Golden Whobilee

The Ninth Doctor is a tricky one. He often seems carefree and goofy, but this masks deep pain and rage. He’s fresh from the Time War and when confronted with a Dalek, his façade crumbles and he becomes unrecognizable to his Companion, Rose. The Ninth Doctor hates guns (except when faced with the Daleks) and has a slightly contentious, if light-hearted relationship with gunslinger Captain Jack. He always makes sure to give his adversaries the opportunity to leave peacefully, offering to help them find a non-violent solution to their needs (resources, space, etc.) and his joy at finding non-violent solutions is palpable. Like some of his predecessors, most notably the Fifth Doctor, the Ninth Doctor is somewhat taciturn, very still, and extremely thoughtful.

Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart is a Colonel when we first meet him in The Web of Fear. He works with UNIT, the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, and commands the British contingent, monitoring and defending against extraterrestrial threats. He works well with the Doctor and, when he starts his run with the Third Doctor, he’s been promoted to Brigadier, a title he keeps for the rest of his life (mostly because that’s how fans know the character- he would likely have been promoted several levels above Brigadier). Eventually, after a particularly traumatic experience, he retires, becoming a teacher at a prep school, where he once again runs into the Doctor, and afterward, he goes back to work with UNIT.

Adam is a highly intelligent young man from 2012 who we meet when he’s working for American collector Henry van Statten. He is a tech whiz who bonds with Rose during the events of “Dalek”, prompting her to ask the Doctor to take him aboard the TARDIS. Adam proves to not be cut out for time travel, however, when he almost immediately starts taking advantage of his first trip in the TARDIS for personal gain, risking significant damage to the time line in doing so. Adam is designed to demonstrate what a Companion must not be, and he’s successful in this, but it makes him a not particularly interesting character on his own right.

Doctor Who may be a British series, but its audience is increasingly an international one. With its American fanbase as big as it’s ever been, it’s time the Doctor investigated some of the many mysteries the Western Hemisphere has to offer. While the excellent two-parter “The Impossible Astronaut”/”Day of the Moon” is distinctly American in its setting, “The Angels Take Manhattan” is decidedly less successful and the less said about “Daleks in Mahattan”/“The Evolution of the Daleks”, the better. Here are seven American settings or mysteries just waiting to get the Doctor Who treatment.

We meet Vastra in “A Good Man Goes to War”, when the Doctor calls in his favors to save Amy from the Silence, Madame Kovarian, and the Headless Monks at Demon’s Run. She owes the Doctor for stopping her from going on a rampage through London (and presumably, being killed) after being awoken by construction on the London Underground. Eventually, she managed to build a life in Victorian England, marrying her maid Jenny, becoming a detective, and assisting Scotland Yard with their particularly difficult cases (such as Jack the Ripper).

We know very little about Dodo when she literally wanders into the TARDIS right before it takes off, thinking it’s a police box. We do find out her grandfather is French, letting viewers hope that potential Companion Anne Chaplet from The Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Eve survived the slaughter of the Huguenots. Dodo, short for Dorothea, is a British teen from 1966, making her contemporary for when her stories aired.

Romanadvoratrelundar (the Doctor dubs her Romana) is a Time Lady who is foisted upon the then-Companionless Fourth Doctor (and vice versa) by the White Guardian* to help him in his search for the Key to Time, a highly powerful item broken into six parts and scattered throughout the universe. She’s fresh from the Academy and incredibly intelligent, more so even than the Doctor. Romana is also much younger than the Doctor and, having just left Gallifrey for presumably the first time, he’s a far more experienced adventurer.

Madge is a mother of two and wife to Reg, a bomber pilot in WWII. After stumbling across the Doctor and helping him, she falls upon hard times (Reg and his plane go missing over the English Channel). When she wishes that she could give her children one final happy Christmas (before breaking the news of his disappearance to them), the Doctor returns to repay his debt, whisking them off to a winter wonderland (Androzani Minor, of The Caves of Androzani fame) only to become embroiled in a dangerous adventure.

Ian Chesterton is a science teacher at the Coal Hill School alongside Barbara Wright. We are introduced to him in the series’ pilot episode as the teacher of Susan Foreman, who is soon revealed to be The Doctor’s granddaughter. Perplexed by Susan’s strange behavior, Ian and Barbara follow her back to her home in a junkyard, where they see her enter a mysterious police box. They follow her in, only to discover the TARDIS, the time machine that serves as a home to Susan and The Doctor. Though they promise to keep the secret, the paranoid Doctor refuses to let them leave and instead whisks them off through space and time.

Captain Jack Harkness is human from the 51st century who is a former model turned former Time Agent turned con man when he first meets The Doctor in WWII London. After helping the Doctor and Rose save the day, Jack joins the TARDIS team until his death. Brought back to life (permanently) by a Time Vortex-y Rose, Jack goes on many other adventures (detailed in Torchwood) before running across the Doctor and Martha. Jack leaves the TARDIS a second time (more Torchwood), before returning to help the Doctor and Donna save the universe and leaving the TARDIS for the third and, so far, final time.

The First Doctor Portrayed by: William Hartnell Companion(s): Susan Foreman, Ian Chesterton, Barbara Wright, Vicki, Steven Taylor, Katarina, Dodo Chaplet, Ben Jackson, Polly Tenure: 28 stories, from An Unearthly Child (Nov, 1963) to The Tenth Planet (Oct, 1966). The First Doctor would later return in The Three Doctors (Dec, 1972) and, played by a different …

We know a lot of things about The Doctor, even as we still know so very little. We know he travels through time and space in a Police Box that’s bigger on the inside. We know he fights for justice wherever he lands. And we know he hates to travel alone. Throughout the vast majority …

November 23rd, 2013 will mark the 50th anniversary of the debut of Doctor Who. This is a remarkable achievement shared by only a few properties (in the US: Face The Nation, The Tonight Show, As the World Turns, General Hospital) and unmatched in nighttime scripted television. The longevity of the series from a practical standpoint …