- Location
- NYC (né Falkirk)
- Pronouns
- he/him
List of actors who have played the Doctor:
Ray Walston (1963) [1]
Dick York (1963-1967) [2]
Burgess Meredith (1967-1970) [3]
Judd Hirsch (1973) [4]
Jack Klugman (1974-1978) [5]
Lloyd Bridges (1978-1983) [6]
Michael Richards (1988-1990) [7]
Mandy Patinkin (1990-1993) [8]
Ron Glass (1993-1997) [9]
Edie Falco (1999) [10]
Tim Daly (2001-2002) [11]
Kelsey Grammer (2006-2008) [12]
Rainn Wilson (2008-2013) [13]
James Wolk (2013-2014) [14]
Rainn Wilson (2014-2016) [15]
Tig Notaro (2019-2022) [16]
Harold Perrineau (2022-present) [17]
[1] In early 1963, CBS cancelled Dennis the Menace, creating a gap in their upcoming fall schedule. One that Sydney Newman, Vice President of Production at Desilu Studios, hoped to fill. As Newman saw it, the ideal replacement would be one that could retain the younger audience of Lassie but also appeal to those of the later Ed Sullivan Show. The suggestion was for a science fiction adventure series that would also educate, based around a mysterious “Doctor” and his time machine, larger on the inside than the out. Stories set in the past could teach about history, and those in the future about science. A pilot was commissioned. It would see a high school student, her teacher, and a police officer stumble upon the time machine and its pilot in a New York City construction site. Ray Walston played the Doctor; Katharine Ross the high school student; Joanne Linville her teacher; and Clu Gulager the cop. The four would travel back in time to the stone age for the pilot. Reception from CBS executives was mixed, but not negative, and they could certainly see the potential. Changes were made at their behest, which included making the main character less alien and his relationship with his human companions less adversarial. This necessitated several changes for an unprecedented second pilot, including a change in lead actor. A good deal of footage from the first pilot was used in the second almost as a recap of how the group came together. Walston was mostly absent from the reused footage. The first pilot became almost legendary in fan circles before its first public release to VHS in 1986.
[2] Dick York had been a close runner up to Walston. The latter had won out originally because it was decided the Doctor would be far older than the others. With York, the character was softened and appeared closer in age to the two adults. There remained the occasional suggestion he was far older than he appeared. The nature of the show meant that it was almost an anthology series with recurring characters, each episode could vary wildly in setting linked only by the TIDEX (Time and InterDimensional EXplorer). Many episodes set in the past took place in setting that were common in television productions, to make reuse of props, costumes, and sets. Almost a quarter were set in the Old West. Despite Newman’s original dictate of no “bug-eyed monsters”, alien creatures became more and more common as the producers and writers came up with episode concepts. Most were courtesy of the makeup effects of John Chambers. Most famed were the Mechanoids, designed by Robert Kinoshita, similar to his earlier work on Tobor the Great and Forbidden Planet with more fluid movements. The first appearance of the Mechanoids came in the fifth episode, October 27th, 1963, one year after the Cuban Missile Crisis. The subject matter of a civilisation wiped out by nuclear war struck a chord and it was the menace of Kinoshita’s creations that propelled the series into a pop culture phenomenon. On the set of They Came to Cordura (1959), Dick York suffering a permanent back injury. At first, it did not hamper his career, but from season three (the first in colour), it became worse and worse. He missed a total of 21 episodes throughout his tenure, and partway through the airing of the fifth season he expressed his desire to leave and focus on recovery. There were 142 episodes produced during his tenure. 74 in black and white; 68 in colour.
