Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that can help answer the question.
Query: What actor currently plays Doctor Who?
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".
The character of the Doctor was created by BBC Head of Drama, Sydney Newman. The first format document for the programme that was to become "Doctor Who" – then provisionally titled "The Troubleshooters" – was written in March 1963 by C. E. Webber, a staff writer who had been brought in to help develop the project. Webber's document contained a main character described as "The maturer man, 35–40, with some 'character twist.' " Newman was not keen on this idea and – along with several other changes to Webber's initial format – created an alternative lead character named Dr Who, a crotchety older man piloting a stolen time machine, on the run from his own far future world. No written record of Newman's conveyance of these ideas – believed to have taken place in April 1963 – exists, and the character of Dr Who first begins appearing in existing documentation from May of that year.
"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 twenty-sixth season of British science fiction television series "Doctor Who" began on 9 September 1989 with the serial "Battlefield", after a regular series of four serials was broadcast finishing with "Survival" which was the final episode of "Doctor Who" to air before a 16-year absence from episodic television following its cancellation.Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred both continue their roles as the Seventh Doctor and Ace for their final season.Nicholas Courtney returned to play Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in "Battlefield". He first appeared with the Second Doctor in 1968 in "The Web of Fear" before becoming a recurring character throughout the Second Doctor to the Fifth Doctor and last appearing in "The Five Doctors" (1983).
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.
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.
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The programme depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called "the Doctor", an extraterrestrial being, to all appearances human, from the planet Gallifrey. The Doctor explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Accompanied by a number of companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes while working to save civilisations and help people in need.
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."
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.
Hines' "Doctor Who" debut came in 1966, when he was cast to play the part of Jamie McCrimmon, the companion of the Second Doctor (played by Patrick Troughton). Originally intended as a one-off guest character, Jamie joined the regular cast and appeared in the series from 1966 to 1969. Hines reprised the role in a cameo in the 20th anniversary serial "The Five Doctors" (1983) and as a guest star in "The Two Doctors" (1985). Hines would appear in 117 episodes of "Doctor Who" in all—more than any other "companion" actor in the history of the series. The only actors appearing in more episodes are those who played the first four Doctors. Many of the episodes featuring Jamie no longer exist in the BBC's collection.
Dr. Chris Warner was the playboy doctor who went by the nickname "Dr. Love". Chris was portrayed by Michael Galvin up until 1996. However the character returned 4 years later and remains presently, being the longest running character to appear on the show.
An early televised "Doctor Who" spoof was on the Michael Bentine sketch show "It's a Square World" in December 1963, only a few weeks after the series first aired. Season 6, Episode 8, broadcast on New Year's Eve, featured Clive Dunn playing a scientist called Doctor Fotheringown ("Doctor Who?" / "No, not Doctor Who, Doctor Fotheringown!"), for which Dunn wore William Hartnell's First Doctor costume and wig. The sketch, which was recorded on 16 and 20 December 1963, also featured Wilfrid Brambell and Patrick Moore.
When Lambert arrived at the BBC in June 1963, she was initially given a more experienced associate producer, Mervyn Pinfield, to assist her. "Doctor Who" debuted on 23 November 1963 and quickly became a success for the BBC, chiefly on the popularity of the alien creatures known as Daleks. Lambert's superior, Head of Serials Donald Wilson, had strongly advised against using the script in which the Daleks first appeared, but after the serial's successful airing, he said that Lambert clearly knew the series far better than he did, and he would no longer interfere in her decisions. The success of "Doctor Who" and the Daleks also garnered press attention for Lambert herself; in 1964, the "Daily Mail" published a feature on the series focusing on its young producer's looks: "The operation of the Daleks ... is conducted by a remarkably attractive young woman called Verity Lambert who, at 28, is not only the youngest but the only female drama producer at B.B.C. TV ... [T]all, dark and shapely, she became positively forbidding when I suggested that the Daleks might one day take over "Dr. Who"."
The seventh series of the British science fiction television programme "Doctor Who" aired from 1 September 2012 to 18 May 2013, being split into two parts, as with the previous series. The series was broadcast concurrently on BBC One in the United Kingdom, BBC America in the United States, and on Space in Canada, and also on ABC in Australia, with the first five episodes each released a week after its UK and North American premiere and the remainder released the day after each episode's UK premiere. Following its premiere on 1 September 2012, the series aired weekly until 29 September 2012. Six episodes were broadcast in 2012, including the 2012 Christmas special, "The Snowmen", which aired separately from the main series. The remaining eight episodes began broadcasting on 30 March 2013. "The Snowmen" introduced a new TARDIS interior, title sequence, theme tune, and outfit for the Doctor.
Doctor Who, also referred to as Doctor Who: The Movie to distinguish it from the television series of the same name, is a 1996 television film continuing the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". It was developed as a co-production between BBC Worldwide, Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox, and the American network Fox. It premiered on 12 May 1996 on CITV in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (which was owned by WIC at the time before being acquired by Canwest Global in 2000), 15 days before its first showing in the United Kingdom on BBC One and two days before being broadcast in the United States on Fox. It was also shown in some countries for a limited time in cinemas.
