Doctor Who: The Origins of the Series

It would be inaccurate to assume that everything that has made Doctor Who successful
began and developed with the series. Like many great things, it has been standing on the
shoulders of giants.

In some respects Doctor Who began, not with the BBC in the Spring and Summer of 1963, but some seventy years before, with the imagination and determination of celebrated author, H.G. Wells. In 1895, one of his most successful novels, The Time Machine, was published for the first time, and tells of a Victorian gentleman travelling thousands of years into the future in a small motor vehicle. There he finds himself witnessing the battle between the two human groups left. The Eloi and the Morlocks. The novel was a tremendous success and has worked as one of the templates of modern science fiction. In fact in 1949, BBC Television made an adaptation of The Time Machine, starring Russell Napier, unfortunately it was broadcast live and not recorded and only scripts and a few photographs survive of the production.

The Time Machine was not the only science fiction adaptation that BBC Television made in
it’s early years. In 1938, and again in 1948, they adapted a novel by Czech author, Karel
Capek, called R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). Interestingly, in the latter adaptation, one
of the actors involved was future Doctor Who actor, Patrick Troughton.

It wasn’t straightforward science fiction that can be said to influence Doctor Who. There is
some argument that the science fantasy of C.S. Lewis played it’s part. Lewis’s most popular
work of fiction, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, first published in 1950, centred
around four children being able to reach the magical and pseudo medieval land of Narnia via
a wardrobe in an otherwise empty room in a large house in the English countryside. Like the
TARDIS, a container, just seemingly enough to hold a few people in, standing room only,
turning out to be much bigger on the inside.

That said, one cannot diminish the genius of the creator of the series, Sydney Newman, a
Canadian TV Producer whom the BBC had poached from it’s rival, ITV, and who had also
created The Avengers. Newman’s imagination was incredible and vast, and what he brought
to the series was highly unique and inspired enthusiasm even then. Newman did not
Produce the series, he was serving as BBC Televisions Head of Serials, but the first Producer,
Verity Lambert, brought a much needed mixture of picking good talent and having
determination and diplomacy which served her very well in subsequent decades,
culminating perhaps in her producing Jonathan Creek towards the end of her career.

So when you see a highly successful series, look where the feet are. The chances are that
they are standing on the shoulders of giants

Paul Burgin

Paul is Nostalgia Digital’s resident TV Nostalgia Expert, with a love of all things SciFi.

paulburgin.substack.com/