The Daily Telegraph has a very interesting article that delves into the very beginning of the Doctor Who mythos. In the days leading up to the filming of Doctor Who, a program that would become so endearing to television viewers that it has since been referred to as an institution in itself, ideas were still very mutable.
Doctor Who series developer Sydney Newman, for instance, did not want any ‘bug eyed monsters.’ This was a stance that would be challenged by 27 year old producer Verity Lambert who talked Newman into green-lighting the Daleks serial which drastically altered the course of the program.Also, the ship that The Doctor and his companions used to travel in space and time was at one point an invisible flying saucer. Sounds like a way for the BBC effects department to save a few shillings, doesn’t it? ‘Oh it’s amazing! If only you could see this fantastic space ship… but it’s invisible.’
A file headed “Doctor Who General Notes”, issued to writers before the series was screened in November 1963, discusses whether the time machine should be invisible. It states: “When we consider what this looks like, we are in danger of either science fiction or fairytale labelling.
“If it is a transparent plastic bubble, we are with all the low-grade specification of cartoon strip and soap opera. If we scotch this by positing something humdrum, say, passing through some common object in the street such as nightwatchman’s shelter to arrive inside a marvellous contrivance of quivering electronics, then we simply have a version of the dear old Magic Door.
“Therefore, we do not see the machine at all, or rather it is visible only as an absence of visibility, a shape of nothingness.” The documents don’t disclose how, or why, the programme makers decided on the Tardis.
It’s difficult to imagine in today’s jaded society that there was a time when Police Boxes littered the streets and young viewers would approach them with a sense of wonder at the adventure that could be waiting inside.
The character of The Doctor himself went through many changes. At one point he was very much a reactionary and rebel who despised other scientists and the great advance of mankind. This was an idea that Lambert wholeheartedly disliked as it jarred with the ‘grandfather figure’ that The Doctor was meant to be.
As the program progressed and other actors took on the part, this ‘grandfather figure’ ideal dissolved into more of an action hero role as the demands of the audience and the direction of the production team shifted. This lead to Doctor #5 actor Peter Davison referring to The Doctor as ‘the perfect man. The character has continued to mutate and change in the current tenth incarnation played by David Tennant as the whimsical and wry Jim Carey-esque comical hero that blunders through a crisis one moment and plays the domineering self-assured victor the next. Like the program itself, The Doctor is a statement of his time.
Seeing how the program is currently so far from the initial ideas of Doctor Who and more concerned with The Doctor finding true love this article is great food for thought on a lazy Sunday.
