Doctor Who USAU- Part 5: The World Without The Doctor (1990 - 1995)
DISCLAIMER:
The following is part five of a multipart alternate history series about the history of Doctor Who if it was an American-made production rather than a British production. It's purely speculative and a work of fiction, although some real-world elements were included and presented for realistic situations and scenarios. Neither this series nor its author are connected to nor reflect the views and opinions of BBC Worldwide (the owner of the Doctor Who franchise) or any entity or persons mentioned and does not mean to infringe on the copyrights and trademarks of those parties. - JH
“There are fixed points throughout time where things must stay exactly the way they are. This is not one of them, this is an opportunity. Whatever happens here will create its own timeline, its own reality, a temporal tipping point. The future revolves around you, here, now, so do good!” - The Doctor
For the first time since 1963, Doctor Who was not in production.
After NBC and Universal put the series behind them, the world seemingly moved on. Universal concentrated on other similar properties such as Quantum Leap television series, which was created and produced by a former Doctor Who writer Donald Bellisario, and the wildly popular Back to the Future film series, which was produced by one of the most prolific directors and producers in the entertainment industry Steven Spielberg, who was also a former Doctor Who director.
While Doctor Who was no longer in production nor a priority for Universal, the show's fandom continued to grow after the series ended.
Conventions were packed with fans wearing various outfits similar to the Doctor, his various companions and allies, and the iconic villains. San Diego Comic Con largely became an annual hub for Who fans young and old where they could meet and greet many of the cast members. Rick Springfield was unquestionably a crowd-pleasing favorite and largely continued to be the face of the franchise to the public for the first half of the 1990s, appearing at all Universal Studios park openings, various showcases of the series on-screen and narrations, and other appearances, including a rare cameo in the Back to the Future ride where the TARDIS and Biff's DeLorean crossed paths mid-air.
Though the previous six Doctors publicly stated their love for the series, no one embraced the spirit of the series more than Springfield in the first half of the 1990s, who continued performing on tours, recording albums, and acting in films and TV shows throughout the decade appearing on shows such as Human Target, Robin's Hoods, and High Tide.
By comparison, Ray Walston enjoyed semi-retirement and rarely did public functions, though he found newfound fame in his post-Doctor Who years as Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Judge Horn on Picket Fences. Dick Van Dyke, who was already a comic icon before he became The Doctor, mostly did stage and TV roles, including spending much of the 1990s as Dr. Mark Sloan on another CBS series, Diagnosis: Murder.
Leonard Nimoy felt being The Doctor was secondary compared to Mr. Spock, a role he reprised in various Star Trek films, and his later works as a director. Michael Keaton became more synonymous with other roles, particularly Beetlejuice and Batman. Dan Aykroyd embraced his Saturday Night Live past more than his role as The Doctor, especially being Elwood Blues, one half of The Blues Brothers, and rarely participated in Doctor Who-related events and retrospectives.
And then there’s Robin Williams, who became a mega star after leaving Doctor Who. Mork and Mindy was also a fan-favorite role, but he largely moved to stand-up comedy and films. His first film was 1980’s Popeye, a musical that also starred fellow Doctor Ray Walston as his father. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Williams starred in all kinds of roles showcasing his comedic and dramatic range proving that he was indeed a high-caliber actor, eventually winning an Oscar for Good Will Hunting. Despite everything, Williams never lost sight of the role that got him to where he was, never hesitating to talk about Doctor Who not only as someone who played him on-screen but also as someone who had been a fan of the series and continued to be after he left, always showing his love for the previous Doctors.
Reruns of Doctor Who stayed part of the TV landscape for decades. Universal Television had every episode intact and preserved for the syndication market. Not surprisingly, the series was divided in half. The adventures of the First, Second, and Third Doctors, which were all half hours, while the adventures of the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Doctors were in another package, with the latter two Doctors had their movies and specials repackaged in hour-long installments.
Doctor Who was a perennial syndication staple as well as a daily standard on the USA Network in the 1980s and enjoyed a brief stint on Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite from September 1990 to August 1992, with Nickelodeon favoring the Fourth Doctor episodes in tandem with reruns of Mork & Mindy. Doctor Who Adventures was also a marquee series on the USA Cartoon Express with the entire run stripped to weekdays and Sundays starting in 1991, the series’ fifth anniversary and stayed on as part of the USA Action Extreme Team lineup until it signed off in 1998.
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| Title card from The Doctor Who Hour on Sci-Fi Channel from 1993 |
It did, mind you, but fans were disappointed it didn't come sooner.
Universal Television planned on creating an anthology wheel movie series featuring action-oriented productions, some based on older Universal films and others based on entirely new properties. Bandit (based on the Smokey and the Bandit movies), Midnight Run (based on the 1988 film), TekWar (based on William Shatner's sci-fi book series), Vanishing Son, and Hercules initially made the cut for the new weekly block, officially branded as Action Pack, debuted in syndication on January 17, 1994.
Doctor Who, which previously had a well-received and fan-favorite cycle of episodes in the quarterly format used on the new block five years prior, would not officially become part of the Action Pack. Universal had considered bringing the series back with new episodes and even aired a few of the Seventh Doctor's made-for-TV films throughout the block's run, including "The Last Voyager" and the series finale, "Doctoris Vale."
However, plans for a Doctor Who series revival weren't in the cards, and the franchise's wasn't going to limited to the small screen, and its future would be oddly molded by a figure from its past.
By the end of the decade, there would be a new Doctor bringing Doctor Who to the new millennium. At the helm would be one of the most important figures in the history of the franchise.
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