From The Daily Telegraph.
A reactionary on a bad LSD trip - Doctor Who?
Can you name this television hero? A paranoid fugitive who travelled the galaxy in an invisible flying saucer, suffering from LSD-style depressions and trying to halt scientific progress.
Even the most ardent science fiction fan would struggle to recognise this tormented character as Doctor Who, the Time Lord who fought to save mankind from Daleks and Cybermen.
But when BBC producers originally sat down to create the Doctor, they had a very different vision of him to the one that finally appeared on television, according to documents in the corporation's archive seen by The Sunday Telegraph.
Far from jumping at the idea of a time machine - eventually the police telephone box Tardis - they deemed such a contraption too "old-fashioned". Even when they finally agreed that a time machine was a good idea, they wanted it to be invisible.
In a discussion dated March 26 1963, some of the production team advocated a flying saucer because it was a "more modern idea" than a time machine and would have the advantage of "conveying a group of characters".
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.
On the Doctor's personality, one internal guide drawn up before the first series says the character, who was played by William Hartnell, should be like the Wizard of Oz, "only a little more authentic... we can strike more of the charm and humour as well as the mystery, the suspicion and the cunning".
The note adds: "A feature of the new Doctor will be the humour along the lines of the sardonic humour of Sherlock Holmes. The metaphysical change which takes place over 500 years or so is a horrifying experience... in which he relives some of the unendurable moments of his long life.
"It's as if he has had the LSD drug and instead of experiencing the kicks, he has the hell and dank horror which can be its effect."
The reason why the Doctor needs to travel the universe seems to have been a bone of contention. One note states: "He is an extension of the scientist who has opted out, but he has opted out farther than ours can do at the moment. One symptom of this is the hatred of scientists, inventors, improvers.
"He can get into a rare paddy when faced with a caveman trying to invent a wheel. He malignantly tries to stop progress (the future) wherever he finds it, while searching for his ideal (the past)." His ultimate aim, says the memo is to "destroy or nullify the future".
One member of the production team, probably Verity Lambert, who, at 27, was the series producer, seems to disagree. A scribbled note by the side reads: "Don't like this at all. Doctor Who will behave like a kind of father figure - I don't want him to be a reactionary."
The first series was aimed at teenagers and designed to bridge the gap between Grandstand and Juke Box Jury. The Doctor's companions were cast to ensure maximum appeal.
A handsome young male hero was believed to be a must to pull in children, while it was thought that a well-dressed heroine, aged about 30, would appeal to women viewers. The show was an instant hit and 45 years later it is still one of the BBC's most popular series. More than 13 million viewers tuned in on Christmas Day last year to watch David Tennant as the 10th Doctor. Tennant will also star in the new series, which begins next month.
Doctor Who aficionados last night expressed surprise that the makers had ever considered going ahead without the Tardis. Tom Spilsbury, editor of Doctor Who Magazine, said: "A flying saucer would be a bit too ordinary for a hero like the Doctor."
Antony Wainer, of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society, said: "The notion of a spaceship sounds great but the Tardis is much better. Police boxes were still on the street in the Sixties and so the possibility that the Tardis could be on their street was very exciting to children."
Thank god for Verity Lambert! :thumbsup: