Who is Doctor Who?

The longest running sci-fi series in the world has an odd hero who seems to keep finding new fans across the world

A  nameless 2,000-year-old alien with two hearts is turning out to be one of the coolest British characters since Sherlock Holmes. The ninth season of Doctor Who, the longest running sci-fi series according to the Guinness Book of World Records, opened to breathless online and offline anticipation late in September this year. It airs on BBC One in the UK, the country of its production. But many of the 200 countries it airs in, especially in Asia, would seem unusual markets for such a typically British show.

At a Doctor Who event for 4,000 people in South Korea last year, 100,000 turned up. In the build-up to its airing on Fx in India earlier this month, the show was trending on social media. On October 3, #DoctorWhoOnFX Torrents was the top trend in India with 9.6 million impressions and over 7,000 tweets on a single day. Much like their Korean and Chinese counterparts, Indian twitter users took selfies while binge watching Season Eight. At last count the show had reached over 2.5 million Indians.  

While there are no numbers on the global audience, one piece of research by BBC Worldwide, which markets the show, puts its fans at 77 million. In India, China, the US, Australia and large parts of Europe, Doctor Who merchandise, games and streaming services do booming business, making it the £1 billion BBC Worldwide’s best-selling show in March 2015.

Who is Doctor Who? 

Eleven of the 13 different Doctor Who versions over the 50-year life of the show

He is a time lord from the planet Gallifrey. A renegade from his planet, he travels across space and time in a TARDIS, a machine that looks like an old-fashioned British police box. He uses a Sonic Screwdriver to fix inter-galactic problems and battle bad guys such as Daleks or the silence. Once in a while when he gets hurt, he doesn’t die, he gets regenerated — with a new face and body. The result has been 13 different doctors over the 50-year life of the show. What makes this strange doctor — played by Peter Capaldi currently — tick?

“At its heart it is drama not sci-fi. Fans love the way the storytelling moves. It could go anywhere in the past or present,” says Kirsty Mullan, head of brand, Doctor Who. For instance, in “Under the Lake” (an episode in the latest season), the Doctor and Clara (his companion) arrive in an underwater base in the year 2119. The very next episode, “Before the flood”, has the Doctor on an adventure in the 1980s Britain.

The elements of the drama are all there in the basic plot itself. Much of this has got embellished by some good writers. Many episodes in the current season are written by Steven Moffat, the co-creator of the globally successful Sherlock. “What is common between Doctor Who and Sherlock is the cerebral element,” says Julia Kenyon, acting chief brands officer, BBC Worldwide.

Doctor Who was conceived as a show about science and history, something to fill the programming gap on BBC on a Saturday night schedule, in 1963. It had a mysterious man who could travel anywhere in space and time. In those pre-Internet, pre-reality TV days, Doctor Who became a popular British institution much like Ms Marple and Sherlock Holmes. Speak to anyone over 35-40 in the UK and he has a story about watching Doctor Who. Many of the little bits and pieces that make the show special, however, came completely by accident.

For example, when the first actor to play the role could not continue, the idea of regeneration was born — the doctor could change his appearance. It became a logical way of tackling the change in face than simply putting a new one in without explanation — like popular soap operas across the world (such as Dynasty) did. So here was this show that could move across space, time and had a central character that could regenerate. This gave it endless possibilities for storylines and actors.

Then, in 1989, a change in management at BBC put the show in cold storage. There was a weak attempt to revive it in 1996 with a TV movie but it fell flat. Meanwhile, fans continued to feed on a series of books, audio adventures, a regular magazine and older episodes on VHS tape.

In 2005, the series was revived by British screenwriter and TV producer Russell T Davies. Strangely enough, it took off, not just in the UK where audiences had an emotional connection with the show but across the world. One major reason for the global success was the push from producers — UK trade rules had changed to ensure that production firms, not broadcasters, retained the intellectual property on a show. This meant they were constantly looking for markets beyond Britain to monetise a show. The Internet was already a robust medium and mobile telephony had taken off. The show expanded its publishing, products, social platforms, gaming and live events.

Doctor Who merchandise

This then created an ecosystem that made the show more popular. The sales of Doctor Who action figures hit 12 million recently — the most successful licensed action figure range after Star Wars.  There are now, “82 licensees across the world selling 50 categories of Doctor Who merchandise ranging from T-shirts and toys to a TARDIS speaker system and espresso cups in 33 territories,” says Jason Easy, senior licensing manager, BBC Worldwide. Last month, the brand teamed up with Microsoft’s Minecraft and Warner Bros Lego Dimensions games. Rikesh Desai, digital entertainment and games director at BBC Worldwide, says the strategy is to launch 2-3 major  game titles a year around a transmission period. These work most when the show is off air to aid recall.

All these brand extensions for a mad doctor in a blue box sound very American. Does its breathless global growth put pressure on the creative? Are characters getting built in to appeal to, say, the larger markets such as Australia or Korea? Philip Fleming, head of communications, brands and content, BBC Worldwide, doesn’t think so. “Steven (Moffat) would not write it differently just because it sells in Australia. Editorially nothing has changed since 1963.”

It hasn’t actually. That may be the reason the cussedly English Doctor Who endures. As the seventh doctor said: “Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, somewhere else, the tea’s getting cold.”