Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: When did Doctor Who first air?
"Rose" finally saw transmission on schedule on 26 March 2005 at 7 pm on BBC One, the first regular episode of "Doctor Who" since Part Three of "Survival" on 6 December 1989. To complement the series, BBC Wales also produced "Doctor Who Confidential", a 13-part documentary series with each episode broadcast on BBC Three immediately after the end of the weekly instalment on BBC One. Both the series and documentary aired for 13 consecutive weeks, with the finale episode, "The Parting of the Ways", airing on 18 June 2005 along with its documentary counterpart. Davies had requested that the two first episodes were broadcast back-to-back, but the request was given to the BBC just two weeks before transmission, at which point everything was already set. In some regions, the first few minutes of the original BBC broadcast of "Rose" on 26 March were marred by the accidental mixing of a few seconds of sound from Graham Norton hosting "Strictly Dance Fever".
On 16 July 2017, Whittaker was announced as the Thirteenth Doctor in the science fiction television series "Doctor Who"; she is the first woman to play the title role. She had previously worked with incoming "Doctor Who" showrunner Chris Chibnall on "Broadchurch". She admitted that she had to "tell a lot of lies" after being cast to keep the information secret and used the codeword "Clooney" when talking about the role. She urged fans not to be afraid of her gender, saying ""Doctor Who" represents everything that's exciting about change. The fans have lived through so many changes, and this is only a new, different one, not a fearful one." Chibnall said that he always wanted a woman for the part and that Whittaker was their first choice.
The first series consist of stories featuring the First Doctor. William Russell reprises the role of Ian Chesterton in the first two stories, while Peter Purves reprises the role of Steven Taylor in the second two. Carole Ann Ford plays Susan Foreman in the first story, Maureen O'Brien plays Vicki in the second and third stories, and Jean Marsh plays Sara Kingdom in the fourth. Additionally, Russell and Purves perform the Doctor's dialogue in their respective stories, while Ford and O'Brien perform the dialogue of Barbara Wright in the first two stories.The second series consists of stories featuring the Second Doctor, played in all four stories by Frazer Hines, who also reprises his original role from the series as the Doctor's companion Jamie McCrimmon. Anneke Wills reprises her role as Polly Wright in the first two stories, Deborah Watling reprises the role of Victoria Waterfield in the third story, and Wendy Padbury reprises the role of Zoe Heriot in the fourth. In addition, the first two stories feature Elliot Chapman as Ben Jackson, originally played by Michael Craze.The third series of the Early Adventures saw Carole Ann Ford, William Russell, Maureen O'Brien, Peter Purves and Jean Marsh reprising their roles as the companions of the First Doctor, joined by Jemma Powell as Barbara Wright, who had previously portrayed the role of original Barbara actress Jacqueline Hill in the 2013 drama "An Adventure in Space and Time", and Dan Starkey as the Sontarans. The second story also features actor James Joyce in the role of a new companion, Jospa. Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills, Elliot Chapman and Wendy Padbury reprise their roles as the Doctor's companions, with Frazer Hines also playing the Second Doctor. Other characters are also played by Anjella Mackintosh, Wanda Opalinska, Kristina Buikaite, Alistair Petrie, Debbie Chazen, Matilda Ziegler, David Sibley, Kerry Gooderson, Ewan Bailey, Alan Blyton, Judith Roddy, Adam Newington, Don McCorkindale, Richenda Carey.
