-minute, self-contained episodes (60 minutes with adverts, on overseas commercial channels) and an extended 60-minute episode broadcast on Christmas Day. This system was shortened to twelve episodes and one Christmas special following the revival's eighth series, and ten episodes from the eleventh series. Each series includes standalone and multiple episodic stories, often linked with a loose story arc resolved in the series finale. As in the early "classic" era, each episode has its own title, whether stand-alone or part of a larger story. Occasionally, regular-series episodes will exceed the 45-minute run time; for example, the episodes "Journey's End" (2008) and " The Eleventh Hour" (2010) were longer than an hour.

''Doctor Who'' instalments have been televised since 1963, ranging between 25-minute episodes (the most common format for the classic era), 45/50-minute episodes (for ''Resurrection of the Daleks'' in the 1984 series, a single season in 1985, and the most common format for the revival era since 2005), two feature-length productions (1983's "The Five Doctors" and the 1996 television film), twelve Christmas specials (most of approximately 60 minutes' duration, one of 72 minutes), and four additional specials ranging from 60 to 75 minutes in 2009, 2010, and 2013. Four mini-episodes, running about eight minutes each, were also produced for the 1993, 2005, and 2007 Children in Need charity appeals, while another mini-episode was produced in 2008 for a ''Doctor Who''–themed edition of The Proms. The 1993 two-part story, entitled ''Dimensions in Time'', was made in collaboration with the cast of the BBC soap-opera ''EastEnders'' and was filmed partly on the ''EastEnders'' set. A two-part mini-episode was also produced for the 2011 edition of Comic Relief. Starting with the 2009 special "Planet of the Dead", the series was filmed in 1080i for HDTV and broadcast simultaneously on BBC One and BBC HD.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the show, a special 3D episode, "The Day of the Doctor", was broadcast in 2013. In March 2013, it was announced that Tennant and Piper would be returning and that the episode would have a limited cinematic release worldwide.

In June 2017, it was announced that due to the terms of a deal between BBC Worldwide and SMG Pictures in China, the company has first right of refusal on the purchase for the Chinese market of future series of the programme until and including Series 15.

Missing episodes

Between 1967 and 1978, large amounts of older material stored in the BBC's various video tape and film libraries was either destroyed or wiped. This included many early episodes of ''Doctor Who'', those stories featuring the first two Doctors: William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. In all, 97 of 253 episodes produced during the programme's first six years are not held in the BBC's archives (most notably seasons 3, 4, and 5, from which 79 episodes are missing). In 1972, almost all episodes then made were known to exist at the BBC, while by 1978 the practice of wiping tapes and destroying "spare" film copies had been brought to a stop.

No 1960s episodes exist on their original videotapes (all surviving prints being film transfers), though some were transferred to film for editing before transmission and exist in their broadcast form.

Some episodes have been returned to the BBC from the archives of other countries that bought prints for broadcast or by private individuals who acquired them by various means. Early colour videotape recordings made off-air by fans have also been retrieved, as well as excerpts filmed from the television screen onto 8 mm cine film and clips that were shown on other programmes. Audio versions of all lost episodes exist from home viewers who made tape recordings of the show. Short clips from every story with the exception of ''Marco Polo'' (1964), " Mission to the Unknown" (1965) and ''The Massacre'' (1966) also exist.

In addition to these, there are off-screen photographs made by photographer John Cura, who was hired by various production personnel to document many of their programmes during the 1950s and 1960s, including ''Doctor Who''. These have been used in fan reconstructions of the serials. The BBC has tolerated these amateur reconstructions, provided they are not sold for profit and are distributed as low-quality copies.

One of the most sought-after lost episodes is part four of the last William Hartnell serial, '' The Tenth Planet'' (1966), which ends with the First Doctor transforming into the Second. The only portion of this in existence, barring a few poor-quality silent 8 mm clips, is the few seconds of the regeneration scene, as it was shown on the children's magazine show ''Blue Peter''. With the approval of the BBC, efforts are now underway to restore as many of the episodes as possible from the extant material.

