The random witterings of Jonathan Morris, writer.

Monday, 21 July 2025

Valentine Day

Originally published in Doctor Who Magazine 449, as the magazine was unusually being published in the same week as Valentine’s Day. You may note that as this was written in January 2013, it is before The Enemy of the World was returned to the archive, otherwise I would have definitely included Colin and Mary.


DOCTOR WHO’S GREATEST LOVE STORIES

Doctor Who isn’t just about aliens invading the Earth and travels in time and space. It’s also about love stories. Love stories about the Doctor’s companions, about the Doctor himself and various women, and about the people he meets. Love stories that end in bliss and love stories that end in tragedy. Stories about understated love, about unrequited love, about unlikely love,  and about uncontrollable love. In Doctor Who, love actually is all around...

 

1 Rory Williams and Amy Pond (The Eleventh Hour (2010) – The Angels Take Manhattan (2012))

Magic moment: Don't you dare talk to me about waiting outside a box, because that is nothing, Rory, nothing, compared to giving you up.”

For the last three years, Doctor Who has been love story of Amy and Rory. More than anything else, it’s been about an extremely mixed-up, prickly, passionate girl and her long-suffering, doting fiancĂ©. And their love has conquered anything the universe can throw at them, and I mean anything. Death? Rory has not only survived drowning and being dissolved by an Eknodine, he has survived being shot by a Silurian and erased from existence. He’s been resurrected as a Nestene duplicate of himself and waited two thousand years outside the Pandorica for Amy to recover. Why did Amy have to go into the Pandorica? Because the Nestene duplicate of Rory had killed her, but don’t worry, she survived that too. That’s not the only time she’s died either, as she killed herself in the Dream Lords’ reality after Rory was dissolved. Given the choice, Amy would rather not live in a world without Rory. Rory’s choice was no less difficult; after Amy waited thirty-six years for Rory to rescue her on Apalapucia, Rory had to decide between saving the Amy who had waited or to change history so that the Amy who had waited never came into existence. And that’s not the only adversity they’ve had to overcome. They’ve had to overcome Amy’s hot-blooded attraction to the raggedy Doctor, the unwilling extra corner to their love triangle. They’ve had to spend three months apart, on the run from the Silence in the USA. They’ve had to deal with the unbelievable trauma of having their baby stolen from them by Madame Kovarian (a baby they didn’t even know existed until it was due to be born). And they’ve had to overcome the greatest obstacle of all, their own stupidity, as they nearly get divorced due to each of them feeling they had let the other down in Asylum Of The Daleks. Though an inability to communicate has been a constant fixture of their relationship, ever since it began with Amy assuming Rory was gay and Rory being terrified of Amy finding out that he fancied her. But somehow they’ve managed to make their dysfunctional dynamic work, partly due to Rory’s patient, submissive nature (he’s spent his whole life trying to be Mr Pond) but mainly because no matter how much they get their wires crossed, and no matter how much pain they face, they love each other more than they can express. So when Rory decides to kill himself to create a paradox and prevent himself from becoming a Weeping Angel food source, Amy decides she will go with him. And if anything sums up their relationship that’s it; Amy and Rory, locked in a loving embrace, plunging to their death. But even that wasn’t the end; when a Weeping Angel sends Rory back to the 1930s, Amy makes her last choice, to follow Rory and make sure that, no matter what, they will spend the rest of their lives together.

Love theme: Complicated

 

2 John Smith and Joan Redfern (Human Nature/The Family Of Blood (2007))

Magic moment: How can you think that I'm not real? When I kissed you, was that a lie?”

It’s taken two months, but finally the time has come for Joan Redfern to make her move. In 1914 it’s not easy for a widow to ask out an eligible bachelor, and for all her hints John Smith is remarkably slow on the uptake. He doesn’t pick up on her hints about them making a good team, or being invited to the village dance. He seems oblivious to her mentioning that nurses, like herself, make such good wives. But eventually the penny drops, and John Smith invites her and kisses her after adding a sketch of her to his Journal Of Impossible Things. Because, for some reason, he keeps having these dreams about another life, about a mysterious Doctor. At first Joan presumes it’s wish-fulfilment, that this heroic Doctor with an eye for the pretty girls is the man John would like to be. But after the village dance, she begins to suspect that it is more than that, and even as she falls in love with John Smith she learns he is not real, he is the creation of the mysterious Doctor, and that she must lose him. It’s beautifully written and played, as Joan starts to realise that Martha has been telling the truth, and that the fob watch and the magical blue box are not just dreams written down in a journal but are real. She becomes the one who has to convince John Smith; David Tennant is never better than in the scene where Joan points out that John’s history doesn’t make sense and that his whole life has been a lie. That the only real thing in his life is his love for Joan and he can’t even have that; to save the world he has to become a man who is lonely, who wouldn’t even consider the possibility of falling in love, a man who will never find happiness with Joan. A man who has caused innocent people to die by attracting the Family of Blood to Earth. And for all the Doctor’s protests that John Smith lives on within him, when John Smith becomes the Doctor the man that Joan loves is gone. Because John Smith is the best that the Doctor is capable of, without the darkness – a Doctor-lite. Just as Joan’s heart is broken at the loss of John Smith, and John Smith’s heart is broken at the thought of losing her, one of the Doctor’s hearts is broken because the love that John felt for Joan still burns inside him, but she cannot love him back. That’s why he goes to see her great granddaughter before he regenerates in The End Of Time to see if she found happiness. It’s not for himself but for whichever of his hearts that was the heart of John Smith.

Love theme: Human

 

3 Professor Clifford Jones and Jo Grant (The Green Death (1973))

Magic moment: Look, will you excuse me? I do think I'm going to be wanted on the telephone.”

The Green Death is an astonishing thoughtful of work, not least the way it writes out Jo Grant. Not for her the hasty goodbye added to the script as an afterthought. She gets a love story, all about how her new love, Cliff Jones, will be taking the Doctor’s place in her life. Even before she’s met him he already reminds her of a younger Doctor; the Doctor, he recognises this as the first sign that Jo will soon be leaving him, that she has started to think of him as old. Then, when she first meets Cliff, their meeting is a conscious echo of Jo’s first meeting with the Doctor, interrupting a delicate science experiment in a clumsy rush of scatterbrained enthusiasm. This also sets up the later moment where Jo’s clumsiness provides the answer to the green death infection. There are other echoes too; when Cliff becomes infected, Jo spends hours at his bedside, just as she has spent so many honours nursing the Doctor during one of his regular comas. Cliff Jones has his own ‘moment of charm’ comforting Jo after the news of Bert’s death, and it’s Cliff, rather than the Doctor, who rescues Jo when she wanders into trouble. There’s even a deliberate call-back to her first story when Jo gets her uncle at the United Nations to fund Cliff Jones’ work. It’s revealing that the thought of joining Cliff’s alternative community excites Jo far more than the thought of travelling to Metebelis Three with the Doctor. She turns him down even when he offers her all of time and space.  She still wants the thrill of adventure, but adventure with a purpose, to save with world by travelling up the amazon to find a protein-rich toadstool. It’s clear that Cliff is perfect for Jo in a way that King Peladon, Mike Yates and Latep never could be (and not just because of the obvious chemistry between the actors Katy Manning and Stewart Bevan). But what makes this love story truly special is what it tells us about the Doctor, about the sadness and loneliness of his life as his companions grow away from him. There’s a touch of jealousy about the way he tries to sabotage Cliff and Jo’s romance by steering Cliff away from Jo just as they were about to kiss; but later, when Cliff proposes, he tactfully makes himself scarce.  And while Cliff and Jo head off to happier times, the Doctor drives off into the sunset, alone.

Love theme: The Scientist

 

4 Doctor and Madame Du Pompadour (The Girl In The Fireplace (2006))

Magic moment: “I’m the Doctor. And I just snogged Madame de Pompadour!”

Before River Song there was Reinette, the first story of a romance conducted by skipping through the pages of history, and the first out-and-out Doctor Who love story. Yes, it may have clockwork robots and spaceships but they’re just science-fiction trappings to reassure little boys that they’re not watching a programme made for girls. You can’t get more romantic than The Girl In The Fireplace. For the first time, we’re shown the Doctor falling in love (unless you count Cameca, see later); after decades of the Doctor being oddly asexual, he is now capable of falling in love and of physical attraction. You only have to look at his face when he notices how Reinette has grown. And whereas the Doctor’s kiss with Grace was entirely innocent, with Reinette he revels in the fact that she’s grabbed him and kissed him. He’s giddy with excitement. And why wouldn’t he be, when Reinette is more than a match for him? She’s not just beautiful and accomplished, she is quick to understand that the Doctor is stepping through chapters of the book of her life. She isn’t thrown by the clockwork robots or the Doctor’s ageless appearance, and when the Doctor looks into her mind, she looks into his mind just as easily and finds out more about him than he does about her. It’s easy to believe that the Doctor would be happy ‘stuck on the slow path’ with her and the thought of her joining him on his travels is such a gorgeous prospect you can’t help wishing that it will work out, even if you’ve seen the episode half a dozen times. But of course it can’t, and just as we’ve seen a Doctor capable of passion, we now see that he is also capable of having his hearts broken, as the accelerated passage of time that brought him and Reinette together also takes her away from him. Bearing in mind what came later, though, the surprise with this love story is actually how straightforward it is; there may be a clear influence of The Time Traveler’s Wife with the Doctor meeting Reinette as her imaginary childhood friend, but all their encounters are in strict chronological order. A larger influence, I suspect, may have been Russell T Davies’ Casanova; in particular its conclusion, where Casanova fails to be reunited with his love because he leaves it too late. Who, watching that, wouldn’t wish that Casanova could pop back six months in a time machine?

Love theme: Time After Time

 

5 Doctor and Idris (The Doctor’s Wife (2011))

Magic moment: I just wanted to say hello. Hello, Doctor. It's so very, very nice to meet you.”

The love story of the Doctor and Idris is, of course, really the love story of the Doctor and his TARDIS, the rackety old type-forty he stole from Gallifrey all those years ago. But after all those years of the Doctor referring to it as an ‘old girl’ and references to the TARDIS being alive – 1972’s The Time Monster introduces the idea of it being telepathic, while the 1996 TV movie has the TARDIS being a ‘sentimental old thing’ by bringing Grace and Change Lee back to life – after all those years, The Doctor’s Wife is the pay-off. For the first time, the TARDIS can speak, its matrix – or ‘soul’ – having been stuck in the body of Idris, a human living in a junkyard outside of time and space. Now at last it can say all the things it’s ever wanted to say. We learn that the TARDIS doesn’t perceive time linearly, with past, present and future all mixed up, and that it can archive control rooms that haven’t been created yet. We learn that the first thing the Doctor ever said to the TARDIS was that she was the most beautiful thing he had ever known, and that when he’s on his own, he calls her ‘sexy’. We learn that, as far as the TARDIS is concerned, she stole the Doctor, deliberately leaving her door unlocked so that he would steal her to leave Gallifrey; we learn that she finds it hard to tell apart the various ‘strays’ the Doctor travels with; we learn that she has been guiding the Doctor’s seemingly haphazard travels for all these years. And we learn that the TARDIS regards the Doctor as her ‘beautiful idiot’ because he’s spent years opening the TARDIS door the wrong way. While it places the whole history of Doctor Who in a new context, it doesn’t undermine it. In fact, it’s so true to the original, magical ethos of the show’s earliest years that it feels like it was planned all long. But the tragedy of this relationship is how-short lived it is, as holding the TARDIS matrix causes Idris’ body to shut down, and we discover that even as she was delighting in being alive, she knew she was about to die. Or at least, to return to being the Doctor’s TARDIS, never able to speak to him again. It’s not just a Doctor Who love story, it’s a love story about Doctor Who, about the Doctor and his TARDIS and the whole romance of his travels in time and space.