The concept of a female Doctor was first mentioned in 1981, when Tom Baker suggested his successor might be female, after announcing the end of his tenure as the Fourth Doctor. Producer John Nathan-Turner later discussed the possibility of casting a woman as the Sixth Doctor to replace the departing Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, claiming it was feasible but not something he was considering at the moment. In October 1986, during the transmission of Colin Baker's final season as the Sixth Doctor, series creator Sydney Newman wrote to BBC Controller Michael Grade, with a suggestion that "at a later stage Doctor Who should be metamorphosed into a woman". Dawn French, Joanna Lumley, and Frances de la Tour were suggested by Newman in 1986 for the role, but were dismissed by the BBC. Lumley later appeared as a satirical version of the Thirteenth Doctor in the 1999 Comic Relief special "The Curse of Fatal Death". Arabella Weir also played an alternate Third Doctor in the "Doctor Who Unbound" Big Finish episode "Exile". Neither portrayal is typically considered to be within the show's main continuity. Producer Jane Tranter also considered casting Judi Dench as the Ninth Doctor. Helen Mirren was suggested for the role of the Twelfth Doctor.
Jodie Whittaker took over the role as the Thirteenth Doctor in the 2017 Christmas special. In addition to the above-listed actors, others have played versions of the Doctor for the duration of particular storylines.
Notably, John Hurt guest starred as the War Doctor in the closing moments of the 2013 episode "The Name of the Doctor", the webcast "The Night of the Doctor" and the 50th Anniversary episode "The Day of the Doctor". The War Doctor is an incarnation existing between those of McGann and Eccleston. Hurt was never the programme's lead actor; his Doctor was retroactively inserted into continuity for the programme's 50th anniversary, and was written so as not to disturb the ordinal naming of the established Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. In the 1986 serial "The Trial of a Time Lord", Michael Jayston played the Valeyard, an amalgamation of the Doctor's darker sides from between his twelfth and final incarnations.
"Doctor Who" has appeared on stage numerous times. In the early 1970s, Trevor Martin played the role in "Doctor Who and the Daleks in the Seven Keys to Doomsday". In the late 1980s, Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker both played the Doctor at different times during the run of a play titled "Doctor Who – The Ultimate Adventure". For two performances, while Pertwee was ill, David Banks (better known for playing Cybermen) played the Doctor. Other original plays have been staged as amateur productions, with other actors playing the Doctor, while Terry Nation wrote "The Curse of the Daleks", a stage play mounted in the late 1960s, but without the Doctor.
The Second Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series "Doctor Who". He was portrayed by character actor Patrick Troughton.
"General Hospital" was created by Frank and Doris Hursley and premiered on April 1, 1963. The first stories were mainly set on the seventh floor of General Hospital, in an unnamed midsize Eastern city (the name of the city, Port Charles, would not be mentioned until the late 1970s). "They had this concept of the show that it was like a big wagon wheel – the spokes would be the characters and the hub would be the hospital," John Beradino (Steve Hardy) later reflected to "Entertainment Weekly" in 1994.
Thirteen actors have headlined the series as the Doctor. The transition from one actor to another is written into the plot of the show with the concept of regeneration into a new incarnation, a plot device in which a Time Lord "transforms" into a new body when the current one is too badly harmed to heal normally. Each actor's portrayal is unique, but all represent stages in the life of the same character. Together, they form a single lifetime with a single narrative. The time-travelling feature of the plot means that different incarnations of the Doctor occasionally meet. The Doctor is currently portrayed by Jodie Whittaker, who took on the role after Peter Capaldi's exit in the 2017 Christmas special "Twice Upon a Time".
Later in the 1970s, WOR-TV looked towards the United Kingdom for alternative offerings. On September 6, 1976, WOR-TV offered a week of programs from Thames Television during prime time; many of these shows had never before been seen on American television, including the first U.S. telecast of "The Benny Hill Show", and an airing of an episode of "Man About the House", which would be adapted by ABC as "Three's Company" the following year. WOR-TV also aired episodes of the ITV musical drama "Rock Follies" and the BBC science-fiction series "Doctor Who" during this period. On April 5, 1980, WOR-TV presented "Japan Tonight!", a seven-hour block of programs from Japan's Tokyo Broadcasting System, featuring shows that were either dubbed or subtitled in English. During this period, various sports telecasts aired on most nights in prime time, with feature films running on nights where sports did not air under the "Million Dollar Movie" banner.
