Editing Doctor Who (section)

==The Show==
Doctor Who is the longest ongoing sci-fi series in the history of television. It started in 1963 and ran until 1989 where it was temporarily frozen. It attempted a restart with a 1996 movie, but the circumstances were not yet ripe. The show finally started again in 2005 and is currently still running. Throughout this history, the show has maintained the same canon-less continuity, thanks to the fact that the main protagonist Doctor Who (aka The Doctor) is an alien capable of "regeneration" upon the time of death or when they grow old. This rejuvenates and replaces all the cells in their body, effectively changing their appearance and somewhat their mannerisms and personality (because it also changes the brain). In this way, the series has been able to continue (mostly) uninterrupted, with different actors without resorting to "remakes" or "reimaginings" or "spinoffs" like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica. 

There were a couple of unsuccessful attempts at making spinoffs (One during the original run and one more recently, both based on the rather twee K-9 the tin dog), and three more successful, the recent Torchwood (on indefinite hiatus despite massive popularity... come on BBC, give us Season 5...), Sarah Jane Adventures (cancelled during its fifth year due to the death of the lead actress), Class (ended after one season) <strike>and a bunch of independently produced movies that have a legal license to exist, so long as they don't mention the Doctor. They have ''The Chiropodist'' instead.</strike> The Sarah Jane Adventures depict the adventures and encounters with alien life that the ex-companion of the 3rd and 4th Doctor goes through with her alien-made son and his friends. Torchwood is Doctor Who with a large dose of GRIMDARK (if you're a horny 12-year-old and just comedy for those who aren't, Children of Earth is when Torchwood becomes worth watching), along with a literally immortal lead character with a Charisma score so high that Alpenhorn-mancers turn gay for him within a sixteen-mile radius. Everyone is gay for Captain Jack Harkness. He even has a [[Harkness_Test|sexuality test]] named after him. Class depicts what happens when the Doctor sets one of their long plans in motion, and then fucks off for a good while, letting all hell break loose in the meantime. The others? Well, there's a film about the "Cyberons", a Zygon porno, a bunch of films that aren't stupid, featuring many characters like the Brig, the Yeti, Sontarans, and more.

The main show is heavily episodic, with the Doctor travelling through time and space in their TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension(s) in Space) and landing in different historical periods on Earth and elsewhere in the universe, often when there is some sort of trouble or disturbance nearby. The Doctor protects the flow of history <strike>except when you piss the Doctor off</strike>, preventing paradoxes and manipulations and attempts to stop evil and violence everywhere. This gains them the enmity of their own race, the Gallifreyan Time Lords who have pledged to use their time-travelling technology only to observe but not interfere. Even so, they often ask the Doctor to act on their behalf. The Time Lords got a bit shit towards the end of the original run, and were unceremoniously killed off en masse during the gap between the original and new runs in an offscreen "Time War". As of the new revival series, there has been the theme of a season-long arc within the episodes, which usually takes the shape of a recurring phrase or item, which is resolved in the two-part finale at the end of the season.

The show has become iconic in British culture and science fiction fandom around the world for many reasons, amongst them:

*Having been around for fucking ever. Even if you were born during the window when Dr Who was not being made, the chances are you remember it from re-runs or carefully archived bootlegged copies made by [[Neckbeard|that one uncle you had]] (No, not that one). On the brighter side, there were hundreds of really good tie-in books and audio dramas (and a few films).
*Not only has it been around for fucking ever, but we also don't even have all the episodes.  Of the 253 episodes of the first six seasons, 97 are lost for all time because the BBC didn't think the content was worth saving long term (also because the BBC archives had a nasty habit of bursting into flames before digital archiving became the norm).  Of the missing content, only fan audio recordings remain as consumer VCRs didn't exist before the 1970s.  
*Cheesy low budgeted effects and monsters which gave the show a special charm and made it rely on the story instead of flashy visuals.
*The TARDIS machine which has a "chameleon circuit" which allows it to change external appearance to fit into different environments where it "lands", its inside is much bigger than the outside, potentially infinite, thanks to the space-time technology it uses. The Doctor's TARDIS got its chameleon circuit busted and is permanently stuck in the iconic shape of a 60's British Police Box. And when we say iconic we mean ''the British police have to ask Doctor Who before they can use its likeness'', not the other way around.
*The character of The Doctor and their eccentric figure, with their alien traits like regeneration and a double heart.
*The show has been known to be aimed at a younger audience but scare them at the same time, so "hiding behind the sofa" has become a phrase connected to it.
*It also retains a big following amongst older fans because of its two-sided nature; it is largely easy-going, tongue-in-cheek and comical but often turns to darker and serious tones, with good storytelling.  
*Writing for Doctor Who is something of a variety show of up and coming show writers.  Terry Nation (creator of Blake's 7) wrote ten stories for Doctor Who.  Douglas Adams was credited with writing one but actually wrote a couple more uncredited and contributed to MANY others during the 4th Doctor.  More recent guest writers include Neil Cross (Luther), Neil Gaiman (Coraline), and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock). 
*Comical yet fearsome enemies like the Daleks (Genocidal mutant squid [[Nazi]] pepper-pots with death rays and the best E-VIL VOI-CES E-VER while exterminating FUCKING EVERYTHING, think of the already-overpowered and omnicidal [[Necron]]s mixed with Nazis and turned up to 11 billion), Sontarans (Huge domed heads, eyebrows and foreheads of a 4e [[Tiefling]]-basically Mr Potato Head), Autons (Shop Dummies of Death), Weeping Angels (Scared the shit out of <s>children</s> everyone everywhere, don't ever blink) and memorable "supervillain" antagonists like The Master, a rival Time Lord, and the ever-wrinkly Davros, who's basically Palpatine, the Joker, Honsou, Abaddon, Trayzn the Infinite, Asdrubael Vect, & Kheradruakh the Decapitator all rolled into one.
*Hiding behind the sofa from the aforementioned Daleks was such a common event in the lives of several decades of children that the phrase "Hiding behind the sofa" has entered [[Britfag]] slang as a slightly tongue-in-cheek way of saying "Scared shitless".
*Various toys, gadgets and gags the Doctor uses, including a 'Sonic Screwdriver' (a lazy but cool plot device) and the use of Jelly Babies candy to distract or bribe people.
*The theme tune. You know it, you love it. Yes, you do, stop lying.
*Not being your average Science-Fiction story. While many normal Space Opera-style Sci-Fi stories are samey and bland, Doctor Who has practically every kind of adventure imaginable taking place. From dinosaurs on a spaceship to gas-masked zombies (who are creepy as all Hell) to literally going to hell, ''Doctor Who'' has it all. If not, then the spin-offs have done it.
**And its generally positive view of Non-Violence.  The Doctor almost never solves problems by raw force, and is always willing to bury a hatchet against all but his most bitter enemies (the Daleks and the Master being the only beings he carries a true grudge against).  [[Starship Troopers]] this ain't, the Doctor doesn't like solving problems with a laser cannon and a bag of jelly babies.  
*For being a thorn in the side of Mary Whitehouse for the entirety of their parallel existence because of how scary it got in the mid-70s.
*Constantly being political, but in an accessible way. Ever since its inception it has had political overtones, be that support for the civil rights movement, hatred of Thatcher, or raising concerns about climate changes eventual effect on society and the world. It does this, however, in a medium that is accessible for children, which allows it to present the message of the week in very different creative formats - ''The Happiness Patrol'' being the best example of this.