TV series (Remembrance of the Daleks)

A BBC science fiction TV series whose title started with Doctor Who  was first broadcast on BBC television at 5:15 on Saturday (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) 30 November 1963. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)

Its creation was spurred by the growing appetite of the British public for realistic science-fiction, which had ironically been whetted by the accidental broadcasting in 1953 of real footage of the head of the British Rocket Group fighting off an extraterrestrial creature, which the Home Secretary had hurriedly passed off as fiction. (PROSE: Background)

On 30 November 1963, a TV announcer introduced the first episode. Ace had the television on in Mrs Smith's house but rushed out of the room in time to only hear the first syllable of the name. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks) The TV series ran for quite some time. Some of the things it depicted were based on real-world events. (PROSE: Background)

Accounts varied whether the series was Doctor Who, (PROSE: Stop, Thief!, Extracts from the Doctor's 500 Year Diary, et al.) or Doctor Omega. (PROSE: The Forgotten Son, Beast of Fang Rock, Domination Game)

Behind the scenes

 * The TV series is clearly a reference to Doctor Who, which also started in November 1963. Doctor Who as a BBC science fiction series has been explicitly named in other sources set in the Doctor's universe. (It was also shown to exist in several meta-fiction universes, including those depicted in TV Action! and The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who.) It is nonetheless impossible to say for sure that the TV series in Remembrance of the Daleks was this Doctor Who — the Lethbridge-Stewart series for instance implies that Doctor Omega is the in-universe version of the William Hartnell era of Doctor Who, while other in-universe analogues include Doctor X, Professor X and Time Surgeon.
 * In the real world Doctor Who was first broadcast a minute late at 5:16 pm, and a week earlier on 23 November, though the first episode of An Unearthly Child was repeated the next week followed by the second due to the assassination of John F. Kennedy.