Our entertainments columnist Eugene Smith writes on the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who.

Doctor Who is 60 years old this November. As there are plenty of histories (of varying accuracy) around, here are some random Who facts.

The show might be called Doctor Who, but the lead character isn’t. He (or she) is the Doctor, even if the actor playing the part has been credited otherwise.

However, in the 1966 story The War Machines several characters refer to him as “Doctor Who”, which upsets the fanboys no end.

There are two types of Who fans, the ones who love the show, and the fanboys.

Predominantly male, fanboys are uniformly joyless and have drawn a line, after which Who either was rubbish or “doesn’t exist”.

The depressing number of sneering fanboys working as professional writers are identifiable by a failure to accept that they’re no longer 10 years old. Even though they do still live with their mothers.

A recent fanboy nonsense has been the “Not My Doctor” tantrum spectacle. Mind you, nobody can agree on how many actors have played the Doctor. If you’re ever asked this, try mentioning Edmund Warwick and see what happens.

Despite being happy to take the credit whenever the show’s doing well, the BBC haven’t always been so supportive.

It was almost scrapped in the late sixties, cancelled twice in the eighties, and in the late seventies was dropped altogether and replaced by several series of Tom Baker’s Laughter Show, where the fanboys’ favourite repeatedly proved that comedy wasn’t his forte.

The best thing from that era was K9, the Doctor’s robot dog. Third Doctor Jon Pertwee was highly critical of K9, saying he was twee and unnecessary for a genius like the Doctor. Pertwee’s Doctor had a flying car.

Just about any British actor you can think of has appeared in the show, so it’s quicker to list those who haven’t and that includes Sean Bean and Roger Moore.

There was a story called The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. I couldn’t agree more. Happy Birthday Doctor!

Eugenesmithwriting.com