Explanation of Doctor Who

For those who are wondering what I am talking about, Dr Who has been a British institution since the show started in 1963, yes that is 3 years before the launch of the original Star Trek series. The series was continually on the air until 1989 with only a year and a half haitus due to a writer's strike in the 1980's. In the time it's been off the air, the market has been flooded with novels, fan made episodes, radio programs, plays, internet sites and charity events. They tried to americanize it in 1996 with a TV pilot. It did not take off as a show, however there was another whole series of novels inspired by that episode. I heard in 2004 that the BBC was finally agreeing to try and put it back on the air as a regular series.

For those of you who tried to watch it before, The Doctor is back in a new one hour format on the Sci-Fi channel and BBC America. It is faster paced, with less explanation of the bad guys, but more backstory than ever on the companions. All in all an engaging series, and much easier to follow than the old episodes.

Obviously Doctor Who has a long history, but if you're looking for a quick explanation, here it is:

1. Who is the Doctor?
   The doctor ran away from his highly advanced but corrupt society. He disagreed with their policy of non-interference with other races, and went off to have his own adventures far away from their rules and regulations.

2. Does he have any powers?
   Mainly the power to regenerate, that is renew his body whenever he is mortally injured. This was originally a cover to have different actors play the same character. The doctor has now been portrayed by ten different actors in the TV series alone. He also has a different physiology from humans, which sometimes saves his life and sometimes gets him in trouble.

3. What is the doctor's name, why does he insist on being called The Doctor?
   As far as the Doctor's name, in the new series they never mention it at all, though a few times in the old series, he is referred to by old friends as "Theta" for short, which implies that his name is very long and complicated. He doesn't use his real name for his own reasons, but I think it has to do with his rejection of the society he was born in, and the adoption of earth as his part-time home. If he needs a real name in public, he uses John Smith.

4. What the heck is that blue box everyone keeps running out of?
   This is the most confusing thing about the show. The blue Police Box is actually the Doctor's time traveling machine, called the TARDIS. His society has a fleet of these vehicles that travel through the Vortex, which is the time travel network his race set up in order to spy on and catalog all races and societies. The Doctor's machine is partially broken and has been stuck in the shape of a british police box since he left his home planet.

5. Where's the inside of the blue box?
   It's the beige room with the tall round control panel in the middle of the floor. The reason that it looks mostly broken is because the Tardis is actually very old and out of repair. It's been a long time since he ran away, and in the new series, his race has actually died out, so he can't return home for repairs.

6. How big is the Tardis?
   In previous episodes the tardis is portrayed to be infinitely large, with the outside blue box being in normal time/space and the inside being in a time/space bubble that can stretch out indefinitely with room after room.

7. Does the Doctor have any other powers? Things seem to go his way a little too often.
   The other powers the doctor has is his highly advanced education from his home planet, his extreme age and experience, and some telepathic power, which we have seen helps him communicate with the tardis, and get people to cooperate with him on his adventures. Note: Wherever they are, the tardis telepathically translates all languages for the doctor and his companions. That's why if they hear a foreign language it means something.

8. How does the tardis travel?
   Most of the time when the tardis is moving we see the blue box spinning through a wormhole type thing, however these are not Star Trek wormholes. This is a superhighway network the doctor's race set up. From inside the Tardis, we should see machinery moving up and down in the tube above the control panel and there is usually a loud machinery sound. The Tardis can travel through time only and land in the same place, or it can go through space only and land in the same time, or it can go through space and time simultaniously and land the doctor who knows where. The Tardis does have it's own quirks and sometimes doesn't always do what the doctor intends it to do either.

That's it. The only information I would add is that in the new series, they bring back old villians with little explanation. They are:

• The Daleks: Metal robots that look like pepper pots. They are a race of people that were mutated by a nuclear explosion. Their scientists invented the robot type vehicles to shield them, but it messed them up mentally. Their only goal is to kill everyone who is not them.
  
  
• The Cybermen: Humanoid like robots. For their own reasons, the cybermen became metal to preserve their race. They are the borg of the Dr Who universe.
  
  
• Unit: Not always the doctor's enemy. They are a military organization who's job it is to deal with and supress alien invasions.
  
  
• Torchwood: Another organization that deals with alien technology and displaced aliens.