During the making of An Unearthly Child actress Eileen Way had a bet with William Hartnell that Doctor Who wouldn't last more than a few months. The star was insistent that it would last 5 years. He was right, though he would no longer be working on the series when that landmark was reached - and he never did get his money as he and Way never worked together again.
The Fifth Anniversary wasn't marked by the series (it fell halfway through The Invasion). It wasn't until the Tenth Anniversary that any big celebration was held, with the first multi-Doctor story opening the tenth season and an attempt made to replicate the longest ever story. Director Douglas Camfield talked Barry Letts out of that attempt, due to his experiences in 1965/6, so they went for two connected six-part stories instead.
Radio Times produced a special edition, and Blue Peter inadvertently saved some clips from now lost episodes. Other TV programmes like Pebble Mill and Nationwide covered the event.
The next landmark was the fifteenth year, which just happened to coincide with the 100th story. These were marked during the Key to Time season in 1978 with a number of TV appearances. A jokey birthday scene in the TARDIS at the beginning of The Stones of Blood was vetoed at the last minute by then producer Graham Williams. They'd got as far as buying a cake and blocking out the scene when the axe fell. The cake was eaten anyway. A party was held at the BBC (below), but the programme itself failed to acknowledge the event.
The Twentieth Anniversary was the next big public celebration, with another multi-Doctor story, and another Radio Times Special. A huge, chaotic, event was held at Longleat House, with an equally chaotic convention in Chicago for US fans on the weekend of the anniversary itself. As well as being badly organised, this convention - and the decision to broadcast The Five Doctors in America before we got to see it in Britain - led fans to complain about JNT's US bias.
The final significant anniversary of the classic era was the 25th, which was more of a low key event. The season running order was rigged to allow Silver Nemesis to commence its run on 23rd November 1988, but there was little acknowledgement beyond the series itself.
By the time the 30th rolled round, the series had been off the air for four years, with the BBC refusing to say it had been cancelled. It was simply resting whilst an independent partner could be found to produce it. Another multi-Doctor special was attempted - "The Dark Dimension" - but the people behind it hadn't done their sums properly, and the surviving Doctors whose initials weren't TB complained about how little they had to do in the script. We did get something, however, but most of us would rather we hadn't. Dimensions in Time was a bit of a disaster, but it was all done for charity, and it was stressed that it would never be broadcast again, or released on video. It never has, though it can still be found on YouTube.
The 40th Anniversary was marked only with a themed night on BBC2, and a Royal Mail stamp.
Since the revival, we've had a couple of landmarks which have been acknowledged subtly within the programme. The 50th new episode saw the story's vehicle named the Crusader 50, and the London bus which is transported to the planet of San Helios in the 200th story is a number 200 service.
The big celebration came in 2013, with the 50th Anniversary. Lots of TV coverage, but sadly no Radio Times special... Once again we were given a multi-Doctor adventure, but with a difference. Instead of all surviving Doctors we had a new The Three Doctors, but with just the trio of the revival. Christopher Eccleston opted not to return, however, so a hitherto unknown incarnation - the War Doctor - was devised to replace him. This at least allowed for a big name cameo in John Hurt.
If The Day of the Doctor was intended to celebrate fifty years of Doctor Who then it didn't actually achieve that. It was far more a celebration of the revived series. It was only in the final scenes that we got the earlier incarnations involved, with their coming together to save Gallifrey, plus that final image which I chose to illustrate this post.
We're currently on the eve of the next big anniversary, but before that we had another birthday to celebrate - that of the BBC itself. Despite the shoddy way in which the Corporation has often treated the series over the years, Doctor Who was selected to form a significant part of this event. Chris Chibnall, having been apparently given the heave-ho before he could get to the 60th, used the opportunity to make The Power of the Doctor a diamond anniversary story a year early. We had all the top villains battle old companions and there were appearances from several previous incarnations of the Doctor. There was no reference to the BBC centenary whatsoever.
It looks like that is more likely to be acknowledged in one of RTD2's forthcoming specials.
9th December 2023 sees the return of the Celestial Toymaker in The Giggle, and in some of the clips we've seen a creepy looking puppet. That's 'Stooky Bill', which John Logie Baird used to test his experimental television equipment.
The other thing to say about the 60th Specials is that, so far at least, there's no sign of any multi-Doctor set up. Instead, like Moffat for the 50th, we're revisiting the highlights of the revived series, with the return of David Tennant and Catherine Tate.
Whilst much is known of the new Specials (like the plot of the first one, for anyone who remembers the original DWW comic strip), the second is still a bit of a mystery, and who knows what surprises RTD2 might yet spring for the third one...
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