"Doctor Who" has been satirised and spoofed on many occasions by comedians including Spike Milligan (a Dalek invades his bathroom — Milligan, naked, hurls a soap sponge at it) and Lenny Henry. Jon Culshaw frequently impersonates the Fourth Doctor in the BBC "Dead Ringers" series. "Doctor Who" fandom has also been lampooned on programs such as "Saturday Night Live", "The Chaser's War on Everything", "Mystery Science Theater 3000", "Family Guy", "American Dad!", "Futurama", "South Park",
"Community" as Inspector Spacetime, "The Simpsons" and "The Big Bang Theory". As part of the 50th anniversary programmes, former Fifth Doctor Peter Davison directed, wrote and co-starred in the parody "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot", which also starred two other former Doctors, Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy, and cameo appearances from cast and crew involved in the programme, including showrunner Steven Moffat and Doctors Paul McGann, David Tennant and Matt Smith.
"The Eleventh Hour" was first broadcast in the US on BBC America on 17 April 2010 and in Canada on the same date on Space. It set a record for BBC America, with an average of 1.2 million viewers and 0.9 million in the adults aged 25–54 demographic. The episode aired in Australia on 18 April on ABC1. It could also be viewed on ABC's website iView two days prior to the television air date, on 16 April. The show was broadcast two weeks after airing in Britain, as the BBC required a fortnight to edit down the "Doctor Who Confidential: Cut Down". There was no room for the accompanying "Doctor Who Confidential" due to the hour-long running time, but ABC holds the rights and has made it available on iView. The episode aired in New Zealand on 2 May on Prime.
More visibly, many Australians – or Britons with some connection to Australia – have appeared on-screen in "Doctor Who". The 1963 serial "The Daleks" featured several Australian actors: John Lee played Alydon, while Robert Jewell and Kevin Manser made their first contributions as Dalek operators, roles they revisited numerous times throughout the 1960s. Ilona Rodgers played Carol in the 1964 serial "The Sensorites" - Rodgers relocated to Australia in the late-1970s, then to New Zealand in the mid-1980s. Australian actor Ray Barrett played Bennett/Koquillion in the 1965 serial "The Rescue". Australian actor David Nettheim and the South African-born Australian actor Bill Kerr both portrayed Australian characters in the 1967 serial "The Enemy of the World". New Zealand-born actress Louise Pajo played Gia Kelly in the 1969 serial "The Seeds of Death" - Pajo completed her training in the UK before relocating to Australia during the 1970s. Katy Manning played companion Jo Grant 1971–73 and later lived in Australia for many years, becoming an Australian citizen and the patron of the Doctor Who Club of Australia. Australian actor Kevin Lindsay played Cho-Je in "Planet of the Spiders", as well as various Sontarans in both "The Time Warrior" and "The Sontaran Experiment". Australian actress Janet Fielding played companion Tegan 1981–84, while Fielding's contemporary Mark Strickson played companion Turlough 1983–84 - Strickson lived in Australia for many years before settling in New Zealand. British actress Liza Goddard played Kari in the 1983 serial "Terminus" - Goddard moved to Australia with her family in 1965 after her father's appointment as the ABC's Head of Drama and later starred in the first two seasons of "Skippy the Bush Kangaroo", before returning to the UK in 1969. Australian singer and actress Kylie Minogue played Astrid Peth in the 2007 Christmas special "Voyage of the Damned" and Australian actor Peter O'Brien played Ed Gold in the 2009 special "The Waters of Mars".
Australia itself has also featured in "Doctor Who" more than once, though without ever having been filmed or produced locally. The Second Doctor 1967–68 serial "The Enemy of the World" was set on and near an unnamed Australian beach in 2018 and featured a cast of characters who were supposed to be Australian, though virtually all were played by British actors. As well, in the Fifth Doctor 1982 serial "Four to Doomsday", the main villain, Monarch, was said to have visited Earth in the distant past, gathering 'samples' of the local people as he went; included in his collection was an Aboriginal tribal elder and his tribesmen, following Monarch's visit to the Australian continent.