Love theme: You’re Beautiful

 

6 Pete Tyler and Jackie Tyler (Father’s Day (2005) – Journey’s End (2008))

Magic moment: “But you’re dead. You died twenty years ago, Pete.”

Looking at Pete and Jackie as a couple in 1987, you wouldn’t think theirs was a great love story. In fact, looking at the way they are together, you would be surprised if they lasted more than a year. Pete can’t do right for doing wrong, he’s a failure as a businessmen and Jackie is convinced he’s being unfaithful. And when he is killed in a road accident (averting a wound in time and saving the world in the process) it looks like that’s the end. It would take a universe-shattering event to bring them back together and fortunately that’s exactly what happens, twenty years later. On a parallel Earth Pete Tyler has become a success thanks to Vitex soft drinks. He’s also working as an informer for the Preachers, trying to prevent the rise of the Cybermen. In this universe, he’s married to Jackie Tyler, who wealth has made vain and avaricious – ‘ where’s my Zeppelin?’ Again, you’d be surprised if they lasted, and sadly they don’t, as Jackie is transformed into a Cyberman .Meanwhile the Jackie from ‘our’ universe has moved on with her life. She remembers her Pete with more fondness than she showed him at the time, but has started seeing other men - notably Howard, Rodrigo and Billy Croot. So you can imagine her surprise when she’s being attacked by two Cybermen in Torchwood HQ and they collapse to the ground having been shot by her dead husband. Who doesn’t look a day older (though Jackie seems to think he does). It’s one of the greatest moments of Doctor Who, overshadowed by Rose’s departure, but in its way, utterly touching and beautiful. Pete and Tyler reunited – in a sense – with the person they thought was dead, but alive, older, and shaped by events to be perfect for each other. As Pete points out, he isn’t her Pete and she isn’t his Jackie, but in the end it doesn’t matter. This Pete and this Jackie have both seen each other die, and now they’ve been given a second chance. It’s a combination of the domestic and the absurdly space-operatic, and it’s uniquely, heartrendingly Doctor Who.

Love theme: Un-break My Heart


7 David Campbell and Susan Foreman (The Dalek Invasion Of Earth (1964))

Magic moment: “Well, I’m giving you that, Susan. I’m giving you a place, a time, an identity.”

The saying goes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. The same, it seems, holds true for female Gallifreyans, because food is the key to David’s seduction of Susan Foreman. After all, what is the first they say to each other? He asks her what can she do, and she replies ‘I can eat’. So what does David do? He goes out and brings her apples which, in Dalek-occupied London, is harder than it sounds. Having made the first move, Susan responds by inviting David to join her and the Doctor in the TARDIS; he refuses, saying that running away isn’t the answer and Susan, who has been running away all her life, begins to realise that there is an alternative. Later, he invites Susan to help rebuild the Earth and she answers ‘yes’ almost without thinking about it. But the key moment comes on their journey to Bedfordshire, when David brings Susan more food. This time it’s a fresh fish, which he dangles on her neck after creeping up on her. And despite the fact that this is clearly not the time for practical jokes, what with them being in a wood hiding from the Daleks, Susan finds it funny and a passionate clinch ensues. That’s love for you, as the Doctor is quick to notice (though he’d already had his suspicions that something was cooking when Susan disagreed with him when he suggested they try to leave). And it’s the Doctor who makes Susan’s decision for her, in the end. He’s inside the TARDIS listening and hears David tell Susan that he loves her and Susan reply that she loves him. As soon as she says that, he closes the TARDIS doors on her so she no longer has to choose between him and David. The Doctor is heartbroken but for Susan this is just the beginning of a new life, a life of David bringing her fresh farm produce. It’s Doctor Who’s first major farewell, and because it’s given time to build, and time to play out, it feels emotionally true; just as with Cliff Jones and Jo, the only thing that could take the Doctor’s child away from him is a younger Doctor.

Love theme: Suzy-Hang-Around

 

8 The Doctor and River Song (A Good Man Goes To War (2011) – Forest Of The Dead (2008))

Magic moment: “You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run!”

The Doctor and River’s love story had ended before it began. Literally. The first we – and the Doctor – knew of their relationship was when they met at the Library and River died preventing the auto-destruct. But she mentioned the last time she’d met him was at the Singing Towers of Darillium. Before that, she was pardoned of killing the Doctor and met him and the Weeping Angels in New York. Before that was the crash of the Byzantium. Before that, the Pandorica opened. Before that, River escaped the Stormcage Facility to visit the Doctor in Utah. Before that, she visited Demon’s Run. Before that, the Doctor took her to see Stevie Wonder at a frost fair. Before that, she fought with Sontarans at Calderon Beta. Before that, the Doctor took her to Calderon Beta for the first time. Before that, she was imprisoned in the Stormcage for apparently killing the Doctor. Before that, she married him. Before that, she was recruited by Madame Kovarian. Before that, she enrolled at Luna University. Before that, she gave up her regenerations to save the Doctor. Before that, she attempted to kill the Doctor with the poison of the Judas Tree. Before that, she regenerated, having been shot by Hitler. Before that, she met the Doctor for the first time and told him to take her to kill Hitler. Before that she grew up with Amy and Rory as their friend Melody. Before that, she regenerated as a young girl in New York. Before that, the Silence placed her in an orphanage in Florida in an Apollo spacesuit. Before that, she was kidnapped by Madame Kovarian before that she was born at Demon’s Run, and before that she was conceived in the TARDIS by her parents, Amy and Rory. I hope that makes everything clear. To put it simply: the Doctor and River’s love song has a melody that hits all the right notes... but not necessarily in the right order.

Love theme: If I Could Turn Back Time

 

9 The Doctor and Rose (Rose (2005) – Journey’s End (2008))

Magic moment: “And I suppose... if it’s one last chance to say it... Rose Tyler...”

When Doctor Who returned in 2005, one major difference was that rather than consigning love stories to romantic sub-plots, it could make the whole series into a love story. And that’s what it was for two years, the story of Rose falling for the Doctor (and choosing him over her boyfriend Mickey) and the Doctor falling for Rose. Although there are moments between Rose and the ninth Doctor – Rose flirtatiously asking whether he ‘dances’, for instance – it’s not until he regenerates that things get serious. Rose and the Doctor spend whole stories delighting in each other’s company, almost to the point that they seem complacent and smug, but that’s the whole point. Pride comes before a fall. In School Reunion Sarah warns Rose that one day the Doctor will break her heart and leave her, but Rose refuses to believe it. By The Impossible Planet she’s so in love with the Doctor she jokes (in a way that isn’t joking at all) about them settling down together. And by Fear Her she’s convinced that nothing will ever break them up – though the Doctor doesn’t share her conviction. It’s all part of the build up to the events of Doomsday, where Rose has to choose between her family and the Doctor. She chooses the Doctor – but when she finds herself falling into the Void, the choice is made for her by her father, and she ends up trapped in another universe, leading to the most heartbreaking farewell scene of them all. Of course, it wasn’t quite the end, and Rose would return and eventually get her own (half-human) Doctor, but that doesn’t detract from the power of the moment where Rose tells the hologram of the Doctor that she loves him, and he begins to say it back.

Love theme: Never Tear Us Apart


10 King Yrcanos and Peri (The Trial Of A Time Lord (1986))

Magic moment: “What is that? ‘Love’?”

Considering how loud and unreserved King Yrcanos is, his courtship with Peri is remarkably subtle. The first hints come when they rest in the tunnels of Thoros Beta to eat some flay-fish; when Peri comforts Yrcanos’ equerry Dorf, it sends the king into a brief jealous rage. It’s clear that there is something going on; Peri’s first instinct with Yrcanos is to take the mickey as she finds him fairly ridiculous, patronising him with ‘There’s a good warlord’, while Yrcanos immediately casts Peri in the role of a warrior queen. But it’s only when they are imprisoned together that romance starts to blossom, as Peri confides in Yrcanos that she’s missing being with people she loves, prompting Yrcanos to wax lyrical about the afterlife. Something has happened, something that means that when they are parted, Yrcanos’ farewell of ‘Die well, my lady’ is more heartfelt, and that when he gets the chance, Yrcanos is determined to rescue his ‘Bride to be’ – only to face the horror and heartbreak of finding that he is too late, her body now being occupied by Kiv. It’s a fate that spurs Yrcanos into a suicidal rage; except, of course, we are later told that this never actually took place, and that Peri survived and became Yrcanos’ warrior queen. The irony being that after travelling with the most explosive and bombastic of Doctors, she should end up marrying someone even more rambunctious and outrageous. Of one thing we can be sure; their life together isn’t going to be quiet.

Love theme: Just Can’t Get Enough

 

11 Kazran Sardick and Abigail Pettigrew (A Christmas Carol (2010))

Magic moment: “We've had so many Christmas Eves, Kazran. I think it's time for Christmas Day.”

Every Doctor Who love story to sparkle out of Steven Moffat’s keyboard has a four-dimensional twist, and in this case, it’s that Kazran and Abigail fall in love over the course of six Christmas Eves, but while this is six years as far as Kazran is concerned, it’s seven continuous days as far as Abigail is concerned, as after each one she is returned to cryogenic storage. It’s also seven continuous days as far as the Doctor is concerned, in his role as time-travelling matchmaker. The Doctor is determined to give Kazran a chance to change. He has never known love, but thanks to the Doctor, has his past re-written to include a whirlwind romance with Abigail, flying across the rooftops in a shark-drawn sleigh, visiting the Great Wall of China, Egypt, Paris, New York, Frank Sinatra’s hunting lodge, as well as spending a Christmas Eve with Abigail’s family. But Abigail is terminally ill and soon all but one of Abigail’s remaining days have been used up. Kazran can’t face reviving her; thanks to the Doctor, he is no longer heartless but heartbroken. The Doctor finally pulls Kazran out of the dark by showing his young self what the future holds, and Kazran is changed enough to agree to awaken Abigail. The last we see of them, they are enjoying a sleigh-ride together on what we know will be the last day of her life.

Love theme: Lonely This Christmas

 

12 The Doctor and Doctor Martha Jones (Smith & Jones – Last Of The Time Lords (2007))

Magic moment:You had to, didn't you? Had to go and fall in love with a human. And it wasn't me.”

Some of the greatest love stories are about unrequited love; after all, it’s relatively easy to love someone who loves you back, but to love someone who doesn’t register the way you feel about them, someone who you can never tell how you feel out of fear of losing them, that takes real love. It’s painful, and it’s destructive, and it’s nearly as heartbreaking to watch. Why couldn’t the Doctor return Martha’s affections? Why did he have to raise her hopes by kissing her in Smith & Jones and suggesting they share a bed in The Shakespeare Code? She may pretend not to be interested, but it’s obvious from the way she looks at him, the way she reacts whenever he brings up Rose. Worst of all, when he becomes Doctor John Smith in Human Nature, he still doesn’t look twice at her. This is the final straw for Martha; in The Last Of The Time Lords, even as she is making the whole world fall in love with the idea of the Doctor, she can, at last, move on and find someone else; first there’s the Tom Milligan from the year that never was, then the Tom Milligan from the year that actually was, and then Mickey Smith. Martha Jones – not prepared to be second best.

