Doctor Who originally ran for seasons on BBC One from November until December During the original run each weekly episode formed part of a story or serial usually of four to six parts in earlier years and three to four in later years. Notable exceptions were the epic The Daleks Master Plan which aired in twelve episodes plus an earlier oneepisode teaser Mission to the Unknown featuring none of the regular cast almost an entire season of episode serials season the episode serial The War Games and The Trial of a Time Lord which ran for episodes albeit divided into three production codes and four narrative segments during Season Occasionally serials were loosely connected by a storyline such as Season s quest for The Key to Time or Season s journey through ESpace and the theme of entropy.
The programme was intended to be educational and for family viewing on the early Saturday evening schedule. Initially it alternated stories set in the past which would teach younger audience members about history with stories set either in the future or in outer space to teach them about science. This was also reflected in the Doctors original companions one of whom was a science teacher and another a history teacher. However science fiction stories came to dominate the programme and the historicals which were not popular with the production team were dropped after The Highlanders While the show continued to use historical settings they were generally used as a backdrop for science fiction tales with one exception Black Orchid set in s Britain. The early stories were more seriallike in nature with the narrative of one story flowing into the next and each episode having its own title although produced as distinct stories with their own production codes. Following The Gunfighters however each serial was given its own title with the individual parts simply being assigned episode numbers. What to name these earlier stories is often a subject of fan debate.
Writers during the original run included Terry Nation Henry Lincoln Douglas Adams Robert Holmes Terrance Dicks Dennis Spooner Eric Saward Malcolm Hulke Christopher H. Bidmead Stephen Gallagher Brian Hayles Chris Boucher Peter Grimwade Marc Platt and Ben Aaronovitch. The serial format changed for the revival with each series consisting of thirteen minute selfcontained episodes minutes with adverts on overseas commercial channels. Each series includes several standalone and multipart stories linked with a loose story arc that resolves in the series finale. As in the early classic era each episode whether standalone or part of a larger story has its own title. Doctor Who instalments have been televised since ranging from minute episodes the most common format to minute episodes for Resurrection of the Daleks in the series a single season in and the revival to two featurelength productions s The Five Doctors and the television movie to the two minute Christmas specials produced for the revival and the more recent minute Christmas Special. The current series is recorded in i DigiBeta widescreen format and then filmised to give a p image in postproduction using a Snell Wilcox Alchemist Platinum.
Missing episodes
The First Doctor William Hartnell collapses prior to his regeneration. From the surviving clip of The Tenth Planet episode Between about and large amounts of older material stored in the BBCs various video tape and film libraries were either destroyed or simply wiped. This included many old episodes of Doctor Who mostly stories featuring the first three Doctors William Hartnell Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee. Following consolidations and recoveries the archives are complete from the programmes move to colour television starting from Jon Pertwees time as the Doctor although a few Pertwee episodes have required substantial restoration a handful have been recovered only as black and white films and several survive in colour only as NTSC copies recovered from North America a few of which are domestic offair Betamax tape recordings not transmission quality. In all of episodes produced during the first six years of the programme are not held in the BBCs archives. It has been reported that in almost all episodes then made were known to exist at the BBC whilst by the practice of wiping tapes had ended.