A scene from the first episode of Series 10, "The Pilot" (premiered in Australia on April 16, 2017) was shot near Circular Quay, Sydney; the first "Doctor Who" scene shot in Australia.
Baker and Martin devised for "Doctor Who" the robotic dog K-9 (created for "The Invisible Enemy"), the renegade Time Lord Omega (created for "The Three Doctors", "Doctor Who"'s 10th anniversary story) and the Axons. K-9 was originally intended to appear in one story only, but the BBC decided to make it a recurring character. Several of Baker's stories had elements of hard science not often found in "Doctor Who", even though they've also been criticised for scientific inaccuracy. Together with Martin, they also created fantasy television serials for children including "Sky" (1975).
Patrick Troughton was a familiar face on BBC TV from playing the Second Doctor in "Doctor Who"; a contemporary "Blue Peter" feature on the drama makes the connection that in the role of Cole Hawlings, the kindly Punch and Judy Man, Troughton was playing another mysterious, scruffy time traveller. Renny Rye noted that Troughton "who was my favourite Doctor Who...had a quality that is unsurpassed, I think, as someone to pull you into a tale."
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is an American animated mystery comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera. Produced for CBS, the series premiered as part of the network's Saturday morning schedule on September 13, 1969, and aired for two seasons until October 31, 1970. In 1978, a selection of episodes from the later series "Scooby's All-Stars" and "The Scooby-Doo Show" were aired on ABC under the "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" name and, as such, is sometimes marketed as its third season.
The pilot episode and series premiere of "The Big Bang Theory" originally aired on CBS in the United States on September 24, 2007. It was written by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, and directed by James Burrows. It marks the first appearance of all five main characters in the series, and also guest stars Vernée Watson as Althea and Brian Patrick Wade as Kurt.
Thomas's on-screen appearances in the TV series were developed by Britt Allcroft. The first series of 26 stories premiered in October 1984 on the ITV Network in the UK, with former Beatles drummer/vocalist Ringo Starr as storyteller. The stories were featured as segments as part of Shining Time Station in the US beginning in 1989 with Starr as the show's Mr. Conductor character. From 1991 to 1993, George Carlin replaced Starr as both the storyteller and as Mr. Conductor for Shining Time Station. Carlin also told the Thomas stories for Shining Time Station in 1995.
There have also been many references to "Doctor Who" in popular culture and other science fiction, including "" ("") and "Leverage". In the Channel 4 series "Queer as Folk" (created by later "Doctor Who" executive producer Russell T. Davies), the character of Vince was portrayed as an avid "Doctor Who" fan, with references appearing many times throughout in the form of clips from the programme. In a similar manner, the character of Oliver on "Coupling" (created and written by current show runner Steven Moffat) is portrayed as a "Doctor Who" collector and enthusiast.
References to "Doctor Who" have also appeared in the young adult fantasy novels "Brisingr" and "High Wizardry", the video game "Rock Band", the Adult Swim comedy show "Robot Chicken", the "Family Guy" episodes "Blue Harvest" and "420", and the game "RuneScape". It has also be referenced in "Destroy All Humans! 2", by civilians in the game's variation of England, and multiple times throughout the "Ace Attorney" series.
The first episode of "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" "What a Night for a Knight" debuted on the CBS network Saturday, September 13, 1969. The original voice cast featured veteran voice actor Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, radio DJ Casey Kasem (later host of radio's syndicated "American Top 40") as Shaggy, actor Frank Welker (later a veteran voice actor in his own right) as Fred, actress Nicole Jaffe as Velma, and musician Indira Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne. Scooby's speech patterns closely resembled an earlier cartoon dog, Astro from "The Jetsons" (1962–63), also voiced by Messick. Seventeen episodes of "Scooby-Doo Where are You!" were produced in 1969–70. The series theme song was written by David Mook and Ben Raleigh, and performed by Larry Marks.
