On Saturday, 23 November 1963 at 5.25 p.m. the Doctor Who theme music was heard on BBC television for the first time, and just under twelve minutes later William Hartnell appeared through the London fog as the first Doctor. It was the birth of an institution. Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text is the first serious analysis of the BBC's longest-running fictional programme. Based on interviews with artists and production staff involved with the programme since 1963, it investigates how industrial, institutional, narrative, professional and other forces originally existing outside Doctor Who have operated to shape the series. It examines the programme's origins in the BBC's attempt to compete with commercial television, and its ability to draw on a variety of codes of performance as well as a ran