Love theme: I Know Him So Well


13 The Doctor and Doctor Grace Holloway (The Doctor Who TV movie (1996))

Magic moment: “Good! Now do that again!”

Before the Doctor staggered into her life, Grace Holloway was in a bad way. Her boyfriend, Brian, had finally left her for good (after repeated threats) because she had to abandon an opera date. But then the Doctor appeared, full of the joys of life and a broken length of surgical probe. After a walk in the park and a few words about warm Gallifreyan nights, they are sharing their first kiss. For the Doctor, it’s an innocent expression of delight at remembering who he is and some well-fitting shoes, but for Grace, it’s something far more sensual. The Doctor literally sweeps her off her feet and onto a motorbike in a race against time (it’s something to do with an atomic clock). When the Earth has been saved, and fireworks are exploding to celebrate the millennium, the Doctor asks Grace to join him on his travels. Grace answers by asking him to stay with her, even though she knows that he never would, so their next kiss is a kiss goodbye. But the Doctor has given Grace back her dreams.

Love theme: Two Hearts

 

14 Billy and Delta (Delta And The Bannermen (1987))

Magic moment: “I can't condone this foolishness, but then, love has never been known for its rationality.”

There is no greater testament to the power of love than that demonstrated by Billy the motor mechanic. Some men might think twice when the girl they’ve been serenading turns out to be an alien queen. Some men might have reservations when she turns out to be a single mother. Some men might consider being the last of her species, pursued across the galaxy by the genocidal Bannermen was a bit too much baggage. But not our Billy. When he sat down to dinner with Delta at the Shangri-La, he knew she was the one. Soon he was serenading her with Why Do Fools Fall In Love and taking her and her pea-green progeny on a tour of local beauty spots. This is more than enough to win Delta over; it’s not every day someone subjects themselves to alien infant formula in the hope that they will mutate into the same species as you at the risk of their own life. Fortunately in Billy’s case it seems to work out, and they depart together to rebuild the race (which means plenty of you-know-what). But spare a thought for poor Rachel Defwydd; it can’t do much for your self-esteem when the boy you love chooses an extra-terrestrial over you.

Love theme: Love Changes Everything


15 Craig Owens and Sophie (The Lodger (2010))

Magic moment: “I love you, too, Craig, you idiot!”

Craig and Sophie love each other. That much is obvious to everyone. Apart, that is, to Craig and Sophie. They’re flatmates, they enjoy each other’s company, and evenings of pizza-booze-telly, but neither of them can quite pluck up the courage to make the first move. They don’t want to risk their friendship, or risk rejection because they both think the other wouldn’t be interested. So instead they potter along, joking about ‘settling’ for each other. Until the Doctor turns up and sticks a sonic screwdriver into the works. Only the Doctor – and a homicidal spaceship parked upstairs – can stir Craig to action. Seeing Sophie admiring the near-naked Doctor and giving him air-kisses rouses his  jealousy. The possibility of Sophie leaving to look after monkeys puts his fear of losing her into stark relief. But it takes the threat of the homicidal spaceship killing Sophie and the human race to finally make Craig declare his love, to Sophie, to her face, and seal the deal with a kiss. The world is saved, his house loses an upper storey, and all because a boy and a girl realised what everyone else already knew.

Love theme: Then I Kissed Her

 

16 The Doctor and Cameca (The Aztecs (1964))

Magic moment: “Oh, sweet-favoured man, you have declared your love for me, and I acknowledge and accept your gentle proposal.”

Consigned to the Garden of Peace, a sort of Aztec retirement home, the Doctor’s interest in Cameca is initially entirely prosaic. He wants to know about the construction of the temple, in the hope of discovering another way in, and Cameca may be able to provide a meeting between the Doctor and the son of the temple’s designer. But the Doctor’s charm offensive backfires when Cameca mistakes his intentions as romantic, particularly when he offers to make her a cup of cocoa as a token of his esteem. Having become accidentally betrothed, the Doctor continues to use Cameca to help him gain access to the temple and such is her love for him she assists, even though she knows that by doing so she will lose him (she displays remarkable prescience in deducing this from the sight of the Doctor building a wheel). But the Doctor isn’t pretending to be fond of Cameca out of self-interest; he seems to be genuinely tempted at the thought of them retiring to tend a garden together, and in the final episode, rather than discarding her token of love for him, he recovers it from the tomb and takes it with him.

Love theme: It’s Never Too Late To Fall In Love

 

17 Donna Noble and Lee McAvoy (Forest Of The Dead (2008))

Magic moment: “I made up the perfect man. Gorgeous, adores me, and hardly able to speak a word.”

Donna Noble hasn’t been lucky in love. Her fiancĂ©e, Lance, was only interested in dosing her coffee with Huon particles for the Racnoss; he only agreed to marry her to prevent her running off, despite finding her conversation ‘a never ending fountain of fat, stupid trivia’. As for his replacement Shaun, well, if Wilfred Mott is to believed, Donna is ‘making do’, though a winning lottery ticket may help things along. No, the true love of Donna’s life was Lee McAvoy, an easy-going man with a stammer she met within the computerised reality of the Library. Within minutes they were married and had two children. It was all too good to be true, and certainly too good to last. When Donna returned to reality she could only conclude that she had imagined him. The truth, though, was that Lee was real, and really did adore Donna, but just as he was struggling to call out her name and tell her he existed, he was cruelly teleported away. If only he’d just shouted, ‘Oi! You!’

Love theme: Don’t Stop Believin’

 

18 Bellboy and Flowerchild (The Greatest Show In The Galaxy (1988))

Magic moment: “Come on! Deal with me as you dealt with Flowerchild!”

At the Psychic Circus, Bellboy was responsible for the robot clowns and Flowerchild made the kites. They were happy, before the circus came to the planet Segonax. Then everything changed, and the robot clowns fell under the spell of the circus’ new owners, and the kites were used to prevent any escape. As we join the story, Bellboy and Flowerchild are making  a final desperate bid for freedom; but they become separated, and Flowerchild is killed by one of Bellboy’s robots. Tortured and on the brink of insanity, he is only kept alive so that he can repair the robots, and in the end the only thing left for him to do is to instruct them to end his pain. Doctor Who’s darkest and most harrowing love story.

Love theme: I Am Not A Robot

 

19 Elton Pope and Ursula Blake (Love & Monsters (2006))

Magic moment: “Don’t touch me! Oh, Elton, I’m so sorry. You can’t touch me...”

Love stories don’t come much stranger than that of Elton and Ursula. Brought together by a shared fascination for the Doctor (having got in touch over the internet) they immediately hit it off, but would they ever have declared their love for each other if it hadn’t been for the malign influence of Victor Kennedy? If Elton hadn’t found himself in the firing line of Jackie Tyler’s seduction technique, would he have realised that Ursula was the girl he really wanted to be with? And if Victor hadn’t threatened Elton, would Ursula ever have revealed her love for him? As I so often the case, just when they were about to get it together and go for a chinese at the Golden Locust, tragedy struck, Ursula being maliciously abzorbed (along with another couple-who-never-made-it, Mr Skinner and Bridget). For a moment, it looked like Elton had lost Ursula, as her face dissolved into a paving slab, but the Doctor came to the rescue, allowing them to cement their relationship forever.

Love theme: Turn To Stone

 

20 Tremas and Kassia (The Keeper Of Traken (1981))

Magic moment: “If all the stars were silver, and the sky a giant purse in my fist, I couldn't be happier than I am tonight.”

Poor Kassia. The day she and her beloved Tremas get married, the Keeper of Traken turns up to not only steal their thunder but to announce that Tremas will soon be his replacement, condemned to sit in an art nouveau throne controlling the Union’s power source for the rest of his life. Faced with such a prospect, the thought of their life together being cruelly taken away, Kassia can be forgiven for allying herself with the Melkur when it offers to save her husband. She will doing anything to save him – even covering up the Melkur’s murders – unaware of the final twist of cruelty that it has planned for her. She will be able to save Tremas, yes – but only by taking his place as Keeper. They will never be together, and another, even more terrible fate awaits Tremas (almost as though the forces of destiny had a penchant for prophetic anagrams...)

Love theme: (Everything I Do) I Do It For You


21 Stott and Della

Magic moment: “I knew it was him looking at me. In the Eden picture, someone staring out.”

The story of Stott and Della has all makings of a great love story – except it’s missing one crucial thing. At the outset of the story Della believes that the love of her life, Stott, is dead, having been mortally mauled by a Mandrel. Even though she’s caught glimpses of him in the Eden projection, she’s convinced herself she is seeing things, such is her state of denial. It’s been even harder for Stott, looking out at Della; he’s even considered committing suicide. And yet, with all this build-up, we never get to see the moment that Stott and Della are re-united. Surely we could have had a scene of Della waking up in the medical bay with Stott at her bedside, offering her a glass of lucozade? I’m sure, given the circumstances, they would have embraced with a passionate ferocity that would have put even the Mandrels to shame.

Love theme: Back For Good

 

22 Larry Nightingale and Sally Sparrow (Blink (2007))

Magic moment: “Pants?”

There is absolutely no wish-fulfilment element to the relationship between Larry and Sally. He’s a bit of a geek, an unshaven Shaggy from Scooby Doo-type who works in a DVD shop, and who spends his spare time on internet forums. And she is Sally Sparrow, the most gorgeous girl in the universe, self-assured, smart and so utterly un-geeky she only owns seventeen DVDs. But, from the very first moment that Larry walks into his kitchen naked, Sally has a sneaking affection for him. That doesn’t stop her from flirting with Billy Shipton (how many broken hearts has this girl left in her wake?) and it takes a whole year, and a brief meeting with the Doctor to provide a sense of closure, before she is willing to take Larry in hand. But these two nominal lovebirds are clearly meant for each other, even if their surnames do sound like an ITV drama series.

Love theme: Angels

 

23 Greg Sutton and Petra Williams (Inferno (1970))

 Magic moment: “Well, if you really want to show your gratitude, there are one or two things.”

You can’t fight destiny. That’s the story of Greg and Petra, the love sub-plot of Doctor Who’s precursor of Sliding Doors. On ‘our’ Earth, or on a version of Earth where Britain is ruled by a fascist organisation of monocular monomaniacs, the story is the same; Greg is brought to the Inferno Project as an expert on drilling, and slowly works his way through Petra’s hard, frosty crust. And when all hope is lost, they can’t help reaching out to each other. But while, in the parallel Earth, Greg and Petra are doomed to be engulfed by a tide of lava, on ‘our’ Earth their prospects are a little more propitious. In fact, they’ll probably get on like a house on fire.

Love theme: Burning Love

 

24 Captain Jack Harkness and Algy, Alonso Frame, Angelo Colasanto, Estelle Cole, his executioners, Ianto Jones, the real Captain Jack Harkness, John Hart, Lucia Moretti, Christopher Isherwood and Marcel Proust (various).

Magic moment: “Don’t forget me.”

Captain Jack has never suffered a shortage of romance in his life. His good looks, charm and seemingly bottomless amorous appetite means that it might be quicker to list all the people in Doctor Who  and Torchwood that Captain Jack hasn’t had an affair with. Because, for all we know, he may have had a one night stand with the Servo Robot from The Wheel In Space. But the greatest love of Captain Jack’s life has to be Ianto Jones, the coffee-brewing, waistcoat-wearing, Cyberwoman-smuggling Torchwood agent who tragically breathed his last in Jack’s arms, infected with an alien virus. But his memory – and, inexplicably, his Cardiff shrine – live on.

