(London) Arriving on British screens in 1963, the series Doctor Whocult in the United Kingdom, is celebrating its 60th anniversary with three special episodes before a new season next year with Ncuti Gatwa in the title role.
Most prolific science fiction series according to the Guinness Book of Records, Doctor Who relates the adventures of its main character, an alien from the race of Time Lords, capable of surviving by regenerating under a new appearance.
He travels through space and time aboard a machine called TARDIS – Time And Relative Dimension In Space.
A machine larger inside than out, having the appearance of a blue British police telephone box, common on the landscape at the time.
The first episode, broadcast on November 23, 1963 on the BBC, was watched by 6 million people.
A fan since childhood, Tony Jordan, 64, is so passionate about the series that he has installed a life-size TARDIS in his garden.
According to him, the tight budget of the series’ beginnings was part of its success then. “When people are under financial pressure, it forces them to be more creative than they perhaps would have been,” he told AFP.
“Especially in the early days, they couldn’t do special effects everywhere, because the technology just didn’t exist, so it forced them to find something that caught people’s imagination,” he continues.
In 1989, the BBC decided to end the series, which returned in 2005 under the leadership of producer and screenwriter Russell T. Davies.
For the sixtieth anniversary, three special episodes are planned, the first of which is expected Saturday evening on the BBC and Disney+. They will see the return of Scottish actor David Tennant, who played the doctor between 2005 and 2010.
After the three special episodes, the British actor Ncuti Gatwa, noted for his role in the series Sex Educationwill become the 15the Doctor Who and the first black actor to play the title character. He will succeed British actress Jodie Whittaker, who was the first woman to play the character.