TMC
04-05-2022, 07:59 PM
https://www.looper.com/821969/how-doctor-who-could-have-been-a-completely-different-series/
Doctor Who was originally conceptualized as a children's educational show
It turns out that when "Doctor Who" was first conceived in the early 1960s, it was intended to be an educational program aimed at teaching kids about science and history, in order to fulfill The BBC's public mandate, which stipulated a balance of information and entertainment (via Open Culture (https://www.openculture.com/2021/08/how-doctor-who-started-as-a-family-educational-tv-program-1963.html)). Though the show's first season in 1963 attempted to keep the educational aspects front and center — beginning with the show's first four-part series, "An Unearthly Child" — the public clearly was more interested in fiction than science. So, in Season 2, the Daleks were introduced, and the show began to take the form we know and love today, full of bizarre aliens and otherworldly adventures.
However, the tradition of historical education remains engrained in the DNA of "Doctor Who" — even in the many seasons of modern "Who" (https://www.looper.com/702607/every-season-of-modern-doctor-who-ranked-worst-to-best/) which began in 2005. Under the watch of once and future showrunner Russell T. Davies, responsible for overseeing the height of the modern reboot's popularity, fans were given episodes such as "The Shakespeare Code" and "The Fires of Pompeii," which took the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and his various companions to the Globe Theater in the 17th century and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 1st century BCE. Departing showrunner Chris Chibnall has used his time with the show to explore the ways history still affects the modern day, most notably in the episode "Rosa," which took the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) into Montgomery, Alabama during the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s.
Doctor Who was originally conceptualized as a children's educational show
It turns out that when "Doctor Who" was first conceived in the early 1960s, it was intended to be an educational program aimed at teaching kids about science and history, in order to fulfill The BBC's public mandate, which stipulated a balance of information and entertainment (via Open Culture (https://www.openculture.com/2021/08/how-doctor-who-started-as-a-family-educational-tv-program-1963.html)). Though the show's first season in 1963 attempted to keep the educational aspects front and center — beginning with the show's first four-part series, "An Unearthly Child" — the public clearly was more interested in fiction than science. So, in Season 2, the Daleks were introduced, and the show began to take the form we know and love today, full of bizarre aliens and otherworldly adventures.
However, the tradition of historical education remains engrained in the DNA of "Doctor Who" — even in the many seasons of modern "Who" (https://www.looper.com/702607/every-season-of-modern-doctor-who-ranked-worst-to-best/) which began in 2005. Under the watch of once and future showrunner Russell T. Davies, responsible for overseeing the height of the modern reboot's popularity, fans were given episodes such as "The Shakespeare Code" and "The Fires of Pompeii," which took the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and his various companions to the Globe Theater in the 17th century and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the 1st century BCE. Departing showrunner Chris Chibnall has used his time with the show to explore the ways history still affects the modern day, most notably in the episode "Rosa," which took the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) into Montgomery, Alabama during the American Civil Rights movement of the 1950s.