"Official" reconstructions have also been released by the BBC on VHS, on MP3 CD-ROM, and as special features on DVD. The BBC, in conjunction with animation studio Cosgrove Hall, reconstructed the missing episodes 1 and 4 of '' The Invasion'' (1968), using remastered audio tracks and the comprehensive stage notes for the original filming, for the serial's DVD release in November 2006. The missing episodes of '' The Reign of Terror'' were animated by animation company Theta-Sigma, in collaboration with Big Finish, and became available for purchase in May 2013 through Amazon.com. Subsequent animations made in 2013 include ''The Tenth Planet'', '' The Ice Warriors'' (1967) and ''The Moonbase'' (1967).

In April 2006, ''Blue Peter'' launched a challenge to find missing ''Doctor Who'' episodes with the promise of a full-scale Dalek model as a reward. In December 2011, it was announced that part 3 of ''Galaxy 4'' (1965) and part 2 of '' The Underwater Menace'' (1967) had been returned to the BBC by a fan who had purchased them in the mid-1980s without realising that the BBC did not hold copies of them.

On 10 October 2013, the BBC announced that films of eleven episodes, including nine missing episodes, had been found in a Nigerian television relay station in Jos. Six of the eleven films discovered were the six-part serial ''The Enemy of the World'' (1968), from which all but the third episode had been missing. The remaining films were from another six-part serial, ''The Web of Fear'' (1968), and included the previously missing episodes 2, 4, 5 and 6. Episode 3 of ''The Web of Fear'' is still missing.

Characters

The Doctor

The Doctor was initially shrouded in mystery. In the programme's early days, the character was an eccentric alien traveller of great intelligence who battled injustice while exploring time and space in an unreliable time machine, the "TARDIS" (an acronym for Time and Relative Dimension in Space), which notably appears much larger on the inside than on the outside.

The initially irascible and slightly sinister Doctor quickly mellowed into a more compassionate figure and was eventually revealed to be a Time Lord, whose race are from the planet Gallifrey, which the Doctor fled by stealing the TARDIS.

Changes of appearance

Producers introduced the concept of regeneration to permit the recasting of the main character. This was prompted by the poor health of the original star, William Hartnell. The term "regeneration" was not conceived until the Doctor's third on-screen regeneration; Hartnell's Doctor merely described undergoing a "renewal", and the Second Doctor underwent a "change of appearance". The device has allowed for the recasting of the actor various times in the show's history, as well as the depiction of alternative Doctors either from the Doctor's relative past or future.

The serials ''The Deadly Assassin'' (1976) and ''Mawdryn Undead'' (1983) established that a Time Lord can only regenerate 12 times, for a total of 13 incarnations. This line became stuck in the public consciousness despite not often being repeated and was recognised by producers of the show as a plot obstacle for when the show finally had to regenerate the Doctor a thirteenth time. The episode " The Time of the Doctor" (2013) depicted the Doctor acquiring a new cycle of regenerations, starting from the Twelfth Doctor, due to the Eleventh Doctor being the product of the Doctor's twelfth regeneration from his original set.

Although the idea of casting a woman as the Doctor had been suggested by the show's writers several times, including by Newman in 1986 and Davies in 2008, until 2017, all official depictions were played by men. Jodie Whittaker took over the role as the Thirteenth Doctor at the end of the 2017 Christmas special and is the first woman to be cast as the character. The show introduced the Time Lords' ability to change sex on regeneration in earlier episodes, first in dialogue, then with Michelle Gomez's version of the Master and T'Nia Miller's version of the General.

Upon Whittaker's final appearance as the character in "The Power of the Doctor" on 23 October 2022, she regenerated into a form portrayed by David Tennant, who was confirmed to be the Fourteenth Doctor and the first actor to play two incarnations, having previously played the Tenth Doctor. In the same year, Ncuti Gatwa was revealed to be portraying the Fifteenth Doctor, making him the first black actor to headline the series. In " The Reality War", the Fifteenth Doctor regenerates into a character portrayed by Billie Piper, who previously portrayed the Doctor's companion Rose Tyler. While Piper's official role remains undisclosed, with the closing credits merely reading "Introducing Billie Piper", some sources assumed her to be taking on the sixteenth incarnation.

