| THE DALEKS |
| The second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks (1963-64), establishes both the principle that the Doctor fights alien monsters, and the most iconic of those he fights. Oliver Wake looks its influences, from HG Wells’ The Time Machine through Nazi eugenics to the movies of the atomic era, and at how Terry Nation’s script was translated through sound and visual design into perhaps the most important Doctor Who story of all. |
| THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION |
| For the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who, popular author Simon Guerrier looks at its third story, The Edge of Destruction (1964). What does this early ‘bottle episode’ tell us of the mysterious Doctor’s spaceship, the TARDIS, and its workings? |
| MARCO POLO |
| Doctor Who’s first historical story, Marco Polo (1964), is rooted in the BBC’s Reithian mandate to ‘inform, educate and entertain’. Dene October investigates how these priorities inform its distinctive storytelling style, and how the absence of broadcast footage affects our view of the text. |
| THE AZTECS |
| The story of a time-traveller who hopes to save a civilisation, The Aztecs (1964) is Doctor Who’s second historical story, and John Lucarotti’s second script for the series. A pulp tradition of colonial adventurers finding lost worlds collides head-on with the series’ educational remit – so, asks Doris V Sutherland, which will win? |
| THE DALEK INVASION OF EARTH |
| A compendium of Doctor Who firsts – the first alien invasion, the first returning monster, the first departing companion – The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) had a complex genesis and an active afterlife. Jonathan Morris traces its history from story treatment to screen, and beyond to its film and novel adaptations. |
| THE ROMANS |
| Jacob Edwards examines The Romans (1965) – an experiment in Doctor Who as comedy which also reinvents the characters’, and the series’, relationship with history. He finds a sophisticated, multi-layered story full of innovation, wit and dubious identity politics. |
| THE WEB PLANET |
| Despite being a bold experiment that didn’t always quite work, The Web Planet (1965) is also a remarkable, magical, and extraordinary Doctor Who story. Brigid Cherry contextualises the serial historically and culturally as a product of early 1960s experimental television and examines the ways in which it utilised the audio-visual technologies of its time, how it incorporated different aspects of performance practice, and how it encoded the socio-cultural concerns of its cultural moment. |
| THE MYTH MAKERS |
| 1965’s The Myth Makers placed the Doctor in the Trojan War; popular Doctor Who writer Ian Potter places its creators in the tradition of Homer, Virgil and Shakespeare, as well as those of 1960s British television and the early development of the series. |
| THE MASSACRE |
| The Massacre (1966) is a story of disputed authorship produced during a turbulent period, of which no known video copies are known to survive. James Cooray Smith elucidates the ways it draws on its many sources to examine the religious and civil strife which struck Paris in 1572. |
| THE ARK |
| A far-future parable set aboard a generation starship, The Ark (1966) makes full use of the possibilities of contemporary television to interpret ideas drawn from literary science fiction. Philip Purser-Hallard explores the power imbalances of colonialism and its aftermath, and considers one of the strangest monsters, and most vivid settings, in early Doctor Who. |
| AN ADVENTURE IN SPACE AND TIME (AN ARCHIVE SPECIAL) |
| Tracing the story of the series’ creation from Sydney Newman’s first suggestion of a new science fiction series to Hartnell leaving the role behind, AnAdventure in Time and Space(2013) is more than just a biopic of William Hartnell, it’s the story of the creation of a television legend. In this double length, extended special Archive, David Rolinson examines everything connected with this Doctor Who Special, from the idents before it starts to the moments after it finishes – and everything in between…. |