[3] Cast changes were actually not new to Doctor Who by the time York left. Gulager had left to do The Killers (1964) after the first season; Ross and Linville the season after that. More changes followed before York departed, but for the first time the series would recast its lead. At the end of the fourth season, the Doctor collapsed over the console of TIDEX (sadly an all too familiar sight to the crew during York’s final year); a blinding flash of light followed, and Burgess Meredith stood in York’s clothes. A familiar figure to television audiences, Meredith was given some leeway to remake the character as he saw fit. He became more dotty, ironically closer to the original intent and as played by Walston. The competition, namely Irwin Allen over at ABC, hoped the series would not survive the transition and audiences would instead be drawn to Lost in Space. Or on NBC with their new British import from ITC: Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. Even CBS hedged their bets, removing the Mechanoids from Doctor Who and giving them their own short-lived spin-off. Fans very quickly took to Meredith’s interpretation of the Doctor, especially when pitted against his very own Moriarty: John Fiedler’s the Professor. Compared to Allen’s shows, the ostensible children’s programme was downright intellectual. It was also seen as quintessentially American in a way Star Trek, with its utopic themes and nautical trappings, wasn’t. The Doctor was like any western hero, rolling into town, solving the issue of the week, then setting off on his next adventure. Despite its popularity, as the 1960s Desilu’s new parent company, Gulf and Western, felt Doctor Who should end with it. Interest in space and science fiction, stories involving which had begun to outnumber historical ones 5-to-1, waned following the moon landing. Memorably parodied at the start of season 7 with a lunar module landing only to see the familiar TIDEX trailer nearby. The company’s motivation was also mercenary: there was more to be gained from selling the show to syndication than there was in producing new episodes. Meredith’s tenure ended with a total of 93 episodes, at least in live action.
[4] From 1971, Doctor Who was resurrected as a Saturday morning cartoon, made by Filmation at the behest of Paramount for CBS. The animation left a lot to be desired, but it kept the fires of Doctor Who burning on television after the live action series had been cancelled. A major coup was the agreement of Meredith to voice the title character, which lent it a certain authenticity. So popular was the animated series that it was decided to revive the series in live action for its tenth anniversary. Meredith declined returning to the role in live action, and York never recovered enough to resume his career. It was decided to recast the lead again, but a new format in television allowed them to essentially broadcast a pilot and see how audiences responded. TV movies had taken off since Doctor Who went off the air, as had wheel shows like The NBC Mystery Movie. A unique experiment saw CBS attempt to gather together four science fiction shows as a wheel show. Doctor Who, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, and Dead of Night, a series of horror anthologies). Judd Hirsch would land the role of the Doctor in what was to be a pilot for both a new Doctor Who and the wheel show. Reception to all four films was positive from audiences, but the network soon fell out with Gene Rodenberry, Rod Serling, and Dan Curtis, who oversaw the other four shows. It was decided not to proceed with the wheel show, but Doctor Who had no equivalent figure, so it was still viable. Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts that arose after CBS dithered led to Hirsch passing on the role. Hirsch’s more blue-collar approach to the Doctor was, and still is, widely praised. Fans would still get to see him as the Doctor, after a fashion, when he took over voicing the role in the animated series, after Meredith bowed out in 1975. His only other live action performance came in the 1983 miniseries The Four Doctors, appearing opposite his immediate predecessor and, at the time, two successors.
[5] Despite the wheel show being abandoned, the TV movie format was kept for the revived Doctor Who. Jack Klugman would retain aspects of both Meredith and Hirsch in the role characterised as “brilliant, but lazy” or “lazy, but brilliant” as stories dictated. As part of the new format, no more than two historical stories would be done in each of his seasons, and only one of those without any science fiction elements. Cast opposite Klugman was Penny Marshall as journalist Sarah J. Smith. The notion of the Doctor travelling alone with a female companion was a new one, with even Hirsch being supported by both Richard Lawson and Lesley Ann Warren. Marshall left after her second season to star in the sitcom Laverne & Shirley. Many recurring foes from the 1960s would make reappearances during Klugman’s tenure. These included the Mechanoids, the Sasquatches, the Professor (now played by Tony Randall), and the Daleks – who had been poached from Star Trek by their creator, Terry Nation after that programme first landed on US shores. Many adversaries created during this tenure would become recurring themselves, as would Colonel Leonard Franklin (William Shatner). The new Doctor Who could not recapture the popularity of the original, but it gave enough that those who grew up on either the 60s version or the animated series had reason to stay. It had also matured in such a way that adults were not turned off in its new, less family targeted, format. More changes were afoot, however, the series earned ratings good enough that CBS wanted a full season of hour-long episodes. Paramount acquiesced, but Klugman balked at the increased workload, and wished to end his contract after his fourth year in the role. The plan was to take their only full season, cut the TV movies into two-parters, and sell them in syndication. In their original format, Klugman starred in 22 TV movie and 20 regular episodes. Then, Star Wars happened.