Love theme: Anything Goes

 

25 Seth and Teka (The Horns Of Nimon (1979))

Magic moment: The Nimons are finished. Seth defeated them. I knew he would!”

Teka’s faith in Seth never wavered. Despite the fact that they had been sent to Skonnos as a sacrificial tribute, she was convinced that Seth would find some way of defeating the Nimon (and couldn’t stop bringing it up in conversation, much to his embarrassment). Even when Teka was consigned to the Nimon larder she never lost faith. And so, when Seth came to her rescue, Teka concluded that he had been the person responsible for defeating the Nimon. Never mind the Doctor and Romana; as far as Teka was concerned Seth was the hero of the hour, and she was going to make damn sure everybody heard about it.

Love theme: Holding Out For A Hero

 

26 Za and Hur (100,000 BC (1963))

Magic moment: “Now you are Leader. You are as strong as the beasts.”

Back in the stone age, there was little opportunity for romance. The rule of the tribe encountered by the Doctor in his first adventure was simple; whichever man can make fire will become the leader and be given Horg’s daughter Hur as his ‘wife’. Hur wants this to be Za but Za doesn’t have the secret of fire, while Kal, an interloper in the tribe, courts popularity by bringing in fresh meat. But Hur remains true to Za and, with a little help from the Doctor, has Kal banished.

Love theme: Stand By Your man.

 

27 Davitch Pavale and Female Programmer (Bad Wolf/The Parting Of The Ways (2005))

Magic moment: “Am I supposed to say, when this is all over, and if we’re still alive, maybe we could go for a drink?”

Sometimes the timing is never right. Davitch has been working at the Game Station for years. He only joined the programme so he could be near to his beloved. But despite repeated invitations to spend their spare time together she’s always turned him down. Only when the Game Station is under imminent attack from a Dalek fleet does she start to warm towards him, and by then, of course, it is far too late. 

Love theme:  Never Let Her Slip Away

 

28 Lieutenant John Andrews and Claire Daly (Carnival Of Monsters (1973))

Magic moment: John and I thought we'd take a turn around the deck.

When the SS Bernice was captured by the Miniscope, Lieutenant Andrews and Claire Daly found themselves trapped in a nautical Groundhog Day, doomed to forever turn down the offer of a cocktail from Major Daly to instead walk around the decks, enjoying the glorious evening whilst discussing the merits of musicals (she’s a big fan of Fred Astaire and Chu Chin Chow, he thinks they’re a load of nonsense). Returned to Earth, they were freed from the time-loop – and we never found out whether they parted or coupled when they finally reached Bombay.

Love theme: You Spin Me Right Round (Like A Record)


29 Altos and Sabetha (The Keys Of Marinus (1964))

Magic moment: The man who loves me cannot betray me.”

Sent by Arbitan to recover the keys to the conscience machine, both Altos and Sabetha became ensnared in the Morpho brains’ hallucinogenic velvet web. Once freed, they joined the Doctor and his companions in their odyssey to recover the keys, only to be captured by Yartek, the leader of the alien Voord. Yartek somehow manages to detect that Altos is in love with Sabetha (despite Altos not having shown the slightest interest in her previously); he must have an antennae for these things.

Love theme: You Never Can Tell

 

30 Prince Reynart and Princess Strella (The Androids Of Tara (1978)

Magic moment: “If only she were real, I'd marry her.”

In The Androids Of Tara, everyone is in love with someone. Reynart’s in love with Strella, Strella’s in love with Reynart, Mademe Lamia’s in love with Count Grendel and Count Grendel is in love with Count Grendel. Admittedly the real Reynart and Strella never meet until the end of the story, but with so many doubles of Strella available, it’s a sign of his true love that he still wants the one who does nothing but sit around sewing tapestries all day.

Love theme: You’re The One That I Want

 

31 Sir Robert Macleish and Lady Isobel (Tooth And Claw (2006))

Magic moment: “I must defend her majesty. Now, don't think of me, just go!”

As Lady Isbobel had been taken hostage by the Brethren, Sir Robert had no choice but to co-operate with their plan to lure Queen Victoria to Torchwood House so that she could become the next host of the werewolf infection. In the end, Sir Robert gave his life defending his queen, so that his wife could remember him with honour, and by creating a top-secret organisation named after his house.

Love theme: I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)

 

32 John and Carol (The Sensorites (1964))

Magic moment: “Can you imagine what it's like being in love with someone, to look at them, to see them and know they've been destroyed?”

Over the course of the story, John and Carol undergo a transformation. At the beginning, Carol is in a state of suspended animation while John has taken to skulking in the shadows, whimpering, as his hair turns grey. By the end of the story, John has been restored to full mental health and dark hair while Carol has had a complete make-over. After all she’s been through you can hardly blame her.

Love theme: No Matter What

 

33 Laszlo and Tallulah (Daleks In Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks (2007))

Magic moment: “Laszlo? My Laszlo? Oh, what have they done to you?”

It’s the classic Phantom Of The Opera tale, the story of a New York city show-girl and her stage-hand boyfriend who has been transformed into a Dalek pig slave. But he still leaves a rose on her dressing table, and despite his snout and tusks, Tallulah never stops loving him. She’s not superficial like that.

Love theme: Never Gonna Give You Up

 

34 Thara and Vana (The Krotons (1968))

Magic moment: “Vana, you're all right now. You're home.”

When the announcement comes that Vana is to become a companion of the Krotons, Thara can’t believe his ears. He begs Vana to run away with him, but instead she reluctantly submits herself to the dynatrope. But Vana rows that he will always remember her. Gond, but not forgotten.

Love theme: Baby Come Back

 

35 Hal Korwin and Kath McDonnell (42 (2007))

Magic moment: “I love you.”

Realising that her husband Korwin has been killed and re-animated by the consciousness of  a living sun, and that she was responsible, McDonnell decides there is only one course of action available to her. She lures him into an airlock, embraces him and ejects them both into space.

Love theme: You Are My Sunshine

 

36 Oscar Botcherby and Anita (The Two Doctors (1985))

Magic moment: “Please take care of my beautiful moths.”

To be honest, Oscar has done pretty well to catch Anita, his ‘dark-eyed naiad’. He’s not exactly the most masculine of men and his idea of a fun day out is to wander the countryside killing butterflies. But clearly she sees something in him, and is devastated when he gets pinned like one of his moths.

Love theme: Stuck On You

 

37 Lazar and Vira (The Ark In Space (1975))

Magic moment: It's over, Vira. You and I are alive again.”

It’s  only in part three of this story, after Lazar has nearly completed his transformation into a Wirrn, that we learn from Vira that she and Lazar had been ‘pair-bonded’ for life on the new Earth, and just for a moment Vira’s composure wavers as she permits herself a moment of grief.

Love theme: Self Control

 

38 Tony Mack and Doctor Nasreen Chaudhry (The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood (2009))

Magic moment: “I've got what I was digging for. I can't leave when I've only just found it.”

Just like Greg and Petra, it was an ill-fated project to drill into the Earth that brought Tony and Nasreen together, with a moment of passion in a besieged church. After Tony became infected by a Silurian sting they decided to join the Silurians in hibernation, to start a new life in the future.

Love theme: How Deep Is Your Love

 

39 Arthur Terrall and Ruth Maxtible (Evil Of The Daleks (1967))

Magic moment: “Arthur! What's the matter?”

Ever since he returned from the Crimea, Ruth’s fiancĂ© Arthur has been behaving oddly. He’s become cold, belligerent, started having painful headaches and has started wearing an enormous cravat. The Doctor soon discovers the reason – a Dalek control device attached to Arthur’s neck. Freed from Dalek influence, Arthur and Ruth depart faster than you can say ‘irrelevant sub-plot’.

Love theme: My Ever Changing Moods

 

40 Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart and Doris (Battlefield (1989))

Magic moment: Exactly how far are you intending to go, Doris?”

The love affair between Lethbridge-Stewart and Doris has always been shrouded in mystery. In Planet Of The Spiders (1974) we learned that she gave him a watch in a hotel in Brighton ‘to mark her gratitude’. Even when Doris finally appeared on screen, 15 years later, we still didn’t find out what it was she was grateful for.

Love theme: Mysterious Girl


BOX OUTS:


IS SHE REALLY GOING OUT WITH HIM?

As well as all the obvious love stories that have graced Doctor Who over the years, there have also been numerous romantic sub-plots which have been a little more ambiguous in nature. Where the relationship itself is implied, not so much by what is said but what is left unsaid, and by the actors’ performances. The classic examples being the romances of Dassuk and Venussa in The Ark (1966) and Leo Ryan and Tanya Lernov in The Wheel In Space (1968); in both cases the relationship isn’t mentioned in the script but exists because the actors decided to make their characters flirtatiously tactile with each other. Similarly, the evident chemistry between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward during the filming of City Of Death (1979) suggests that the Doctor may have been particularly fond of the second Romana, probably.

There’s also an element of wish-fulfilment to it too. We’d like to think that Ian and Barbara got together after they had left the Doctor, and that Ben and Polly also made a go of it, and we finally got our wish in the Death Of The Doctor (2010) instalment of The Sarah Jane Adventures which established that Ian and Barbara got married and became professors in Cambridge (and never aged) and that Ben and Polly moved to India to run an orphanage. In the same episode Sarah mentions that she ‘loved’ Harry, but sadly it seems that nothing ever came of it (as School Reunion (2006) implies that Sarah has been alone since her travels with the Doctor). However, it seems we will never know whether Lieutenant Jeremy Carstairs settled down with Lady Jennifer Buckingham after the events of The War Games (1969); (it’s possible, though, that they may have had a grandson who followed in their footsteps and became a colonel with UNIT, and another grandson who became the Head of Research at the Nuton Power complex. After all, there is a conspicuous family resemblance).

There have also been a number of outwardly homosexual couples in Doctor Who over the years; not explicitly stated, of course, but what else are we to infer when Guiliano refers to Marco as his ‘companion’ in The Masque Of Mandragora (1976)? Or the obvious affection between Amelia Rumford and Vivian Fay in The Stones Of Blood (1978), sharing a cottage and a disparaging attitude to the male gender? Or Australian backpackers Robin Stuart and Colin Frazer spooning in their sleeping bags in Arc Of Infinity (1983)? Or Gilbert M and Joseph C, running away together in a spaceship at the end of The Happiness Patrol (1988)? There might also have been something going on between Ricky Smith and Jake Simmonds in Rise Of The Cybermen/The Age Of Steel (2006); there certainly was in the script, though all references to their sex life ended up on the cutting room floor.

Similarly open to interpretation have been the various Doctor Who ‘workplace romances’. I can’t be the only person to suspect there is something going on between the President of Earth and General Williams in Frontier In Space (1973); why else would she put up with him mooning around the office all the time? There’s also Morgus, who seems to have chosen to have a deliberately small elevator fitted to his building just so he can share intimate moments with Krau Timmin in 1984’s The Caves Of Androzani; how much greater her betrayal if they were also lovers? Vogel would also appear to be far more than a secretary to Kara in Revelation of the Daleks (1985); why else would all their dialogue be laced with innuendo?

By way of contrast, though, there have been several couples in Doctor Who which seem so utterly lacking of passion it’s hard to believe they are supposed to be romantically linked. Kimus and Mula in The Pirate Planet (1978), for instance, seem to have more interest in K-9 than for each other, while Jondar and Areta in Vengeance On Varos (1985) just seem embarrassed to be in each others’ company. But the least convincing couple of all have to be Mykros and Vena from Timelash (1985), who barely acknowledge each other’s existence over the course of the story. Or maybe that makes them the most convincing couple of all.

