Doctor Who USAU - Part 1: The Original Series Begins (1963 - 1971)

DISCLAIMER:

The following is part one 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 Studios (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

Prologue: The Nail

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Doctor Who's history began in London in December 1962. The BBC wanted to commission an original science fiction series, and a trio of writers (Donald Wilson, Sydney Newman, and C.E. Webber) came up with a concept that had a mysterious old man travelling through space, time, and matter in a strange time machine that could change its form. Guided by producer Verity Lambert, the show could have been a hit for BBC TV.

The network, however, turned it down. 

While intrigued by the concept, BBC felt it was a bit outlandish and silly. The rights reverted to Lambert and the creators of the series, who still believed in the series.

Lambert took the series to various studios in the United Kingdom and eventually the United States, where studios were more receptive to the concept, which was sold to American producer MCA, the owner of Revue Studios, which was recently renamed to Universal Television after buying Universal Pictures earlier in 1962.

Revue reworked the concept as a pilot. The pilot, now renamed Doctor Who, was successful, but Revue wasn't fully satisfied with the casting. Although they initially wanted to shoot the series in the UK, they decided to produce it at their Universal City studio. Lambert, who moved to the US to be more hands-on with the series, continued her role as the series producer and cast veteran stage and screen actor Ray Walston as the lead. His performance wowed studio and network executives. While he was more than willing to be a part of Doctor Who, he had already committed to another pilot, a sitcom called My Favorite Martian, which CBS was looking at very closely. 

Programmers at CBS also looked at the Doctor Who pilot with much interest, but they knew slots were very limited. In the end, CBS decided against the sitcom and greenlit Doctor Who over My Favorite Martian for the 1963-64 season.

Part 1: The CBS Years (1963 - 1971)

Doctor Who premiered on September 29, 1963, on CBS as part of an hour of family entertainment. The sci-fi series, produced by Revue Studios (officially renamed Universal Television in 1964), was paired with the perennial stalwart Lassie on Sunday nights and aired right before The Ed Sullivan Show. Walston portrayed The Doctor, an alien explorer who built various devices including a time machine he called the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) which could alter its visual appearance while being voluminous inside. The chameleon function of the TARDIS was removed by the second serial after transforming into a blue British police box, a form it would retain for the duration of the series as well as various incarnations of the franchise.

Ray Walston as the First Doctor (1963 - 1968)

The series was an incredibly popular series not only in the United States but also globally. BBC TV, which had initially turned down the series, aired Doctor Who on Saturday evenings in the United Kingdom several months after its American premiere on November 23, 1963, with much success. Some historians felt that it was the series’ success in the UK, which was perhaps even more popular than in the States, that kept the series alive for decades.

While Doctor Who was popular, Walston started to grow weary of the series’ run and started to get typecast in science-fiction productions. Prior to the launch of the fifth season in 1967 (the second without Verity Lambert, who returned to the BBC two years prior), it was revealed that Watson would step down from the role of The Doctor, and the high-profile role was coveted by many top performers in Hollywood. The series made several surprising casting decisions for The Doctor. 

The producers and writers decided to create a natural transition that would explain the casting changes between the Doctors. The episode "The Tenth Planet," was a four-part serial written by Twilight Zone creator and frequent contributor Rod Serling and directed by a young promising director named Steven Spielberg and featured the first regeneration of the Doctor. 

The fourth and final chapter of the story, which also served as the fall finale of the 1968-69 season saw audiences say goodbye to Walston's First Doctor and hello to the new Doctor, who was a familiar face to TV audiences. Veteran stage and television star Dick Van Dyke joined the series, which rejoined Nielsen top 10 series rankings during his three-year run.

Dick Van Dyke as the Second Doctor (1968 - 71)

The Emmy-winning comedian was the jolt the series needed as Doctor Who blended light comedy with sci-fi adventure showcasing Van Dyke's impressive talents on a week-to-week basis. Serling and Spielberg were frequent contributors during the first two years of the Second Doctor's run. Fans considered their stories as some of the best in the series' history. 

Understandably, fans were disappointed when both creators left the series at the beginning of the 1970-71 season as Universal greenlit Serling's new anthology series, Night Gallery, and Spielberg began directing made-for-TV movies for the studio. 

Van Dyke announced plans to leave the series at the end of the 1970-71 season to work closer to his home in Arizona. However, new management of CBS decided to transform the lineup into a more urban-centric direction. The so-called "rural purge" not only removed popular shows like Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Hee Haw, Mayberry R.F.D., and Lassie, but also the still-popular Doctor Who. While this would have marked the end of the high-rated series, Universal still felt the series had legs, and ABC saw potential and wanted to build up its own weekend lineup and immediately picked up the series for the 1971-72 season. 

What would have initially been the series finale of Doctor Who into a season finale (complete with a regeneration scene introducing the next Doctor) that would radically change the direction for the series' second decade.