- You may wish to consult
Dr. Whofor other, similarly-named pages.
Dr. Who was an eccentric human scientist, living in a cottage in England with his granddaughters Susan and Barbara. He also had a niece named Louise.
Biography
Within the Doctor's universe
As a fictional character
According to several sources, the character of Dr. Who existed as a piece of fiction within the universe of the Doctor, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.
When in the Black Archive, Kate Stewart noted two VHS cassettes, one of them being Daleks: Invasion Earth. She noted that the Doctor and Peter Cushing had been friends and that the Doctor had loaned him a waistcoat "for the second one." The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors particularly loved the movies, joking around calling each other Dr Who and phoned Cushing to persuade him to make a third movie. (PROSE: The Day of the Doctor) Indeed, another account noted the Third Doctor visiting the cinema to see a double-bill of Peter Cushing films, which closely resembled the adventures of Dr. Who. (PROSE: A Visit to the Cinema) While biking, Lawrence Burton thought to himself that the enemy of the Great Houses might be those "outer space robot people" that appeared in "at least two films with Peter Cushing". (PROSE: We are the Enemy)
Another account stated that Cushing had the lead role in the 1980 science fiction film Prey for a Miracle as "the mysterious government adviser, Doctor Who". The character was loosely based on the First Doctor and was inspired by the UFO / gods scare caused by the Latter-Day Pantheon in New York City in March and April 1965. A film critic for the magazine Film in Focus claimed the "endearingly eccentric professor" was as fictional as the rest of the film. What little information there was about his real counterpart suggested he was a shadowy, manipulative figure. (PROSE: Salvation)
As a "real" character
Some accounts stated that Dr. Who existed in the Doctor's universe, but not in the form of televised fiction.
One account claimed that Dr. Who and his eight year old Suzy were both fictional creations made by the real Doctor to distract the Five O'Clock Shadow until he could escape. Comparatively to the real Doctor, Dr. Who was cheerful and angst-free meaning that the Shadow had no hold over him and Suzy. The pair then departed for more childlike and wondrous adventures leaving the real Doctor to face the Shadow on his own in the future. (PROSE: The Five O'Clock Shadow)
An imagined Doctor that resembled Dr. Who. (COMIC: Four Doctors)
Gabby Gonzalez's "magic" notebook wrote about how Gabby thought the Doctor's other selves would be from parallel universes. In the book was an incarnation resembling Dr. Who, albeit without a mustache and drawn to more closely resemble "her" Doctor, the Tenth Doctor. (COMIC: Four Doctors)
Adventures
Dr. Who had invented time travel in the form of Tardis, a space-time machine, the exterior of which looked like a police box.
When Barbara's boyfriend Ian Chesterton was visiting his house, he, Susan and Barbara went to have a look at Tardis. Ian accidentally pulled a lever and the four of them were transported to Skaro, the home planet of the Daleks, where they helped the Thals battle the Daleks.
Trying to return Tardis home, Dr. Who opened the doors to find a Roman legion marching towards the ship in 64. While in Rome itself, Ian soon ended up becoming a gladiator. (NOTVALID: Dr. Who and the Daleks, Dr Who and the House on Oldark Moor)
Tardis subsequently materialised on Oldark Moor, where Dr. Who and his companions encountered Count Tarkin. (NOTVALID: Dr Who and the House on Oldark Moor)
Dr. Who and Louise survive on one of the Dalek hoverbouts. (NOTVALID: Daleks Versus the Martians)
Dr. Who became curious over one of the most ancient mysteries of the universe, a face-like settlement on Mars known as the Martian Sphinx. Dr. Who and Susan travelled to the red planet with his niece Louise. While Dr. Who was preparing to study the apparent formation, the group were surrounded by Daleks floating on Hoverbouts. The Daleks kidnapped Louise and attempted to do the same to Dr. Who and Susie, but they were saved at the last moment by a group of telepathic natives, who lead them to an underground base.