 

A QUESTION OF LUST

Of course, not every moment of ardour in Doctor Who is the product of true love. When Cassandra – in the body of Rose Tyler – grabs the Doctor and snogs his face off in New Earth (2006) it’s pure lust. And it made a nice change for the Doctor to be the one fending off unwanted advances, as that has usually been the preserve of his female companions. For a while it seemed that Peri couldn’t step out of the TARDIS without having some alien sleazeball slavering after her; Sharaz Jek claimed he couldn’t live without her beauty, while Jobel and the Borad’s motives were much less wholesome. At least Shockeye only wanted to cook her; quite what Mestor the slug intended boggles the mind.

But while Peri had her work cut out dealing with gastropods that found her strangely pleasing, she wasn’t the most lusted-after of the Doctor’s companions. That unpleasant honour falls to Barbara Wright. To be fair, Leon Colbert’s advances were (ostensibly) noble, and Ganatus was a charmer, but the same can’t be said for Vasor the fur trapper, the Emperor Nero and El Akir. Maybe it was her backcombed hair, maybe it was her cardigan, but there was something about Barbara that drove men wild. No wonder Ian couldn’t resist accompanying her to that junkyard; it was only his bad luck that it turned out to be one of the most disastrous dates in history.

 

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

 Given the limited time and opportunity, it is hardly surprising that Doctor Who romances tend to be on the rapid side, with couples often meeting, exchanging longing looks and deciding to settle down together within the space of a single adventure (which may only take place over a few hours). King Yrcanos certainly didn’t waste any time when it came to wooing Peri, and the Doctor and Grace Holloway saw fireworks after spending barely half a day together. But more remarkable still are those relationships which seem to happen virtually instantaneously, where the force of attraction is so strong that the couple has hardly been introduced before they’re strolling off into the sunset together. Such whirlwind romances do tend to stretch credibility – and cynically-minded viewers may conclude that one, or both, of the participants are a bit ‘easy’ as a result.

But let’s not be cynical. There’s actually something rather endearing about the way Ping Cho falls for Ling Tau in Marco Polo (1964), and the way Malcolm Wainwright immediately sets his cap at Kathy Nightingale in Blink (2007). It’s a pity that Ace’s burgeoning romances with Sergeant Mike Smith (in Remembrance Of The Daleks (1988)) and Captain Sorin (in The Curse Of Fenric (1989)) were both so brief and tragic (she clearly has a thing for soldiers, although judging by her flirtation with Sergeant Leigh her chat-up lines are so cryptic that even the Ultima machine couldn’t decode them).

More recently, John Riddell and Queen Nefertiti found love in the face of adversity in Dinosaurs On A Spaceship (2012); unfortunately by the time the episode was broadcast evidence had come to light that Nefertiti did not mysteriously disappear but in fact remained in Egypt ruling with her husband Akhenaten until his death. But Vicki’s lightning liaison with Troilus in The Myth Makers (1965) played equally fast-and-loose with matters of historical accuracy, as the story of Troilus and Cressida (Vicki’s new name given to her by King Priam) is actually not part of the legend of Troy but dates from the twelfth century. So clearly love is no respecter of established historical fact.

But Doctor Who’s most infamous case of instantaneous attraction has to be that of Leela and Andred in The Invasion Of Time (1978) where, despite having barely spoken a word to Andred during the course of the story, Leela decided to stay with him on Gallifrey. One can only conclude that love blossomed off-screen while the Doctor was out cold, or that Leela’s amorous faculties were still addled from being subjected to the pacifier in Underworld (1977) which caused her to make doe-eyes at Orfe.

 

LOVING THE ALIEN

The Doctor Who universe is an extremely broad-minded place. If gender, age, mortality, being from different periods of history, or even being in entirely the wrong universe is no obstacle to love, why should the species barrier be any different? As we’ve already seen with Billy and Delta, so long as both parties look approximately human it would seem to be the case that anything goes. You can have humans forging romantic relationships with Argolins (Hardin and Mena in The Leisure Hive (1980) clearly have a history, and a future, together). You can have humans interbreeding with Cat People (Thomas Kincaid Brannigan and Valerie in Gridlock (2007)), giant wasps (Clemency Eddison and Christopher the Vespiform in The Unicorn And The Wasp (2008)) and no doubt Bannakaffalatta the Zocci would, given the chance, have found some kind of bliss with Astrid Peth (Voyage Of The Damned (2007)). You can even have somebody falling in love with a disguised segment of The Key To Time, as in the case of Merak and Princess Astra in The Armageddon Factor (1979) – although one wonders whether their offspring would resemble the contents of an ice tray.

You see, with these cosmically cosmopolitan couplings, the trick is not to think about them too hard. The love felt by a Dalek android (Professor Edwin Bracewell) for a girl (Dorabella) that it remembers from a stolen memory implanted into its electronic brain may be authentic enough to prevent it exploding (Victory the Daleks (2010)) but let’s not think about what will happen when he finally catches up with her and she finds herself being courted by a one-handed robot with a brass torso. (He would stand a better chance on Penhaxico Two, where the ladies are very fond of metal). Similarly, let’s draw a diplomatic veil over precisely how much ‘nefarious excitement’ was shared by Scaroth, the last of the Jagaroth, in his guise as Count Trancredi with the Countess (City Of Death (1979)). Let’s just assume their chateau had separate bedrooms and Scaroth was happy to delegate his domestic responsibilities to their butler Hermann.

The point is, even the most unlikeliest couples can get it together, and there can be no better example of this than Madame Vastra and her wife Jenny Flint (A Good Man Goes To War (2011)). Vastra is a green, scaly Silurian from prehistoric Earth while Jenny is a cockney. It’s the ultimate upstairs-downstairs relationship; one of them has spent her life on the surface, while the other has spent millions of years buried underground. One of them has an extendable tongue and is quite happy to eat human beings, while the other is a human being. In fact, the only thing they have in common is that they’re both Victorian crime-fighting lesbians. So somehow they make it work, and if they can make it work, so can anyone.

 

HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED SOMEONE SO BAD

 The unhappy tale of Martha Jones demonstrates that sometimes the most heartbreaking love stories of all are those about unrequited love, about frustrated hopes that can never be. Usually, it’s because the girl has fallen for the villain of the piece; maybe he’s simply stringing along because she’s useful to him, as in the case of Count Grendel and Madame Lamia in The Androids Of Tara (1978) or Kane and Belazs in Dragonfire (1987) for whom he had ‘former feelings’. Maybe he’s just not interested, as in the case of Jobel and Tasembeker in Revelation Of The Daleks (1985). Maybe he is unaware that he is the villain, as in the case of Professor Yana and Chantho in Utopia (2007). But in all these cases, unrequited love never ends well; Grendel sends Lamia to her death, Kane kills Belazs, Professor Yana becomes the Master and kills Chantho, and Tasembeker stabs Jobel with a syringe in a jealous rage and gets exterminated for her trouble.

More touching, though, are the love stories that never quite got started. Jamie managed to get a goodbye kiss from Samantha Briggs when she left him in 1967’s The Faceless Ones; a year later, he gives Victoria a single kiss when she breaks his heart by leaving a year later in Fury From The Deep (1968). Their final scene together, sitting in the garden, is one of the most poignant scenes the show has ever had, followed by a dialogue-free scene as Victoria waves the Doctor and Jamie goodbye on the beach (reminiscent of the scene where Rose and the Doctor part in Doomsday (2006)).

The other great unrequited love story is that of Marriner the Eternal and Tegan in Enlightenment (1983). Marriner starts the story as a blank, but finds himself fascinated by the contents of Tegan’s mind. As he puts it, she’s ‘not like any ephemeral he’s ever met before’. It’s an uncanny, submissive form of obsession. It’s not love; it’s something clinical, devoid of emotion, culminating in a fabulous scene where he tells Tegan ‘You are life itself. Without you I am nothing’. When she asks him if he means he’s in love with her, he doesn’t even understand the concept. But for all its creepiness, you can’t help feeling sorry for Marriner when Tegan finally rejects him because there is something innocent, almost childlike, in the way he pursues her. I just don’t recommend using his chat-up lines.

Friday, 11 July 2025

All Through The Years

 Originally published in Doctor Who Magazine 449:


49 Up

 

Doctor Who is all one, big television show. A show that’s been running, mostly on but occasionally off, for nearly 49 years. But, like Theseus’s ship, or Trigger’s broom, it’s not quite what it used to be; it has gradually changed, piece by piece, until it’s almost an entirely different thing. In fact, if a documentary maker had examined the show at seven-yearly intervals over the past half-century, he would’ve found it to have been seven quite different shows over that time. Seven different shows designed to appeal to different audiences, shows reflecting the changing state of television and the BBC, shows striving but not always succeeding to address different problems. So let’s take a look at Doctor Who over the years, and see how it’s grown...

 

1963

‘My name is William Hartnell and, as Doctor Who, I make my debut on Saturday the 23rd November at 5.15. The Doctor is an extraordinary old man from another world who owns a time and space machine.’ Doctor Who is about to begin, a brand new series on the BBC’s single television channel, and in the radio trailer William Hartnell has already given away two of the show’s biggest twists. And for those who missed the trailer, the Radio Times also spoilers the surprise (as well as promising that the opening episode will explain how the Doctor finds himself visiting the Britain of today, which it conspicuously won’t.)

So, as four million people tune into the first episode, and several million more curse the power cuts which mean that they can’t, they have some idea what to expect. The show will be about travel through time and space and it will include stories about a civilisation devastated by a neutron bomb and Marco Polo. But apart from that, it’s all brand new.

Except that it isn’t, not quite. In trying to plug the gap between Grandstand and Juke Box Jury, a group of BBC staff producers, script-editors and writers had been leafing through the popular science fiction novels of the day looking for concepts that they could adapt into a television show. One of which was Guardians Of Time by Poul Anderson. Guardians Of Time is about a man from the present day being recruited by the futuristic Time Patrol organisation to travel back through time and prevent wayward time travellers from changing history. It’s a great idea for a television series and it’s the book to which Doctor Who owes its fundamental premise; a character from the present day having adventures in history.

The idea grew, with the concept that the series’ time machine should also be able to travel in space, and that the series should be based around a teenage girl (to appeal to a teenage audience and to ‘get into trouble, make mistakes’) accompanied by two young adults and a mysterious old man. This is essentially the format of Target Luna and its subsequent Pathfinders... serials broadcast on ITV and produced by Sydney Newman, who is also the guiding hand behind Doctor Who. Newman’s priority is that the show shouldn’t just be entertainment; it should be an educational experience and create drama out of genuine science and history. It should not be about corny villains and ‘bug eyed monsters.’

Overall, Doctor Who is a very deliberate and calculated attempt to appeal to multiple demographics and capitalise on popular trends, such as the interest in space travel following the first communication satellites and the first man in space, and the rising popularity of a quintessentially British kind of terribly polite science fiction associated with HG Wells and John Wyndham. The new show’s format offers endless variety as different episodes take place in different locales, and the adoption of cliff-hangers will encourage the audience to come back week after week all year round – the intention is to make Doctor Who a ‘loyalty programme’. And, to promote overseas sales, each episode will be 25 minutes with a fade-to-black at a mid-way point, so broadcasters can show each episode in an half-hour slot with a commercial break.