In addition to those actors who have headlined the series, others have portrayed versions of the Doctor in guest roles. Notably, in 2013, John Hurt guest-starred as a hitherto unknown incarnation of the Doctor known as the War Doctor in the run-up to the show's 50th-anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor". He is shown in mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor" retroactively inserted into the show's fictional chronology between McGann's and Eccleston's Doctors, although his introduction was written so as not to disturb the established numerical naming of the Doctors. The show later introduced another such unknown past Doctor with Jo Martin's recurring portrayal of the Fugitive Doctor, beginning with "Fugitive of the Judoon" (2020). An example from the classic series comes from '' The Trial of a Time Lord'' (1986), in which Michael Jayston's character the Valeyard is described as an amalgamation of the darker sides of the Doctor's nature, somewhere between the twelfth and final incarnation. The most recent example is when Richard E. Grant, who previously portrayed an alternate version of the Doctor known as the Shalka Doctor in the animated series Scream of the Shalka (2003), appeared as a hologram of a past Doctor in " Rogue" (2024).

On rare occasions, other actors have stood in for the lead. In "The Five Doctors", Richard Hurndall played the First Doctor due to William Hartnell's death in 1975; 34 years later David Bradley similarly replaced Hartnell in " Twice Upon a Time". In ''Time and the Rani'', Sylvester McCoy briefly played the Sixth Doctor during the regeneration sequence, carrying on as the Seventh. In other media, the Doctor has been played by various other actors, including Peter Cushing in two films.

The casting of a new Doctor has often inspired debate and speculation. Common topics of focus include the Doctor's sex (prior to the casting of Whittaker, all official incarnations were male), race (all Doctors were white prior to the casting of Jo Martin in "Fugitive of the Judoon") and age (the youngest actor to be cast is Smith at 26, and the oldest are Capaldi and Hartnell, both 55).

Meetings of different incarnations

There have been instances of actors returning later to reprise their specific Doctor's role. In 1973's '' The Three Doctors'', William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton returned alongside Jon Pertwee. For 1983's "The Five Doctors", Troughton and Pertwee returned to star with Peter Davison, and Tom Baker appeared in previously unseen footage from the uncompleted '' Shada'' serial. For this episode, Richard Hurndall replaced William Hartnell. Patrick Troughton again returned in 1985's ''The Two Doctors'' with Colin Baker.

In 2007, Peter Davison returned in the Children in Need short " Time Crash" alongside David Tennant. In "The Name of the Doctor" (2013), the Eleventh Doctor meets a previously unseen incarnation of himself, subsequently revealed to be the War Doctor. In the following episode, "The Day of the Doctor", David Tennant's Tenth Doctor appeared alongside Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor and John Hurt as the War Doctor, as well as brief footage of all the previous actors. In 2017, the First Doctor (this time portrayed by David Bradley) returned alongside Peter Capaldi in "The Doctor Falls" and " Twice Upon a Time".

In 2020's "Fugitive of the Judoon", Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor meets Jo Martin's incarnation of the Doctor, subsequently known as the Fugitive Doctor; they interact again in the episode " The Timeless Children" later that year as well as in " Once, Upon Time" in 2021. In her final episode, "The Power of the Doctor" (2022), Whittaker interacts with the Guardians of the Edge, manifestations of the Doctor's First (Bradley), Fifth (Davison), Sixth (Colin Baker), Seventh (McCoy), and Eighth (McGann) incarnations. In " The Giggle" (2023), following the unusual bi-generation of the Fourteenth Doctor which saw the Fifteenth Doctor split out from him, the two Doctors shared a scene together as they defeated the episode's villain, the Toymaker. The Fifteenth Doctor briefly interacts with the Thirteenth Doctor in Season 2 episode The Reality War.

Additionally, multiple incarnations of the Doctor have met in various audio dramas and novels based on the television show.

Companions

The companion figure – generally a human – has been a constant feature in ''Doctor Who'' since the programme's inception in 1963. One of the roles of the companion is to be a reminder for the Doctor's "moral duty". The Doctor's first companions seen on-screen were his granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford) and her teachers Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) and Ian Chesterton ( William Russell). These characters were intended to act as audience surrogates, through which the audience would discover information about the Doctor, who was to act as a mysterious father figure. The only story from the original series in which the Doctor travels alone is "The Deadly Assassin" (1976). Notable companions from the earlier series include a Time Lady named Romana ( Mary Tamm and Lalla Ward), and humans such as Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines), Jo Grant (Katy Manning), Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), Tegan Jovanka ( Janet Fielding), Peri Brown ( Nicola Bryant), and Ace (Sophie Aldred). Dramatically, these characters provide a figure with whom the audience can identify and serve to further the story by requesting exposition from the Doctor and manufacturing peril for the Doctor to resolve. The Doctor regularly gains new companions and loses old ones; sometimes they return home or find new causes—or loves—on worlds they have visited. Some have died during the course of the series. Companions are usually humans or humanoid aliens.

