Who-ray

At 5.15pm on Saturday 23rd November 1963, Doctor Who made it's debut on BBC One.

 

Incredibly - and notwithstanding a 16-year 'rest' from the small screen, bar a one-off movie in 1996 - Doctor Who is celebrating it's 60th anniversary not alone as an ongoing series but arguably bigger than it's ever been before, with the Disney boosting the BBC's financial and global reach even further.

 

If you're a fan, whether that began during the TV series' first run from 1963 to 1989 or with the hugely successful reboot in 2005, there is much to enjoy at the moment. BBC iPlayer kicked off November by adding most of the original run of Doctor Who episodes to the 150+ of the current series to watch for free.

 

Tonight on BBC Four, the first appearance of The Daleks from 1963 will be re-presented as a 75-minute edit in colour for the first time. The technology available now to produce the current TV series and repackage the old for a new audience could only be dreamed of six decades ago.

 

The icing on the cake is of course the double whammy two new Doctors before the end of 2023. First up is David Tennant, who played the Tenth incarnation of the Doctor from 2005 to 2010 and is returning as the Fourteenth iteration. Looks similar but not the same...

 

Tennant made his first 'full' on-screen appearance, in a brief encounter with Davros (kind of) and the Daleks (well, one of the them) for BBC's Children In Need telethon. It was short, it was irreverent, it was fun and a nice way to kick start the 60th anniversary.

 

The BBC also chose Children In Need to celebrate Doctor Who's 30th anniversary in 1993. The show had been off-air since 1989 so anticipation was high. This is what we got.

The original broadcast was in 3D, though arguably most of the acting was of the 2D variety with dialogue that would have had the cast frequently chewing the scenery. Not the revival that fans were hoping for, to say the least.

 

David Tennant will appear again on Saturday and will be on our screens for the next three weeks. From there, Ncuti Gatwa will make his debut as the fifteenth Doctor, including the return of the Christmas Day special which became a staple during the first decade of the revived series.

 

I thought Jodie Whitaker was a great Doctor Who but that period of the show suffered from episodes that looked fantastic but were frankly a bit dull and unengaging, miscast in some cases and didn't give the lead actor enough to work with. Although it may feel like a backwards step, with the return of former showrunner Russell T. Davies, the energy and buzz around the series is palpable and personally, I'm excited to see what's ahead.

As this is supposed to be a music blog, I should add something more than the opening video by The Timelords (aka The KLF), shouldn't I? 

 

Last February, as a birthday gift for my mate Shane, I posted a 20-track, 60(ish) minute mish-mash of Doctor Who songs and snippets, including Matt Smith (Doctor #11) appearing with Orbital at Glastonbury, Jon Pertwee (Doctor #3) teaching Dry Cleaning a thing or two about sprechsang, The KLF unofficially celebrating 25 years of Doctor Who and getting a UK #1 for their trouble and of course that classic theme tune (twice). As I'm in a celebratory mood, you can find it again here.

 

Happy birthday, Doctor, all of you!