In terms of production, Doctor Who is basic. It’s only allocated a small studio in Lime Grove and each episode has to be recorded in the space of one evening, in two or three continuous blocks. The writers are briefed to write for it as though it’s going out live, and it might as well be, as the opportunity for post-production is practically non-existent. It’s possible to edit an episode by physically splicing the videotape, at great expense because too many splices will render the tape unusable (which, it has to be said, doesn’t discourage Doctor Who’s producer, Verity Lambert, from doing so fairly often.) And as each episode is recorded individually, there’s only room for a limited number of sets, which results in an episodic and sedately-paced style of storytelling; if our heroes are held captive in a cave or a cell, you can be sure they’ll be there for the best part of an episode at least.

For a new show, the signs are looking promising. There’s a strong cast, though it’s unclear who is the lead – is it well-known film star William Hartnell, or William Russell who took the lead roles in Nicholas Nickleby and The Adventures Of Sir Lancelot? It has an innovative title sequence, and a theme tune by Steptoe & Son’s Ron Grainer realised by Delia Derbyshire using the Radiophonic Workshop’s most cutting-edge technology (consisting of a tape-recorder and a cutting edge.) The BBC’s even gone to the expense of filming a pilot episode which, due to Sydney Newman’s vehement dislike of the Doctor’s personality, has had to be remounted from scratch. And when the premiere of the first episode is disrupted by power cuts (and the assassination of a US president) it gets a repeat showing the following week, an unprecedented step. The BBC clearly has great expectations for this show and are talking of it lasting for 52 weeks (though they are being cautious enough to only contract the lead actors for 13 weeks at a time.)

The only thing that’s holding it back is an initial lack of ambition. It’s a show about a machine that can travel anywhere in time and space... and it goes to the stone age, the least visually and narratively interesting place in the universe. The audience have been promised irradiated civilisations and peripatetic Venetians, not cavemen trying to discover fire. Something extraordinary had better turn up soon, or this show won’t last more than a few weeks...

 

1970

After seven years on the air, Doctor Who is on probation. Seven years is a good run for any show, particularly one that’s been on almost all year around and has clocked up over 250 episodes. The ratings have been gradually dropping, partly as a result of competition from Land Of The Giants on ITV but partly, it has to be said, as a result of a run of increasingly over-stretched and under-funded stories. From a high of nine million for The Krotons first installment they have dropped to barely half that figure. Nobody would be surprised if the show was axed; indeed, it’s regularly advocated by viewers writing into Junior Points Of View. Doctor Who has been recommissioned for one more season, largely because there wasn’t anything to replace it; but unless the ratings improved, the 1970 year will be its last.

Desperate circumstances called for desperate measures and so Derrick Sherwin, the show’s producer, decided to fundamentally alter its format. He had to make it popular again, and so it had to become more like the shows that viewers did watch. It was an unapologetically pragmatic decision, but it was also the right one.

What other shows were popular at the time? Shows about flamboyant secret agents with gadgets, shows with a car chase, a punch up and a shoot-out in every episode, shows with mini-skirted assistants. The sort of shows being churned out by ITC with cookie-cutter efficiency, along with ABC’s The Avengers, the BBC’s Adam Adamant Lives! and Paul Temple, and US imports like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Doctor Who would have to follow that template to survive. He would have to work for a top secret organisation with an acronymous name (in the late 1960’s NATO and the UN had a serious duplication-of-services problem with SHADO, UNCLE, Nemesis, Department S and whoever the hell the Avengers worked for all covering the same ground.) He would use gadgets and drive a quirky-but-fast car, he would practice martial arts and his assistant would wear a mini-skirt.

The other inspiration was Quatermass, ostensibly the 1950’s serials but more overtly the 1967 Hammer Film adaptation of Quatermass And The Pit, which establishes the new format for Doctor Who. Just like Quatermass, he will be an advisor brought in by the military to investigate whenever something falls on Earth, or is dug up, or when a scientific undertaking is taking place. That’s his way into stories – no more landing by accident and spending three episodes proving his credentials – and from now on all stories will, without exception, feature a civil servant arriving to stick a spanner in the works three-quarters of the way through.

In short, Sherwin’s solution was to make Doctor Who very generic. To get some idea how formulaic this reinvention was, in late 1969 an episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus included a ‘science fiction serial’ sketch which lampoons everything that Doctor Who would become a few weeks later. The Monty Python boys weren’t being terribly prescient; Doctor Who was just being extremely derivative.

But nevertheless, when Doctor Who is broadcast in early 1970 this approach works like a dream. Doctor Who looks like an ITC serial – initially it even looks like it’s going to be made entirely on film from now on – and Jon Pertwee’s Doctor is dynamic and charismatic. The show’s ratings improve – not massively, but enough to get the show renewed for another year. Which is good news for Sherwin’s successor, Barry Letts, who then begins a process of reversing all of his predecessor’s format changes.

The Doctor will still work for UNIT, but will gradually start travelling to alien planets. The stories set on Earth will not be as reliant on military hardware, but will instead foreground Pertwee’s humour and personal charm. UNIT will be retained, but rather than being an organisation of anonymous, parade-drilled soldiers it will be a more informal outfit with recurring characters the audience can get to know and like. And  the show will adopt a warmer, more child-friendly tone.

Sherwin’s reformatting had gone too far and too fast, and it had been a mistake to make the Doctor earth-bound just as audiences were delighting in the entirely space-bound voyages of the new American import, Star Trek. The sub-ITC approach was already looking dated and staid; the show’s future lay in the stars.

The other major advance for the show is that the BBC now has the technology to edit videotape in post-production. The advent of colour is trivial by comparison; although the show is being made in colour, it’s still being watched in monochrome and is still being made in the same fashion, with a recording of one episode a week, only four or five weeks before broadcast. It was only when there was a problem with the cave sets for Doctor Who And The Silurians not being ready in time that Letts realised that there was no reason why Doctor Who couldn’t be shot out of order. Why not shoot scenes from a story’s final part on the same day as its first, if it meant sets only have to be erected once and is more convenient for costume and make-up?

So even though it’s still being made on videotape, Doctor Who can now be shot and edited as though it’s on film. Scenes can involve multiple camera set-ups and be cut together. It can be edited more tightly, with more scope for video effects utilizing the potential of colour-separation-overlay. Incidental music can be composed to match the story rather than being played in live. With this new technology, Doctor Who can look as good as the very best shows on television...

 

1977

It’s rare for a TV show to last 14 years. It’s even rarer for a TV show to be the most popular it has even been after 14 years. But that’s what Doctor Who is in 1977. The ratings are higher than they’ve ever been, production values are higher than they’ve ever been, and with Tom Baker, the show has a charismatic, larger-than-life leading man and a definitive Doctor.

Part of the secret of Doctor Who’s success is that it forms part of the BBC’s Saturday night line-up; Basil Brush or Jim’ll Fix It, followed by Doctor Who, followed by Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game or The Duchess Of Duke Street, followed by The Two Ronnies. All ITV has in opposition is a tired talent show and Celebrity Squares. And as a crucial part of that unbeatable Saturday night line-up, Doctor Who is considered one of the BBC’s most important shows. It’s even starting to be taken seriously, the subject of a Lively Arts documentary. Which makes it a target.

The problem is that the show’s tone has become increasingly dark and violent over the preceding three years. It’s been given an increasingly late slot in recognition of this fact, but in many viewer’s eyes it’s still a children’s show so they let their children watch it – only to discover they are viewing a show which its own script editor thinks is not suitable for an unaccompanied six-year old. It’s a golden opportunity for those with an anti-BBC agenda, namely the right-wing tabloid press and Mary Whitehouse, the self-appointed guardian of the nation’s morals and spokesman of the reactionary National Viewers And Listeners Association. Doctor Who has been caught breaking the guidelines and this gives them a stick to beat the BBC with. What better way of getting publicity than by attacking one of its most successful shows?

The only way for Doctor Who to continue is by re-inventing itself, and in particular by becoming child-friendly again. As popular as producer Philip Hinchcliffe’s approach was, Doctor Who was still perceived as a family show, and graphic strangulation and torture did sit oddly between Basil Brush and Bruce Forsyth. So incoming producer Graham Williams is instructed by Graeme McDonald, the new Head Of Drama Serials (and effectively the show’s executive producer for the rest of the decade) to tone down the horror and make the show Whitehouse-friendly.

At this point in articles about Doctor Who it usually then goes on to say that Graham Williams increased the level of humour in the show, or allowed Tom Baker to do so. But that’s not quite the case. Tom Baker’s Doctor is far more humorous – and sillier – in The Robots Of Death and The Talons Of Weng-Chiang than he is in any of the stories from the following year (with the possible exception of The Invasion Of Time). If anything, he becomes more serious. The difference is that without the surrounding darkness, the moments of levity have no dramatic counterpoint and feel like jokes for jokes’ sake. Even a darker story like The Image Of The Fendahl seems to be lacking something; if there is a void created by the absence of violence then the amount of humour has not yet increased to fill it.

The main re-invention that takes place in 1977 is to increase the show’s reliance on its principal asset, Tom Baker. From now on he will be carrying the show like never before, holding it together by sheer force of personality. Because he isn’t just another actor playing the Doctor. He is a phenomenon, a national treasure in the making, at the height of his powers. Doctor Who isn’t getting high ratings because it’s Doctor Who, it’s getting high ratings because it’s a show with Tom Baker in. Saturday nights on BBC One aren’t about the programmes, they are about the personalities: Basil. Tom. Brucie. Ronnie. The other Ronnie. In Emu’s Broadcasting Company when Rod Hull and Emu don a hat and scarf and fight the Deadly Dustbins, they aren’t so much spoofing Doctor Who as spoofing Tom Baker, as much a part of 1977 as James Callaghan, British Leyland and Mull Of Kintyre.

Of course, there are other small changes. Williams champions the inclusion of K-9 as a companion, as much to signal to the adults that this is still a children’s show as it is to please its younger viewers. He also decides to fill the void left by the violence by increasing the emphasis on the show’s mythos. Building on the achievements of The Deady Assassin, the show would now create its own legend, of Time Lords and Gallifrey, of Guardians and missions to find the Keys to Time. Stories would explore figures of Time Lord legend, or would be mythic allegories. The show, in short, would become something that would encourage young boys to take it far too seriously.

Because 1977 sees the beginning of Doctor Who fandom. It’s the year of the first convention and very soon, Doctor Who will get its own weekly magazine and will be sold to the USA.

Why has the USA suddenly taken an interest in Doctor Who, after ignoring it for so long? Two words; Star Wars. Suddenly science fiction – even British science fiction –is big business, a craze as almost as big as disco. And when Star Wars has its first UK press screening in late 1977, Tom Baker is in the audience. From now on, Doctor Who will be judged against the biggest-budgeted science fiction the US had to offer.

 

1984

Doctor Who is now in a perpetual state of celebration. 1983 had seen an anniversary special, The Five Doctors, a massively over-subscribed jamboree at Longleat, a vast convention in Chicago, and the publication of Doctor Who: A Celebration by Peter Haining. In 1984, Doctor Who is now celebrating its 21st anniversary and looks set to celebrate its 22nd. Peter Davison has enjoyed one of the strongest runs of stories in the show’s history, featuring the return of the Silurians, the Sea Devils, the Daleks, Davros, the Master and even Adric, Colin Baker has been announced as the new Doctor and looks terribly dashing at his first photocall in his white pinstripe suit, there is an even bigger convention in Chicago, and there is the publication of Doctor Who: The Key To Time by Peter Haining. It seems that the Doctor Who party, and Peter Haining’s literary career, will never end.