[6] All of a sudden, science fiction was at a height of popularity unknown even in the late 1960s. There was no way CBS would let Doctor Who go off the air when they had something ready made to take advantage. Klugman refused to sign a new contract, so casting was up in the air again. Lloyd Bridges was chosen to lead a new cast that was more akin to the original TIDEX crew than the duos and trios that had come since. It was also more akin to the heroes of Star Wars, with Bridges as the Doctor acting as Obi-Wan. Kimberly Beck, Robert Englund, and Marc Singer as the Leia, Han, and Luke equivalents, respectively. The boom in popularity of science fiction resulted in renewed competition. NBC resurrected Flash Gordon as a weekly TV series and put out feelers to both Gene Rodenberry and ITC. Both Gordon and the changes to Who incensed Star Wars creator George Lucas, who allowed ABC to make a series of TV films based on the film. With the exception of the Star Wars TV movies, Doctor Who was still the recognised leader in US television science fiction. Going all in on Star Wars inspired action seemed to grant the series a new lease on life. In subsequent years, this era of the show and Bridges Doctor (derisively called "Colonel Who" by some) became seen as an aberration. The renewed sci-fi craze seemed to burn out following the release of The Empire Strikes Back, on television at least. With a third truncated season, the series entered its second hiatus. Bridges played the lead role in 61 episodes across three seasons. He also voiced the character in animated form until that was cancelled in 1982, ending its run at 11 seasons (4 with Meredith, 3 with Hirsch, 1 with Klugman, and 3 with Bridges).
[7] Aside from the twentieth-year miniseries, it seemed no new Doctor Who was forthcoming throughout the 80s. Talks over a feature film version continued, but never made it past the earliest stages of pre-production. By the late 1980s, a new opportunity had appeared: first-run syndication, where Star Trek had finally found a permanent US home. The plan was to duplicate the format of the final Klugman year, with less of a focus on action than the Bridges years, whilst retaining the hour-long format. Michael Richards beat out many other contenders to become the latest incarnation of the Doctor, accompanied by Rosalind Chao as his sole companion. There were grandiose plans for the entry of Doctor Who into first-run syndication. Those stalled with the 1988 Writers Guild of America Strike. It led to a truncated season of 22 episodes. It also led to many scripts being rushed to completion before the strike took effect. The end results would prove detrimental to the programme. Despite much anticipation, the immediate response to the latest incarnation of Doctor Who was lukewarm at best. Some felt that the series had gone too far in the other direction from the Bridges era. It was noted plenty of episodes rehashed old concepts, some even called them trite. That continued into the second season, despite overall improvements. Chao’s contract was not renewed for the second season, and instead the Doctor was accompanied by a series of new partners, some of them just for a single episode, whilst the writers tried various dynamics. It would be for naught when the decision was made to recast the title role. Michael Richards became the first Doctor to be fired, ending his tenure at 48 episodes.
