For many years now, Doctor Who has been my favorite TV show. It’s been on air since 1963 and managed an impressive 26 seasons and seven lead actors before being cancelled and being confined to its so called “Wilderness Years”. But then it came back in 2005 and has knocked out another 12 seasons and multiple special since then (with another season on the way, soon-ish).
(Daily Doctor Who #232)
And even when it was off the air, it never strayed too far away, with loads of novels, audio dramas, comics, webcasts and various other special releases coming out on a pretty regular basis.
In all of that, lot of talented writers, producers, directors, actors, designers, composers and more have contributed to the breadth and depth of the franchise.
And so I was thinking it was high time to create a Doctor Who Creators Hall of Fame.
Not talking about characters here, but the actual real-life people who helped to make the show what it is.
Now, I know I’m not the first person to do something like this–indeed, I was inspired by something I used to see in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, where they did a reader’s poll from time to time. I remember one year the top four votes for the “Hall of Fame” were William Hartnell, Robert Holmes, John Nathan-Turner, and Tom Baker. I think this would have been around 1985 or so.
So I’m not claiming to be first, or best, or official on any level. But I am thinking of keeping track of this over the years to come, in sort of the same way that I recently did for the Legion of Super-Heroes.
So the first step in this is getting Nominations.
I’ll be sourcing them here and also on some Facebook groups that I’m part of. I’ll make a ballot out of these nominations, with basically everyone who ever worked on the show or any of its extended media in any capacity eligible. They can be alive or dead, and can have worked on the show a long time ago or recently. Although if I get a lot of response I’ll probably cap it at like the 100 people most frequently nominated.
After the ballot is created, we will then get to vote on who actually gets inducted in 2021. I’m thinking maybe seven people is a good number to start with for the first year.
I’ll start! Here are my initial nominations. I’ll limit myself to ten people (listed here in alphabetical order):
Raymond Cusick (designer)
Russell T. Davies (writer / producer)
Delia Derbyshire (musical arranger)
William Hartnell (actor)
Philip Hinchcliffe (producer)
Robert Holmes (writer / script editor)
Verity Lambert (producer)
Steven Moffat (writer / producer)
Patrick Troughton (actor)
David Whitaker (writer / script editor)
Who are yours? Feel free to put them in the comments or email me at benmcclure47@gmail.com.
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