Which was to be the show’s undoing, because success breeds complacency. Doctor Who now only existed because it was a national institution. It was like Crackerjack, The Two Ronnies, The Morecambe And Wise Show. And its producer, John Nathan-Turner, saw his job as hosting the Doctor Who party, giving people what he thought they wanted. More returning monsters and references to old stories! Flashbacks with sepia-tinted clips! Stories about Time Lords and Gallifrey! The new Doctor would be the life and soul of the party – Colin Baker appears to have been cast solely because he’d been hysterically gregarious at a wedding reception. He would wear colourful fancy dress and be surrounded by celebrity guests and even meet a former Doctor... because that was what the audience at home wanted, wasn’t it?

In retrospect, that was JN-T’s great mistake. Because in 1984, Doctor Who was now being made for its fans. JN-T had paid close attention to the letters, the fanzines and the magazines, he’d attended the conventions and seen what the fans wanted; they wanted nostalgia, they wanted former Doctors and companions recreating their roles and telling amusing stories. What JN-T didn’t realise until it was too late was that the fans who wrote letters and edited fanzines and who went to conventions were not representative of the show’s audience.

The signs were there. The ratings for Peter Davison’s final year were respectable, but had a worrying habit of dropping off sharply whenever it was shown on Fridays against The A-Team (even on Thursdays, it was massively out-rated by Emmerdale Farm). Doctor Who’s popularity was becoming ‘soft’; it was becoming a show people only watched if there was nothing better on. The attempt to revitalise the show by moving it from its Saturday evening slot and showing it twice-weekly had seemed a great idea at first, but it was now undermining the loyalty of its audience by making it difficult to catch every instalment of a story. It was no longer a ‘loyalty programme.’

So the decision was made to move Doctor Who back to its Saturday night slot, and to make each episode 45 minutes long. Which was an eminently sensible idea, and would give Doctor Who its best-possible chance of rebuilding its audience.

What very few people realised was that Doctor Who was also being given its last chance. BBC One Controller Alan Hart had tried to boost its audience by running it twice-weekly and had failed. His successor, Michael Grade, believed the show had become stale and lost its popular appeal. Particularly as its low-budget, studio-bound charm did not compare favourably to big-budget US imports like the mini-series V. Either the show would prove Michael Grade wrong or it would be axed.

Doctor Who had fallen behind the times and its fans – and its producer – were too busy enjoying the party to notice. Until the late 1970’s, Doctor Who had enjoyed the same production values as the most prestigious BBC shows of the time. Everything was made in the same way, as a combination of 35mm film exteriors and theatrical, studio-bound videotaped interiors. But by 1984 the BBC’s Head of Drama, Jonathan Powell, had implemented a shift towards series made entirely on film, such as Boys From The Black Stuff. Doctor Who no longer looked like the best the BBC could do; it looked old-fashioned, second-rate.

What Doctor Who needed was to be brought bang-up-to-date. It didn’t just need a new Doctor and a new, even more colourful title sequence, it needed to rethink its whole approach to appeal to a fresh audience. The 25 minute-episode format was an anachronism but so were multi-part stories; switching to 45 minutes should’ve meant a switch to single-part stories. It should’ve been more action-packed, made entirely on film and given atmospheric incidental music. In short, it should’ve been Robin Of Sherwood. If HTV could update a centuries-old legend for a mid-80’s audience, then there was no reason why the BBC couldn’t do the same for Doctor Who.

But in 1984, Doctor Who only sought inspiration in its past. Video cassette recorders had become affordable and many fans – or their parents – had obtained one to save The Five Doctors for posterity on glorious VHS or Betamax. From now on, Doctor Who was a show to be re-watched until familiarity bred contempt. Because not only could fans revisit recent shows; if they knew someone in Australia they could obtain stories from the 1970’s, and if they saved up they could buy Revenge Of The Cybermen or the edited highlights of The Brain Of Morbius for £19.99. The past was no longer an object of pure nostalgia, of cheating memories; it was now something against which the current series could be compared and found wanting.

But you can’t blame people for wanting to celebrate. Not when missing episodes are being found with encouraging rapidity, the Target novelizations have stopped using photographic covers, Frobisher has been introduced into the DWM comic strip, and most mind-blowing of all, the best-ever Doctor Who story, The Caves Of Androzani, has just been broadcast. If that isn’t a cause for celebration, nothing is.

 

1991

It’s been two years since Sylvester McCoy strolled off into the distance waxing lyrical about tea, and the thought of Doctor Who returning to our screens in the near future is beginning to look an increasingly unlikely prospect. It would be another five years before it finally did come back as a TV movie, with Sylvester McCoy briefly reprising his role as the Doctor, drinking the very same cup of tea he’d been waxing lyrical about at the end of Survival.

The BBC aren’t exactly helping the fans come to terms with the show not being on the air either. They won’t say that Doctor Who has been cancelled, not officially. Instead the fans are told that an announcement is expected later in the year, that Doctor Who will continue, but as an independent production, that negotiations are underway, and the show will come back but probably not until 1993, or after an extended rest so that it, in the words of BBC Head of Drama Series Peter Cregeen, it can return as a ‘fresh, inventive and vibrant to the schedule – rather than a battle-weary Time Lord languishing in the backwaters of audience popularity.’

The latter part of the quote seems particularly telling of how Doctor Who had been viewed by the BBC in its last couple of years. A show under-budgeted, under-promoted and consequently under-appreciated by the British public. Simply bringing it back as it was wasn’t an option. If it was to return, it would have to be as a big, popular success, with a decent budget – and it looked like independent production was the solution with the BBC hoping that another company, ideally an American one, would want to provide the finance while they retained the distribution rights. In particular, there was an American producer, Philip Segal, who was eager to produce Doctor Who, and while he remained interested, the BBC were reluctant to consider other offers. But the process of negotiation was frustratingly slow due to the fact that Segal never stayed in the same company long enough to make a deal. When it was reported in 1991 that the BBC had four different US networks interested in the show, it seems likely they were just referring to all the different companies Philip Segal had been working at over the past two years.

(There was also the added complication of a putative big-budget movie, courtesy of Green Light productions, written by Johnny Byrne of The Keeper Of Traken fame. Although Green Light singularly failed to live up to their name, the prospect of a film - and more significantly, its attendant contracts – served only to frustrate the progress of the return of the television series.) 

But of course the fans didn’t know any of this. All they knew was that they were being fobbed off and that their favourite show had been curtailed just as it had been getting back on its feet. After the traumatic ‘hiatus’ of 1986 they could be forgiven for feeling distrustful and jittery, and for mounting various campaigns for the shows return that seemed almost as laughably ineffectual then as they do in retrospect. But they were no more absurd than the BBC’s decision to cancel a show which, a few years earlier, it had proclaimed its biggest money-earner in the BBC Annual Report And Handbook.

Without a new series to look forward to, Doctor Who fans had no choice but to look back. Of course, nostalgia to Doctor Who fans is like strawberries and cream to a tennis fan, but now nostalgia was be all there was; if it couldn’t be part of the current television line-up, then at least Doctor Who could be a beloved national institution. It’s pleasingly ironic that the only ‘new’ episode of Doctor Who broadcast in 1991 was the premiere of the pilot episode, screened to commemorate the demolition of the Lime Grove studios.

The early 90’s were, for most fans, a voyage of discovery into the show’s past, with BSB and latterly BBC 2 dusting down old episodes and more stories being available on video relatively cheaply (though six-parters would still set you back £19.99). Even lone episodes from otherwise missing stories were released as The Hartnell Years and The Troughton Years, serving to foster a fascination with Doctor Who’s missing episodes; throughout 1991 there were endless rumours that Tomb Of The Cybermen might still exist in the far east, rumours which turned out to be remarkable prescient in 1992 even if they were simply the product of wishful thinking.

There were, however, signs that Doctor Who would have a future, albeit as a fan-originated series. BBV reunited Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant for Summoned By Shadows, the first in a range of videos placing former Doctor Who actors in sinister situations mostly written by Mark Gatiss and Nicholas Briggs. Even more excitingly, Virgin books had gained a license to publish original Doctor Who novels, picking up from where Survival had left off (with the publication of the Battlefield and Doctor Who And The Pescatons novelizations, the well of television scripts had run dry.) These novels wouldn’t just be written by former Doctor Who television writers, they would be written by the fans, and that would change everything. With Paul Cornell’s Timewyrm:Revelation a whole generation of fans realised they could write a Doctor Who story and get it published; writers such as Mark Gatiss, Gareth Roberts and Gary Russell soon followed. And the novels weren’t about nostalgia, they would tell stories, as the back cover blurb put it, ‘too broad and too deep for the small screen.’ Doctor Who would be reinvented not just as a book series, but as something created by its fans, for its fans.

But that wasn’t the most significant development of the early 90’s. You only have to look at most of the DWM back covers to see what that was. Star Trek: The Next Generation had come to the UK. After years of only being available on video, it was now on BBC Two. If Doctor Who was ever to return to television for real, it could only do so with a Star Trek-sized budget.

 

1998

If any year could be considered Doctor Who’s annus horribilis it would have to be this one. Two years have passed since the broadcast of the Paul McGann TV movie, and its much-anticipated follow-up series has failed to materialise. Not because the TV movie wasn’t a success; if anything it proved that with sufficient promotion, a decent budget and a charismatic lead actor there was still a large appetite for new Doctor Who in the UK. But it also proved that there was an even stronger appetite for Roseanne in the USA, and that any attempt to re-launch the show as an American co-production would be doomed to flounder half-way across the Atlantic.

Doctor Who was, basically, a victim of its own success. The BBC – and Alan Yentob in particular – were keen to make more episodes of the programme, but only if they could be funded with American dollars, as making a show that could compete with the X-Files and the various Star Trek iterations was beyond the BBC’s means. During the 90’s, the BBC all-but gave up on science fiction – and whenever it did attempt a new science fiction or fantasy series, it got its fingers burned. Invasion: Earth was the BBC’s single attempt at science fiction during 1998, a co-production with American money and American stars which failed to find an audience on either side of the Atlantic despite the best efforts of writer Jed Mercurio. It’s telling that when Invasion: Earth was being promoted in the Radio Times, its makers were keen to stress that it wouldn’t be like Doctor Who (as though trying to avoid being like a show which had achieved ratings of over nine million viewers two years previously was a recipe for success). But that’s how Doctor Who was regarded; as a short-hand for cheap, old-fashioned, childish and wobbly-setted science fiction. It was a relic of the past that could only be appreciated ironically as a piece of kitsch nostalgia.

So what did fans have to celebrate 35years of their favourite show? No new episodes. The nearest thing many would have to any new Doctor Who would be a few clips from lost William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton stories on the video release of The Ice Warriors. By this time, Doctor Who was a regular fixture on UK Gold, showing an omnibus every Sunday morning, and the video releases had reached the point where if they were not actually scraping the bottom of the barrel then it was very much in sight.

There were also the original novels, now published by the BBC, continuing the adventures of the eighth Doctor and his companion Sam. But with only the TV movie to work from (and initially no clear editorial direction), these novels were forced to be rather formulaic efforts, with only Paul Magrs’ fantastical and unapologetically literary The Scarlett Empress bringing something fresh to the table.

It didn’t help that in taking over the books, the BBC had alienated the fan base that the Virgin books had cultivated, a problem exacerbated by Virgin books continuing to publish their own rival range following on from the New Adventures with the character Bernice Summerfield. The BBC Doctor Who range couldn’t help looking like the poor relations; particularly as a couple of years earlier, Virgin books had boasted a novel by Springhill’s Russell T Davies and a short story by Joking Apart’s Steven Moffat.