[8] The writing was definitely improving in the second season, and that continued its upward trajectory for the third. So too did the on-screen presentation as the crews settled into their groove. Had Richards not been fired, responses would have improved anyway as a result. Instead, credit was mainly directed towards his replacement, Mandy Patinkin. Another change from the third season onwards was the return of recurring adversaries and other characters. The Mechanoids, Daleks, Sasquatches, Rigellians, Colonel Franklin (played by a returning Shatner), and the Professor (Jeffrey Combs) all returned during Patinkin’s tenure. There had been a moratorium on them during the first two seasons, to their hindrance. The changes from the third season onwards were met with acclaim from fans and reviewers alike. Particular attention was drawn to the season ending cliffhangers, the first of which saw the Doctor forced into a Mechanoid suit and seemingly brainwashed into joining his long-time archenemies. It would be followed the next year by the TIDEX blowing up. Doctor Who literary spin-offs had been long in existence by the 1990s. From the original novelisations of the 1970s to the original tales of the 1980s. With new Doctor Who airing, greater care was taken to ensure these did not contradict anything on screen. It was also around this time that spin-off authors attempted to fill in the gaps of the TV series, particularly around the Doctor’s “reboots”, as the process by which his body changed at the point of death came to be known. The reboot from Richards to Patinkin was accomplished by the latter appearing in a curly wig meant to look like the former. Three seasons later, Patinkin’s salary was getting higher than Paramount were willing to pay, and so the fifth season ended on the cliffhanger of the Doctor’s rebooting process beginning. Audiences would have to wait until the following season to meet the new Doctor, leaving Patinkin’s tenure at 77 episodes.
[9] The thirtieth year was marked by a glut of spin-offs. Including a direct-to-video animated starring Patinkin. The anniversary would also be marked by each of the 26 episodes that season featuring some call back to the show’s history. The results were mixed, given the number of episodes required by US television production, but the air of celebration helped audiences settle into a new Doctor. When Ron Glass succeeded Mandy Patinkin, he became the first African-American actor to play the role. Older then both his immediate predecessors, he was already known to audiences for his role in the sitcom Barney Miller. His older appearance lent him a more authoritative personality than his predecessors, reminiscent of Bridges but less militaristic. Historical stories, after being abandoned in live action following the move to a more Star Wars like product, had been reintroduced following the 1980s revival. There were usually around half a dozen each season. Glass noticed that they were only one or two, usually just travelling back 20-odd years, and asked why. The writers and producers said they were afraid of tackling sensitive subjects like racism in such stories. Glass insisted they should be tackling those issues. So successful had the series become in syndication that Paramount were ready to make Doctor Who the flagship of their latest venture. At one point, it would have been one flagship of a proposed fourth network in the late 1970s. Paramount would have to wait until the 1990s, but there was still just one brand that could bring the audiences to UPN on opening night. Doctor Who was one of most popular shows on UPN. Ratings were good, reviews were good, but in some quarters the show was becoming seen as passe. Those that held the power seemingly agreed, and after its second season on UPN it was decided to put the show on what was planned to be a short hiatus for retooling. Glass played the role in 104 episodes.
[10] In the 1990s Doctor Who lacked the darkness of The X-Files, the intrigue of Deep Space, and the satire of Sliders. Those were the most popular science fiction series of the time. Doctor Who had dabbled in alternate history, a growing genre thanks to Sliders and the films Fatherland (1994) and The Two Georges (1995), but it was seemingly not enough. Spin-offs continued to be produced during the latest hiatus. Glass voiced the Doctor in several video games and a second direct-to-video animated feature in 1997. Doctor Who comics had been published by Marvel ever since they acquired the licence shortly after they succeeded in licensing DC characters from Time-Warner in 1984. For the new pilot, it was decided that for the first time the Doctor would be played by a female actor. This was the era of Xena, Buffy, and Agent Scully, if Doctor Who wanted to ride the zeitgeist, they were going all in. Edie Falco’s costume of a trench coat and hat drew comparisons to Carmen Santiago, or Robert Stack hosting Unsolved Mysteries. When Paramount and UPN executives viewed the pilot, after telling the producers and everyone else involved to lean as far as they could into the aesthetic of The X-Files and other popular 90s shows, they felt the end result leaned too far into the aesthetic of The X-Files and other popular 90s shows. The Falco pilot acquired a legendary reputation amongst fans of the show and television in general, regarded by those who saw it as one of the finest pilots never commissioned into a full series. It remained unavailable to the public outside of shoddy pirated tapes until 2022 when it was uploaded to Paramount Prime, and it lived up to the hype.
