Portal:Doctor Who

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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, follows the adventures of the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being from a humanoid species known as Time Lords. The Doctor travels through space and time using a time travelling spaceship called the TARDIS, which has an exterior that resembles a British police box. The Doctor encounters various civilisations, which he seeks to protect by outwitting foes and solving crises. The Doctor usually travels with a companion.

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 woven into the story via the plot device of regeneration. When a Time Lord is fatally injured or weakened by old age, their cells regenerate into a new body; while they retain their memories, their personality changes. The different portrayals function as distinct stages within a single, continuous narrative. Due to time travel, these different incarnations occasionally cross paths.

A British popular culture staple with a global cult following, the show has shaped generations of British television professionals. 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. (Full article...)

Recognized quality articles

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"Lucky Day" is the fourth episode of the fifteenth series of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by Pete McTighe, and was directed by Peter Hoar. The episode was released on BBC iPlayer, BBC One and Disney+ on 3 May 2025. It features the return of companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson), who plays a leading role in the episode opposite Conrad Clark (Jonah Hauer-King), with both the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), the series' main leads, only appearing briefly. The episode focuses on Ruby, who begins a relationship with podcaster Conrad Clark as she attempts to find her place in the world after leaving the Doctor. When Conrad's true aim to turn the public against military organisation UNIT is revealed, Ruby and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart have to deal with the repercussions of Conrad's actions.

"Lucky Day" was devised by showrunner Russell T Davies, and Davies enlisted McTighe to write it. McTighe used the episode to develop Ruby and Kate's characters while also exploring the spread and effects of online hatred. The episode's monster, the Shreek, was based on McTighe's childhood fears of dog-like creatures in the dark, with the Shreek being portrayed via costume and an animatronic head. Filming took place in November 2023 in Newton, Porthcawl and at Wolf Studios Wales; it was filmed back-to-back with the series premiere. "Lucky Day" received positive reviews from critics, who highlighted Gibson's performance, the twist regarding Conrad's true motives and the episode's social commentary, but were more critical of underdeveloped plotlines and the execution of Conrad as an antagonist. (Full article...)
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The Mara is a fictional character from the long-running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. A gestalt, formless entity, it preys upon beings using their dreams, and is capable of possessing others in order to accomplish its goals. The Mara can manifest in a physical form, often taking on the form of a snake. First appearing in the 1982 television serial Kinda, the Mara would make one further appearance on television a year later in 1983's Snakedance. Following this, it appeared in various pieces of spin-off media from the series, and additionally appeared in a short produced to commemorate the re-release of Doctor Who season 20, dubbed "The Passenger".

The Mara was originally conceived by Kinda's writer Christopher Bailey, who named it after the Buddhist demon Mara. Bailey envisioned it as an entirely non-corporeal entity before rewrites resulted in a physical Mara being constructed; the prop used for the Mara, however, was rushed, and thus resulted in a prop not liked by the show's producer John Nathan-Turner that was also panned by critics. The Mara's later re-appearance in Snakedance, part of a celebration of the series' past, saw the construction of a new, mechanical Mara prop. (Full article...)
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"Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" is the second episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It first aired on BBC One in the UK on 8 September 2012 and on BBC America on the same date in the United States. It was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Saul Metzstein.

The episode features alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) and his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) accompanied by Rory's father, Brian (Mark Williams), Queen Nefertiti (Riann Steele), and John Riddell, a British big-game hunter (Rupert Graves). The group lands on a large spaceship that contains dinosaurs and discover that it is a Silurian ark, though the Silurians have been murdered by Solomon (David Bradley), a black market trader who is intent on finding something of value. (Full article...)
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The ninth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who premiered on 19 September 2015 with "The Magician's Apprentice" and concluded on 5 December 2015 with "Hell Bent". The series was led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, alongside executive producer Brian Minchin. Nikki Wilson, Peter Bennett, and Derek Ritchie served as producers. The series is the ninth to air following the programme's revival in 2005, and is the thirty-fifth season overall.

This is the second series starring Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which is disguised as a British police box. It also stars Jenna Coleman as the Doctor's companion, Clara Oswald, for her third and final series in the role. Also playing a major recurring role in the series is Maisie Williams as Ashildr, a Viking girl made immortal by the Doctor, which leads to major events resulting from her encounters with the Doctor. The series' main story arc revolves around the mystery of a being called the Hybrid, the combination of two great warrior races. The Doctor's investigation into this being ultimately leads him back to his home planet of Gallifrey, which returns fully in the series. (Full article...)
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"A Christmas Carol" is an episode of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It is the sixth Doctor Who Christmas special since the programme's revival in 2005, and it was broadcast on 25 December 2010 on both BBC One and BBC America, making it the first episode to premiere on the same day in both the United Kingdom and United States. It was written by Steven Moffat and directed by Toby Haynes.