There was also a Doctor Who night on BBC Choice, a digital channel launched in September of this year which would eventually become BBC Three. The night consisted of repeats of Genesis Of The Daleks, Tomb Of The Cybermen and the TV Movie along with links by Sylvester McCoy.

Such was the show’s moribund state that after two years of reporting on BBC executives’ muttered maybes and headlines like ‘Are repeats the best hope for the future of Doctor Who?’, DWM consigned its Gallifrey Guardian news page to the back of the magazine, and, as an ironic commentary on the increasing improbability of a new series with Paul McGann, featured a story, The Final Chapter, in which the Doctor apparently regenerated into a new incarnation portrayed by Nicholas Briggs. Such was the plausibility of this prospect, of Doctor Who only ever continuing as a fan-made spin-off, that everybody was taken in.

Because in 1998 spin-offs were the only new Doctor Who being made, even though none of them had a license to make it official. Reeltime Pictures had Sophie Aldred facing a Sontaran in the video Mindgame, BBV had the Auton videos and Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred having audio adventures scripted by Mark Gatiss (as well as a follow-up range by Mark Duncan which memorably featured Sophie Aldred posing topless on the covers for no discernible reason). BBC Worldwide produced their own audio short-story CDs with readings by Paul McGann, Nicholas Courtney and Sophie Aldred. And a new company called Big Finish got in on the act by producing their first Bernice Summerfield audios (the second of which would feature Sophie Aldred, for whom 1998 seems to have been a very busy year.)

So looking back, 1998 doesn’t seem as miserable a year as it felt at the time. There were talented writers out there – Davies, Moffat, Gatiss – who were keen to write for Doctor Who and who, given a few more years to get some more hit television series on their CVs, would be in a position to make it a reality. And there were powerful people at the BBC who wanted to bring back Doctor Who, even if they were convinced that the only way of doing so was as an American co-production. The will was there, but the time wasn’t yet right.

And, most excitingly of all, after almost a year ‘on hold’, it looked like Bob Baker’s K-9 television series might finally be going into production...


2005

After nearly 11 years off the air, Doctor Who returns to BBC One and Saturday nights. And it’s more successful than anyone could have wildly imagined. Within a few days of the very first episode, Rose, being broadcast the BBC announces that the show will be coming back next year and that Christopher Eccleston won’t be the Doctor when it does (and David Tennant is tipped to replace him).

For the show’s long-term fans, it’s a very confusing and stressful time. They’ve had an agonising long wait since the show’s return was announced in September 2003. They’ve pored over illicit photos from the filming, fretting at the sight of an oversized TARDIS and the Moxx of Balhoon on a fag break. Rumours abound that this series will be nothing like the show fans know and love. The companion’s family will be a regular fixture and ‘every story will come back to Earth’ rather than featuring alien planets.

And then there’s been the build-up to the launch itself. It’s been a glorious optimistic few weeks, tinged only by the lingering fear that this is Doctor Who’s last chance saloon, and if this revival doesn’t succeed, then it will be dead forever. After all, the BBC have gambled a great deal on this revival. They’ve given the show a large budget (by BBC standards) and have spent goodness-knows-how-much on a billboard campaign showing the Doctor, Rose and the TARDIS doors opening outwards (which gives the fans one more thing to fret about). Even the Paul McGann movie didn’t get this sort of promotion. There are endless trailers, a radio documentary, even a repeat of The Story Of Doctor Who (presented by Jon Culshaw) and a special edition of Mastermind in the week before broadcast.

Well, the week before official broadcast. The internet has come a lot way since 1998 and now has the power to allow people to share television programmes before they’ve been broadcast. So for many fans – for whom the long wait had been agonising and the fear had been lingering – the leak of a copy of Rose onto the internet was too tempting to resist.

But for most fans, whether they first saw Rose on a computer screen or on the BBC with live commentary from Graham Norton, the final episode was worth the long wait. Because it was spectacular. Okay, so it wasn’t perfect, maybe the bin shouldn’t have burped, maybe Mickey could be less annoying, but on the whole it was a fan’s dream come true. Autons, smashing through shop windows! The TARDIS console room looking more exotic and marvellous than ever. And a new Doctor who was, quite simply, brilliant. It was so good that some fans even watched it a second time on video before going onto the internet to discuss it.

The internet had changed Doctor Who fandom. Although there weren’t that many fans left, as might be expected after sixteen years without a show, those that did remain could now get into contact with each other and argue with people on the other side of the world about Sylvester McCoy to their heart’s content. The internet turned Doctor Who production gossip into a valuable commodity and websites such as Outpost Gallifrey concentrated and focused fans’ fervour for the show.

The show returned at the right time, because given a few more years, things might’ve been very different. The books were in decline, having been supplanted in fan affections by the Big Finish audios, which since 2001 had offered an ‘official’ continuation of the series with Paul McGann’s Doctor. Many of the audios were extremely good – and in many ways prefigured the more ‘emotional’ approach of the new series with the Doctor and his companion Charlie Pollard expressing their love for each other – but they could only ever cater to the existing fanbase.

And until the announcement of Doctor Who’s return as a television series, the omens didn’t look good. An attempt to relaunch Doctor Who as a Radio 4 series had failed to get any further than the BBC’s Doctor Who website, which in turn attempted its own revival of the show as a web-based animation written by Paul Cornell, Scream of The Shalka, a project undermined by the casting of a clearly disinterested Richard E Grant. If Russell T Davies were to succeed where others had failed, he would have to do something different. He would have to go mainstream.

There are many reasons for Rose’s success; not least the unprecedented amount of budget and promotion. But the most significant reason is that Russell T Davies took Doctor Who and made it what it hadn’t been for a long, long time: a show for people who don’t normally watch shows like Doctor Who.

Because when Doctor Who returned it wasn’t a show like Star Trek: The Next Generation or Buffy The Vampire Slayer or The X-Files. It wasn’t designed as a cult show at all (which had proved so disastrous for Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) in 2000). No, Doctor Who had been reinvented as an ‘aspirational’ ITV drama. It was a show for the sort of people who had watched Bob & Rose, The Second Coming and Mine All Mine, who watched Fat Friends and At Home With The Braithwaites, and Cutting It and Clocking Off (two BBC shows, admittedly). It was based around a working-class single-parent family, albeit one with a remarkably colourful flat lit with fairy lights (a common feature of aspirational ITV dramas). It even had incidental music by Murray Gold and starred Mark Benton, for goodness’ sake.

And that, I would argue, was Russell T Davies’ masterstroke. The spaceships and aliens and distant planets could come later. The most important thing was to start in a recognisable location with a couple of characters the audience could identify with and love. Because if Doctor Who had just been about Rose and Jackie, and their adventures with Mickey and Debbie on the end and Arianna, it would’ve been a hit. The Doctor, the TARDIS and the Autons were the icing on the cake.


2012

Doctor Who is now the BBC’s biggest show. It remains a massive ratings success and a massive money-earner. A significant chunk of the BBC’s revenue is now down to Doctor Who and it’s increasing popularity in the international television marketplace, particularly in the USA, where it’s BBC America’s flagship show and a top seller on iTunes. In addition, it’s now a central tenet of the BBC’s ‘brand’, because it’s one of the few programmes associated with the BBC that is not only a major, current success story but which is also owned by the BBC (due to it having been created in-house, back in 1963, by staff producers, story editors and writers.) It’s not just part of the BBC’s heritage, it’s a visual shorthand for everything that is great and beloved about the BBC. When the BBC wants to promote the Olympics, they do so with a trailer showing a warehouse containing a Cyberman head (along with relics from defunct shows like Only Fools And Horses and Top Of The Pops) and they get the current incarnation to carry the Olympic flame. It’s virtually impossible to enter any BBC premises without passing a TARDIS, a Dalek or a photographic blow-up of Matt Smith’s mysterious face. And like all valuable ‘brands’, it’s to be maintained at all costs and guarded jealously. Doctor Who now has a totemic significance; it’s emblematic of everything the BBC stands for, with the Daleks as the ravens in the BBC’s Tower of London. The BBC might not have many popular comedies, or live football matches, it might be cutting budgets to drama and children’s programming... but while it still has Doctor Who, it has something to be proud of. Doctor Who is The Two Ronnies, it’s The Generation Game, it’s Dad’s Army - but the BBC owns it, and it’s still running, and it’s huge in America.

And there is no writer more suited to this ever-more competitive and high-stakes television climate than Steven Moffat. Because no other writer is more obsessed and determined with finding ways to engage an audience, to avoid giving them reasons to switch off. It’s virtually pathological. At its best, Doctor Who is so full of ideas, of jokes, of scares, and unexpected twists and turns, it’s like being driven at 100 miles an hour through a fairground by a maniac as Aaron Sorkin and Joss Whedon trade bon mots on the back seat. It’s almost too much to take in in one sitting.

But you’re not supposed to. The paradox of 2012 Doctor Who is that it’s simultaneously designed to grab casual viewers whilst also rewarding loyal and attentive viewers. It’s a show designed to be watched multiple times, a show for the iPlayer generation, a show to be bought or downloaded as a box set. It’s exactly the show Graham Williams was talking about when he told Douglas Adams in 1978 ‘to make the scripts complex enough to keep the kids interested and simple enough for the adults to understand.’ It’s as involved as The Wire or Game Of Thrones or any of those Scandinavian crime dramas. Not even when Doctor Who was a ‘cult’ interest, with its stories told through books, comic strips and audios, did it have such intricate plotting. Which is the great difference between 2012 and past incarnations of the show; in the past, only the fans could be expected to follow an ‘arc’ storyline, by buying all the books, comics or the audios in the series, whereas now, everybody watching has the whole series available to them at the push of a button, and so everybody is effectively a fan.

With Doctor Who being of such importance to the BBC, it’s production values have never been higher. Which results in another paradox, because the more the show strives to be visually flawless, the more limited its visual ambitions become. The irony is that although Doctor Who makes so much money for the BBC - more than covering its costs – its budget remains relatively small, and has effectively been cut as part of the Delivering Quality First initiative. This results in a show which looks incredibly glossy and beautifully shot in HD, but which can only afford three Silurian masks, and where each new monster is an exercise in cost-saving ingenuity (the Silence requiring only heads and hands, the Flesh requiring only prosthetics, the headless monks requiring only a cloak). And to disguise any shortcomings in the sets, everything is now shrouded in darkness. In 2012 Doctor Who follows the same approach as that of 70’s producer Philip Hinchcliffe, of tailoring the scripts to the budget.

So Doctor Who in 2012 is both visually very cautious, and yet more ambitious in terms of storytelling than ever before. It’s no longer just being made for the license-fee payers, it’s being made with one eye on the international, and in particular the American, market (with annual excursions to the US for filming and Americanized dialogue, like Rory saying ‘gas’ instead of ‘petrol’.) But this is no new thing – as mentioned at the beginning of this article, Doctor Who has always been made with a view for foreign sales.

The only other thing we can sure about Doctor Who in 2012 is that Steven Moffat will defy expectations. Because if one thing characterises his writing, it’s that he will always go out of his way to do the unpredictable. Everything is up for grabs and nothing is as it seems. Even Doctor Who’s scheduling is a closely-guarded secret to 'keep people on edge wondering when it will come back.’ Because nowadays Doctor Who is no longer a mere television show. It’s an FA Cup, it’s an X-Factor final, it’s the new Harry Potter. Doctor Who is an event.