Everything Old is New Again in the Doctor’s Latest Adventures
By Tom Hill Jr. | Observer Designer
November 23, 2023 marked the 60th Anniversary of the longest-running science fiction program in history: a little BBC show called Doctor Who. To celebrate its 60 years on our television screens, three special episodes were released.
For the uninitiated, Doctor Who is the story of an alien known as the Doctor and their various companions. They travel through time and space in a ship called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), solving mysteries, fighting monsters, and just generally experiencing the weird wonders of the cosmos. The Doctor has the ability to “regenerate” when they are about to die, a process that changes every cell in their body, leading to different physical appearances and personality quirks, but remaining the same character. This was a mechanic introduced to keep the show running when the first actor to portray the Doctor, William Hartnell, left the role. To date there have been thirteen “main” actors who have portrayed the Doctor, with occasional “one-off” appearances from other actors in the role.