The Doctor and Susan noticed a series of hieroglyphics on the wall of said base, but were unsure of what they meant. Upon asking one of the Martians about why the Daleks had invaded, it was explained to them that they planned to use Mars as a base to concur Earth. Shortly after this, the Doctor announced that he had solved the mystery of the Sphinx, revealing that the hieroglyphics on the wall were actually a long-lost activation sequence for a massive Martian robot. Using this knowledge, the group were able to raise the robot out of the air to attack the Dalek forces as Dr. Who attempted to save Louise by breaking into a Dalek flying saucer. However, he discovered that this was a trap, as the Daleks wanted to take him to Skaro to drain the secrets of Time travel from his mind. As the ship took off, it was attacked by the robot, although Louise and the Doctor were able to escape on one of the Dalek hoverbouts.
The Daleks foothold on Mars lost, Dr. Who and his companions departed in Tardis, although Who wondered if it the preceding event was the eve of a war. (NOTVALID: Daleks Versus the Martians)
Dr. Who, Susan, Louise and a police constable named Tom Campbell later travelled to London in 2150 and found that it had been devastated by a Dalek invasion years earlier. Once there, the four of them assisted in freeing Earth from Dalek occupation. (NOTVALID: Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.)
Behind the scenes
- Unlike the Doctor of the television series who, in common tradition, is more often identified as "the Doctor" rather than by the name "Doctor Who", the Cushing version is explicitly referenced by that name. The character's first name in this context is never revealed.
- Peter Cushing was offered the role of the Second Doctor, but turned it down. He later regretted this. [1]
- Stanmark Productions Limited obtained a license to make a series of fifty-two half-hour radio dramas based upon Doctor Who. After Boris Karloff proved unavailable, Peter Cushing was hired to play the role. Advertisements were published, but only a pilot episode (now lost) was ever completed.[2][3] It is not known whether Cushing portrays the film version of Dr. Who in this production, or a version of the character more in keeping with the television series.
- In an interview, Peter Cushing stated that he believed that his human incarnation of the Doctor was canon, and that his film version of the Doctor and the television Doctor were bridged together by (possibly) the Celestial Toymaker.
Well I’ll tell you something I thought once. I just said I didn’t watch TV, but one of the few episodes of the ‘Dr. Who’ series that I saw was one that involved a kind of mystical clown, and I realised that perhaps he kidnapped Dr Who and wiped his memory and made him relive some of his earlier adventures. When Bill Hartnell turned into Patrick Troughton, and changed his appearance, that idea seemed more likely. I think that’s what happened, so I think those films we did fit perfectly well into the TV series. That would not have been the case had I taken the role in the TV series.
- In DWM 469, Steven Moffat stated that he wrote a scene for TV: The Day of the Doctor in which Kate Stewart would walk past posters for the Peter Cushing films while noting the "need to screen the Doctor's known associates." Moffat explained that he believed the films existed in the DWU as "distorted accounts" of the Doctor's adventures. However, the production team could not afford the rights to the posters. This scene does appear in the novelisation of the book.
- The inclusion of the character in Short Trips and Side Steps (in the short story Dr Who and the House on Oldark Moor) suggests that the world of Dr. Who is a parallel universe to the regular DWU. This is also suggested by the Titan comic story Four Doctors. In the story, when Gabby Gonzalez's "magic" notebook is writing about how Gabby thought the Doctor's "other selves" would be from parallel universes, a picture of a Doctor that resembles Dr. Who appears on the page (albeit with no moustache, and clearly designed to still resemble David Tennant). Despite this, no story has outright called the adventures of Dr. Who an alternate universe, thus all stories featuring him are considered invalid on this wiki.
Footnotes
- ↑ https://drwhointerviews.wordpress.com/category/peter-cushing/
- ↑ Howe, David J., "The Lost Radio Plays". The Frame #10. May, 1989. p. 17.
- ↑ http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/tsv41/petercushing.html "Peter Cushing Obituary". Time Space Visualiser #41.
