Doctor Who first appeared on television by the BBC on 23 November 1963, following discussions and plans were underway for a year. The Head of Dramas division, the Canadian Sydney Newman, was mainly responsible for program development, with the first documented format for the series to be written by Newman, along with the Head of Script (later Head of Serials) Donald Wilson and staff writer CE Webber. The writer Anthony Coburn, the stories editor David Whitaker and initial producer Verity Lambert also contributed greatly to the development of the series. The program was originally designed to appeal to a family audience, as an educational program with time travel as a means to explore scientific ideas and famous moments in history. On 31 July 1963, Whitaker ordered the Terry Nation to write a story with the title "The Mutants". Originally the Daleks and Thals were victims of an alien neutron bomb, but later abandoned the aliens Terry Nation and the Daleks turned into aggressors. When the script was presented to Newman and Wilson, was immediately rejected, since the program could not contain "bug-eyed monsters." The first series of episodes was completed and the BBC believed it was crucial that the following were a success, however, Os Mutantes was the only script ready to air, and the team had little choice but to use it. According to producer Verity Lambert:
"We did not have much choice - we only had the episode of the Daleks ... We had a small crisis of confidence because Donald [Wilson] was so resolute about not use it if we had something ready, we would have used.."
Terry Nation script became the second series of episodes of Doctor Who - "The Daleks" (or "The Mutants"). The series of episodes showed the aliens of the same name that would become the most popular monsters from the series, and were responsible for the first burst of merchandising BBC.
The BBC Drama series division produced 26 seasons of the show, broadcast on BBC 1. With the fall in the numbers of spectators, the decline in the public perception of the program and a less prominent transmission space, the production was suspended in 1989 by Jonathan Powell, BBC controller 1. Although (as co-star of the series Sophie Aldred reported in the documentary Doctor Who: More than 30 Years in the TARDIS) has been effectively, if not formally canceled the decision not to order a planned already twenty seventh season of the program for broadcast in 1990, the BBC has said repeatedly that the series would return.
Although the own production was stopped, the BBC hoped to find an independent production to relaunch the program. Philip Segal, an expatriate Briton who worked for for the TV arm of Columbia Pictures in the United States, had approached the BBC about such a venture even in July 1989, while the twenty-sixth season of the series was still in production. The Segal negotiations eventually led to a television movie of Doctor Who, broadcast on Fox network in 1996 as a co-production between Fox, Universal Pictures, BBC and BBC Worldwide. Although the film has been successful in the United Kingdom (9.1 million viewers), was not as well in the United States, which did not lead to a series.
Licensed media such as novels and audio plays, provide what new stories, but a television program Doctor Who remained dormant until 2003. In September of that year, the BBC announced the production of a new series after several years of attempts by BBC Worldwide to find support for a feature film version. The executive producers of the new incarnation of the series were the writers Russell T Davies and Head of Drama BBC Cymru Wales, Julie Gardner. It was sold in many countries around the world.
Doctor Who finally returned with the episode "Rose" on BBC One on 26 March 2005. Since then, have been exhibited seven seasons, with special between 2006-2008 and 2010-2012, and special Christmas Day episodes every year since 2005. No complete series was filmed in 2009, due to the commitments actor David Tennant Hamlet, although four additional special starring Tennant were made. In spring 2010 Steven Moffat replaced Davies as head writer and executive producer. The 2005 version of Doctor Who is a direct continuation of the series of 1963 to 1989, as well as the TV movie 1996, starring Paul McGann as the eighth Doctor. This differs to other relaunched series have either been reimagined or rebooted (eg Battlestar Galactica [2004] and Bionic Woman [2007]), or series to take place in the same universe as the original, but in a different period and with different characters (for example, Star Trek: The Next Generation and spin-offs).
See also:
Doctor Who
Doctor Who - What is
Doctor Who – The Doctor
Doctor Who - Episodes
Doctor Who - How does Sonic Screwdriver
Doctor Who – The Master
Doctor Who - The Companions of Doctor
Doctor Who - The Opponents
Doctor Who - The Seasons
Doctor Who - The Cast of 2005-2014
Doctor Who - Its Production
