The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

(the late William Hartnell as the first ever Doctor, with granddaughter Susan and companions Ian and Barbara; (c) BBC)

Happy birthday wishes today to the world’s longest running science fiction TV series, Doctor Who, first broadcast on the BBC on November 23, 1963. Famously there was some doubt the fledgling show would even air, following the seismic shockwaves still reverberating around the world from the previous day’s assassination of President Kennedy. Who would have thought then that this little series would still be a ratings winner decades on and utterly cemented into British popular culture (so much so that when the Metropolitan Police challenged the BBC over copyright on the famous Police Box design the courts found in favour of the BBC as most people today associate it with the Doctor’s TARDIS).

Generations of us have adopted the time honoured, traditional ‘behind the sofa’ position for the scarier episodes, we’ve pestered aunts and grannies to knit us very long scarves and now grown up we still love it (and some of us still have those scarves!), reborn and still winning over the old fans and the new and here we are, only two episodes left of David Tennant’s tenure as we mark the show’s anniversary and once more we prepare for the Time Lord’s regeneration and a new chapter in the show’s history; we’ll be watching still. So happy birthday, Doctor Who and all the wonderful actors, writers, producers, editors and crew who have had a hand in creating a show so many of us have loved. And bring on the Christmas specials! And while we’re waiting, the first episodes off the new animated Doctor Who show Dreamland are on the official BBC site now.