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Doctor Who Makes Guinness Book of World Records

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the cue-the-music dept.

shadowlight1 writes "According to a BBC press release, cult favorite Doctor Who has entered the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's longest running science fiction show! There we go, it's official. Also, the second season of Who premieres on the SciFi channel tonight." From the release: "The series began on 23 November, 1963, and was revived in 2005 after 16 years off the screen. William Hartnell played the original Doctor Who, with Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker and Peter Davison among those following in his footsteps. Christopher Eccleston took up the mantle of the ninth Timelord last year - following the show's relaunch. He was replaced after just one series by David Tennant after Eccleston dropped out. "

40 of 227 comments (clear)

  1. Here Here by AlzaF · · Score: 5, Informative

    A prime example of traditional great british entertainment

    1. Re:Here Here by TimothyTimothyTimoth · · Score: 3, Funny
      There has to be some comedy combination of longest run through time and Time Lord ... sort of pun.

      If only I had a TARDIS I could grab the best one from the end of this thread and insert it her.

      --
      It doesn't matter which ape activates the Monolith
    2. Re:Here Here by TimothyTimothyTimoth · · Score: 3, Funny

      I have to reply to myself on behalf of Freud.

      --
      It doesn't matter which ape activates the Monolith
    3. Re:Here Here by AceCaseOR · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm glad to see the good Doctor made the list. My question is before Doctor Who, what was the longest running sci-fi TV show? The original Twilight Zone? The new Outer Limits? Stargate SG-1?

      --
      Zagreus sits inside your head, Zagreus lives among the dead, Zagreus sees you in your bed and eats you in your sleep.
    4. Re:Here Here by denebian+devil · · Score: 2, Informative

      Technically, if you can say that Doctor Who has run for 43 years (i.e. counting the interim years where no new Doctor Who was made), The Twilight Zone has run longer (44 years by my count: first episode in 1959, last in 2003). However I don't believe it had even close to 700 episodes.

      And if you look at the entire Star Trek Franchise as a whole, it is "younger" than Doctor Who (40 years) but has almost 4 times as many episodes.

      Stargate doesn't even come close to making that cut, with only 10 years for SG1 and 3 I believe for Atlantis. I don't even understand how they get the longest running consecutive Sci-Fi show.... Doctor Who (the original) should probably win that one, too.

  2. Christopher Eccleston, best Dr., Evah by fatboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Better than Tom Baker, but not by much :) I just loved what he did with the character.

    --
    --fatboy
    1. Re:Christopher Eccleston, best Dr., Evah by HFXPro · · Score: 4, Interesting

      He did do an extremely good job with the doctor. A doctor who seemed happy go lucky, yet at any minute could show signs of a nervous breakdown or go psycotic. I am not that impressed with the new guy. His rendition of the doctor is not nearly as good. It seems it is played two happily, rather then a mix of happiness, sadness, depression, and wisdom gained from so many years of existance.

      --
      Reserved Word.
    2. Re:Christopher Eccleston, best Dr., Evah by Kris_B_04 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I absolutely loved his darkness and how bitter and hurt he was about the Time War with the Daleks. He was more realistic. He still had his happy-go-lucky moments, but we also saw a side of him that we never saw before.

      I will miss Eccleston.

      --
      Remember when Windows were washed, mice were trapped and UNIX guarded the harem?
    3. Re:Christopher Eccleston, best Dr., Evah by thrashaholic · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Better than Tom? You're smoking crack.

      I, for one, hated Eccleston. Granted, I've seen only a few episodes of the first season, but something about him just didn't seem like "Doctor" material to me. Maybe he just looked too macho for the role.

      I actually like the new guy better (seems more quirky, like a Doctor should), but neither of them are anywhere close to Tom, or any of the first few Doctors for that matter.

      Of course, I've only seen one episode with him so far, at least until about an hour from now!!

      Did anyone else notice that SciFi ran a marathon this morning? I completely missed it. They don't EVER fucking advertise when they're doing that, pisses me off.

      --
      militant gun owning 'liberal'
    4. Re:Christopher Eccleston, best Dr., Evah by Gojira+Shipi-Taro · · Score: 2, Informative

      Agreed. "The Girl in the Fireplace" took the character to a new level. the tragedy of living so long you see everyone you love die has never been made so evident.

      Tennant also has been excellent at introducing the Colin Baker-ish (and to a lesser extent the Patrick Troughton-ish) "Stupid Apes" vibe.

