Britain celebrates the 60th anniversary of science-fiction series ‘Doctor Who’ Saturday as fans hail a programme that has enthralled generations since it was first broadcast. Six million people watched the first episode when it was aired at teatime on November 23, 1963, following the adventures of ‘The Doctor’, a fugitive Time Lord with two hearts from the planet Gallifrey.
The enduring series -- the longest-running of its genre in the world -- is expected to release a new season next year
In the beginning, not everyone was immediately won over, particularly by the TARDIS, his hybrid spacecraft/time machine mostly in the form of an old-fashioned British police call box that is bigger on the inside.
‘A police box with flashing beacon travelling through interstellar space -- what claptrap!’ said one viewer surveyed by the BBC.
A more prophetic view came from parents who said it promised to be ‘very entertaining’ and accurately predicted their children ‘would love it’.
Life-long fan Tony Jordan, 64, has a full-sized TARDIS replica in his garden.
He said some of his first memories were of being petrified by foes of the doctor as he watched with his mother as a young boy. ‘It was the monsters -- the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Ice Warriors -- that just really got my imagination,’ said Jordan, from Heath Hayes, central England.
Jordan said financial constraints were a big part of Doctor Who’s success.
‘When people are under budget pressure it does force them to be more creative than maybe they might have been,’ he said.
