Do you know what the longest running sci-fi show in television history is? I’m guessing the title of the post gave it away, but yes, it’s Doctor Who.
Doctor Who is an interesting phenomenon with curious staying power, no matter in what era it’s televised. Each rendition brings fans old and new along for the ride while the BBC sticks to what’s tried and true. Much like ‘In and Out Burger‘. Focus on what you do well.
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For me, Doctor Who was confounding. When I’d come across it, I’d get sucked in and watch it to the end. What’s that about?
In case you didn’t know, Doctor Who is about a 900-year old Time Lord known as “The Doctor” who saves humanity time and time again, no pun there. His only tools are his trusty sonic screwdriver and sharp wit. And the ship that he travels through space and time in, the Tardis, which looks like a phone booth.
Doctor Who started to germinate in mid 1962, when the BBC’s ‘Head of Drama’, Sidney Newman, wanted to replace a children’s drama show that had a time slot between a sports show and a pop music program and do it with a show that entertained but also dispensed some form of fact. He balanced his desire for a show with what I’d consider a timeless survey that was conducted earlier that year, in March of 1962 that concluded that more people watched sci-fi due to compelling character portrayal and not because it was sci-fi. …Huh. Interesting. What does that remind you of?
These facets, along with the desire to keep the show on a shoestring type of budget is what culminated into the first episode of Doctor Who which played on November 23rd, 1963. The rest is history. In present day, that basic character appeal of the show is so compelling across so many variations of society that as of September 2007, the revived series is telecast in 37 countries.
It has quite the following to say the least, and BBC recognizes this. Thus, this season’s Doctor Who finale from BBC, like last year, has 20 additional minutes of air time. A whopping 65 minutes of time-traveling fun compared to the usual 45 minutes, and that’s pretty neat. Unless your only avenue of watching the show is here in the U.S. on the Sci-Fi Channel.
The Sci-Fi Channel is expected to air the usual 42 minutes of time with the finale episode, “Journey’s End“.
This is expected because they did the same thing with last years Doctor Who season finale, and according to a few fans, some of the best parts of the show were cut out from last year’s show. So while they’re already under the scrutiny of the general public for how they’re handling Battlestar Galactica’s final season, we’re all looking at this new juggling act they’re doing with the worlds most popular science fiction show by editing out the extra time to keep it packed into the advertising schedule of their hour, which includes things like the same ads for their own shows, repeated over and over again.
I expected more from Sci-Fi at least this once, since their new head of the channel is from the BBC but alas, at least England doesn’t bow to the advertising powers every time.
Sources: Teletronic, Wikipedia, io9
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55 Comments
EXTERMINATE
Bruce! No worries!! That’s what youtube is for. I just watched all the British aired episodes airing up to Journey’s End. Which hasn’t aired yet. But will in a few days. And if your on tune with the U.S. airings, oh boy, does it get bloody exciting.
Someone will put the episode in its entirety on the youtube! Although the downside might result in a slighty-crappy quality version. But who the hell cares! It’s Doctor-freaking-Who!!
Allons-y!!!
Doctor Who is a phenominal show. Its the best sci-fi out there today !
The new series is the best version of Who yet !
Even better than BSG when it comes to pure sci-fi.
Cool post Bruce, I’m going to have to check the run time on my dvds. I feel I’ve been jipped.
Daleks rule!
Oh man, it’s absolute genius how they’ve managed to bring this show back to life.
They’ve captured the campiness, tongue in cheek factor, cool creatures, and everything else that made the original so great without losing a drop of it.
I was a fan of the old one and I have to admit to being sucked into it straight away and getting those old feelings right back.
If you’re looking for decent quality versions I wouldn’t touch You Tube…better with something (so I’ve heard) like Pirate Bay.
Although I don’t condone piracy at all.
No one here condones piracy at all, so I’d recommend we all stick to the proper, though limited legal channels we all have available to us!
And yea – for me, the last few episodes were kick a**. The biggest mystery through out it all was WHY he’d give his sonic screwdriver to ANYONE, in the future.
Clever clever clever show.
Well who knows, we may never find out. Because it wasn’t clear how far in the future that was. Nor was it clear of what version of the Doctor it might have been, the eleventh? The last incarnation? What’s safe to say is that he’s a very, very, clever man.
Thank you 790.
Ashar: That’s the beauty of The Doctor. You don’t need to retain the same actor to portray the same character. A brilliant device / idea to be able to keep the character alive and well, no matter when or how long the show runs.
Not to mention it minimizes squabbles, or as they like to say, creative differences, with the cast!
Hmm, Watch out folks. I think the Big Dentist is a Dalek!!!
Dr. Who is one of my favorite shows on TV right now without a doubt. David Tenant is PERFECT as the Doctor, although I am not too crazy about Donna. Unfortunately, I only get to watch it on the SciFi channel, but now that I know what I am missing, I think my Netflix queue might be rearranged…
The last episode coming up looks to be so full action and revelations that if SciFi cut it down it could really ruin it.
Quite looking forward to when Moffat takes over as his writing has been among the best.
I grew up in Australia so grew up with Doctor Who. My favourite show.
What other show could survive the main character changing? Or massive production changes, eg the change from Gothic Horror to straight sci-fi during the Tom Baker era. Each Doctor and each era brought something fresh yet it still had that magical famtasy sci-fi flavour.
It’s also one of the most profitable BBC shows, if not their most profitable. Even when the BBC would mistreat it. A single episode of Red Dwarf had the production budget of an entire 14 episode season of Doctor Who.
I was very unimpressed a few years ago when Stargate SG-1 was named the longest running sci-fi show because they kept showing re-runs between seasons on US TV.
