Board Thread:The Panopticon/@comment-26975268-20130309221950/@comment-188432-20130310045735

I wholly disagree with your contention that "the fiftieth anniversary of the first broadcast of 'An Unearthly Child' [is] the anniversary of Doctor Who itself."

That's plainly incorrect. Shows don't just spontaneously appear on television. They require much planning, negotiation and plain ol' hard work. Doctor Who was finally green lit and produced in 1963, so, fine, this year is the fiftieth anniversary of the start of production. And, yes, 23 November is kidna-sorta the anniversary of transmission, except that the BBC publicly committed themselves through audio trailers broadcast on BBC Radio earlier in November.

By the time 23 November roles around in 1963, it's really not a "make-or-break" moment, because Lambert was already in production of The Daleks, and she'd already gained a 21-week extension. Those two things have much more bearing on our continued enjoyment of Doctor Who today than the broadcast of "An Unearthly Child". (That's why AUC is actually quite poor but the series continued anyway.)

Moreover, the BBC weren't particularly fussed to broadcast The Three Doctors on 23 November 1973, or The Five Doctors on 23 November 1983 or even, heaven help us, Dimensions in Time on 23 November 1993. Granted, they got closer with the 20th and 30th, but The Three Doctors was actually more of a 9th anniversary than a 10th.

So what's the anniversary of Doctor Who? It's what the fan, or the student, of Doctor Who wants it to be. If you want to talk about what matters, it's really:


 * 14 June: the day that Sydney Newman hired Verity Lambert
 * 24 June: the day that Verity Lambert hired David Whitaker and thus formed the first production team.
 * 31 July: the day the four principals were formally contracted, and the day that Terry Nation is formally commissioned for the serial that will become The Daleks
 * 20 August, the day that the first filming for serial A
 * 27 September, the day of first recording with the principal actors
 * 30 October: the day that Verity Lambert and Donald Wilson cracked the budget, impressed Donald Baverstock, and returned Doctor Who to genuine production after it had effectively been cancelled
 * 15 October, the day that "The Dead Planet" is recorded
 * 22 November, the day that Doctor Who could be fairly said to have gone into "full" production. On this date, one day before the premiere, Lambert actually got an extension for a second group of 13 episodes, bringing the total commitment to 26, with a very strong hint from Baverstock that she'll probably get a third extension soon — before the first episode had even aired.  This effectively makes the production team's (justified) lack of confidence in "the caveman story" irrelevant, since they can now be assured of having time to turn things around with better stories.
 * 23 November, the day that serial A began transmission
 * 21 December, Dalekmania begins

The truth is that every one of these things is a significant milestone, and we possibly wouldn't have had Doctor Who without any of them. But to me the most inconsequential thing for the continued success of Doctor Who is the 23 November date. Nothing happens there that does much to ensure the longevity of the show, since the thing that really makes Doctor Who an institution — the Daleks — is already in production and assured of transmission before 23 November.