Doctor Who (series 8)

The eighth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who began on 23 August 2014 with "Deep Breath" and ended with "Death in Heaven" on 8 November 2014. The series was officially ordered on 20 May 2013, and led by head writer and executive producer Steven Moffat, alongside executive producer Brian Minchin. Nikki Wilson, Peter Bennett and Paul Frift served as producers. The series is the eighth to air following the programme's revival in 2005, and is the thirty-fourth season overall. It is also the first series since series five not to be split into two parts.

The series is the first to star Peter Capaldi as the Twelfth Doctor, the most recent incarnation of the Doctor, an alien Time Lord who travels through time and space in his TARDIS, which appears to be a British police box on the outside. It also stars Jenna Coleman as his companion, Clara Oswald. Also playing a major recurring role in the series is Samuel Anderson as Danny Pink, Clara's boyfriend. The main story arc revolves around a mysterious woman called Missy (portrayed by Michelle Gomez), who is often seen welcoming people who have died throughout the series to the "Promised Land", a place that serves as an apparent afterlife to deceased characters. Missy's true identity is later revealed to be the Doctor's arch-enemy, the Master, who has hatched a plan using the help of the Cybermen and through manipulation of the Doctor and Clara's relationship.

Doctor Who (season 5)

The fifth season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 2 September 1967 with the first story of season 5 The Tomb of the Cybermen and ended on 1 June 1968 with The Wheel in Space.

Casting

Main cast

Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling appear as The Second Doctor, Jamie McCrimmon and Victoria Waterfield respectively. Deborah Watling departs in the penultimate story Fury from the Deep. Wendy Padbury makes her debut as Zoe Heriot in the season finale, The Wheel in Space.

Guest stars

Jack Watling makes his first and last appearances in the series as Professor Edward Travers in the serials The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of fear. Watling would go on to reprise his role of Travers thirty years on in the spin-off TV film Downtime.

Michael Kilgarriff makes his first appearance as the Cyber-Controller in Tomb of the Cybermen. Kilgarriff would reprise the role eighteen years later in Attack of the Cybermen (1985).

Doctor Who: The Key to Time

The Key to Time is the umbrella title that links all six serials of the sixteenth season of Doctor Who. The arc was originally conceived of by producer Graham Williams, who had proposed it as part of his application for the producer's job in 1976. The name refers to the powerful artefact whose segments the Doctor, Romana and K-9 are searching for during the season.

Synopsis

A figure calling himself the White Guardian commissions the Doctor and K9, assisted by a new companion, the Time Lady Romana, to find the six segments of the Key to Time, a cosmic artifact resembling a perfect cube that maintains the equilibrium of the universe. Since it is too powerful for any single being to possess, it has been split into six different segments and scattered across space and time, disguised by the raw elemental power within them into any shape or size. However, since the forces balancing the universe are so upset, the White Guardian needs to recover the segments of the Key to stop the universe so that he can restore the balance. The White Guardian also warns the Doctor of the Black Guardian who also wishes to obtain the Key To Time for his own purposes. In the final episode, the Black Guardian, disguised as the White Guardian, attempts to take the Key from the Doctor. However, the Doctor sees through the figure's charade and orders the segments of The Key to Time to once again become scattered across all of time and space, bar the sixth, which he reinstates as Princess Astra. Afterward, the Doctor decides to install a device called a randomizer into the TARDIS' navigation system for a period of time to make his following voyages unpredictable to evade the Black Guardian.

Dr. Who (Dalek films)

Dr. Who is a character based on the BBC science-fiction television series Doctor Who. Although based on the Doctor appearing in the TV series, the film version of the character is fundamentally different.

The character, portrayed by the actor Peter Cushing, appeared in two films made by AARU Productions: Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965), which was based on the televised serial The Daleks (1963), and Daleks – Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D. (1966), based on The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964). Plans for a third film, to be based on the serial The Chase (1965), were abandoned following the poor box office reception of the second film.

Cushing made no mention of the films in his autobiography, although he kept a collection of newspaper clippings about them in a scrapbook.

Personality

Dr. Who, as portrayed by Cushing, is an eccentric inventor who claims to have created his TARDIS in his back garden. He is a gentle, grandfatherly figure, naturally curious and sometimes absent-minded, but at the same time is not afraid to fight for justice. He is shown to have a keen and somewhat juvenile sense of humour, and a strong sense of adventure with a will of iron and very strong morals.

Eighth Doctor

The Eighth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is portrayed by Paul McGann.

The character was introduced in the 1996 TV film Doctor Who, a back-door pilot produced in an unsuccessful attempt to relaunch the series following its 1989 cancellation. While the Eighth Doctor initially had only one on-screen appearance, his adventures were portrayed extensively in subsequent spin-off media, including more than 70 audio dramas starring McGann. In 2013, the actor reprised the role in the mini-episode "The Night of the Doctor", which depicts the Eighth Doctor's final adventure.

Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, who travels in time and space in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured, he can regenerate his body but in doing so gains a new physical appearance and with it, a distinct new personality. McGann portrays the eighth such incarnation, a passionate, enthusiastic, and eccentric character. His only companion in the television film is Grace Holloway (Daphne Ashbrook), a medical doctor whose surgery is partly responsible for triggering his regeneration. In the continued adventures of the character depicted in audio dramas, novels and comic books he travels alongside numerous other companions, including self-styled "Edwardian Adventuress" Charley, the alien Destrii and present-day humans Lucie and Sam.

Tenth Doctor

The Tenth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the BBC science fiction television programme Doctor Who, who is played by David Tennant in three series as well as nine specials. As with previous incarnations of the Doctor, the character has also appeared in other Doctor Who spin-offs. In the programme's narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old Time Lord alien from the planet Gallifrey who travels in time in his TARDIS, frequently with companions. When the Doctor is critically injured beyond medical repair, he can regenerate his body; in doing so, his physical appearance and personality change, and a new actor assumes the role. Tennant's portrayal of the Doctor is of an outwardly charismatic and charming adventurer whose likeable and easygoing attitude can quickly turn to righteous fury.

This incarnation's companions include working class shop assistant Rose Tyler (Billie Piper), medical student Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman), and fiery temp worker Donna Noble (Catherine Tate). He eventually parts ways with them all by the end of the 2008 series finale, "Journey's End", after which he attempts to travel alone for the duration of the 2008–10 specials before being accompanied by Donna Noble's grandfather Wilfred Mott on his final adventure in The End of Time.