I feel sorry for you US fans who have to watch butchered episodes. Especially if you’ll be missing out on more than 20 minutes of the finale. Ugh.
Next year is going to be hell. 4 specials rather than a full season. Oh well, hopefully The Sarah Jane Adventures will be a full season.
If Doctor Who is the most profitable BBC show, why don’t they produce a Doctor Who Movie? Can’t think of a better way to expand the fanbase.
DarkBudda are you sure about Red Dwarf costing so much?
And I’m still upset that we never got a Red Dwarf movie.
Smegheads !!!!
A Rimmer salute to you all…..
The BBC don’t seem to be very profitable overall. They recently wanted the licence fee to go up considerably, and since the Government will only raise it to a degree, the BBC are making cutbacks.
So whatever Dr Who is making for them, it isn’t enough to make a movie. Something else, from outside, would be needed; perhaps a joint venture with an american company.
I think at it’s height Red Dwarf did cost quite a bit. No idea on figures though.
A Rimmer salute back
Well there has to be another reason other than not enough money to make a film.
BBC could afford 45 mil for a feature. If done in the same epic way all the season finales have been, it could make over 200 mil worldwide.
Supposedly X-Files 2 is under 45 mil and that’s a genre based gamble that everyone believes is going to pay off bigtime.
The Doc Who fanbase would (IMO) garner a 50mil opening in the US.
Sheesh. BBC could pay some bills with 200mil.
What’s stopping them. Do they want to stay in the same tax bracket or what?
I ,Rimmer! Rimmer Salute thee….
They aren’t making a series next year, just some specials, and I’m sure for the cost of those they could make a movie.
Doctor Who is still riding the wave here so a movie would be massive news. I also can’t see the cast turning down the chance to be in a film.
The BBC are just a pain in the arse. These days they seem to care more about ratings than quality. They produce some awful reality shows.
I also think they lack the guts to go for a movie.
Steven, what you’ve just written sounds like our own American Sci-Fi Channel!!
Boy you said it Bruce, two companies that have it all, yet have no clue…
Yep – sadly, they’re the only ones providing this specific commodity that we need, and can do what they want with it, no matter what we think because it is our only outlet. I hate addictions.
I know. The BBC do get things right, now and then, but usually when they let creative people get on with it.
Bruce/Ashar, The Full 63 minutes of ‘Journeys End’ is on the BBC iPlayer for 7 days – decent quality too.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00cgnjr
@steven the git
I should have been clearer, my bad, the budget I was referring to was for the last seasons of classic Who back at the end of the 80s when they were making Red Dwarf at the same time. And yes, unfortunately it is accurate, at that time Doctor Who was the red headed step child of BBC programming. Doctor Who had low ratings at the time, they put it up against rating juggernaut Coronation Street, which would have killed any show. They believed that Red Dwarf was going to take the world by storm so were pouring money into it.
Red Dwarf, what a great show !
Oh, I assumed that was when you meant. The budget for the show back then in the 80s was crappy, especially compared to now.
I imagine the first two series of RD weren’t that high either, but once they hit series 3 they had clearly been able to step up a few levels.
Oh, and what’s wrong with red headed children? I am one!
Thank you Belly.
Dr who has gotten politically correct with the Black girl as the sidekick.
Well don’t stop there then, if you’re going to do that then why not a black doctor who too.
“Politically Correct”. Aaarrghh.
Eric G, your post reminded me of the great character arc of Mickey who later became Rickey in “The Rise of the Cyberman.”
I remember him as the dorky “black” boyfriend of “White” Rose Tyler.
He kinda faded away after season 1, and then in season 2 they met an alternate version of Mickey in a parallel universe named Ricky. He was the exact opposite of Mickey.
Total badars.
The actor that played him really impressed me as I never would have seen him as a action hero. (Of course fans know that only one survived the episode). Haha. Not tellin. Go watch!
Eric “DoctorWho” dosnt to be politically correct, they allready are, and I hate that term.
Doctor Who is perfect the way it is.
I wouldn’t mind a “black” Doctor at all but he has to be a great actor!!!!
You could easily have a black Doctor, or any non white. There is nothing about regeneration that says he has to stay white, unless the Time Lords are a white race.
Not sure about a female doctor though, not sure whether gender can be swapped.
But yeah, for me it would need to be a worthy actor and not done for a gimmick.
Black Dr Who = not watching
So barring the obvious, what other shows over on the other side of the Atlantic are good sci-fi type shows?
Are there any resources for being able to watch them online?
I’m trying to expand my horizons beyond my American exposure!
to Bruce – the only other show I’m aware of (and not mentioned in this post) is ‘Torchwood’, a Dr Who spinoff – I see it here in US on BBCAmerica (thank you cable!)
I remember Dr Who being shown in the US on public TV back in the late 70’s and wasn’t impressed. I was probably too young to get it and also didn’t see it from beginning. Found it again couple of years ago w/Chris Eccleston as the Doctor and have been sucked in ever since. I love this show! It’s my favorite sci-fi show since Star Trek:Next Generation and Stargate!
Don’t know when the finale is due to show on SciFi in USA…
Bruce, to be honest I can’t think of a single one! Heads of UK channels have never been known for their love of science fiction. The CGI Captain Scarlet a couple of years ago was better than the original I thought, but no sign of any more yet. Hyperdrive starring Simon Pegg’s mate Nick Frost was generally pretty poor. Kind of a Red Dwarf-lite. Bet they wished they could have called it “Spaced” as well. Primeval would never have seen the light of day without the success of Doctor Who, and Life On Mars (present-day cop finds himself back in the early ’70s for no adequately explored reason) wasn’t really SF. All in all a bit rubbish then.
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