      --
      "Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
    5. Re:Christopher Eccleston, best Dr., Evah by 1u3hr · · Score: 2, Informative
      r. A doctor who seemed happy go lucky, yet at any minute could show signs of a nervous breakdown or go psycotic. I am not that impressed with the new guy. His rendition of the doctor is not nearly as good. It seems it is played two happily, rather then a mix of happiness, sadness, depression, and wisdom gained from so many years of existance.

      The subtext going on is that the 9th Doctor was suffering PTSD from the Time War, in which he apparently destroyed all the other Timelords, to take the Daleks with them. (Of course, the Daleks did survive after all.) The 10th Doctor is getting over that, he's able to connect emotionally with humans more easily, and he's not so gunshy -- recall the Xmas Invasion when he shoved the alien over the edge. Russell T Davies does pay attention to character development, if you've seen his other stuff like the original Queer as Folk.

  3. Dr Who Makes Guiness.... by krell · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Timelord. Brewer. Patriot".

    --
    Where were you when the voynix came?
  4. Den Den Den Den Woooooooo by Luke+Psywalker · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=0s95Mm0cFqg

  5. Then maybe we can change that Slashdot icon... by ProteusQ · · Score: 4, Funny

    Enough of that ST:TOS head. Replace it with the TARDIS!

  6. I'm sure plenty... by Cybert4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...of doctors have made the Guinness Book of World Records. We have tall ones and short ones. Fat ones and thin ones. Who makes the titles again? Or perhaps the pun was intended.

  7. Not true, it is science fiction... by KingSkippus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At least, using the Wikipedia definition. Dr. Who does not delve into the magical or supernatural, which is what differentiates science fiction from fantasy. Or rather, at least when it does, it does so with the understanding that there's some logical scientific explanation.

    Just because they make up some of the science (and may be wildly inaccurate) doesn't make it not science fiction.

    1. Re:Not true, it is science fiction... by fyngyrz · · Score: 2, Interesting
      At least, using the Wikipedia definition.

      No. Heinlein puts his finger on it (no surprise there, either): "realistic speculation"

      The Wikipedia article accurately notes that "an uneducated person will have different expectations about what science can do than a professional physicist." This is what causes people to mistake, for instance, Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica as science fiction instead of the fantasies they really are. Those mistakes do not somehow mutate those artworks into SF; they simply identify the audience as not particularly informed consumers.

      SF (which originally meant "science fiction", not "speculative fiction") was born of the idea that a story would be wrapped around one or more concepts that either were supportable using current science, or could reasonably be extrapolated from current science. Hence, the "science." This was the thing that differentiated the genre from, for instance, just anything you wanted to write about. The idea was to inflame the reader with "Wow! This could actually happen!"

      The wikipedia article comes at this from precisely the wrong angle: It says SF is "not magical or supernatural" but that is not what SF is. SF is science derived, not "anything that isn't... whatever." SF was never defined by what it wasn't, or in other words, it was defined by what it was. As soon as it fails to be that — fails to be scientifically valid or scientifically possible — you have fantasy. And what does fantasy mean? It means using one's imagination without constraints. SF does have a constraint, and that constraint is science.

      Our literature contains many examples of carefully applying these precise limits to stories, and sophisticated looks at how well this was done (for instance, see the critiques, "The Issue at Hand" and "More Issues at Hand.") Genre specialist publications (fanzines and author's self-publications from the 50's, 60's and 70's) went all through this and came down hard on the side of science. Publishers and the marketing side of the business (something I am intimately familiar with, as I own one of the oldest SF-specialized literary agencies in the world) are responsible for the blurring of the SF/fantasy line in the marketplace more than anything else.

      Calling Dr. Who SF won't make it SF; the unrelenting use of fantasy elements tells the tale to any who care to look.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    2. Re:Not true, it is science fiction... by Squalish · · Score: 3, Informative

      So... just to pull the last few books of Heinlein's I've read off the shelf and flip through them...

      Stranger in a Strange Land
      blurb: "The best-selling underground novel by the dean of American science fiction writers"
      features: Martian psychokinetic abilities which include teleportation and mentally causing matter to cease to exist/

      Starship Troopers
      blurb: "the classic novel by the greatest science fiction writers of all time"
      features a "brain bug" which controls a colony psychically, as well as good old-fashioned human psychics.