[11] Doctor Who returned to the airwaves on UPN September 11th, 2001, and that was just the beginning of its problems. Paramount still wanted to capture the zeitgeist of the time. UPN also wanted to capture some of the audience from The WB, whose most popular shows include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. As a nation mourned, many Doctor Who fans began to decry Tim Daly as the stupid, sexy new Doctor and his TIDEX crew of vapid teenagers. How much of the season was spent in modern day Southern California was also the subject of great criticism. Critics were slightly kinder, but even they conceded that it was barely Doctor Who. The outrage and indifference together were enough for Paramount, and Doctor Who was cancelled. For the first time in its history Doctor Who ground to an abrupt halt. Daly found himself the second Doctor to be fired from the series, ending his run at 26 episodes. His co-stars were all likewise dropped unceremoniously. For years, Daly and the rest of those involved with the 2001-02 iteration of Doctor Who refused to speak about it. Paramount also barely acknowledged its existence. Fan opinion has remained mostly negative, but since its upload to Paramount Prime there have been those wishing to re-evaluate the most unloved iteration of Doctor Who. For the first time since 1963, the future of Doctor Who was uncertain. Prior hiatuses had all seen the series continue in animation, or a planned film, or immediate retooling. Even the spin-offs, which had been geared up for a relaunch with the new incarnation, ground to a halt.
[12] 2003 saved Doctor Who. There was still no new content being produced with a long-term revival in mind, but the franchise had 48 years of content to fall back on. Several channels held weeklong marathons of episodes going back to the colour York seasons. The outpouring of fan support convinced Paramount there was still live in the franchise. Both Paramount and UPN wanted an established star to lead the series in its new incarnation. Kelsey Grammer was a self-confessed Whoan and had just finished an 11-year run on Frasier, playing a role he originated on Cheers in 1984. He seemed a perfect fit for the role and once cast was granted a lot of input behind the scenes. Little expense was spared in making the new incarnation of Doctor Who look slick. The hour-long format was retained, albeit far shorter than the hour-long episodes of even ten years prior thanks to more time being devoted to advertising on American television. Episodes were split equally being standalone and cliffhangers, and care was taken to ensure very few were set in the modern-day US, conscious of criticism to the previous version. It worked. Promoted as the return of an American institution, the 2001 version would not even be acknowledged, instead pretending it was the first time the program had returned since 1997. The new episodes, familiar foes, and production all attracted acclaim. As did the way plot threads would carry throughout the season. Grammer had originally stated his intention to play the lead role for three or four years. In the end, he would only last two. The show was still acclaimed after his second, the ratings were still good, the issue came from the Global Financial Crisis. They could no longer afford to pay his salary without reducing the rest of the production to pennies.
[13] The negotiations wound up smoother than most imagined: Grammer asked to be released when advised to take a pay cut, Paramount immediately acquiesced. The hunt was on again for a new Doctor. Like Grammer, Rainn Wilson was a sitcom star and a fan of the show. He actually quit The Office to take the lead, missing the final two seasons aside from a cameo in the season finale in 2011. Production was moved to Vancouver, which suited the Seattle-based Wilson. The number of lead characters was pared back to just the Doctor and one companion. Recurring characters too became fewer and fewer. Money was saved wherever possible to keep the budget down. Some thought was given to reducing the number of episodes, but instead more episodes were set in modern-day America. The Daleks, which had appeared during the Grammer era, did not appear for most of Wilson’s tenure, as the Terry Nation estate would have to be compensated. Recurring elements at first were kept to those which Paramount outright owned. It made for a few lean years on Doctor Who. Many fans were just happy that Doctor Who was still being made in the midst of the GFC. Worried that it might go the way of Aliens: The Ellen Ripley Chronicles or Godzilla: HEAT and be cancelled outright. As the series survived and the purse strings were loosened, many fans began to acclaim the present incarnation as the best the series had ever been, and Wilson the best Doctor in series history. All good things must come to an end. After several years of trying, the showrunners finally convinced executives to reduce the number of episodes each season to spread the budget further. That season would prove to be Wilson’s last, retiring on a high after 100 episodes, and making a smooth transition to his successor. That was the plan.
