Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Doctor Who (1963) 1.03 Extras (Part 1)

Doctor Who: Origins (2006)

53 minutes

Narrated by Terry Molloy, who is probably better known for playing Davros in three stories, this special documentary revisits the coming together of the cast and crew to create Doctor Who in 1963.

The people interviewed for this documentary include
  • Marcus Hearn. film and TV historian
  • Sidney Newman, creator of 'Doctor Who' (archival interview from 1984)
  • Verity Lambert, producer (1963-65)
  • Richard Martin, director (The Daleks, The Edge of Destruction)
  • Waris Hussein, director (An Unearthly Child)
  • William Russell, Ian Chesterton (1963-65)
  • Carole Ann Ford, Susan Foreman (1963-64)
  • Desmond Briscoe. Founder of BBC Radiophonic Workshop (archival interview)
  • Brian Hidgson, Special Sound for Doctor Who (1963-72)
  • Bernard Lodge, Designer 'Doctor Who' Title Sequences (1963-80)

The topics discussed include 
  • the hiring of Sidney Newman
  • why the BBC tried to create more interesting programming that would appeal to a larger audience  in the early 1960s
  • development of the concept and the characters
  • the casting and the assembly of the crew
  • creation of the opening music and opening visuals

Thoughts

This documentary is not short. It has to be one of the longer ones found on Doctor Who DVDs. I found it to be fascinating. There were some stories I knew but most I did not. It is very well put together.

There are a number of people who played a role in the creation of Doctor Who, behind the scenes, who are discussed but not interviewed for this story. My guess would be that is because most of them were no longer alive at the time this documentary was made, more than 40 years after Doctor Who debuted.

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