Happy 61st anniversary Doctor Who!
By James Aggas
On Saturday, Nov 23, 1963, a legend began. An Unearthly Child, the first episode of the BBC's new science-fiction series Doctor Who was broadcast. At the time, no one was certain if the show would last longer than 13 weeks.
61 years later, Doctor Who is a worldwide phenomenon. Altogether, we've had 40 seasons so far, with another guaranteed for next year. We've had 15 Doctors with their own unique and distinctive runs on television, plus 2 mysterious incarnations introduced during other Doctors' eras.
Beyond the TV series, we have books, comics, audio dramas and so much more. In fact, Big Finish Productions reached their own special anniversary this year, as 2024 marked their 25th year of making Doctor Who on audio. To celebrate, a new version of their first-ever Doctor Who story, The Sirens of Time, will be released this month, which I'm very keen to listen to.
New Doctor, new era
Naturally, the year's biggest draw for many Whovians was the start of a new era with Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson. At only eight episodes, (nine if you counted last year's Christmas special The Church on Ruby Road, which Disney+ wisely did,) we didn't get too many stories this year.
While it wasn't perfect, Season One did feel like a fresh start for the show. Ncuti Gatwa's energy as the Fifteenth Doctor is a joy to watch, an energy that feels brand new and yet at the same time, still recognizably the Doctor.
The season also gave us some great stories, especially the episodes right in the middle: Boom, 73 Yards, and Dot and Bubble. Each of these episodes stood out for completely different reasons, an additional reminder of exactly the wide variety of storytelling that Doctor Who can give us at its best. Even stories like The Devil's Chord and Rogue were fun to watch. Not my favorites, but still fun.
And that's something that Doctor Who needs to continue to be: fun. Don't get me wrong, it can also be dark and horrific, emotional and tragic, rich and complex. But it still needs to have something fun at the heart of it. Not just that - something magical.
On Nov 23, 1963, the story began with two ordinary schoolteachers finding a magic box in a junkyard. 61 years later, and that magic is still there. And I hope it continues for a long time to come.