Kieran’s Korner: Doctor Who

Kieran Daly, Entertainment Editor
December 17, 2013

Not many shows are given the opportunity to run for over a decade, let alone five. Doctor Who for the past 50 years has been the longest running sci-fi series to run on television and it has become a cult classic gaining millions of fans across the world.

The premise of the show follows a Time Lord named The Doctor (who has been now played by twelve actors, it will be thirteen after Christmas) who travels around time and space in his iconic T.A.R.D.I.S (which stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space) a time traveling machine which since, the first episode of the show in Nov 23, 1963, has been stuck as a London 1960’s police phone box.

The show has ran so long due to the fact that whenever The Doctor is killed he has the ability to regenerate into a completely new character, this factor always keeps the show on its toes and always shakes things up. At this point in time there have eleven actors to play the popular character, with an additional actor (John Hurt, known for his role as Olivander in the Harry Potter films) playing a forgotten version of The Doctor for this year’s 50th anniversary episode (which was aired live across 94 countries).

Actors to play The Doctor have been:

  1. William Hartnell (1963-1966)
  2. Patrick Troughton (1966-1969)
  3. Jon Pertwee (1970-1974)
  4. Tom Baker(1974-1981)
  5. Peter Davison(1981-1984)
  6. Colin Baker(1984-1986)
  7. Sylvester McCoy(1987-1989,1996)
  8. Paul McGann(1996)
  9. Christopher Eccelston(2005)
  10. David Tennant(2005-2010
  11. Matt Smith(2010-2013)

Many of the actors that have played The Doctor have gone to get huge roles in films. Sylvester McCoy is currently in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Trilogy, Christopher Eccelston played the villain in the recent Thor sequel and David Tennant play Barty Crouch Jr. in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The next actor to take on the role will be Peter Capaldi, a Scottish actor who has loved the show since he was a boy.

The show has something for everyone, drama, sci-Fi, action, mystery, adventure and even love. I can’t wait to see where it goes through the rest of my life. You can catch up now with just about all the episodes on streaming Netflix, don’t miss out on this adventure through time and space.