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.
In Canada, TVOntario aired the program starting in 1976 with "The Three Doctors" and continued with the rest of the original series on a weekly basis until 1990 with series airing two to three years behind the BBC. TVO was also available to many viewers in the United States living in states bordering the Great Lakes. In order to fulfill the network's originally strict mandate as an educational broadcaster, TVO's transmissions of the Third Doctor's stories were hosted by Dr. Jim Dator, a futurist teaching to the University of Toronto, while the first three seasons of Fourth Doctor stories were hosted by science fiction writer Judith Merril, who called herself the "UnDoctor". Both hosts would fill out the show's half-hour time slot through introductions and longer extros which would analyze and discuss the episode critically for several minutes often explaining how a story was at variance with scientific concepts, how it related to science fiction genres, or putting the episodes in a socio-political context. Afterward, this broadcast requirement was relaxed and the extra time was used for the network's standard short subject programming such as "Eureka!". TVO continued to broadcast "Doctor Who" until it lost the rights to the programme in 1990.
When the BBC revived "Doctor Who" in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor and with Russell T. Davies as producer, the ABC responded by scheduling the series in the prime-time 7:30pm Saturday slot. Following the UK broadcast by less than two months, Series 1 of the new "Doctor Who" premiered in Australia with the first episode, "Rose", on 21 May 2005, going on to win its timeslot in four out of five capital cities.
On 16 July 2017, a minute-long clip was released on the "Doctor Who" web site, introducing Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor. The first teaser for the series was released during the final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup on 15 July 2018, almost exactly a year following the official announcement. Whittaker, Gill, Cole, Chibnall and Strevens promoted the show with a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con on 19 July 2018, where the first trailer was released. The second trailer for the series was released on 20 September 2018. The premiere of the new series was held at The Moor, Sheffield on 24 September 2018, as part of a red carpet event for the first episode and eleventh series.
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).
A comic strip also regularly appeared in the pages of "Doctor Who Magazine". This began as a Marvel Comics publication under the name "Doctor Who Weekly" in 1979 (soon changing to "Doctor Who Monthly"), and the magazine continued to be published after the programme ceased production in 1989. The comic strip has usually featured the current Doctor in a series of adventures independent of the novels and the audios, and with another companion, though several crossovers with the worlds of the audio and literary "Doctor Who" and the comics have occurred. Creators who have worked on the "Doctor Who Magazine" strip include such notables as writer Alan Moore and artists Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon, and John Ridgway. Selected stories were reprinted in North America by Marvel Comics, which was also the publisher of "Doctor Who Magazine" at the time. "Marvel Premiere" #57 (December 1980) was the first Doctor Who comic published in North America. When "Doctor Who Magazine" was published by Marvel, some characters occasionally crossed over between the "Doctor Who" comic and other titles published by Marvel UK; these include the froglike Venusian businessman Josiah Dogbolter and the robotic bounty hunter Death's Head. In the "Flood Barriers" feature in the trade paperback "Doctor Who: The Flood", it is revealed the comic strip was given the opportunity to show the regeneration of the Eighth Doctor into the Ninth Doctor.
Among the actors who were invited to audition for the role of the Doctor but declined the opportunity were Christopher Eccleston and Peter Capaldi. Eccleston and Capaldi would go on to play the Ninth and Twelfth incarnations of the Doctor, respectively, in the revived series of "Doctor Who" which began in 2005. Eccleston turned down the offer to audition for the TV Movie because at the time he felt he was not yet an established enough actor and did not want to be associated with a "brand name" so early in his career. Capaldi declined because he felt it was unlikely that he would be given the part.
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. For more information, see the list of actors who have played the Doctor. In other media, the Doctor has been played by various other actors, including Peter Cushing in two films.
The series introduced the Eleventh Doctor, played by Matt Smith. This followed the departure of David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor, who left the show to help ease the transition from Davies to Moffat. Smith's agent called him, suggesting that he audition for the role. Moffat wanted to cast a middle-aged actor, "young enough to run but old enough to look wise". When Smith was the third person to audition the production team knew "[they] had their man", although he was 26 years old. The producers were cautious about casting Smith because they felt that a 26-year-old actor could not play the Doctor; although BBC Head of Drama and executive producer Piers Wenger agreed, he said that Smith was capable enough to play the part. According to Moffat, Smith did not appear youthful. Smith's casting was announced during an episode of the "Doctor Who" companion show "Doctor Who Confidential", when he described the role as "a wonderful privilege and challenge that I hope I will thrive on".
Since the beginning of the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who" in 1963, many actors have played the title character of The Doctor on television and in various BBC-licensed spin-offs on television, stage, radio, film, audio plays and webcasts. The character's ability to periodically regenerate his appearance and personality has facilitated the ability of new actors to take over the role – in both official and unofficial productions – while in most cases maintaining continuity with the television series.