Spiral Mutterings 6: Dr Who is Dead - Long Live Doctor Who

It may seem an odd statement, from a fan of nearly 30 years standing, but I am afraid that we must face facts - Dr Who is dead. But we should not despair, for rising from the shattered remains of TV's favourite Time Lord, comes a new series - Doctor Who.

Confused? Well, then, I'll explain. You see, Dr Who was a children's adventure series created in the sixties for kids to watch with their families at tea-time on a Saturday. It had imaginative plots, but they were limited by a 25 minute format, and a reluctance to spend money on a kid's show.

Back then, we lived a simple life. TV was mostly monochrome, man hadn't landed on the moon, and Star Wars was merely a reference to whether the Beatles or the Rolling Stones were the best band.

If you look in old issues of Radio Times, the series is listed as Dr Who. And despite the efforts of a series of producers and production teams, the series never managed to fully shake off the image of a series for kids.

Even the literary side of Dr Who, the novelisations, were lightweight and aimed at a junior audience (I remember when I was 13, a friend got me half a dozen Target Hardbacks from the school library when I was ill. He brought them round at 8pm one evening, and at lunchtime the next day, I'd read them all!). Even when Messrs Nathan Turner and Andrew Cartmel gave the Seventh Doctor a darker side, a more mysterious element, the series was still bogged down with a pantomimic master, a liquorice allsort robot, and guest appearances from the likes of Ken Dodd and the kid who played Adrian Mole.

So although the show was put up against the might of Coronation Street, it still gave the appearance of a Saturday evening light entertainment show. And this is why, in 1989, Dr Who finally died.

However, in 1989 Virgin Books took over the publication of Dr Who books. The novelisations for season 25 and 26 took on a new light. Gone were the days where a Dr Who story finished on page 126 (regardless of the number of Episodes in the TV version - THE SONTARAN EXPERIMENT (2 eps) and GENESIS OF THE DALEKS (6 eps) both ran to approximately the same length). Scenes were added, liberties taken with the pre-watershed language, and suddenly - BANG - 300 pages from a 4 part story! The trend was followed by novelisations of "missing books". The Dalek Master Plan was done as a 2 novel epic, as befits the longest story in the shows history. This, ultimately, paved the way for the start of DOCTOR WHO.

When, in 1991, Virgin published "Timewyrm:Genesys", we had full length novels, with adult themes discussed. If DR WHO had covered the reign of Gilgamesh, there would have been no mention of the thirteen year old acolytes, raped by the priests of their society. Ok, so Nero was a bit randy in THE ROMANS, but there was no actual sight of him ravishing anyone. As time wore on, the Seventh Doctor saw his companions having sexual relationships and turning into gun-toting mercenaries, while he himself had to face up to the grim realities of his life, when entire solar systems had to be destroyed to rid the universe of menace.

These novels were not for the easily offended, and it wasn't just the emotional and physical concepts that elevated them from the children's shelves at WH Smiths. I've read Asimov, Bradbury, Anthony and Dick in the past, but the cyberpunk elements of TRANSIT had me re-reading pages at a fair old rate. Over the series, we saw genetic symbiotes, Dyson spheres, dimensional rifts - all explained in proper scientific language. This expansion of themes and complexity carried over into the Missing Adventures series, too. In the aftermath of DOCTOR WHO starring Paul McGann, the publishing of stories based on the character reverted back to the BBC. But if anyone thought that the adult content and increased complexity would be toned down, they were wrong. Torture, sex, temporal paradox - its all in there.

So what's the point of all this? Well, the point is that there are two versions of the show. Up to 1989 the show is a nice show for kids (and grown-ups who don't realise they've grown up), and is called Dr Who. Post-1989, the show has escalated out of the reach of kids, and is now a firmly adult concept called Doctor Who. And with DOCTOR WHO having been around for 15 years now (yes! its fifteen years since TIMEWYRM:GENESYS hit the shops), it will have to be the blueprint for the future - in books, on audio, and on screen.

See you all next time.....

Of course, this article was originally written in 2001, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Virgin's range of books. Since then, Doctor Who has triumphantly returned to our screens. And although Russell T Davies has returned it to its traditional tea-time slot, I have 20-somethings telling me its too much for kids to handle. In the final balance, who cares? Whether its Dr Who, or Doctor Who, its still Fantastic!