In the episode, a crashing space liner with more than four thousand people on board has been caught in a strange cloud belt. The alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) lands on the planet below and meets the miserly Kazran Sardick (Michael Gambon), a man who can control the cloud layer but refuses to help. Inspired by Charles Dickens's 1843 novella A Christmas Carol, the episode has the Doctor attempting to use time travel to alter Kazran's past and make him kinder so that he will save the spaceship. (Full article...)
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A pair of Autons, as they appear in "Rose", on display at the Doctor Who Experience

The Nestene Consciousness and the Autons are antagonists from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. They were originally created by scriptwriter Robert Holmes for the serial Spearhead from Space (1970). The Nestene Consciousness is a non-corporeal entity that has the ability to control plastic. The Autons are mannequins animated by the Consciousness, used as its footsoldiers. Following their debut, the Nestenes and Autons re-appeared in the 1971 serial Terror of the Autons, as well as in the show's 2005 revival in the episodes "Rose" (2005), "The Pandorica Opens", and "The Big Bang" (both 2010).

While brainstorming concepts for the new, entirely earthbound format for the 1970 season of the show, the team decided on an alien invasion from a non-corporeal entity that could split into parts; following discussions about plastic and the potential terror that lay in mannequins coming to life, it was decided to make the entity capable of controlling plastic, resulting in the creation of the Nestene and its Auton minions. The Nestene would go on to re-appear in Terror of the Autons as a result of the popularity of the prior serial. Though another re-appearance was planned for both the 1983 serial "The Five Doctors" and the 1986 season of the show, both of these were scrapped in production. Their usage in "Rose" was done, alongside several other reasons, in order to ensure the titular character, Rose Tyler, would not immediately assume the Autons were aliens, which was important in the episode's narrative. (Full article...)
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"The Power of Three" is the fourth episode of the seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who that aired on BBC One and BBC One HD on 22 September 2012. It was written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Douglas Mackinnon.

In this episode, alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) spends time on Earth with his travelling companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill) while he awaits activity from millions of small cubes that appeared overnight. (Full article...)
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"The Girl Who Waited" is the tenth episode of the sixth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, and was first broadcast on BBC One and BBC America on 10 September 2011. It was written by Tom MacRae and was directed by Nick Hurran.

In the episode, the alien time traveller the Doctor (Matt Smith) takes his companions Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and her husband Rory (Arthur Darvill) to the planet Apalapucia for a holiday, but they find that the planet is on quarantine as the two-hearted natives are susceptible to a deadly plague. Amy accidentally gets separated from the Doctor and Rory but, when they try to rescue her, they arrive 36 years later in her timeline. The older Amy does not trust the Doctor, who is forced to remain on the TARDIS as he also has two hearts, and will not allow the Doctor and Rory to leave and rescue her at the correct point in her timeline. (Full article...)
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"Rogue" is the sixth episode of the fourteenth series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The episode was first released in the United Kingdom on BBC iPlayer on 8 June 2024 and was broadcast on BBC One the same night. It was released simultaneously on Disney+ in the United States on 7 June. The episode was written by Kate Herron and Briony Redman, and directed by Ben Chessell.

In the episode, the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his companion, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) travel to 1813 where they meet a mysterious bounty hunter named Rogue (Jonathan Groff), who is trying to hunt and kill a criminal member of the shape-shifting Chuldur species. (Full article...)
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The Twin Dilemma is the seventh and final serial of the 21st season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 22 to 30 March 1984. It was directed by Peter Moffatt and written by Anthony Stevens. The serial stars Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant as the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown, respectively. The Twin Dilemma was the first to star Baker.

The serial follows the Doctor immediately after regenerating as he works to prevent the alien gastropod Mestor (Edwin Richfield) from plotting to explode the sun of the planet Jaconda to scatter his eggs throughout the universe to conquer it. (Full article...)
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"Lux" is the second episode of the fifteenth series of the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. It was written by Russell T Davies, the Doctor Who showrunner, from a concept first developed over two decades prior, and directed by Amanda Brotchie. In the episode, the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and his companion, Belinda Chandra (Varada Sethu), land in 1952 Miami, Florida, while trying to make their way back to 2025. After doing so, they discover a mysterious cinema where fifteen people have disappeared. The pair stay to investigate and ultimately confront an animated god, Lux (voiced by Alan Cumming), who traps them in film.

"Lux" is unusual for the programme in that it features a mixed live-action and animated format. Filming for the episode took place in Penarth, Cardiff and at Wolf Studios Wales in January 2024. Some voice-over work took place internationally in New York City in June. Animation and other post-production work continued later into the year, with some tasks still being completed as late as September. (Full article...)
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The Ark is the sixth serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Paul Erickson and Lesley Scott and directed by Michael Imison, it was broadcast on BBC1 in four weekly parts from 5 to 26 March 1966. In the serial, the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and his travelling companions, Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) and Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane), arrive on a generation ship as it begins a 700-year voyage fleeing Earth's imminent destruction. They return at the end of its voyage to discover the humans have become subservient to their slave race, the Monoids.