[14] Whereas the prior two Doctors had been established television stars, instead the latest actor in the role would be lesser known. 2013 might have been the year James Wolk took US television by storm, appearing opposite Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Crazy Ones, a recurring role on Mad Men, and starring in Doctor Who. Very little changed in the presentation aside from the change of actor. Wolk’s supporting cast were the same as Wilson’s final season. Behind the scenes were the same writers, directors, and producers that had been making the show for years. That would prove to hinder Wolk’s first, and only season. Fan response was mixed, even optimistic that it would find its feet, though plenty pointed out that the formula had run stale, and it took a major change like the lead actor to see the shaky foundations on which the show sat. Critics were quicker to point out the flaws, and plenty placed the blame squarely on the absence of Wilson. Ratings declined as the season wore on, UPN affiliates complained about the declining viewership. That average viewership had been declining year over year since at least 2008 seemed to escape the notice of the network, affiliates, and Paramount. Changes were demanded, and long-term showrunner Ronald D. Moore had just the things in mind. It was thought the radical changes needed familiar faces to ease fans into them. That was the logic with which Moore and the rest of the producers justified recasting Wolk after only one season of 13 episodes. How could they recast and have a familiar face leading the show? The unprecedented decision was made to bring back Rainn Wilson.
[15] Wolk remained a professional throughout, even filming the rebooting scene to be inserted at the end of the season. He was the only one who remained aloof throughout. The fandom split right down the middle between Wolkers, who disagreed with the change, and Rainnmen, who agreed that Wilson was needed to save the show. As to the changes, for years Moore had a masterplan behind the scenes that would now come into play. He, and most of the writing staff, felt too much had been revealed about the Doctor and his people, the Chrononauts from far in the future, so their solution was to come up with a convoluted backstory that the Doctor was a reincarnation of a Chrononaut founding father. The Moore Mytharc unfolder over the three seasons and 39 episodes that formed Wilson’s second tenure as the Doctor. Nothing else was done to address the creeping stagnation of the program, and many believed the addition of an unnecessary and often confusing Mytharc only exacerbated that trend to where was started as a drip turned into a flood of the audience tuning out. Paramount regarded the as an abject failure in retaining fan interest. Changing lead actor hadn’t worked, changing lead actor back hadn’t worked. For the first time in a decade, Doctor Who was going on hiatus. Collectively, the Grammer, Wilson, Wolk, and Wilson II eras are also referred to as the RDM Era after the showrunner, who exercised more control over the show than any other behind-the-scenes figure in its history. Even then, neither Wilson nor Doctor Who entirely left the limelight. From 2017 a new episodic animated series was launched. This was the first time there was an animated series, as opposed to specials or straight-to-video movies, since the early 1980s. However, unlike its predecessors, animated or live action, it would not air on television.
[16] Paramount had, like almost every American media conglomerate, been trying to cash in on the streaming craze started by Blockbuster. Like whenever Paramount needed a tentpole franchise to prop up their schemes, Doctor Who was needed, even if it was on hiatus. That led to the new animated series and eventually, after many pitches from many groups, a new live action series. With the possible exception of Michael Richards, Tig Notaro was the first person to be cast as the Doctor known more as a comedian than an actor. She was also the first woman to lead the series (Falco’s pilot never having been aired), as well as the first LGBT actor in the role. Conscious of the negative reception of the Mytharc, as well as the stagnation in general of recurring elements, care was taken to drip feed these into the new series. The redesign of the Mechanoids attracted derision in the first season, but John Slattery’s return as the Professor (having played the role since 2007) in order to reboot as David Cross. Despite the minutiae of the Mechanoids appearances, the latest incarnation of Doctor Who was praised for returning the series to its adventurous roots whilst showing a little bit of influence from each subsequent era. There were space opera action episodes like the Bridges years, socially conscious historical tales like developed with Glass, and modern day set episodes that called to mind the lean years following the GFC. Many producers felt that part of the reason for the show’s stagnation was going too long under the same producers with the same actor. With that in mind, Notaro was only ever signed to a three-year contract with an option for the fourth. She declined the option, ending her run at 42 episodes, and so the hunt was on for a new Doctor.