      Glory Road
      blurb: "the irrepressible science fiction classic!"
      features: Magicians and transdimentional portals

      I Will Fear No Evil
      blurb: "Magnificent - a science fiction masterpiece"
      features: A body which, after a complete brain transplant, interjects the donor body's personality into the consciousness of the new composite as a self-aware, sentient split personality.

      Not much of Heinlein's work qualifies as science fiction under your definition.

      Like it or not, but "science fiction" has become a genre based primarily upon finding necessary in the reader a willing suspension of disbelief in order to experience the story within the parameters given. The disbelief is generated because the story usually violates current scientific understanding. What we classify as 'hard sci-fi' as advancing only technology, rather than fundamentally changing what we know of science - and in its true form it's a rather small genre.

      --
      People in Soviet Russia, however, appear to be afflicted with amusing juxtapositions of the aforementioned situation
  8. Dr. Who in the record books... by crazyjeremy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Perhaps there should be another mention of Dr. Who in Guiness Book of World Records. As far as I know it's the only sci-fi show EVER to be able to complete a season in one country, before that season starts in another.

    If one so wishes, he could watch all of the second season already, but in the US the second season is just now starting.

    That's some amazing technology! Time travel? Alternative-Universe? Or just plain old creative bittorenting?

    --
    Funnypics
    1. Re:Dr. Who in the record books... by grapeape · · Score: 3, Interesting

      At least they are starting the second season now...that gives them time to catch up and possibly show the third while its actually current. (I hope!) SciFi sure did drag its heels about getting it on the lineup though.

      The second season is BTW fantastic. You will miss Eccleston for all of about an episode or two. I have watched Dr Who since the Tom Baker days and have actually grown to like David Tennants version best of all. He has the sense of humor that Baker had, the wit of Sylvester McCoy and more athleticisim than any Doctor since Peter Davison. Christmas Ivasion is a great introduction while New Earth is a bit silly. By far the best of the second season episodes is The Girl in the Fireplace, though Cybermen and Satans Pit two parters are also fantastic. The only real stinker in the second season is Love & Monsters which as a farting monster designed by a child (chosen from a contest) that looks remarkably like Fat Bastard from Austin Powers. Overall the second season ends up even better than the first, its peppered with old favorites as well as a few rather shocking surprises.

  9. I'll take.... by Siberwulf · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'll take "Topics That Would Have Made Sense the First Time I Read Them, had the Author Used More Punctuation" for 1000, Alex.

  10. Re:Here's what I don't understand (spoiler)... by kentrel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Valid questions, but it's a kid's show - I wouldn't overthink it.

  11. Guinness Book of Trivia by jimmichie · · Score: 3, Insightful
    world's longest running science fiction show ... revived in 2005 after 16 years off the screen.
    That's the equivalent of running a marathon but stopping halfway through for a couple of pints at the pub, and it has nothing at all to do with the qualities that made Doctor Who great. Not everything in life needs a prize; we know Dr Who's good already.
    1. Re:Guinness Book of Trivia by Zephiria · · Score: 3, Informative

      Being english, I can tell you that the idea of stopping a marathon, heading off to the pub for a few pints before stumbling onto the track again makes PERFECT sense :D

    2. Re:Guinness Book of Trivia by nagora · · Score: 3, Funny
      Yes, but you don't get a prize for it.

      Only because some cheaty bastard would run on while all the honest people were in the pub.

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  12. Re:Longest running? by abandonment · · Score: 3, Insightful

    yeah this is pretty questionable. Just because they 'revived' an old series from ancient history doesn't make it 'longest running' by any sense of the term.

    How do they factor this? number of episodes? number of screen minutes? I mean stargate has been running for how many years?

    Just because they haven't bothered to change the actual doctor who series name (even though it's been morphed in countless other ways) is it considered the 'same series'?

    dunno, seems like a pile of crap to me.

    --
    Gekido's Lair
  13. Re:Christopher Eccleston played the Eighth Doctor by nagora · · Score: 2, Informative

    The 8th Doctor is alive and well on BBC Radio. The Sword of Orion is running at the moment.

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  14. Nitpick: it's "Hear, hear" by Clueless+Moron · · Score: 2, Informative

    It is an abbreviation for "hear, all ye good people, hear what this brilliant and eloquent speaker has to say!" .

    I don't normally nitpick, but "here here" doesn't even make sense. "Hear, hear" does.