Producer John Wiles conceived of the spaceship, and story editor Donald Tosh developed a storyline with Erickson, who wrote the scripts. Erickson later requested that Scott, his then-partner, be co-credited; she was the first woman to receive a writing credit on Doctor Who. Imison wanted The Ark to be impressive; its expenses drew budget from other serials. Filming took place at Riverside Studios from February to March 1966. It was Wiles's last credited work on the series, and Dodo's first journey as a companion to the Doctor. (Full article...)
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"Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" is the first episode of the second series of British science fiction television series Torchwood, which was broadcast on BBC Two on 16 January 2008.

The episode features a guest appearance from James Marsters as Captain John Hart, the former colleague and lover of the alien hunter Jack Harkness (John Barrowman). In the episode, John double crosses Jack's Torchwood team as part of a plan to steal a diamond from a woman who was murdered. (Full article...)
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The Tomb of the Cybermen is the first serial of the fifth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 2 to 23 September 1967. In the serial, the time traveller the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and his travelling companions, Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) and Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling), get caught up in an expedition to the planet Telos. The financiers of the expedition, Eric Klieg (George Pastell) and Kaftan (Shirley Cooklin), intend to revitalise the Cybermen that are buried on Telos in underground tombs, hoping they will share their power to conquer the universe.

The Cybermen had historically been popular antagonists in the series, and the production team for the series was keen to bring them back for another story. Writers Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, inspired by Egyptian archaeology at the time, decided to have the Cybermen be in similarly styled tombs, resulting in the setting of the story. The serial was filmed from June to July 1967. All of its parts were initially wiped, resulting in the episode being considered missing; however, all of its parts were found and recovered in the 1990s in Hong Kong, and it has subsequently been released on home media and a variety of other releases. (Full article...)
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"Doomsday" is the thirteenth and final episode in the second series of the revival of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on 8 July 2006 and is the conclusion of a two-part story; the first part, "Army of Ghosts", was broadcast on 1 July 2006. The two-part story features the Daleks, presumed extinct after the events of the 2005 series' finale, and the Cybermen, who appeared in a parallel universe in the 2006 episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel". Both species unexpectedly arrive on Earth at the conclusion of "Army of Ghosts".

The episode marks the first conflict between the Daleks and the Cybermen in Doctor Who's 43-year history; the concept of the two species appearing on-screen together was first proposed in 1967, but was vetoed by Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks. The episode also features Billie Piper's last appearance in the lead companion role as Rose Tyler; the final regular appearance of Noel Clarke as Rose's ex-boyfriend and previous companion Mickey Smith; and the first appearance of Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, the companion in the following episode, the fourth series and the sixtieth anniversary specials. The episode and its predecessor were filmed between November 2005 and January 2006, alongside the episodes "Rise of the Cybermen" and "The Age of Steel". (Full article...)

Selected story

Marco Polo is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 7 weekly parts from February 22 to April 4, 1964. Although audio tracks and still photographs of the story exist, none of the footage of this serial has survived. This is the first "pure historical" Doctor Who story, in that there are no science fictional elements other than the fact that the Doctor and his companions have travelled to the past.

The TARDIS lands in Central Asia in 1289, where the First Doctor and his companions fall in with Marco Polo as his caravan makes its way along the fabled Silk Road from the Pamir Plateau, across the treacherous Gobi Desert and over the Himalayas to end up in Peking at the height of its imperial power.

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Did you know (auto-generated)

... that due to legal and union restrictions, the production team for the Doctor Who episode "Space Babies" occasionally had to replace real babies with props?
... that a 1980 Doctor Who serial was written by a seventeen-year-old fan of the show?
... that "The Christmas Invasion" led to Christmas specials becoming a staple for Doctor Who?
... that the Doctor Who episode "Lux" is set in Miami, Florida, despite being filmed in Penarth, Wales?
... that the Doctor Who episode "The Devil's Chord" references the events of an episode that aired more than sixty years before?
... that the producers of Doctor Who only wrote a queer romance into the programme's 2022 special episodes after viewers began shipping two characters?

Selected quote

“

Look at me. No plans, no backup, no weapons worth a damn. Oh, and something else I don't have: anything to lose. So, if you're sitting up there with your silly little spaceships and your silly little guns and you've any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight; just remember who's standing in your way. Remember every black day I ever stopped you and then, and then, do the smart thing. Let somebody else try first.

”

— Eleventh Doctor, The Pandorica Opens

Events

**Recent scheduled events**
Date	Event
29 August 2022	Another SMTV Live crossover episode
1 January 2022	2022 specials
December 2021	Big Finish audio play The Year of Martha Jones [1]
February 2022	Second volume of the Big Finish audio play The Lone Centurion [2]
May 2022	Series 2 of the audio play Doctor Who: The Ninth Doctor Adventures

More did you know?

... that for his role in the Doctor Who serial The Aztecs, actor John Ringham was told to "make all the children in the country hate you"?
... that the budget for the Doctor Who serial The Daleks allowed for only four Daleks (one pictured) to be made?
... that actress Carole Ann Ford described her character in the Doctor Who serial The Keys of Marinus as "pathetic"?

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