Watching Doctor Who

AN IN-DEPTH LOOK AT THE WHONIVERSE

- Jr Southall

The classic view of Doctor Who is essentially that of the High Plains Drifter in space, the mysterious and to all intents and purposes unnamed man who arrives just as an alien invasion is taking place, sorts things out such that the pre-invasion status quo is restored, and then takes his leave with barely so much as a goodbye. For most of the series’ fifty-odd-year history, variations on this narrative have been the programme’s bread and butter; even the Third Doctor’s Earthbound hiatus during the early 1970s was merely the springboard for repetitions of the same story but set throughout the Home Counties, rather than galactically further afield. And, of course, while very few Doctor Who serials actually adhere completely to the above-mentioned criteria, the vast majority of the Doctor’s travels seem to have drawn the character into situations that resemble them rather more than less. It’s generally a case of something from without bothering the somethings from within, and as a series staple most stories that follow these simple rules tend to be thought of rather fondly, if not usually as exceptional examples of what Doctor Who can do.

Exceptional being the operative word. It’s those exceptions, those stories that don’t follow the norm, that fans of the programme will often exalt beyond serials that merely fulfil the series’ core expectations - or consign to the dustbin of ‘shouldn’t have bothered trying’. Genesis of the Daleks, Blink, and The Caves of  Androzani are fine examples of Doctor Who pushing its boundaries and succeeding, while Underworld, Fear Her, and TimeFlight are stories that many might consider oughtn’t to have been attempted, despite their efforts to achieve something outside the usual Doctor Who sandpit.