Madoc appeared in the second "Doctor Who" film, "Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D." (1966) and later in the BBC series itself. He appeared in two Second Doctor serials — "The Krotons" where he played Eelek, a high-ranking member of Gond Society, and "The War Games", where he played the villainous alien War Lord. In the 1970s he appeared in two Fourth Doctor serials — "The Brain of Morbius" and "The Power of Kroll". He recorded DVD commentaries for "The Krotons", "The War Games" and "The Brain of Morbius" and was interviewed about his roles in "Doctor Who" in the short film "Philip Madoc - a Villain for All Seasons", which appeared as an extra on the DVD for "The Power of Kroll". In 2003, he guest-starred in the "Big Finish" "Doctor Who" audio adventure, "Master", and returned to Big Finish in the 2008 Sixth Doctor story "Return of the Krotons". He voiced the War King in the "Faction Paradox" audio series.
The series was shown in Australia on the ABC's iview service, launching at midnight on 16 April 2010 before airing on ABC1 two days later. It began airing in the United States on 17 April 2010 on BBC America and in Canada that day on Space. This was the first initial airing of a full series of "Doctor Who" on BBC America; the first four series premiered on the Sci-Fi Channel, rerunning on BBC America. The gap between the UK and US airings lessened considerably. In New Zealand, the series began airing on Prime on 2 May 2010.
In the United States, the Sci Fi Channel originally passed on the new series as it found it lacking and believed it did not fit in its schedule, but the network later changed its mind. After it was announced that the first series would start in March 2006, Sci Fi Channel Executive Vice President Thomas Vitale called "Doctor Who" "a true sci-fi classic", with creative storytelling and colorful history, and was excited to add it to its line up. The network also took an option on the second series. Candace Carlisle from BBC Worldwide found The Sci Fi Channel the perfect home for "Doctor Who". "Doctor Who" finally debuted in the U.S. on the Sci Fi Channel on 17 March 2006 with the first two episodes airing back-to-back, one year after the Canadian and UK showings. The series concluded its initial U.S. broadcast on 9 June 2006.
The "Doctor Who" television film was a joint venture between the BBC, Universal Studios and the Fox Broadcasting Network. McGann had signed a contract to appear as the Eighth Doctor in a new Doctor Who series, if Fox or Universal exercised their option. Thus, the television film was supposed to be a "back door pilot" in that, if it obtained respectable ratings, the new series would continue to be produced. The film was shown on 14 May 1996 in the US and on 27 May 1996 in the UK. Although it earned 9.08 million viewers and was very successful in the UK, ratings were very low in the United States. As a consequence, Fox did not exercise its option to pick up the series and Universal could not find another network interested in airing a new "Doctor Who" series. Thus no new series was produced until 2005, after all the contractual rights had returned to the BBC.
"The Rescue" is the first story under Dennis Spooner as script editor, though he is not listed in the credits because he had little to do since much of the job was given to his predecessor David Whitaker and thus he is not credited. The story was commissioned on 1 November 1964, the day after his contract with the BBC for his position as script editor had expired. The scripts were due on 10 November. In Whitaker's original draft, entitled "Doctor Who and Tanni" after one of Vicki's original names, there are a few differences from the broadcast version. Bennett was more unkind to Vicki. Notably, Koquillion had a "torch" device, which he used to paralyse Ian upon meeting and interrogating him and Barbara in the first episode. He hypnotised Ian and Barbara and tried to get them to encourage the Doctor to come out of the TARDIS, but the Doctor could see this on the TARDIS' scanner and demands the teachers be released. In a scuffle Ian's trance was broken when he was shoved against the TARDIS and Barbara's was broken when she was thrown to the ground. The beginning of the first episode also had Ian confide to Barbara that he was afraid of a time where the Doctor would close the TARDIS on them and leave like he did with Susan, to which the Doctor, overhearing, replied that there would be warning if they were to part.