So you’ve just watched some show involving a blue box travelling through time and space with the box’s owner and his various companions. You’re intrigued. It seemed an interesting show but just what is it all about? You have just taken your first step into the world of Doctor Who. Now here are some key facts you need to know…

THE DOCTOR

The titular character: no one really knows his true name, hence the concept of the series title actually being a question; the first question, so to speak, “Doctor who?” Originally this wasn’t the case. The whole concept of the Doctor’s name having some kind of significance for him and the universe at large has only emerged in the last two seasons (series 6 & 7).

So who is the Doctor? He is the last of the Time Lords, a species who, for all intents and purposes, were destroyed by Daleks during the Time War. On the surface he appears to look like just any ordinary human, but the key differences are the fact that he has two hearts, he has a lifespan that extends for centuries if not millennia and he can directly influence the flow of time.

So why does he travel through time and space in his blue police box? Well you can say he’s something of a spatial temporal troubleshooter, righting wrongs, doing good deeds and generally just exploring things from a sense of intense curiosity, as well as a passion for life and knowledge of other cultures. Sometimes he comes across as a tour guide and teacher as he travels to various locales informing his companions about the place, people etc. Of course, nine times out of ten the Doctor is usually somewhere because something is about to happen or is happening. It’s kind of like the Ms. Marple effect.

THE TARDIS

Naturally the Doctor doesn’t just grab his companions hands and drag them off somewhere via his abilities to manipulate time. No, what he usually does his grab them and then drag them into the TARDIS and then zip off into the realms of space time. So just what is the TARDIS? Well, it’s the blue box but I’m sure you want to know more than just the fact that it’s a blue box.

Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, aka TARDIS; these are the time machine/space vehicles that the Time Lords used for their various travels throughout time and space. All share the same features in that they are bigger on the inside than on the outside, as well as being able to blend into the surroundings via a mechanism known as the chameleon circuit.

Unfortunately for the Doctor, his particular TARDIS’s chameleon circuit has been broken for some considerable time, and this is the reason why it appears as a typical blue London police box. Still, the flaw has its benefits strangely enough. His enemies have come to develop severe apprehensions whenever they learn of the presence of a hitherto unnoticed blue box or hear the sound of the dematerialisation sequence.

DALEKS

Possibly the greatest of all of the Doctor’s enemies who are well aware of the significance of a blue box, up until quite recently, are the Daleks. The Daleks are to the Doctor what the Sith are to the Jedi: they’re his nemeses and they have been weaned on centuries if not millennia of bitterness, bile, hatred and a desire to slaughter all things that are not themselves.

Created by the mad scientist Davros on the planet Skaro during the final stages of a thousand year long war between the Thals and Kaleds, the Daleks were initially meant to be nothing more than another weapon to be used in the ongoing war. Of course, rather than just remain as weapons, the nascent Daleks achieved rapid sentience and decided that this is the time for them to take control of their own destiny. After zapping all and sundry with their death rays and cries of “Exterminate! Exterminate!” the rise of the Daleks was assured.

From that point on, they are also bent on making sure that their one great enemy cannot do anything against their schemes for total domination, and that one great enemy is…yep, you guessed it, the Doctor! And in order to make sure that said great enemy is rendered relatively helpless, they elect to do the one thing any sensible Dalek would do – destroy the Time Lords and their home world of Gallifrey. Things don’t go all the Dalek’s way though, and consequently though the Time Lords are for all intents and purposes destroyed, so are they. At least that’s what everyone believes…but then again, they say the same thing about the Time Lords…

THE MASTER

Of course it could be said that the greatest of all the Doctor’s enemies is in fact the Master, an enigmatic figure who, just like the Doctor, is a Time Lord. The problem is that where the Doctor has a decidedly altruistic, if somewhat eccentric bent, the Master is just downright evil; though it’s an evil on another level from say the Daleks and their ilk.

It has been said that the Master is the Moriarty to the Doctor’s Sherlock. One wonders what caused the enmity between the two, as at one point when they both lived on Gallifrey, the home world of the Time Lord,s they were apparently good friends. Still, sometimes even the best of friendships can break and it would seem that this one broke a long time ago.

As mentioned earlier, the Master is evil, but his particular brand of evil is usually one of a well thought out kind. He plans meticulously and always tries to make sure the deck is well and truly stacked in his favour. Where he generally tends to fall down is the fact that unlike the Doctor he has no real allies or friends, the Master is very much a solo operator who manipulates and uses people. Which is ironic as he discovers that he in turn has been manipulated right from the get go by the leader of his own people.