Since the 2005 revival, the Doctor generally travels with a primary female companion, who occupies a larger narrative role. Steven Moffat described the companion as the main character of the show, as the story begins anew with each companion and she undergoes more change than the Doctor. The primary companions of the Ninth and Tenth Doctors were Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), and Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), with Mickey Smith (Noel Clarke) and Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) recurring as secondary companion figures. The Eleventh Doctor became the first to travel with a married couple, Amy Pond ( Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), whilst out-of-sync meetings with River Song (Alex Kingston) and Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) provided ongoing story arcs that continued with the Twelfth Doctor. The tenth series included the alien Nardole (Matt Lucas) and introduced Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts, the Doctor's first openly gay companion. Pearl Mackie said that the increased representation of LGBTQ people is important on a mainstream show. The Thirteenth Doctor primarily travelled with Ryan Sinclair ( Tosin Cole), Graham O'Brien (Bradley Walsh), Yasmin Khan (Mandip Gill), and Dan Lewis ( John Bishop). When David Tennant returned as the Fourteenth Doctor, former co-star Catherine Tate joined him to reprise her role of Donna Noble for the 2023 specials. The Fifteenth Doctor travelled with Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) in his first series and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu) in his second. The combination of Gatwa and Sethu was notable for being the first time the primary cast of the show consisted entirely of non-white actors.

Some companions have gone on to reappear, either in the main series or in spin-offs. Sarah Jane Smith became the central character in ''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' (2007–2011) following a return to ''Doctor Who'' in 2006. Guest stars in the series include former companions Jo Grant, K9, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney). The character of Jack Harkness also served to launch a spin-off, ''Torchwood'' (2006–2011), in which Martha Jones also appeared.

Foes

When Sydney Newman commissioned the series, he specifically did not want to perpetuate the cliché of the " bug-eyed monster" of science fiction. However, monsters were popular with audiences and so became a staple of ''Doctor Who'' almost from the beginning. Daleks, Cybermen, and the Master are some of the most iconic foes the Doctor has battled in the series.

With the show's 2005 revival, executive producer Russell T Davies stated his intention to reintroduce the classic monsters of ''Doctor Who''. The Autons with the Nestene Consciousness, first seen in 1970's ''Spearhead from Space'', and Daleks, first seen in 1963's ''The Daleks'', returned in series 1. Davies's successor, Steven Moffat, continued the trend by reviving the Silurians, also first seen in 1970, in series 5 and Zygons, first seen in 1975, in the 50th-anniversary special. Since its 2005 return, the series has also introduced new recurring aliens: Slitheen (Raxacoricofallapatorians), Ood, Judoon, Weeping Angels and the Silence.

Daleks

The Daleks, which first appeared in the show's second serial in 1963, are ''Doctor Who''s oldest villains. The Daleks are Kaleds from the planet Skaro, mutated by the scientist Davros and housed in mechanical armour shells for mobility. The actual creatures resemble octopuses with large, pronounced brains. Their armour shells have a single eye-stalk, a sink-plunger-like device that serves the purpose of a hand, and a directed-energy weapon. Their main weakness is their eyestalk; attacks upon them using various weapons can blind a Dalek, making it go mad. Their chief role in the series plot, as they frequently remark in their instantly recognisable metallic voices, is to "exterminate" all non-Dalek beings. They even attack the Time Lords in the Time War, as shown during the 50th Anniversary of the show. They continue to be a recurring 'monster' within the Doctor Who franchise, having appeared in every series since 2005. Davros has also been a recurring figure since his debut in ''Genesis of the Daleks'', although played by several different actors.

The Daleks were created by the writer Terry Nation (who intended them to be an allegory of the Nazis) and BBC designer Raymond Cusick. The Daleks' début in the programme's second serial, ''The Daleks'' (1963–1964), made both the Daleks and ''Doctor Who'' very popular. A Dalek appeared on a postage stamp celebrating British popular culture in 1999, photographed by Lord Snowdon. The Daleks received another stamp in 2013 as part of the 50th anniversary. In " Victory of the Daleks" a new set of Daleks were introduced that come in a range of colours; the colour denoting its role within the species.

Cybermen

Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more and more artificial parts into their bodies. This led to the race becoming coldly logical and calculating cyborg

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