20 Things Doctor Who Wants You To Forget

The BBC loves to celebrate and even boast about the show’s ‘record breaking’ run of 53 years. In 2013 BBC worldwide made a shedload of money on the back of the heavily promoted golden anniversary events and related memorabilia, and Doctor Who continues to be one of the corporation’s flagship outputs across the globe. But this jewel in the BBC’s crown was once a source of embarrassment, especially for the top brass of the organisation.

It was only thanks to the perseverance of fans during the so-called wilderness years that Doctor Who’s flame kept burning. Throughout the early nineties, in an effort to appease fans, the BBC insisted that Doctor had not in fact been cancelled, and that it was only being ‘rested’. There were a few attempts to bring the show back in partnership with other agencies, most notably the 1996 TV Movie, but it was the work of fans in continuing the myth through other mediums that kept Doctor Who on the map. Doctor Who as a community might be 53 years old, but as a BBC series the show has only run for 35 seasons across 37 years.