Why The BBC Doesn’t Have The Rights To The First Doctor Who Episode – Armessa Movie News

The BBC seeks to celebrate Doctor Who’s roots with its 60th anniversary celebration, but the show’s first episode will not be available. The series, which follows the eponymous Doctor’s travels through time and space in his inconspicuous ship, the TARDIS, first aired in 1963. In its classic iteration, the show ran for 26 seasons between 1963 and 1989. Following a failed attempt to revive the series with a TV movie in 1996, the series was successfully revived in 2005. It is currently the longest-running sci-fi series in the world, as well as the most successful.

As the show’s 60th anniversary approaches, the BBC, which has carried the show since its premiere, plans to make more than 800 episodes of the show available for free on its streaming service, iPlayer. However, the very first episode, “An Unearthly Child,” will not be featured in the collection. The reason for the very first Doctor Who episode missing from the BBC is tied to rights issues that stem from the show’s original development under head of drama Sydney Newman and screenwriter Anthony Coburn.

The Son Of Doctor Who’s First Writer Is Withholding The First Story’s Rights From The BBC

While the BBC plans to go ahead with making 800+ episodes of Doctor Who available via iPlayer, they have run into a roadblock with the first 4 episodes of the show. The episodes were written by Anthony Coburn, a staff writer for the BBC who came aboard Doctor Who during the early stages of the show’s development. Coburn wrote the original four-episode arc including the first ever episode, “An Unearthly Child”, but he is not the credited creator of the show, nor was he successful at writing further televised episodes for the series.

Nevertheless, Coburn held the trademark on the first four episodes until his death in 2013, at which point it was eventually transferred to his son, Stef. Following the BBC’s announcement, Stef Coburn took to Twitter/X to announce that he had rejected the BBC’s offer to re-license the episodes, which he calls a “pittance”. In a thread, he asserts that his rejection is primarily motivated by “vengeance” against the BBC, whom he claims “registered my desperately ill father’s IP as THEIR trademark.” He also refers to the episodes as “leverage” which he desires to use to get other Anthony Coburn projects made, including “one of which, I was a significant part.”

Anthony Coburn’s Son Has A History Of Doctor Who Rights Issues With The BBC

This recent public dispute is not the first time Stef Coburn has raised grievances with the BBC. In 2013, when the IP rights were first passed on to him, Stef Coburn challenged the BBC for breach of copyright pertaining to ownership of the Doctor’s time machine, the TARDIS. The claim coincided with the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who, an event the BBC celebrated with a TV movie dramatizing the creation of the series, titled An Adventure in Space and Time. Stef Coburn was incensed that the dramatization focused on key Doctor Who figures Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert, William Hartnell, and Waris Hussein, and not his father (via The Independent).

It is widely acknowledged that Anthony Coburn did indeed conceive the idea that the Doctor’s vessel should resemble a police box and be bigger on the inside. However, Coburn himself had no problem with the series using his idea. What’s more, in the words of intellectual property attorneys MacLachlan & Donaldson:

“If Anthony Coburn was employed by the BBC and the idea was developed in the course of that employment then, unless his contract stated otherwise, the copyright would automatically belong to the BBC.”

While Stef Coburn initially claimed a desire to see his father receive public recognition, it eventually materialized that he sought financial restitution for every use of the TARDIS. The BBC looked into the complaint, but it seems that Stef Coburn did not receive the outcome he wanted, further explaining his current antipathy for the institution.

Is Doctor Who’s “An Unearthly Child” Streaming Elsewhere?

Stef Coburn’s heated exchange with the BBC culminated with the BBC rejecting his counter-offer and resolving not to show Anthony Coburn’s first 4 episodes in their iPlayer collection. However, there are other places to watch new and classic Doctor Who, including the first-ever episode. The entire classic run is available on the streaming service Britbox, which stocks a vast library of classic British content. But Coburn’s episodes may not be up forever. In his thread, Stef Coburn states that the Britbox license for the episodes will not be renewed when they expire. If this happens, Doctor Who‘s first season will only be available to purchase online or on DVD.

Source: X.com/@Stef_Coburn, The Independent, MacLachlan & Donaldson