Next week, Doctor Who turns 60, and it’s preparing for a blockbuster celebration in the days and weeks to come, with a re-coloured release of one its most iconic early stories, a trio of brand new specials, and a new Doctor arriving on Christmas Day. We can’t judge just how good the 60th has it just yet—but what about past anniversaries?
That’s right: the anniversaries as a whole, not just Doctor Who’s specific celebratory episodes. When Doctor Who celebrates, it celebrates—it’s about more than just a single story. Last week we explored the history of most of the show’s major and minor milestones over the last 60 years, so this week, we’re seeing which ones actually pulled off the goods and gave Doctor Who the birthday bash it deserved.
10) The 35th Anniversary
At this point, Doctor Who was truly in its wilderness era—the TV movie had come and gone, and there was little hope for a revival of the series any time soon. All we got was a single book, and even that was a weird one: The Infinity Doctors, a winding, bizarre tale that starred an unknown version of the Doctor that read more like an amalgam of them all rather than anything unique.
9) The 55th Anniversary
On the plus side: there was actually Doctor Who airing around the anniversary! On the downside—it was the kind of messy mid-late period of Jodie Whittaker’s first season as the Doctor. But there was some fun stuff! Unfortunately on the day itself, all the BBC had to offer was a special educational video starring Whittaker’s 13th Doctor for its BBC Teach platform, which is a bit like having to go to school on your birthday and there’s homework due.
8) The 30th Anniversary
I see you, Doctor Who fan. You thought Dimensions in Time was going to be right at the bottom of this list, didn’t you? It’s silly! It had that weird phone-in segment to change the plot! It’s got soap characters! But here’s the thing: Doctor Who is often incredibly silly. The fact that it got to be on-screen at all after the show had ended a few years later is remarkable. And yes, Dimensions in Time is quite bad. But it’s also a lot of fun because of that, and that’s always going to be interesting and sentimental in a way.
7) The 15th Anniversary
Doctor Who’s 15th anniversary wasn’t really marked with anything particular, so points off for that. But you know what’s a really good story that aired during the run up? “The Stones of Blood.” It rules! It’s got creepy stones that thirst for blood and smush people! It’s got weird space Celtic nonsense! That’s some good Doctor Who right there. And what’s a better birthday present than good Doctor Who?
6) The 45th Anniversary
The 45th anniversary in 2008 largely gets by on association. Sure, we got the pretty fun audio anthology Forty-Five for the actual event, but really, 2008 is all about the Doctor Who that was on air the summer before the anniversary—season four with Catherine Tate as Donna Noble and David Tennant in his last full season as the Doctor, culminating in the big New-Who-era team up in “The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End” against the Daleks. Celebratory, yes, not really for the anniversary though.
5) The 40th Anniversary
For the first time since the 1996 TV movie, there was a new Doctor in a new adventure: Richard E. Grant starred as a newly minted ninth incarnation of the Doctor for the online animated webcast Scream of the Shalka to mark the anniversary, and while its chosen art style may not be to everyone’s taste, it’s still a pretty decent little tale.
4) The 25th Anniversary
A whole season of ostensibly anniversary connected stories, you say? Well, sort of. “Remembrance of the Daleks” and “Silver Nemesis” were most explicitly nods to Doctor Who’s silver anniversary (you see what they did there with “Silver Nemesis” and the Cybermen, right?), classic Who’s 25th season also included the unsubtle Thatcher satire of “The Happiness Patrol” and the wonderfully silly “Greatest Show in the Galaxy.” Overall, not bad at all!
3) The 10th Anniversary
The first big one, and one with a lot of important history-making moments for the show: we got “The Three Doctors,” the very first multi-Doctor story; we got the introduction of Omega—who, while not being on the level of villains like the Daleks or the Cybermen, is still one of the show’s most iconic big bads; and, on a more somber note, we got William Hartnell in action as the first Doctor for the very last time. “The Three Doctors” isn’t just a moment in time though, it’s still a great adventure with a lot of meaning for the show.
2) The 20th Anniversary
This is still perhaps the ideal celebration Doctor Who will forever chase—about as close as you were going to get to an Avengers-esque mashup of Doctors and companions. “The Five Doctors” is perhaps not quite as tight a tale as “The Three Doctors,” but its huge cast of familiar faces alongside the Fifth Doctor and his friends, and a return to Gallifrey to deal with Rassilon and The Master? It’s a scope quite unlike anything Doctor Who had done before, and wouldn’t do for a good many years later. It’s a little messy, yes, but it’s a good, fun, nostalgic kind of mess.
1) The 50th Anniversary
So there’s only one real thing that could top it then, isn’t there? The BBC went all out a decade ago for the 50th, in what feels like an amalgam of what made the past multi-Doctor specials work so well: “The Day of the Doctor” has the tightness of “Three Doctors,” as well as its overall impact on the ongoing story of the show beyond just being an anniversary team-up with the return of Gallifrey to canon after its seeming destruction prior to the events of the 2005 revival. It also has the big scope of “Five Doctors” because of the way it deals with that huge event (and even the cheeky way it brings all the Doctors together to do it).
And to make things even better, it was far from all we got. “Night of the Doctor” saw Paul McGann return to on-screen Doctor Who for the first time since 1996 for a gleeful, all-too-short glimpse at his official regeneration, and the docudrama “An Adventure in Space and Time” gave us a remarkably touching look back at the creation of Doctor Who itself, and William Hartnell’s enduring legacy. This is going to be the one to beat for a good while… and we’ll have to wait and see if the 60th comes close!
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