How an East Indian director, a Canadian film exec, and a young woman producer defied the odds to create Doctor Who
via supernaturalsaturday:
io9 has a great piece on the unlikely beginning to what would become one of the greatest television shows of all time:
These days, Doctor Who is approaching its 50th anniversary as one of the most successful television shows of all time. But originally? Doctor Who was a small show that the BBC expected to run for a few episodes, and then vanish forever. The show had a tiny studio and huge cameras, and a shoestring budget. But the people who were making the show were outsiders, who were anathema to the entrenched BBC culture.
At the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles, we were thrilled to hear from Waris Hussein, who directed the very first Doctor Who episode, about how an East Indian teamed up with a Canadian and a young woman to revolutionize television science fiction.
Hussein took part in a panel at Gallifrey about “Doctor Who in the Sixties,” alongside stars William Russell (Ian) and Maureen O’Brien (Vicki). And even though we kind of knew thatDoctor Who was an upstart program that many people within the BBC were opposed to, we didn’t realize quite how much the odds were against this show…
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