Back in 1963, a low budget science fiction television series was launched primarily aimed at educating children during Saturday teatimes, called Doctor Who. Slipping under the radar due in no small part to the assassination of President Kennedy, the show suddenly became the hottest property on British television just six weeks into its run with the introduction of The Daleks. The Daleks propelled the show into another stratosphere and became a merchandising phenomenon in the 1960s, which guaranteed the series a shelf life much longer than was originally planned or anticipated. The blank canvas doesn't come much bigger - any episode could be set at any time, in any world, anywhere. And add to that the genius of the central character being able to regenerate without the need to ruin audience expectation, and you had television gold. And so began an amazing run of 26 years with the Doctor portrayed by seven different actors, before the wheels began falling off. The decline can be traced back to the late 1980s. Tom Baker, largely considered by many fans to be the ultimate Doctor (before the emergence of David Tenant who now has a claim to the throne) ended his hugely successful run in 1981, and youthful producer John Nathan-Turner replaced him with popular TV actor Peter Davison. Whilst Davison's era was highly competent and successful, both in terms of ratings and quality, it was Turner's decision to install Colin Baker in 1984 that was the beginning of the end. Baker's crass and incredibly ill-judged portrayal alienated viewers and as ratings fell, it was no surprise that then-BBC chief Michael Grade gave the show a deliberate 18 month rest. Sylvester McCoy was then handed the role, and whilst his tenure is regularly derided by fans, he was harshly treated. His realignment of the part was excellent, but by now the show had degenerated into almost pantomime type farce. Turner was obsessed with attracting big name guest stars to the show - witness the likes of Ken Dodd, Richard Briers and Sheila Hancock, but was accused of taking his eye off the ball as the story lines and dialogue descended into cringing embarrassment. We were no longer hiding behind sofas because of the terror of the aliens - we were hiding from the show itself. The show's darkest hour was when McCoy's Doctor was faced with an enemy in The Happiness Patrol called the Kandy Man who just happened to resemble a giant liquorish allsort. And it seemed that when the show was finally axed a year later in 1989, it would be forever confined to the memories of TV yesteryear. An abortive effort to revive the show in 1996 using a TV movie with Paul McGann only served to remind us that the show was best left on the shelf.
But then 2005 happened and Russell T Davies, one of the most prolific and thought provoking writers in television, revived the series with highly acclaimed actor Christopher Eccleston in the main role, and, as a stroke of pure genius, the bewitchingly alluring Billie Piper as his assistant. Piper was the conduit between generations - she still had a teen following from her earlier career as a successfully precocious pop star, and also attracted more than a passing interest from older (male)viewers as she was also something of a pin-up girl favourite, often posing for lads mags of the age. But Davies also used his massive budget to transform Doctor Who. Gone were the cardboard sets and sticky-back plastic alien costumes. In came proper special effects and even a revamped orchestral theme tune. But the strength was in the scripts. In Fathers Day, for example, Piper goes back in time to see her father who died when she was a small child. This was high octane emotional drama, and was difficult to reconcile with the often comedic episodes of the past decades. And then came David Tenant. As Tenant's performances got better, the scripts pushed him harder, and he quickly developed a cult following that took the show right back to the top of the ratings, and even created spin off shows like Torchwood and The Aventures of Sarah Jane Smith. Countless episodes followed which were suddenly the envy of producers everywhere - Doctor Who was streets ahead of everything else on television and remains so today.
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