Patrick Troughton

Patrick George "Pat" Troughton (/ˈtraʊtən/, 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor most widely known for his roles in fantasy, science fiction, and horror films, particularly in his role as the second incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, which he played from 1966 to 1969; he reprised the role in 1973, 1983, and 1985.

Early life

Troughton was born on 25 March 1920 in Mill Hill, Middlesex, England, to Alec George Troughton, a solicitor, and Dorothy Evelyn Offord, who married in 1914 in Edmonton, and had an elder brother, Alec Robert (1915–1994), and a younger sister, Mary Edith (1923–2005). Troughton attended Mill Hill School and continued to live in Mill Hill for most of his life. While at Mill Hill School, he acted in a production of J.B. Priestley's Bees on the Boat Deck in March 1937. His brother A.R. ('Robin') Troughton shared the 1933 Walter Knox Prize for Chemistry with the future Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick, who also attended Mill Hill School.

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science-fiction television programme produced by the BBC from 1963 to the present day. The programme depicts the adventures of the Doctor, a Time Lord—a space and time-travelling humanoid alien. He explores the universe in his TARDIS, a sentient time-travelling space ship. Its exterior appears as a blue British police box, which was a common sight in Britain in 1963 when the series first aired. Accompanied by companions, the Doctor combats a variety of foes, while working to save civilisations and help people in need.

The show is a significant part of British popular culture, and elsewhere it has become a cult television favourite. The show has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. The programme originally ran from 1963 to 1989. There was an unsuccessful attempt to revive regular production in 1996 with a backdoor pilot, in the form of a television film. The programme was relaunched in 2005 by Russell T Davies, who was showrunner and head writer for the first five years of its revival, produced in-house by BBC Wales in Cardiff. The first series of the 21st century featured Christopher Eccleston in the title role and was produced by the BBC. Series two and three had some development money contributed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which was credited as a co-producer.Doctor Who also spawned spin-offs in multiple media, including Torchwood (2006–2011) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011), both created by Russell T Davies; K-9 (2009–2010); and a single pilot episode of K-9 and Company (1981). There also have been many spoofs and cultural references to the character in other media.

Doctor Who (season 7)

The seventh season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who began on 3 January 1970 with Jon Pertwee's first story Spearhead from Space and ended with Inferno.

Casting

Main cast

Jon Pertwee makes his first appearance as the Third Doctor replacing Patrick Troughton in the role. Caroline John makes her first appearance as companion and assistant Liz Shaw in Spearhead from Space and last in Inferno.

Recurring cast

Nicholas Courtney returns as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and he would continue to make regular appearances in Doctor Who until season 13.

John Levene also makes his first appearance as Sergeant Benton since The Invasion in The Ambassadors of Death and would continue to make regular appearances until season 13.

Serials

Barry Letts took over as producer from Derrick Sherwin after Spearhead from Space. From this season onwards the programme was produced in colour. To accommodate the new production methods the number of episodes in a season was cut: season 6 has 44 episodes; season 7 has 25 episodes. The seasons would continue to have between 20 and 26 episodes until season 22. Following the opening four parter, the remaining episodes were divided into three serials each of seven episodes. This, along with setting the entire season exclusively on Earth, had been the choice of Peter Bryant and Derrick Sherwin, which Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks were unhappy with.

Doctor Who (series 7)

The seventh series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who aired from 1 September 2012 to 18 May 2013, being split into two parts, as with the previous series. The series was broadcast concurrently on BBC One in the United Kingdom, BBC America in the United States, and on Space in Canada, and also on ABC in Australia, with the first five episodes each released a week after its UK and North American premiere and the remainder released the day after each episode's UK premiere. Following its premiere on 1 September 2012, the series aired weekly until 29 September 2012. Six episodes were broadcast in 2012, including the 2012 Christmas special, "The Snowmen", which aired separately from the main series. The remaining eight episodes began broadcasting on 30 March 2013. "The Snowmen" introduced a new TARDIS interior, title sequence, theme tune, and outfit for the Doctor.

Doctor Who's seventh series was the show's third and final series to feature Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. They reprised their roles of the Eleventh Doctor, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, from the previous series. Gillan and Darvill departed the series in the fifth episode, after which a new companion named Clara Oswald joined the Doctor, played by Jenna Coleman, remaining with the series for its second half. Smith stayed for one year longer than Gillan and Darvill, and departed after the 2013 specials, with his final appearance being in the 2013 Christmas special "The Time of the Doctor".

List of Doctor Who serials

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. As of 25 December 2015, 826 episodes of Doctor Who have aired, concluding the ninth series. This includes one television movie, and encompasses 263 stories over 35 seasons. Additionally, four charity specials and two animated serials have also been aired. The show's high episode count resulted in Doctor Who holding the world record for the highest number of episodes for a science-fiction programme.

Doctor Who ceased airing in 1989 and began again in 2005. Each story in the original series (1963–89) is a multi-episode serial, with two exceptions: the 1965 cutaway episode "Mission to the Unknown" and the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors. The characters in the column after the serial titles indicate the code used by the production team to designate the serial, where applicable, and are followed either by the titles of the individual episodes where given or by the number of episodes otherwise. During the early seasons of the programme most serials were linked together and one would usually lead directly into the next. Starting with the 2005 revival, the production team abandoned the traditional serial format for a largely self-contained episodic format with occasional multi-part stories and loose story arcs.

William Hartnell

William Henry Hartnell (8 January 1908 – 23 April 1975), also known as Billy Hartnell or Bill Hartnell, was an English actor. Hartnell played the first incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, from 1963 to 1966. He was also known for his roles as Sergeant Grimshaw, the title character of the first Carry On film, Carry on Sergeant in 1958, and Company Sergeant Major Percy Bullimore in the sitcom The Army Game from 1957 until 1958, and again in 1960.

Early life

Hartnell was born in St Pancras, London, England, the only child of Lucy Hartnell, an unmarried mother. He was brought up partly by a foster mother, and also spent many holidays in Devon with his mother's family of farmers, where he learned to ride. He was the second cousin of fashion designer Norman Hartnell.

Hartnell never discovered the identity of his father (whose particulars were left blank on the birth certificate) despite efforts to trace him. Often known as Billy, he left school without prospects and dabbled in petty crime. Through a boys' boxing club, at the age of 14 Hartnell met the art collector Hugh Blaker, who later became his unofficial guardian and arranged for him initially to train as a jockey and helped him enter the Italia Conti Academy. Theatre being a passion of Hugh Blaker; he paid for Hartnell to receive some 'polish' at the Imperial Service College, though Hartnell found the strictures too much and ran away.