17 Dr Who Little Known Facts

1.  The first episode of Doctor Who (An Unearthly Child) was broadcast at 5.15pm on 23 November 1963, and at that time this year the 50^th Anniversary episode is going to be broadcast simultaneously across all over the world.
2. There are 106 missing episodes which no longer exist due to an archive purge in the 1970s, as well as four episodes which only survive in an edited state and twelve episodes which only exist in black and white despite originally being filmed in colour. Important scenes lost because of this include the first appearance of the sonic screwdriver, the introduction of recurring character Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart and the majority of The Doctor’s first regeneration.
3. “TARDIS” and “Dalek” are in the Oxford English Dictionary. Seriously, look it up!
4. When the Daleks were first introduced they required radiation and static electricity to survive. In addition, and incredibly weirdly, rather than going straight for the kill the Daleks choose to temporarily paralyse the companion, and warn him that they’d kill him if he tried to escape again. It wasn’t until their second appearance that they became the genocidal maniacs we all know and love.
5. Before landing the role of the Tenth Doctor, David Tennant had roles in several Doctor Who audio dramas and also narrated a documentary about the revival of the show in 2005 (titled ‘Doctor Who’: A New Dimension).
6. The title of series 5 episode The Big Bang isn’t referring to the explosion that created the universe.
7. Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor) and Lalla Ward (the second regeneration of Romana) had a romance on set and even got married, though they divorced 16 months later.
8. This is going to get confusing, so bear with me: Georgia Moffett is the daughter of Peter Davison, the Fifth Doctor. In series 4 of the revival she plays the Tenth Doctor’s “daughter” Jenny. She married David Tennant in 2011 and they now have a daughter and son. These kids have The Doctor as both a father and a grandfather, and The Doctor’s daughter who played The Doctor’s Daughter who had the Doctor’s Daughter as a mother.
9. On top of that, did I mention that Peter Davison was the one who inspired Tennant to get into acting? Talk about a mind screw!
10. Caitlin Blackwood, who played the young Amelia Pond, is Karen Gillian’s real life cousin. The first time they met was at an on set read-through, as Blackwood was born in North Ireland and Gillian in Scotland.
11. A serial titled The Final Game was intended to end Season 11 with the reveal that The Doctor and The Master were brothers and have The Master sacrifice himself to save The Doctor’s life. The death of The Master’s actor Roger Delgado resulted in the serial being scraped, though the ending was be reused in the revival series episode The End of Time.
12. Matt Smith appeared as a client in Secret Diary of a Call Girl, which stars Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) as the titular call girl. The Tenth Doctor must have been bitterly disappointed.
13. BBC One commissioned a spin-off about Rose’s life on the alternate Earth, but Russell T Davies cancelled it as he felt it would spoil Doctor Who if “we see as a concrete fact that her life continues to be as exciting without The Doctor.” Which is really disappointing, since Rose Tyler: Earth Defencesounds like it would have been fantastic!
14. In the late 80s co-creator Sydney Newman suggested that a woman should be cast as The Doctor to boost ratings. This may shock you, but that didn’t end up happening.
15. The Daleks almost didn’t appear in the revived series, as the Terry Nation (co-creator of the Daleks) estate owns the copyright and they were initially unable to reach an agreement with the BBC regarding editorial control. The Toclafane were going to be used as a replacement before the estate relented.
16. Karen Gillian first appeared in Doctor Who as a Soothsayer in the revival series four episode The Fires of Pompeii. This is the same episode that Peter Capaldi made his Doctor Who debut as the Roman banker Caecilius.
17. Aspirin is poisonous to Gallifreyans according to the eighth season serial The Mind of Evil.

Source article:  Grapeshot