COMPANIONS

Very rarely does the Doctor travel alone. In fact, in the recent series it’s often been mentioned to the Doctor or to his various companions that he shouldn’t be left alone. You get the sensation that it’s almost as if people feel he’s about to go and metaphorically jump off a cliff. Still, from the very outset of the show, the Doctor has travelled with a wide variety of comrades from all manner of walks of life.

Usually the Doctor’s companions are female and usually there is only one companion, though throughout the fifty odd years of the show there have been times when the Doctor has had more than one companion and as result there have been a mix of genders. In some cases the Doctor has even travelled with a fellow Time Lord as his companion, Romana. At the moment, the fate of Romana is unknown, though she could, like the Master, still be alive somewhere in the universe or another reality.

Of course, apart from providing a foil for the Doctor, the companions serve another more important role: they’re allies, and they often have other allies, and in turn they will come to the aid of the Doctor and his current companions when called upon. In essence, they are a strength that the Doctor has on his side, although quite often he is rather reluctant to call upon this strength as he prefers not to put others at risk. And sometimes the risk is more than just death…sometimes the risk is being transformed into an enemy of the Doctor.

 THE CYBERMEN

“We are the Cybermen” is the catch cry of this deadly species. Whilst noted for their remorselessness, their love of technological upgrades and their desire to conquer, the Cybermen have a certain obviousness about them that makes you wonder if they uploaded a virus that dumbs down a portion of their intellect. They never cease to announce who they are to all and sundry as if they were making their first appearance and everyone in the vicinity needs to know that very fact.

Apart from their propensity to state the obvious, the Cybermen are ruthless foes, similar in many ways to the Daleks in their desire to conquer and destroy. Though unlike the Daleks, the Cybermen often prefer to absorb their enemies akin to the Borg from Star Trek. After all, in converting others, they increase their ranks as they have long since eschewed biological processes for reproduction.

Originally from Mondas, the tenth planet in the Solar System that mysteriously went wandering many years ago, the Cybermen initially engaged in direct surgical conversion of suitable subjects in order to bolster their ranks. A later iteration of the species adopted a process of nanotechnological infestation that, if not stopped, converts the infected individual into a Cyberman. And they’ve managed to beat that gold weakness, though constantly upgrading takes a toll; they sometimes end up motionless as they upgrade to counter a new threat.

UNITED NATIONS INTELLIGENCE TASK FORCE (UNIT)

Formed to protect the world from dangerous alien threats and alien invasion, UNIT is not only an ongoing ally of the Doctor and his companions, it’s also where he was employed for a time. Although he was an agent for good, the Doctor had been regarded by his fellow Time Lords as something of a loose cannon. Consequently, they prevented his TARDIS from being capable of leaving the Earth and effectively stranded him on that planet. In order to work on repairing what the Time Lords had done to the TARDIS, the Doctor signed on to serve as a scientific consultant for UNIT.

Of course in the early days of the show, UNIT were pretty much a low key outfit, although there was the implication that they were bigger than just the UK side of things. With the reboot of the series though, UNIT has become far more high tech and had a definitely higher profile and far more influence. But with great influence and better toys has come less appearances.

UNIT used to be a player in the Doctor Who universe, but now they’ve been relegated to a support role at best or just a brief mention at worst. Still, one thing that can be said is that UNIT stands ready to assist the Doctor whenever he needs help, advice etc.

THE TIME WAR

In essence, the great war between the Time Lords and the Daleks became, unlike any other conflict, a literal conflagration of apocalyptic proportions. The Time War is the meta plot element that explains why the current incarnation of the series the way it is. It has pretty much been responsible for shaping the whole look and feel of the series since the first episode with Christopher Eccelston in Series 1, which technically should really be series 27, but hey, why split hairs?

The Time War strangely is still raging; the conflict between Time Lords and Daleks has by some means been sealed away from the rest of the universe, causing it to exist in a pocket dimension. Of course, that means that although the war is sealed away from spilling out into the wider span of existence and it prevents people and things from getting in, it doesn’t stop those inside from trying to break out. This particular facet was a key to the resurgence of the Master.

Later, in the episode Day of the Doctor, which was a celebration of fifty years of Doctor Who, the Time War made another appearance, though this time it was focused on the role of the Doctor during the conflict and how it changed and shaped him into his current guise. Now it seems as if it will have a further impact, since the Doctor has somehow changed the name of the game so to speak and the war may well be over…and the Doctor may be heading home for the first time in a long time.

So there you have it: know who the allies are, know the bad guys, know the tech and know that a terrible conflict that shook the very foundations of existence itself is key to why events unfold the way they do. And most importantly, enjoying watching a great show.