‘I’m a Time Lord. I’ve been around, you know. Two hearts, respiratory bypass system. I haven’t lived seven hundred and fifty years without learning something . . .’
THE DOCTOR, THE ROBOTS OF DEATH
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel with the Doctor, have you? To be wanderers in the fourth dimension?
All that running. All those corridors. All those monsters.
They say that travel broadens the mind, in which case the Doctor’s mind must be the broadest of them all. Over a thousand years of rattling around the universe in his big blue box . . . Imagine all the wisdom he’s gathered in his meanderings, all the lessons he’s learnt.
Perhaps that would be the best part of jumping on board the TARDIS – having the greatest tour guide in all of history. He shows you the big stuff, the galaxies and planets and constellations, but the small things too. The simple things. A pretty painting. A stupid joke. A cup of tea and a jammy dodger. Real life in all its wonder and whimsy.
The good news is that we can travel with the Doctor, and his friends and enemies too. We have been since 23 November 1963. He’s taken us from a junkyard at the end of a lane to the end of time – and back again.
And there are lessons to be found in his adventures too. Some serious. Some silly. Some profound. Some potty. And more fezzes than you’d expect.
In many ways, this has been a nightmarish task. Cherry-picking the Doctor’s best quotes, quips and sayings from over fifty years of adventures? The man never shuts up – and nor do his friends. Long may that continue.
For all this we must thank and pay homage to a select group, because first came the word. We would like to dedicate this compendium to the scriptwriters of Doctor Who; those wits and wise men and women who have toiled late into the night over typewriters and word processors. Across half a century they have put words in the mouths of the Doctor, his companions, friends and enemies. Their desire to tell a rattling good adventure yarn, their quick humour, their outlook on life, the universe and everything, have all given life and sparkle to the words we hear on screen – then taken the rest of the way by those brilliant actors. And let’s not forget the script editors who kept them on the straight and narrow, provided guidance and contributed their own words of wonder. The quality and sheer inventiveness of their work has always set Doctor Who apart from other TV shows, and that is what we are celebrating in the pages of this book.
And the stories keep coming.
Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart once told his daughter that science leads. He said he learnt it from an old friend.
What will the same old friend teach you today? Or tomorrow? Or maybe even yesterday? It’s all a bit timey-wimey, to be honest.
Happy Times and Places!