[17] Harold Perrineau had actually auditioned for the role of the Doctor in 2000 but the role went to Tim Daly, considering how that turned out Perrineau considers himself lucky. With a plethora of film and television credits to his name, he was a well-known character actor when he became the second African-American actor to take the role. There was the expected pushback from alleged (claimed) fans with the role going to an LGBT woman to a Black man, but those were ignored outside of social media. Perrineau’s era continued the trend of not relying on recurring elements to drive the storylines. However, new foes introduced in Notaro’s era began to make more appearances alongside the classic cavalcade. Cross continued as the Professor. Behind the scenes, the production team that oversaw Notaro’s years transitioned to a new group for Perrineau’s first, with a change behind the scenes being seen as needed to keep the show fresh as changed on camera. Critical reception remained strong with both writers and producers seeing diversity in stories as the key to Doctor Who’s success. There was some concern the series was growing too dark for younger audiences as horror elements became more and more common. The counterargument was that younger audiences had the animated series with Wilson still voicing the Doctor. That was also the preferred option for those who felt the series had grown “too PC”. For the show’s sixtieth anniversary, the decision was made to have a former Doctor appear as a guest in a regular episode. Much as what was done for the fiftieth, which saw Grammer return to play opposite Wilson. However, instead the Doctor would be confronted with a chapter in their life they seemingly wanted to forget the odd sight of a credit appearing on-screen to as powerful as “to be continued”. It read: “introducing Edie Falco as The Doctor”. Though not known for sure, it is expected that the length of Perrineau’s deal is similar to Notaro’s. Three years with an option for a fourth, which would also see a rotation in writers and producers behind the scenes. It is hoped at Paramount that frequent rotation diversity of episodes will prevent the series from growing stagnant as it had with the same showrunner and same actor for a decade.
The original intention of this was to do Doctor Who as a US produced show with the same number of actors playing the same number of Doctors as OTL. That would be fourteen actors playing fifteen incarnations. However, what I didn't want to do was to just fit American actors into the British eras: Adam West as Jon Pertwee, Dirk Benedict as Peter Davison, Neil Patrick Harris as David Tennent, etc. The television industries in both countries are so dissimilar that using that format would just be a cosmetic fan casting. Instead, what I wanted to do was look at how Doctor Who might have developed had it been a US product but retained its longevity through changing the lead actor. Felt that the US industry would be much more willing to put the program on hiatus for various reasons: the bottom line, changing market tastes, stagnation. Also felt that each of these would change the format of the show.
There's still a lot of parallelism but tried to split them up. OTL the move to colour production necessitated budget cuts that resulted in the "Earth exile" era under a more action driven Doctor. Here, those are three separate things: the move to colour happens without incident; budgets are tightened in response to the GFC; and the move to a more action-oriented product happens in response to Star Wars. The series doesn't premier the day after the JFK assassination, but later a new Doctor makes their first appearance on 9/11. There's also a lot of the production history of the OTL most prominent US television science fiction franchise (ITTL Rodenberry goes to the UK, because of course he does), down to Ray Walston being the Jeffrey Hunter equivalent. I figured the US would have some "almost" Doctors whose canonicity would be disputed for years, no doubt the debate over how many Doctors there are replaces the Star Trek episode count debate. I imagine the official stance now is to include Walston and Falco, the latter serving simultaneously as a Doctor in a failed pilot a la Paul McGann and later as a War Doctor-esque figure. There's still one actor playing two incarnations of the Doctor, and it's still a response to perceived declining interest, though here it's much more controversial akin to the 2010 Tonight Show debacle.
Didn't go too much into lore, production staff, or supporting actors, as I wanted this to be focused on the Doctors and the format history. This led to agonising over things like what is the TARDIS called, what form does it take. Settled upon TIDEX (because of course the Americans would get an 'X' in there) and vaguely described as a trailer. Yes, the US Doctor hops across time and space in a caravan; something I'm sure the Trekphiles of perfidious Albion enjoy pointing out to American Whoans. Star Trek in the UK is another idea I've had on and off so included it as a background detail here, suppose we'll have to wait until 2026 for that one.
Incidentally, a happy anniversary to all of you at home!