    1. Re:Nitpick: it's "Hear, hear" by AlzaF · · Score: 3, Funny

      its not my fault you can't understand my accent

  15. Disqualified from consecutive?? by FrontalLobe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    FTFA: "US series Stargate SG-1, now in its 10th series, holds the world record for "longest-running science fiction show (consecutive)"."

    I realize having the record for longest running probably disqualifies Doctor Who from consecutive... But last time I checked 26 (seasons) > 10... Maybe they don't count it because there were 7 different actors playing the same role (although I have to admit, I know nothing about SG-1)

    --
    -FL
  16. Re:They've skipped the Christmas Episode by nebaz · · Score: 2, Informative

    They're showing the Christmas episode. Tonight's Sci fi a href="http://www.scifi.com">lineup

    8:00 PM EST Doctor Who -- Christmas Invasion
    9:30 PM EST Doctor Who -- New Earth
    10:30 PM EST Doctor Who -- Christmas Invasion

    What are they skipping? (Children in need 6 minute thing maybe)

    --
    Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
  17. The Title of This Article... by commisaro · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... is a dependant clause. It really needs to be finished. Doctor who makes Guinness Book of World Records... does what, exactly?

  18. I'm a confused about this title... by ReverendLoki · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So this is the longest running scifi series, non-continuous, and the record for longest continuous series is Stargate-SG1. Thing is, Stargate is at episode 203 rigt now, in it's 10th season. As I understand it, Doctor Who, before the 16 year hiatus, ran for 26 seasons, and around 700 episodes (probably less, ruling out some specials, etc).

    So, I've looked around a bit, and I don't see any sign of a break in that 26 year run. What part of it all makes that portion non-continuous?

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    1. Re:I'm a confused about this title... by FrontalLobe · · Score: 2, Informative

      So, I've looked around a bit, and I don't see any sign of a break in that 26 year run.

      Unless you count a BBC strike between season 22 and 23. And of course, during 'Shada'...

      --
      -FL
  19. Re:Longest running? by xtieburn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is a seperate record for consecutive series which SG1 is winning.

    There are 723 episodes of Doctor who in comparison to a couple of hundred SG1 episodes. In every concievable way Dr Who is the longest running series. Even if you discounted the two recent Seasons of it. Though really, every series morphs with time to some extent. However, the Doctor is still the same character, existing in the same universe, with the same enemies, the same TARDIS, the same camp quirkyness, the same relationships with companions. Its all still very much Doctor Who.

    Yes it is the same series. Yes it is the longest running.

  20. Re:Here's what I don't understand (spoiler)... by FrontalLobe · · Score: 2, Informative

    To answer some of the questions here:

    Gallifrey, the home planet of the Time Lords, is in its own time stream, so to speak. In other words, there is no time travel on that planet. If you go there, its always 'Gallifrey time'.

    As far as the Time Lords regenerating after the time war, they were obviously killed in a way that their bodies could not support regeneration. Time Lords have two hearts. If one fails, the other heart keeps going and rearranges all the cells in their body. If they are hit with a bomb, for example, and the majority of cells are destroyed, and both hearts stop working, they can't regenerate.

    --
    -FL
  21. Re:Here's what I don't understand (spoiler)... by VikingBerserker · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Time Lords do not exist, except as opposites - with a zero value existence. Add the opposites together and the Time Lords cease to exist.

  22. Re:Christopher Eccleston played the Eighth Doctor by Larry+Lightbulb · · Score: 2, Informative

    So far on BBC7 there's been: Invaders From Mars, Regeneration, Shada, Slipback, Storm Warning, Sword Of Orion, The Chimes Of Midnight, The Ghosts Of N-Space, The Partadise Of Death, and The Stones Of Venice.

    They're mainly the Big Finish versions (http://www.bigfinish.com/drwho/index.shtml/), though the early BBC radio stories get an airing as well.

    Rather than give a lot of links to my site, try the D index (http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/Index-D .html) and scroll down to where the Doctor Who episodes are listed.

  23. you misread the Wikipedia article! by Xtifr · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because, when I read it, it specifically said that Dr. Who was an exception and does not qualify as science fiction. And then it went on with something about the population of elephants tripling in the last six months that I didn't quite understand.... :)

  24. Sorry, which season is that? by brainburger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Am I the only one who gets annoyed when the Eccleston/Tennant seasons (or series to us Brits), are referred to as numbers 1 and 2 instead of 27 and 28?
    The whole point is that the show is 43 years old, so why pretend the other 26 series never happened in the numbering?